31. EATS
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 888-9149
Address: 600 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE
Description: EATS is a favorite with college kids and other Generation Xers who groove on the casual atmosphere, eclectic music, and terrific, inexpensive food. There are separate counters and sometimes long lines: One serves pasta (the big seller is cheese tortellini with marinara sauce), and another serves jerk chicken and vegetables. EATS is open daily for lunch and dinner. Beer and wine are sold here. No credit cards are accepted.
32. Java Jive
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 876-6161
Address: 790 Ponce de Leon Ave.
Description: Remember that old Formica kitchen table you had as a kid? It’s joined its siblings at this funky Midtown restaurant where the hearty breakfasts and lunches are just like Mom used to serve. The pecan waffles with whipped cream are decadent. Service starts early, at 8 a.m. during the week and 9 a.m. on weekends. The restaurant is closed on Monday.
33. the raging burrito
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 377-3311
Address: 141 Sycamore St.
Description: Burritos, tacos, and one of the best patios in the Atlanta area. This is a great place to eat cheap and enjoy the surroundings. A favorite among college kids but you’ll also see all the lawyers head over from the Decatur Courthouse to enjoy the cheap eats and the great margaritas. Open daily at 11:30 a.m. and serves through dinner.
34. The Varsity
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 881-1706
Address: 61 North Ave. NW
Description: At the corner of Spring Street, the original Varsity is just across the North Avenue bridge from Georgia Tech. It opened in 1928 and claims the distinction of being the world’s largest drive-in: Every day, this single restaurant serves up to 2 miles of hot dogs, a ton of onion rings, and 5,000 pies. The city put The Varsity at North Avenue on its registry of historic buildings, which will keep it from changing forever after. Friendly carhops ask,“What’ll ya have?” then bring your food to your car, or you can eat inside and watch TV in one of the several large dining rooms. The serving counters inside are a beehive of activity: The slogan here is “Have your money in your hand and your order in your mind.” The Varsity does not serve alcohol, and no credit cards are accepted.
35. Woody’s Famous Philadelphia Cheesesteaks
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 876-1939
Address: 981 Monroe Dr. NE
Description: Woody’s, just across from Grady High School on a spit of land between Monroe Drive and Virginia Avenue, has been providing students and insiders with good cheesesteaks and submarine sandwiches since 1975. This tiny restaurant is nothing fancy, and its operating hours are only 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Check out the extensive variety of Breyer’s ice creams. No alcohol is served, and credit cards aren’t accepted.
36. Zesto Drive-In
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 523-1973
Address: 377 Moreland Ave.
Description: Since 1949, Atlanta has been stopping by Zesto’s. The Illinois-based soft-ice-cream chain was once in 46 states. Today, few restaurants remain, but, with four locations, Atlanta is still a hotbed of them. Try a Chubby Decker hamburger and a side order of fried okra (if you’re in the right Zesto’s—each one’s menu is quirkily different from the others) and top it off with a Nut Brown Crown. The satiny soft ice cream is the real thing. The Ponce de Leon restaurant, a chrome-colored classic diner, is the best-looking Zesto’s.
37. Australian Bakery Cafes
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (678) 797-4222
Address: 48 South Park Sq.
Description: Mark Allen and Neville Steel, childhood mates from Victoria, Australia, opened the metro area’s first Aussie eatery in Marietta square in 2001. Their meat pies, sausage rolls, lamb curry, shepherd’s pie, and other casual Down Under fare struck a chord with expatriate Aussies and New Zealanders in the Atlanta area and other parts of the Southeast. Locals who tried it also cried, “Good on you, mates!” In 2004 they opened their second, equally popular location in East Atlanta Village. Lunch is served daily.
38. the Depeaux
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 474-2491
Address: 303 E. Howard Ave.
Description: Located in Decatur’s historic railroad depot building, the Depeaux offers up some of the most authentic Cajun cooking this side of New Orleans. The owners come from deep in Louisiana’s bayous and are proud to share their family recipes for their sumptuous gumbo and yummy etouffee. The catfish Atchafalaya is enough for two, especially after you’ve worked your way through some of the appetizers like the gator bites or boudin balls. The Depeaux is closed Monday and Tuesday and only open for dinner on Wednesday and Thursday. But the Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. “until ?” more than makes up for it. There are lunch specials offering you the choice of “feathers, scales, or tails.” That’s fried chicken, fish, shrimp or crawfish.
39. fontaine’s Oyster House
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 872-0869
Address: 1026 N. Highland Ave.
Description: This rustic Cajun food and oyster house is located in the heart of Virginia Highland. Gumbo and etouffee are the staples as are red beans and rice. Grab a cold beer and stand at the oyster bar and watch them shuck them as fast as you can eat them. This place is always packed and on Tuesday night there are oyster and beer specials. Open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. except Tuesday when they don’t open until 4 p.m.
40. Redfish
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 475-1200
Address: 687 Memorial Dr. SE
Description: A culinary step up for the upwardly mobile Grant Park/East Atlanta area. The comfortable, nicely done-up dining room, with subdued lighting and Mardi Gras art works, serves excellent renditions of such N’awlins faves as crab-and-okra gumbo, crawfish etouffee, oysters Bienville and Rockefeller, jambalaya, blackened redfish, and warm bread pudding with currants that will have transplanted Cajuns weeping with homesickness. Dinner is served Monday through Saturday. Valet parking is available.
41. Coco Loco
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 364-0212
Address: 2625 Piedmont Rd. NE
Description: This small restaurant in a shopping center has been preparing delicious Cuban and Caribbean dishes, such as jerk chicken, fried plantains, conch fritters, paella, arroz con pollo, and Cuban sandwiches, since 1988. There’s a full bar, and live entertainment is featured on Saturday night. Coco Loco, where the attitude is fun and tropical, is open for lunch and dinner every day.
42. Las Palmeras
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 872-0846
Address: 368 Fifth St. NE
Description: The best Cuban eatery in town is a virtual secret, in the middle of a Midtown neighborhood, known only to true fans who seek out “ropa vieja,” masitas, boliche, and other savory pork, seafood, and chicken dishes from the island nation. Dine inside the converted house or on the pleasant outdoor patio. Buy your beer and wine in the adjoining grocery store, owned by the same family. Lunch and dinner are offered daily. On-street parking is available.
43. Chin Chin
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 816-2229
Address: 3887 Peachtree Rd. NE
Description: Enjoy Chinese cuisine in these pleasant surroundings. Crowd-pleasing entrees include tangerine steak, golden crispy prawns, shredded pork in garlic sauce, and sautéed vegetables. Open every day for lunch and dinner, Chin Chin offers a full bar and free delivery within a 3-mile radius. The chef’s specials and a few other entrees will take you higher than the range we cited above, but you can grab a good bargain with the lunch special. On Sunday it opens at 3 p.m.
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Address: 4279 Roswell Rd. NE
45. Grand China
City: Atlanta, GA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (404) 231-8690
Address: 2975 Peachtree Rd. NE
Description: Order from a sizable menu for reliable food in this longtime Buckhead fixture. Szechuan, Cantonese, and Taiwanese entrees join those originating in Singapore. The bar, with its lattice-motif bamboo shades, offers a pleasant setting. Try the General Tsao chicken, small chunks of boneless chicken breast lightly fried, then covered with a hot-sour sauce and sesame seeds. Noodle dishes, both hot and cold, are favorites. An outdoor section is open in good weather. Grand China is open every day for lunch and dinner. No reservations are needed.