Each week in Rough Draft’s “Family Meal” newsletter, we share one recipe from a local restaurant or Atlanta chef. In 2025, we provided readers with more than 50 recipes to try at home, but the following five were the most popular recipes of the year.
Magnolia Room Cafeteria’s key lime cake was our most popular recipe of 2025. The cake, one of the Tucker restaurant’s top desserts, is based on the former S&S Cafeteria’s recipe–and one that is more than 80 years old utilizing fresh orange, lemon, and lime juices to achieve its signature tart flavor.
2. Roasted salmon with sour cherry rice (albaloo polo) from Rumi’s Kitchen
The most popular dinner recipe of 2025 came from Rumi’s Kitchen. It’s Chef Ali Meshghali’s take on roasted salmon with albaloo polo, a Persian sour cherry rice. Because Persian sour cherries are seasonal and not stocked in all U.S. supermarkets, Meshghali incorporates frozen cherries and an additional step to add albaloo polo’s trademark tartness. His recipe also includes variants for grilling the salmon.
3. Thanksgiving side dish recipes from two Atlanta chefs
In November, our Reporter newspapers ran a special package of stories on regional Thanksgiving side dishes that pitted Southern favorites against popular sides from other parts of the country. The Daily Chew’s sweet potato mash, from owner Julia Kessler Imerman, and Bread & Butterfly chef Demetrius Brown’s macaroni pie were runaway hits with readers looking for Thanksgiving side dish inspiration this year.
4. Ube banana pudding from Lonely Sweets
While banana pudding is considered a classic Southern dessert, it’s actually a descendant of English trifle. Loan Ly of Lonely Sweets uses ube, a Filipino purple yam, and ube-sweetened condensed milk to give her banana pudding a slightly nutty sweetness that isn’t overpowering. Readers couldn’t stop clicking on this recipe in 2025.
5. Pljeskavica (Balkan-style burger) from Chef Adi Komic of Krupana
Finally, we kicked off grilling season in May with Krupana pop-up chef Adi Komic’s recipe for pljeskavica, a hybrid between a Balkan-style hamburger and the American smashburger. Komic’s recipe also includes steps for making a peppery slaw to accompany the pljeskavica.