30+ favorite Atlanta restaurant dishes
Tuesday, Aug. 5 — Happy Tuesday! Welcome to the table.
As if restaurant owners and their employees don’t have enough to worry about on the daily, now they have to be on the lookout for content creators and influencers posing as health inspectors.
According to WSB-TV, a YouTuber posing as a state health inspector is filming himself “evaluating” restaurants for health and safety violations. During recent visits to DeKalb County restaurants, most of which serve Mexican and Asian dishes, he blows a whistle when he finds something he considers a violation, and sometimes makes xenophobic jokes at the expense of the owners and their employees.
📋 Health inspectors are trained professionals and must identify themselves upon entering a restaurant. If they find violations, they point those out to employees or managers on duty to correct immediately. Most violations are minor and easy to fix on the spot. If a violation requires more work to correct, the health inspector makes a follow-up appointment to reevaluate. They don’t film inspections, nor do they post inspection findings to their personal social media accounts. (FYI: It’s a misdemeanor to pose as a public health official.)
Influencer culture has entered its Wild West era, especially restaurant influencers and content creators. But this guy is downright detrimental to metro Atlanta’s many mom-and-pop restaurants just trying to get by and feed their communities.
🤗 Okay, stepping off my soapbox now. On to this week’s “Family Meal,” which features our monthly roundup of more than three dozen new restaurants that opened in July.
For my “Editor’s Pick,” I’m providing you with a new guide to our favorite dishes. The guide currently features 30-plus dishes from the last six months of dining. And we have six more months to go!
Finally, Southern restaurant {S}table at Dunwoody Village shared its recipe for Salisbury steak.
Cheers!
🍸 Beth
🥃 Raise a glass. Support a mission. Build community. Join Urban Recipe for an evening of premium bourbon, mouthwatering barbecue, and live music – all in support of our mission to feed people while building community. Get tickets. SPONSOR MESSAGE
July Restaurant Openings
🥂 More than 30 new restaurants opened around metro Atlanta in July, spanning from Alpharetta, Dunwoody, and Brookhaven, to Buckhead, Midtown, and Jonesboro. Meanwhile, close to three dozen new restaurants and bars were also announced for the coming months.
Check out this roundup of recent restaurant openings and upcoming restaurant announcements you might have missed in July.
🆕 Now Open
Y Bar (Rimini-inspired food and cocktails)
Buckhead Village
Pretty Hens Rotisserie (Southern rotisserie chicken)
Howell Mill Road, southern Buckhead
Summerland (breakfast, brunch, Anne Quatrano)
Upper West Market, Underwood Hills
Upper West Market (Indoor farmers market, food stalls)
Underwood Hills
Side Quest (Viet-Lao)
At Bar Avize on Sundays; At Mushi Ni on last Monday of the month
Charm (Thai food tasting menu; dinner)
At 788 Omakase Table, Westside
Dumpling Master (dumplings, noodles)
Midtown
Habaneros (Mexican, Mexico City-inspired food)
Spring Quarter, Midtown
Thyme Restaurant (dinner, brunch, cocktails)
Piedmont Heights
Won Town (Asian food hall)
Castleberry Hill
Delilah’s Everyday Soul (soul food)
South Downtown
Nando’s Peri-Peri (peri-peri chicken)
Krog Street Market, Inman Park
Mama Lin’s Chicken Delight (Chinese, chicken)
Madison Yards, Reynoldstown
Peetza Bear (whole NYC-style pizza, slices)
Edgewood retail district, Edgewood
Beyond Juicery + Eatery (smoothies, wraps)
Brookhaven
Kamayan ATL (Filipino)
Relocated next door to original location at Asian Square, Buford Highway
Tom N Toms Coffee (Korean coffee, tea, breakfast, lunch, pastries)
Doraville
Che Butter Jonez (burgers, sandwiches)
Decatur
Besto (American-Italian)
Decatur
Bun and Bombay (Indian street food)
Avondale Estates
Refuge Coffee (coffee)
Lulah Hills
Taichi Bubble Tea (bubble tea, ramen, poke)
Tucker
Arabian Cafe & Cocktails (Middle Eastern, cocktails)
Sandy Springs
JMAC Burgers & Tacos (smash burgers, tacos, chicken sandwiches)
Chamblee
Bake and Bite (Malaysian cafe, coffee, tea)
Doraville
Dumpling Crown (dumplings, noodles)
Smyrna
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream (ice cream)
Peachtree Corners
Fiorenza Italian (Italian)
Alpharetta
Tre Fratelli (Italian, cocktails)
Alpharetta
Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings (dumplings, noodles)
Mall of Georgia, Buford
Weepa Puerto Rican (Puerto Rican food)
Hapeville
Durtybirds Southern Kitchen (Southern food)
Jonesboro
Pizza 360 (American-style pizza)
Fayetteville
🔜 Coming Soon
CVI.CHE 105 (Peruvian; fall 2026)
Phipps Plaza, Buckhead
KAI Fusion (Asian fusion; summer 2027)
Phipps Plaza, Buckhead
&pizza (oblong pizzas, pizza knots; September 2026)
The Interlock, Howell Mill Road
Pataaka (Indian; summer 2026)
Spring Quarter, Midtown
Sozou (Japanese; Aug. 7)
Spring Quarter, Midtown
Botánico Cocina & Social Club (Latin; summer 2026)
Midtown
The Danish Bakery & Smørrebrød Café (Danish cafe, pastries, baked good; early 2027)
Midtown
Enzo Steakhouse & Bar (Italian steakhouse; late 2026, early 2027)
Epicurean Atlanta, Midtown
An Sushi (sushi; late 2026, early 2027)
Midtown
West Wing restaurant, Spire Espresso + Spirits, market/cafe, The Perch private club (2026/2027)
Bank of America building, Midtown
Alere (Southern European; 2027)
Morningside
Subtext Bookstore, Cafe & Bar (bookstore, cafe, cocktails; fall 2026)
Downtown
Ida’s Kitchen Counter (sandwiches; August 2026)
South Downtown
Sargent (wine, seasonal food menu; August 2026)
Old Fourth Ward, Eastside Beltline
Bodega Bar (NYC-inspired food, cocktails; 2026)
Sylvan Hills
Yan Karaoke Bar (karaoke; spring 2027)
Reynoldstown
Joystick Gambar (bar food, cocktail, arcade; 2026)
East Atlanta Village
Zarate Tiki Co. (Filipino street food, juices, zero-proof tiki cocktails; 2026)
East Atlanta Village
Vela Park Food Works (food hall; 2027)
East Lake
Adega Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse (Brazilian steakhouse; December 2026)
Twelve24, Dunwoody
Varuni Napoli (Neapolitan pizza; Aug. 5)
High Street, Dunwoody
Stillfire Brewing (brewery; fall 2027)
Tucker
Baladi Coffee (Arabic coffee, pastries; 2026)
Marietta
Amasa Mexican Kitchen (Mexican; August 2026)
Alpharetta
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Our Favorite Dishes (So Far) of 2026
🗣️ If you’ve been following Rough Draft on Instagram, you’re likely familiar with Saturday morning “Rough Cut” from Sarra and me. These are our unvarnished first impressions of dishes we’ve tried from restaurants around town.
But as newsletter subscribers, you also know we write about our favorite dishes weekly in my “Editor’s Pick” column in Family Meal on Tuesdays, and Sarra’s “That Slaps” column in Side Dish on Thursdays. Most of these dishes don’t make it to Rough Cut, which means y’all know where we’ve been eating long before the rest of Atlanta.
Shouting out stellar dishes has been a weekly series since I started at Rough Draft in 2024, after leaving my editorship at Eater Atlanta. Sarra added her favorites when she came on board at Rough Draft in 2025 and began overseeing Side Dish.
4️⃣0️⃣➕ Last year, we wrote about more than four dozen dishes from restaurants around the metro. This year, we’ve already shared 38 dishes from the last six months of dining. (We still have six more months to go.)
Our favorite dishes span the gamut, from Trinidadian doubles and fatty tuna handrolls, to Venezuelan street food and duck leg confit cassoulet (pictured).
To make it easier for you to keep track, we created a guide, which we’ll update monthly with new dishes to try.
👉 You can read the full guide here.
I love hearing from readers about where they’re eating, so please email me at beth@roughdraftatlanta.com with your restaurant and dish suggestions. We’ll be sure to put those suggestions on our list to check out. Sarra and I are especially interested in exploring more restaurants on the south side of Atlanta.
Recipe: Salisbury Steak
🥩 This week, we’re sharing the Salisbury steak recipe from Southern restaurant {S}table at Dunwoody Village. While you may associate Salisbury steak with TV dinners, the dish’s origins actually lie in the Civil War.
🥃 Raise a glass. Support a mission. Build community. Join Urban Recipe for an evening of premium bourbon, mouthwatering barbecue, and live music – all in support of our mission to feed people while building community. Get tickets. SPONSOR MESSAGE
➡️ Get double the Atlanta food and dining coverage with “Family Meal,” edited by Beth McKibben, on Tuesdays at 5 p.m., and “Side Dish,” edited by Sarra Sedghi, on Thursdays at noon. Subscribe to both here.
