If there's one thing Atlanta is known for, it's personality. The Big Peach has oodles of gems from downtown Decatur to East Lake, and our famously anonymous Inspectors combed through each nook and cranny from Euclid Avenue to Peachtree Street to uncover the stars. And while our Inspectors eat for work—we're jealous too—we asked them to round-up their top plates in the ATL.
From Food Terminal's generous portions of thin wheat noodles that bounce in your mouth with flavor to Poor Hendrix's Alabama-style shrimp skewers with just the perfect amount of spices, our Inspectors had a tough job but the below are a smattering of the flavors they couldn't get enough of.
Check out the full list below and make sure to come back to view the full Atlanta 2023 selection! Bon Appétit!
Gunshow
Strawberry. Green garlic. Radicchio. Pop rocks
A half of a mini tart filled with green garlic and strawberry topped with a savory radicchio whipped cream and garnished with strawberry pop rocks. This was really ingenious with its combination of savory and sweet and was a great insight into the meal to come.
Food Terminal
Garlic Noodles
Served in a huge bowl, this generous portion of thin wheat noodles (all made in-house) is tossed in a garlic sauce, along with spinach and mushroom. You can get other versions including shrimp or chicken, but the spinach and mushroom worked well with the flavor of garlic in the noodles which were bouncy and flavorful. You couldn’t stop eating these noodles.
Banshee
Fry bread
These fry bread rounds were served piping hot with a pepperoni butter finished with sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes. The bread was still hot, so it melted the butter as you dipped it in. It just works—so much so that they sell the butter by the pint!
Poor Hendrix
Shrimp Skewers
Two sweet shrimp that were skewered with their tails on dusted with a barbecue rub and served with a white Alabama-style barbecue sauce. These were fantastic. The shrimp were incredibly flavorful and light, the spices nicely offset the sweetness from the shrimp, and then the white barbecue sauce rounded out the dish nicely.
White Bull
Peach Pie
Served in a sundae dish, White Bull's take on the iconic dessert is actually a scoop of lemon buttermilk gelato at the base topped with balsamic caramel sauce and a half-moon shaped, fresh peach hand pie. The hand pie was hot, just out of the oven so the contrast of that and the ice cream was incredible.
Hero image: Ashley Gutierrez /The White Bull
Thumbnail: Courtesy of Smokeshow
