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There’s something special about a chef’s table or tasting menu. You sit down, relinquish control, and let the people in the kitchen do what they do best. No debating entrées, no wondering if you ordered the wrong thing — just course after course designed to surprise you.
And Atlanta has no shortage of chefs willing to take the reins. Visit a familiar favorite like Bacchanalia, settle in for an elaborate multi-course experience at Georgia Boy, or let one of the city’s best sushi chefs decide what you’re eating for the night. Along with newer experiences worth knowing about, we’ve also got one that warrants a road trip.
Here are some of our favorites.
Bacchanalia
Westside
You can’t really talk about tasting menus in Atlanta without talking about Bacchanalia.
This Atlanta institution has been defining special-occasion dining in the city for more than three decades, and it now has a Michelin star — along with a Michelin Green Star recognizing its sustainability efforts — to add to an already lengthy résumé.
The seasonal four-course prix-fixe menu changes frequently, allowing the kitchen to showcase whatever is best from local farms and purveyors at the moment. The experience is polished without feeling stuffy, which is probably one reason Atlantans keep coming back whenever there’s something worth celebrating.
Cost: $140 per person.
Charm
West Midtown
This multi-course experience is designed to show off the depth and range of Thai cuisine, with eight courses plus an amuse-bouche and pre-dessert. Settle in and prepare to enjoy a dining experience that lasts about two and a half hours. The menu — and the lineup of chefs — changes with each series, so no two visits to Charm are exactly the same, which keeps things interesting. And with its intimate setting and limited number of seatings, this is one you’ll want to book while you can.
Cost: $195 per person, only available Wednesday to Sunday.
Georgia Boy
Poncey Highlands
Georgia Boy is less dinner reservation, more entire-evening experience.
Hidden inside Southern Belle, chef Joey Ward’s intimate restaurant-within-a-restaurant serves a blind tasting menu of roughly 14 to 16 courses over the course of two-plus hours. Guests sit together around a communal chef’s table, with the kitchen fully on display as Ward and his team work their way through a menu that is inventive, Southern at its core, and often delightfully weird.
You won’t know exactly what you’re getting before you arrive. That’s very much the point. Sit down, trust the process, and prepare to be entertained.
Cost: $295 per person ($275 on Wednesday and Thursday).
Sushi Hayakawa
Atlanta
The Michelin-starred experience is part omakase, part kaiseki, moving through a procession of small dishes before arriving at meticulously prepared nigiri made with fish sourced from Japan and elsewhere around the world. But the food is only part of the draw. Hayakawa is famously personable, chatting with diners and explaining everything from the provenance of the fish to how a particular bite is best eaten. And don’t forget to friend him on Facebook afterward, where he’ll post the picture he takes of you and your dining party.
It feels less like watching a chef perform from afar and more like being welcomed into his world for the night.
Cost: $375 per person.
Mikasa Omakase at Larakin
Piedmont Park
Mikasa feels like your talented sushi-chef friend invited you over and happened to have some exceptional fish flown in from Japan.
Chef Jorom Paler’s roaming omakase residency regularly takes over Larakin, the Midtown wine bar, for intimate Saturday, Sunday, and Monday seatings. The experience typically unfolds over around 13 courses of nigiri and sashimi, with Paler working directly in front of a small group of diners.
It’s relaxed, conversational, and refreshingly lacking in ceremony — without sacrificing the precision you want from an omakase. Seats are limited, and reservations are released through Tock, so this is one to plan ahead for.
Cost: $165 per person, only available on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday evenings.
Verdure Kitchen & Cocktails
Piedmont Park
Verdure’s lush, garden-like dining room makes a dramatic first impression. And its Le Jardin Supper Club gives you another reason to linger.
Chef Jean-Louis Sangaré draws from his West African heritage while incorporating Western ingredients and techniques, resulting in a fine-dining experience that moves comfortably between continents. Expect composed, spice-driven courses, thoughtful cocktails, and the kind of plating that makes everyone at the table stop talking for a second when the dish arrives.
The supper-club format takes place two days a week and is five courses. It transforms an evening her to feel less like simply ordering dinner and more like settling in for an occasion, which is exactly what you want from a tasting menu.
Cost: $85 per person, only available on Wednesday and Thursday; $45 per person for optional beverage pairing.
Bonus: Mountain Top Lodge
Dahlonega
And then there are the meals worth the drive and leaving Atlanta for.
About an hour and a half north of the city, Mountain Top Lodge in Dahlonega turns dinner into a full North Georgia escape. Its Wit & Wisdom experience is an intimate five-course prix-fixe dinner served Friday and Saturday evenings at a communal table, with a seasonally changing menu and optional curated wine pairings.
This is the one to make a weekend of. Book a room, spend the afternoon winery-hopping or hiking, then come back for dinner without worrying about the drive home. A tasting menu is already an excuse to slow down for a few hours; adding mountain views and an overnight stay doesn’t hurt.
Cost: $100 per person, only available on Friday and Saturday evenings.
