City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 925-1050

Address: 1500 Pleasant Hill Rd.

Description: Opened in 1977, Mandarin House is Atlanta’s longest-operating Chinese restaurant. Its extensive menu includes princess chicken; chicken and Chinese greens in an optional hot bean sauce; Szechuan-style kung pau beef, which mixes beef, peanuts, and Chinese greens in a hot pepper sauce; and moo shu pork, a dish featuring pork and Chinese pancakes. Lunch and dinner are served daily.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 956-7589

Address: 2655 Cobb Pkwy.

Description: Swapna’s objective is to provide genuine Indian cuisine in Atlanta with the exciting and authentic taste of the many regions of India, combined with style, flair, and presentation. A gourmet trail of the many diverse regions of India, it serves food from as many as six different regions of that country and has a team of specialist chefs recruited from India, each producing their own regional specialties. The owners and staff at Swapna have a lifelong passion for real Indian food and have traveled the length and breadth of India so that they could provide you with the same culinary delights that were relished by the maharajas of India’s glorious past.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Address: 220 Sandy Springs Circle NW

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 587-1051

Address: 8560 Holcomb Bridge Rd.

Description: The brother-and-sister team that owns this intimate Italian spot keeps the menu fresh with seasonal changes. Some classics show up by popular demand year-round: lasagne alla bolognese, rigatoni with Italian sausage and artichokes, and a variety of seafood. Homemade desserts and a selection of Italian and Californian wines and beer are on the menu. Dinner is served Tuesday through Sunday from 5:30 p.m., and reservations are accepted.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 449-1611

Address: 95 South Peachtree St.

Description: In a historic building in old downtown Norcross, this family-style Italian restaurant serves its dishes on large platters meant to be shared. (The menu also lists prices for half-platters for those with skimpier appetites.) With both hearty, traditional Italian fare and lighter, health-conscious items, Dominick’s menu includes pasta, chicken, veal, and seafood dishes. Popular house specialties such as eggplant parmigiana and lasagna bolognese delight diners and keep them coming back to this friendly, welcoming place. Lunch is served on weekdays; dinner is served nightly.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 998-5683

Address: 1525 Holcomb Bridge Rd.

Description: This friendly, mom-and-pop Italian restaurant is a favorite with locals. Ippolito’s menu includes mussels marinara, pizzas, hoagies, calzones, salads, pasta, chicken, veal, and seafood. The yeasty garlic rolls are served piping hot and swimming in butter. Dress is casual, and kids are welcome. Ippolito’s hours vary by location. You can count on Ol’ Blue Eyes or Dino for the background music.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 434-9355

Address: 2810 Paces Ferry Rd. NE

Description: This upscale pizza house features pies, pasta dishes, calzones, strombolis, and killer desserts such as Death by Chocolate cheesecake and raspberry white chocolate cheesecake. House specialties include the Spinach ’n’ Stix appetizer, a fresh spinach and vegetable dip topped with mozzarella cheese; you dip Italian bread-sticks into the luscious mixture. New York Pizza also serves salads, subs, beer, and wine. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner daily.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 303-0133

Address: 4000 Summit Blvd.

Description: You don’t expect to find such an elegant, upscale eatery as the Villa tucked into a business campus (getting there is tricky, too—call ahead for directions). But the view from the dining room is pastoral, taking in the surrounding gardens and stream. The restaurant also hosts wine dinners throughout the year. Lunch and dinner are served Monday through Saturday.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (678) 297-5588

Address: 10875 Jones Bridge Rd.

Description: An unusually good full-service Japanese restaurant in a neighborhood setting straight out of American Beauty, Hachi Hachi offers the expected Benihana’s-style cooking theater in their hibachi section as well as standard restaurant seating for more interesting fare, a well-stocked full bar, and an excellent (and quite large) sushi bar. The food—mostly variations on standard and traditional dishes—is very well prepared and interestingly presented, and some of the sushi box and platter creations are absolute works of art. Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and supper.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 622-4060

Address: 3646 Satellite Blvd.

Description: Owner/sushi chef Yukio Watanabe, who claims to have opened Georgia’s first sushi bar (in 1980 on Buford Highway), offers both expected traditional and seasonal specialties, albeit at a quality and artistic level head and shoulders above others, along with some very interesting East-West fusion experiments. Among these experiments are Italian cold cuts and cheese rolls along with the California rolls and yellowfin from the sushi bar. Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and supper, and Sunday for supper only.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 428-0955

Address: 180 Cobb Pkwy.

Description: Watching your food being sliced, diced, sautéed, and flambéed right before your eyes is half the fun of eating at this cozy restaurant, hidden in a corner of the Marietta Trade shopping center. You’ll be seated in a group around a large, stainless-steel cooktop, where a chef will prepare the food to your exact specifications. And the chefs put on a show while doing it—flipping shrimp tails into their tall hats, tossing knives into the air, and juggling soy sauce bottles behind their backs. Start with a sampling of sushi at the bar in the restaurant’s lobby, but save room for dinner. There’s usually more food than you can finish. Dinner is served nightly.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 452-0123

Address: 5938 Buford Hwy.

Description: A large, friendly restaurant located in a former chain steak house, Seoul Garden is one of the best of many Korean eateries in a stretch of Buford Highway nicknamed “Chambodia,” a cross between Cambodia and suburban Chamblee. It’s very popular with the metro area’s sizable Korean community and Atlanta-area Anglos. Kimchee, seafood pancakes, barbecued meats, and rice and noodle dishes are first rate. There’s also a sushi bar, beer, and wine. Lunch and dinner are served daily. Free parking is available.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 968-0907

Address: 1140 Mt. Zion Rd.

Description: Spicy specialties at this Mexican and Southwestern restaurant include poblano corn chowder and a Mexican version of turnip greens. Enjoy your favorite beverages at Azteca’s full bar and outside dining in warm weather. The food comes continuously from 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon on Sunday.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 222-0398

Address: 4897 Buford Hwy.

Description: In a perpetually buzzing dining room that looks like the set of a 1930s South Seas movie—faux palm trees and all—Penang serves exceptionally good, always well-spiced Malaysian and Thai dishes. Roti canai, a Malaysian appetizer of sautéed tofu dipped in tangy curry sauce, is an excellent way to start your exotic feast, which could include whole baked red snapper, catfish curry, duck, shrimp, chicken, and pork dishes. The friendly staff will help you through the lengthy menu. Lunch and dinner are served daily. Free parking is available.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 391-9383

Address: 236 Perimeter Center Pkwy.

Description: For almost 20 years, this clubby spot has been a favorite for seafood and steak lovers. And the oversize biscuits are pretty incredible, too. Lunch and dinner menus feature an array of fresh fish as well as filet, crab cakes, soups, and salads. Sunday brunch is an extensive affair, with made-to-order omelets, shrimp, and blintzes. Lunch is served Monday through Friday. Dinner is served nightly. Weekdays get there early enough to enjoy the seafood Happy Hour at the bar where one-pound lobsters go for market price.