New American restaurant Lazy Betty didn't just kick off the tasting menu boom in the city, it set the standard for what lavish multi-course experiences could be. The menu shifts frequently to incorporate a range of seasonal ingredients—and to keep repeat diners on their toes. Courses sway from straightforward (tender filets of cod or wagyu beef in a buttery wine sauce) to unexpected (a beef wellington play with a giant scallop coated in a herby truffle custard).

Use this place to stump pessimistic in-laws and discerning friends who try to find fault in everything. The Deer And The Dove’s menu is packed with gamey proteins that you’re more likely to find in a North Georgia restaurant than in ATL. But no one does these meats as well as this Decatur spot. Dry-aged duck topped with duck bone jus and foie gras is so rich we've almost lost our train of thought mid-chew. And the unfussy dining room works nicely with the artistry of each dish.

Marcel is like that dependable, first-option friend who is always 10 toes down when needed. That’s why this moody French steakhouse serves a mix of clientele—well-dressed couples, suits wooing out-of-town clients, and anyone in need of a morale boost via a steak splurge. The buttery steaks are their showpiece, but everything here, from the tableside sole to the cacio e pepe, is faultless. This is the type of place that will turn you from a newbie into a regular.

If you love sushi and small talk and have a couple hundred dollars to spend, book a reservation at Hayakawa. The elegantly minimalist omakase counter in West Midtown’s Star Metals building only has eight seats, but that doesn’t stop the owner/head chef from going full performance mode and donning a mic headset so his jokes, life tales, and dish descriptions will reach your ears while you’re mid-chew. It’s endearing, we swear.

An Inman Park neighborhood hangout and a frontrunner for best pasta and cocktails in the city, at BoccaLupo you can bob your head to De La Soul B-sides while eating squid ink spaghetti with shrimp and sipping a rum drink from a broken baby figurine head. BoccaLupo’s menu changes constantly, but the $125 tasting menu is our go-to, combining Southern roots with creative touches like tortellini in umami broth or fried chicken parm with collards.

Georgia Boy’s 13-course tasting menu is a meal you’ll vividly remember without any help from your camera roll. Their locally inspired dishes (a Varsity-esque hot dog here, a Georgia pollen salad there) change often, but tasty signatures, like the housemade cereal and poached lobster served with a warm banana milk, remain. In case this sounds like a gimmick, those signature dishes and others like the juicy venison tartare garnished with pickled dried cherries prove otherwise.

The simple thing would be to write off Inman Park’s Delbar as another pretty, sceney restaurant lush with plants and a roomy sunroom. But you’d be wrong. When the smooth, creamy hummus hits the table, and when the flaky sea bass arrives, any doubts will be put to rest. The char-grilled, citrusy wings? They’re quietly some of the most flavorful in a city relentlessly obsessed with wings. And the zesty-sweet spring pea salad is a contender for Best Salad On Any Menu Anywhere.

If you're easily bored but surrounded by creatures of habit, Talat Market in Summerhill is going to be the all-in-one solution for you and your counterparts. With a focus on fresh produce (including in-house pressed coconut cream that's in everything from cocktails to soups), this colorful Thai restaurant constantly changes their street food section of the menu—and if the spicy garlicky de-shelled crab claws make a return, get them.

Yes, Busy Bee has been around for decades, and yes, it’s still the best place for straightforward soul food. Even though the West End diner is takeout-only now—with the same fascinating mix of people waiting semi-patiently in line—the juicy fried chicken remains an Atlanta legend, fried in a light batter that’s more seasoning than bread. The perfectly crisp catfish and pork chops are still the standard in the city, and so are the candied yams.

Southern National offers incredible takes on old-school soul food classics with just a touch of youthful invention. Chicken arrives crispy and juicy with a hint of berbere spice, and the acidity of the cucumber slaw cuts through the sticky-sweetness of the Asian BBQ baby back ribs. But it all starts with the bread—deliciously savory jalapeño johnny cakes and the crispy outside, soft inside sheet pan biscuits with a bit of sweet.

This restaurant's New American menu takes seasonal ingredients on wild rides. Sweet potatoes moonlight as an agnolotti pasta doused in a rich lamb sugo. A pineapple tepache glaze cools off spicy grilled lamb skewers. And their menu standards show out too—their signature fry bread (order this, no exceptions) is served with a smoky pepperoni butter that comes in to-go pints because it demands a spot in your fridge.

This Summerhill spot does some really interesting things on its always-changing menu. So while you’ll fall in love with dishes like the Tajin-heavy strawberry sambal chicken and karnatzlach sausage doused with a red pea mapo sauce, you’ll likely never see them again. But that’s more reason to return. They don’t take things too seriously here—the menu often lists ingredients like “pretentious flowers” and “unnecessary garnishes” in between a mix of other ingredients.

When we visit Gigi’s Italian Kitchen, we feel like we’ve been whisked away to another time, one that’s light on stress and heavy on delicious creamy pasta primavera with housemade cavatelli, carrots, and leafy greens. If you snag a seat at the bar, you’ll see chefs in crisp white T-shirts preparing pastas, salads, and beef carpaccio in the open kitchen, where fancy dramatics take a backseat to plain old fantastic cooking.

So So Fed doesn’t have its own home—they take over Ok Yaki’s kitchen in EAV on Sunday and Monday nights, where they continually upstage their host. They’re one of the few places in the city serving Lao food, made as tribute to the chef’s heritage. And menu descriptions mention when it’s “grandma’s favorite” (we share grandma’s tastes, it seems). But So So Fed didn’t earn a spot here just because it offers a hard-to-find-in-Atlanta cuisine. The food is just really f*cking good.

Getting a reservation, even at the hottest places, isn’t usually a challenge in these parts. But Mujo remains the city’s hardest-to-book enigma, so scoring a place at the stellar 15-seat omakase table in West Midtown is the ultimate special occasion flex. The space is equally enigmatic—a hidden door leads to a dark room that looks like the only way to enter is with a secret greeting and million-dollar wire transfer to an offshore account.

Miller Union in West Midtown continues to set the bar in Atlanta for what top-to-bottom excellence looks like. They focus on local ingredients, and you can get a high-end meal here without a high-end price (lunches come in under $20). Enjoy slow-roasted chicken that comes out just crispy enough, a phenomenal wine list and thyme-infused gin cocktails that turned us into herb lovers, and creamy vanilla caramel ice cream that comes packed between two crispy churros. Nothing ever disappoints here.

Even if this Buckhead restaurant didn’t serve food, we’d pay to just sit inside and take in the view. Five multi-tiered chandeliers light up the giant space and large ornate pillars line the main dining room—this place is absolutely over the top, but we like that here in the A. And once the family-style Lebanese dishes hit the table, Zakia really starts flexing. Use the labneh sprinkled with za’atar as a palate cleanser in between bites of crispy batata harra and creamy lamb ragu hummus.

Sure, parking is tight and “dining in” means standing outside over a highboy, but we’ll suffer these minor inconveniences for this BBQ. Owned by a former Korean pop star-turned chef and her Texas-raised husband, Cumberland’s Heirloom melds smoky grill flavors with hefty doses of Korean influences. And while K-fusion is nothing new, Heirloom just does it best. Smoked ribs get slathered in a gochujang rub and spicy pork sandwiches come with a healthy dollop of tangy kimchi on top.

While Tio Lucho’s makes incredibly good Peruvian staples, they also offer enough excellent seafood selections to let us pretend we’re in a coastal city. Floor-to-ceiling windows let the sun shine down on tables full of dishes that don’t appear on many ATL menus, like the salty and rich lomo saltado and more standard snapper ceviche. You’ll almost (almost) feel a salty breeze when you sip Pisco sours topped with egg white foam in the colors of the Peruvian flag.

Antico keeps its menu tight and sticks to quality, imported Italian ingredients, so every pizza tastes as incredible as it did when this spot first established itself as a city favorite nearly a decade ago. And it nails the perfectly charred, chewy doneness of the Neapolitan pie. There are a few locations around the city, but we’re partial to the sometimes chill, sometimes chaotic energy of The Battery outpost, which has a big bar and plenty of space to accommodate your crew of two or 12.

In the land of a thousand brunches, this all-day Grant Park brunch staple rises above them all. And that’s why this place stays busy, so get here early or during the weekday lunch hour when it’s easy to slide into one of the upcycled church pew benches without a wait. We’ve been here numerous times, smothering crispy country-fried tempeh in creamy white pepper gravy while trying to establish a connecting theme in the trippy art and colorful mosaics.

Spring is a fine dining restaurant on Marietta Square with top-tier New American food and lots of small town charm. Cargo trains rumbling by just outside add to the unfussy allure of the cozy brick-walled restaurant, housed in an old lumberyard storage room. If you come in after a busy day, leave the major decision-making at the door. Everything on the small menu is well-executed, from flaky grouper served with fried eggplant to a butter-soft steak served with an herby bean salad.

At Oreatha’s, owned by the chef behind Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours, Southern comfort food gets sprinkled with international flavors. Pork ribs come with sweet and sour sauce and Korean fried chicken comes garlicky sweet. The crispy Thai-Seasoned Catfish is the star choice, with hints of lemongrass and ginger, and a touch of chili heat. Swing by on a laidback date night or for patio meetups with friends to catch local musicians at Wednesday night jazz.

Staplehouse comes alive during Atlanta’s warmer months, when the Edgewood Avenue restaurant starts to feel more like a neighbor’s backyard soiree than a restaurant. The casual grab-a-number setup has an American menu that’s consistently outstanding. There are seasonal specials, like the garlicky, lightly battered, cornmeal-crusted crab claws that preserve the delicacy of the meat but still deliver the right crunch.

Madeira Park is a laidback wine bar in Poncey-Highland that pairs snacky-yet-serious plates with a lengthy, masterfully curated wine list. By the Miller Union team (already on this list), the food here goes well beyond “wine bar bites.” The crispy anchovy-butter tartine delivers a punch of richness that transforms the sourdough. The juicy, savory poulet rouge is slow roasted until it slices effortlessly. And the gnocchi is all softness, wrapped in creamy fontina.