Atlanta, GA
Atlanta's 2024 Michelin Guide to be released on Monday
This photograph taken on March 18, 2024, shows the embroidered three Michelin stars on a chefs uniform during the Michelin Guide for France 2024 awards ceremony in Tours, center France. (Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP via Getty Images)
ATLANTA – Metro Atlanta’s top chefs and restaurants are excitedly waiting to see if they will get a star in the second edition of the area’s MICHELIN Guide.
The ceremony and big announcement will happen Monday night at the Georgia World Congress.
Last year, the tire company and restaurant guide gave five Atlanta-area restaurants its coveted one-star rating, which the guide says is given to restaurants that use top quality ingredients and have dishes with distinct flavors that are prepared to a consistently high standard. Ten restaurants were given the Bib Gourmand award, which is given to restaurants who serve great food at an affordable price.
To achieve this recognition, restaurants undergo multiple inspections annually, each conducted anonymously. Inspectors evaluate five key criteria: the quality of products and ingredients, the harmony of flavors, and the mastery of cooking techniques, among other factors.
The guide is refreshed every year and restaurants that have been reviewed in the past could gain or lose a star.
MICHELIN releases first Atlanta guide to fine dining
While 2023’s guide focused only on restaurants within the perimeter, Rough Draft Atlanta reports that the anonymous reviewers may have looked at some restaurants OTP for the 2024 guide.
Michelin announced its first North American Guide in 2005 for New York. Guides have also been added in Chicago (2011); Washington, D.C. (2017); California (San Francisco in 2007, statewide 2019); Miami/Orlando/Tampa, Florida (2022); Toronto (2022); Vancouver (2022); Colorado (2023); Atlanta (2023), Mexico (2024), Texas (2024) and Quebec (2024).
Current MICHELIN one-star Atlanta restaurants
MICHELIN Guide ceremony in Atlanta
The MICHELIN Guide has arrived in Atlanta and a ceremony was held Tuesday night to announce which restaurants are in the guide.
Here are the 5 MICHELIN one-star restaurants, a distinction given to restaurants with “outstanding” cooking. Inspector notes have been included in full for each:
Atlas (American cuisine)
When the night calls for a grand celebration, few places fit quite like Atlas. Order à la carte from Chef Freddy Money’s seasonal American menu with European influences or celebrate with the tasting menu for dishes like tender lobster plated with smoked paprika butter sauce and heirloom summer squash, and poached halibut composed with a trio of beet preparations. Wagyu beef from Australia is a decadent end to the savory courses. Impressive cocktails, a cheese cart and whimsical desserts complete the well-rounded experience.
Bacchanalia (American cuisine)
Chefs/Owners Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison and Executive Chef Kai NaLampoon offer a multicourse prix fixe that involves a bit of flair, with some dishes arriving on carts or nestled inside glass cloches, and the cheese course is a wonderful surprise. Rather than an expected slice, the team presents a clever take with a crumbly oat date cake and a dot of black garlic sauce surrounded by rings of parmesan. Chilled lobster in a ponzu sauce with bright English peas and horseradish oil is also memorable, but it may just be the delicate grapefruit soufflé garnished with spicy pistachio crumble and rose crème anglaise that takes the cake.
Hayakawa (Japanese cuisine)
A local legend for his Japanese cuisine on Buford Highway, Chef Atsushi Hayakawa has begun a new chapter in West Midtown. The meal is a procession of small courses and hews toward the structure of kaiseki. After items such as an appetizer trio with clear fish soup, scallop sashimi with miso-mustard sauce and simmered monkfish, it’s time for sushi. The chef crafts nigiri from imported fish that needs little embellishment and is amply sized in the tradition of Hokkaido style in deference to the chef’s hometown.
Lazy Betty (Contemporary cuisine)
Chef Ron Hsu and Chef Aaron Phillips oversee a contemporary tasting menu with clever flavor combinations that highlight regional ingredients. Causa is given a Southern slant with sweet Georgia shrimp, avocado purée and potato foam infused with aji amarillo pepper, while seared Hudson Valley foie gras is sided by Granny Smith apple, sweet potato and dots of pumpkin butter. From the pre-dessert lemon sherbet with a coconut crumble to the elegant rosewater panna cotta, they impress to the end.
Mujō (Japanese cuisine)
Mujō is an intimate setting with a moody elegance. This is the domain of Chef J. Trent Harris and his skilled team who make all feel well cared for. Here, tradition has been replaced with a rollicking good time, where the always-surprising interpretation of omakase begin with an array of zensai, like a morsel of Florida cobia grilled over binchotan, dressed with a red miso sauce and some local pattypan squash. After some cooked bites, it’s time for the raw. Nigiri needs little to impress, while supplemental dishes offer the likes of Hokkaido hair crab, tosazu and mozuku.
MICHELIN Green Star Atlanta restaurants
The MICHELIN Green Star is a distinction honoring restaurants and staff who pride themselves on sustainability. Here are the two MICHELIN Green Star restaurants, along with their inspector notes in full:
Bacchanalia (American cuisine)
Chefs own and operate Summerland Farm in Cartersville, Georgia, where they grow much of their produce and harvest eggs. They also have a composting program, and they feed chickens with vegetable scraps.
The Chastain (American cuisine)
Chef Christopher Grossman’s menu changes often, depending on what’s available from local farm partners and in his onsite regenerative-farmed garden. The Chastain recently joined Georgia Organics to help quantify local and organic food purchases. The team composts on site and also uses a compost company to reduce landfill waste. They also recycle glass and use compostable carryout containers.
The Atlanta Dream are undefeated heading into their home opener and still finding ways to improve their roster.
The Dream announced Wednesday the signing of forward Amy Okonkwo to a developmental contract. It’s the latest roster move for an Atlanta team that is 2-0 and gearing up to play Sunday against the defending champion, Las Vegas Aces.
Okonkwo brings an impressive résumé despite her young career.
She most recently attended training camp with the Dallas Wings ahead of the 2026 season and appeared in eight games with Dallas during the 2025 WNBA season, averaging 11.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while shooting better than 60 percent from the field. She recorded a career-high 20 points against Phoenix on Sept. 11, 2025, and made history as the first undrafted player since 2000 to average 10 or more points while shooting 60 percent or better through her first two WNBA games.
Her international résumé is equally impressive. Okonkwo has earned back-to-back FIBA Women’s AfroBasket MVP honors in 2023 and 2025 while helping Nigeria’s national team capture consecutive gold medals. Collegiately, she played at USC before finishing her career at TCU, where she earned 2018 Big 12 Sixth Player of the Year honors.
Okonkwo joins a 12-player roster that includes Naz Hillmon, Te-Hina Paopao, Jordin Canada, Angel Reese, Aaliyah Nye, Rhyne Howard, Madina Okot, Allisha Gray, Isobel Borlase, Indya Nivar, Sika Kone and Brionna Jones.
The signing caps a busy stretch of roster moves for Atlanta.
Earlier this month, the Dream claimed guard Aaliyah Nye off waivers after she was selected by the expansion Toronto Tempo in the 2026 WNBA Expansion Draft and subsequently waived on May 7. Nye brings championship pedigree to Atlanta, having been a member of the 2025 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces as a rookie, appearing in all 44 regular season games and finishing fourth among franchise rookies in made three-pointers with 37.
A guard out of the University of Alabama, Nye is one of the sharper shooters in the league. She finished her college career with 389 three-pointers across stops at Alabama and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shooting 40.9 percent from beyond the arc. In her final season with the Crimson Tide, she earned Second Team All-SEC honors after averaging 15.2 points per game and setting the program’s single-season record with 111 made three-pointers.
To make room for Nye, the Dream waived guard Holly Winterburn, a move that came with an emotional cost. Winterburn, a Northampton, England native who went undrafted in 2025 before signing with Atlanta as a free agent, said she learned she had been cut just before boarding the bus for the team’s first game of the season on May 9.
“I thought my welcome to the W moment would happen on the court, not as I’m getting on the bus for my first ever game,” Winterburn wrote on Instagram. “But that’s the reality of this business and I will always be grateful for the opportunity Atlanta gave me. I’m built for this.”
Winterburn did not stay without a job for long. The Portland Fire signed her to a developmental contract shortly after her release.
After Tuesday’s road win in Dallas, the Dream return home Sunday to face the defending champion Las Vegas Aces at 1:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena.
Atlanta’s vibrant food scene offers diners so much more than comfort food classics (although top-notch versions of chicken, biscuits, and all the fixings can be found here, certainly), and leaving the city without tucking into an unforgettable meal should be criminal. But the trick is knowing where to go.
To make your stay in The A culinarily memorable, you need not only an up-to-date list of the city’s epicurean hotspots, but you also need to choose a home base that makes it easy to get to where you want to go. Choose your hotel poorly, and you might miss where fine dining finds industrial restoration in West Midtown, the continuous creative renewal in buildings and on menus in Old Fourth Ward, or the spirit and soulful flavors of Atlanta’s southside. That won’t be an issue with what’s below.
Old Fourth Ward
The walkable Old Fourth Ward neighborhood (O4W for short, which is located north of downtown Atlanta and southeast of Midtown) is home to many of the city’s top food spots. Find a morning pick-me-up from Chrome Yellow Trading Co., sweet treat from Little Tart bakery, or a decadent sandwich from Kinship Butcher & Sundry, where you can choose if you want your breakfast sausage sandwich served “double double,” or opt for a lunchier option like griddled pork belly with “drunken” mustard on brioche. Eastbound to downtown Decatur, Michelin-recommended and James-Beard-Foundation-recognized restaurants like Kimball House, home to some of metro Atlanta’s best oysters and craft cocktails, and The Deer & The Dove, where farm-to-table is performed with a fierce focus on flavor, are admired far beyond their suburban city’s limits.
O4W is also near historic Inman Park, where you can find exceptional pasta at BoccaLupo, steaks at Kevin Rathbun Steak, or dinner with premium cocktails at Ticonderoga Club at Krog Street Market.
Forth
Forth bills itself as part hotel, part local hangout and membership club, and its range of amenities and convenient location makes it a smart choice for your home base. It’s just off the Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail and a five-minute walk to Ponce City Market, a food hall with stalls from a who’s-who of Atlanta’s culinary talent. (Don’t miss Botiwalla, where chef Meherwan Irani of the award-winning restaurant Chai Pani is slinging dishes inspired by Indian street food.)
Rooms at Forth mix mid-century style and modern function, you’ll find both heavy black telephones inspired by the old-school rotary dials and Bluetooth-enabled radio speakers in groovy wooden and brushed copper casing. The decor is otherwise understated, featuring metallics and earthtones, which allows the views they afford of the surrounding buildings and Beltline activity below to stay the star.
McCollum ruins Knicks’ night again, leading the Hawks to a 109-108 victory and a 2-1 lead
— CJ McCollum hit a fadeaway jumper with 12.5 seconds left to ruin New York’s night again, leading the Atlanta Hawks to a 109-108 victory and a 2-1 lead over the Knicks in their first-round…
Apr 23, 2026, 10:32 pm – AP
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