The Best Dishes Eater Atlanta Ate This Month

Atlanta offers inventive dining in unexpected neighborhoods, from Ryokou in Adair Park to intimate tasting menus in a candle-lit butcher shop. Ryokou's omakase includes a mushroom capellini with miso and shaved black truffles, nodding to Itameshi cuisine and the chef's Italian restaurant beginnings, with an optional Kanbara Ancient Treasure 12-year-aged sake pairing offering dark honey, nuts, figs, and toasted sesame oil. Korean-inflected spots serve cheesy kimchi fried rice, japchae with sweet potato starch noodles, and a volcano hot dog topped with spicy krab, sriracha, eel sauce, and scallions. Kinship's four-seat tasting menu experiments with fermentation and aging and features monkfish, dry-aged beef, intricate salads, and a lemon pepper wet quail wing.

"Hidden gem Ryokou in Adair Park has the best omakase because it includes a pasta course. It's a mushroom capellini with miso and shaved black truffles. The pasta is a nod to Itameshi cuisine and chef Leonard Yu's Italian restaurant beginnings. Be sure to get the sake pairing - the Kanbara Ancient Treasure is a 12-year-old aged sake with beautiful notes of dark honey, nuts, figs, and toasted sesame oil."

"The cheesy kimchi fried rice ($12) is a treat any time of the day, the japchae ($15) with sweet potato starch noodles and mushrooms is an umami bomb, and the volcano hot dog ($6) is piled high with spicy krab, sriracha, eel sauce, and scallions. Mom's Backyard Garden ($16) cocktail, bartender James Sung uses his mother's perilla from her garden to garnish the drink made with soju, gin, and a cucumber and lime cordial."

"Dinner in a candle-lit butcher shop? Yes, please. Kinship launched a tasting menu this season, and it has only four seats. Myles Moody and Raechel Pack are experimenting with fermentation and aging techniques. Expect to find velvety monkfish, dry-aged beef, highly intricate salads, and even a lemon pepper wet quail wing on the menu. The wing is a surprise - tart, lemony seasoning offers acidic balance with the fatty (and tiny) quail wing."

Read at Eater Atlanta