City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 292-9356

Address: 2831 East College Ave.

Description: There’s not a hint of New Southern cuisine at this storefront cafe in an Avondale Estates strip mall. Their way is the old-fashioned way, with black-eyed peas, turnip and collard greens, squash and broccoli casseroles, mashed potatoes, spicy corn bread, chicken, pork barbecue, and other staples cooked slow and easy, with plenty of fatback and TLC. Top it off with coconut cake or cobbler, and you’ve barely broken a 10-spot. Walk off your feast by browsing the Salvation Army Thrift Store and other budget shops. Lunch and dinner are offered Monday through Friday. No credit cards or checks are accepted.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 581-0530

Address: 100 Hurt St.

Description: Son’s Place traces its lineage back to Burton’s Grill, a soul food landmark in Atlanta, where the late Deacon Burton, regal in his tall chef’s hat, presided over a small army of women (all of whom he called “mama”) who cooked up the best skillet-fried chicken in town. The vegetables, such as mashed potatoes, collard greens, and creamed corn, are deliciously flavored and thoroughly cooked in the traditional Southern fashion. Son’s is a favorite with everyone from media people to civil rights leaders. It’s right beside the Inman Park/Reynoldstown MARTA station; breakfast and lunch, but no alcohol, are served Monday through Friday. This is the real thing, folks—don’t pass up an opportunity to eat here! No credit cards accepted.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 873-7358

Address: 1144 Crescent Ave. NE

Description: In an old Midtown house, South City cooks up a new Southern cuisine that would no doubt baffle the Southern cooks of a century ago, but the place is going gangbusters. The innovative menu includes a grilled center-cut pork chop on stir-fried mustard greens, sautéed shrimp and scallops over stone-ground grits with garlic gravy, and roasted cinnamon chicken over corn bread stuffing with a sour mash jus. South City is open daily for lunch and dinner.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 874-2514

Address: 1492 Piedmont Rd. NE

Description: Bangkok, which opened in 1977, claims to be the oldest Thai restaurant in Atlanta. In the Ansley Square Shopping Center, just south of the intersection of Piedmont Road and Monroe Drive in Midtown, Bangkok serves an adventurous and delicious version of Thai cuisine. If you like it hot, start with the spicy, aromatic tom yum (lemongrass) soup, then go for the spicy catfish with red curry sauce or the chicken or shrimp stir-fry with green beans, carrots, and bamboo shoots in red chili sauce. Afterward, cool off with the exquisite homemade coconut ice cream. Bangkok has beer and wine; it’s open weekdays for lunch and nightly for dinner.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 892-7743

Description: Delicious Thai food served by a friendly staff is the attraction at King & I, which joined the Atlanta restaurant scene in the early ’80s. Recommended dishes include the spring roll appetizer, pad thai noodles, and shrimp with hot garlic sauce. King & I serves large portions at reasonable prices. Beer and wine are available; the restaurant serves lunch on weekdays and dinner nightly.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Address: 810 North Highland Ave. NE

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 352-8859

Address: 2140 Peachtree Rd.

Description: This upscale vegetarian restaurant offers an array of healthy dishes so tasty you won’t miss the meat. Check out the West African stew and macro-stir-fries. Lunch and dinner are served Monday through Saturday.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (404) 320-0405

Description: In the all-Asian Buford Square shopping center near the busy Buford Highway/Clairmont Road intersection, C’om offers a refreshing new take on traditional Vietnamese rice and vermicelli dishes. The staff speaks perfect English and loves to guide newcomers to house favorites like tangy la lot (grape) leaves stuffed with spicy lamb, beef, tofu, or salmon; goi, a salad of julienned apple and mango with minced pork; grilled whole fish; chicken, pork, tofu, and lamb prepared a variety of exotic ways. Beer and wine are available. Lunch and dinner are served daily.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 964-4343

Address: 6400 Westbrook St.

Description: Built in 1910, this two-story brick manor house has a wide wraparound porch, rocking chairs, a full bar, a picturesque gazebo, and a ghost, said to appear in the upstairs windows. Taste some of the menu’s elegant dishes on the sampler platter with petite filet, chicken, and jumbo shrimp. Fresh vegetables and corn bread salad are specialties. Miss Emma’s banana pudding and peach cobbler are some of the homemade desserts. Lunch features a Southern country buffet with fried okra and crispy green tomatoes. Linen-covered tables are spread throughout the home’s high-ceilinged parlor, dining room, and sun porch. Lunch is served Monday through Friday and Sunday; dinner is served Friday.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 992-5383

Address: 1087 Green St.

Description: Oversize portions of American favorites, from fried chicken to potpie, are on the simple menu at Greenwoods, based in a renovated cottage behind Roswell’s historic district. If there’s too much food to finish, take it home along with one of the restaurant’s famous pies, sold whole to go. There’s no alcohol. Personal checks are accepted, but credit cards are not. Open Wednesday through Saturday 5 to 9 p.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 995-1183

Address: 176 East Crogan St.

Description: In a handsomely restored early-1900s mercantile building on the Lawrenceville courthouse square, Lil’ River’s menu is American modern with French and Southwestern influences. The wine list is large, and live music plays most nights. Before or after your meal, browse the many gift and antiques shops around the restored early-1900s courthouse, now a historical museum. Lunch and dinner is served Monday through Saturday. On-street parking is available.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 594-8822

Address: 25 Plum St.

Description: This old store in Roswell’s historic district has been a tearoom since 1987. A mix of antique tables and buffets are decorated with teapots, teacups, and an assortment of tea paraphernalia. Lunch is light, with a variety of salads, quiches, soups, and a selection of wines and beers. And yes, tea lovers, tea is served daily—and correctly, in a china pot. Mittie’s Tea Room is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 409-9889

Address: 40 South Peachtree St.

Description: Like a little shaking and rattling with your burger or barbecued chicken? The trains that rumble by Norcross Station, in the town’s restored depot, frequently send vibrations through the floorboards and table legs right to the silverware. It’s part of the charm of this restaurant, where lunch and dinner are served every day but Sunday. Pull up a chair inside the rustic, high-ceilinged main room, or enjoy the enclosed and heated year-round outdoor deck overlooking the town’s restored business district. Soups, salads, quiches, and sandwiches are big for lunch; dinner features chef’s specials as well as Creole and Cajun dishes, steaks, ribs, and pastas.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (770) 428-9520

Address: 19 North Park Sq.

Description: This casual restaurant and bar has anchored a corner of the Marietta Square for more then 20 years. Its neighborhood-pub style is a favorite of locals looking for oversized sandwiches and finger foods late into the night or during a short lunch break. The kitchen opens at 10:30 a.m. and serves until midnight during the week, 2 a.m. on weekends. For those with more elegant tastes, Upstairs at Shillings is an 80-seat fine-dining room, with white tablecloths, candles, and soft piano tunes putting diners in a relaxed mood. Entrees of steaks, seafood, veal, lamb, and chicken are offered. Dinner is served from 5:30 to 10 p.m. on weekdays, midnight on weekends. Sunday brunch is served from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (678) 352-1975

Address: 1072 Green St.

Description: Sauce-smeared patrons, sitting at long, communal tables, gorge themselves on some of the metro area’s biggest, tastiest plates of barbecue and ribs, complemented by Brunswick stew, mac ‘n’ cheese, corn bread, bottomless glasses of sweet tea, and loud, lively country and folk music. Lunch and dinner are served Wednesday through Sunday. Free parking is available.