Not only is it Michelin season again, but we’re fast approaching Best New Restaurants season in Atlanta. It’s the time of year when publications like Rough Draft present awards to new restaurants bringing something special to the local food scene.
New restaurants often reflect our present-day communities and show us where Atlanta’s food scene is headed, whether that’s fresh perspectives on familiar cuisines or spotlighting underrepresented cultures on menus. Some new restaurants look to shake up traditional service models, like fast casual and fine dining, becoming food and operations trendsetters.
Rough Draft Dining Reporter Sarra Sedghi and I have spent the last year eating at dozens of new restaurants across the metro area. To compile our list, final decisions are based on specific criteria, such as creative use of ingredients, consistency of food and service over multiple visits, and unique characteristics like zero-waste practices or clever beverage programs setting some new restaurants apart from others.
While we’re currently working to finalize the 2025 list, we want to also give our readers a chance to weigh in on the new restaurants they believe deserve top marks for 2025.
Enter Rough Draft’s Readers’ Choice Awards. Participation is as simple as filling out a form to vote for your favorite new restaurant.
Just like Rough Draft’s 2025 list, new restaurants considered for Readers’ Choice opened between Oct. 1, 2024, and Oct. 1, 2025. New restaurants must reside within Rough Draft’s major coverage areas, including the cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven, Tucker, Sandy Springs, and Dunwoody. We’ve provided space to fill in your favorite restaurant for each city category, along with a category for new restaurants residing in adjacent communities within greater Metro Atlanta. (Think Roswell, Decatur, Marietta, Jonesboro, Duluth, Peachtree City, etc.)
We’ll collect reader responses through Nov. 21 and announce the Rough Draft and Readers’ Choice winners during the first week of December.
Click here to vote for the Best New Restaurants of 2025.
Need a refresher on the restaurant openings from the past year? Check out each month’s major restaurant openings below.