Recently, Rough Draft Editor-in-Chief and Dining Editor Beth McKibben provided insights into emerging 2025 food trends in Atlanta. Now, she offers her picks for the top five restaurant openings from the first dining quarter of the year. This is also the first batch of new restaurants Beth is watching closely in 2025 and will monitor each restaurant’s progress over the coming months.
Arepa Grill and Kitchen ($$-$$$)
45 Oak St., Roswell
The owners behind Buford Highway Venezuelan restaurant Arepa Grill opened a full-service location in downtown Roswell earlier this winter. Taking over the former Casa Robles space on Oak Street, owners Pedro and Claudia Cardenas expanded the arepa, cachapa, and Venezuelan sandwich menu from the Plaza Fiesta location to feature other dishes like paella, gazpacho, and a Spanish omelet (quiche-like dish with eggs and potatoes). The restaurant also includes a full bar.
Yuji ($$-$$$)
667 Auburn Ave., Old Fourth Ward
Serial restaurateur Alex Kinjo is at it again, this time with a new Japanese restaurant on the busiest section of the Eastside Beltline near Krog Street Market. Located on the ground floor of the new Junction Krog District building at the corner of Auburn and Irwin, Yuji combines a sushi bar, izakaya, and kaiseki (traditional multi-course meal) into a rather compact space with a thoughtfully designed layout. The menu features everything from nigiri, sushi rolls, and entrees of branzino and King Crab to gyoza, karaage, umami Wagyu, and bento box lunches. Yuji is a solid spot for Japanese whisky and sake aficionados.
Heaps ($-$$)
2752 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur
New Zealand native and hand pie purveyor Jake Harvey opened a permanent location of his pop-up Heaps in February. Unlike an empanada, American pot pie, or British pasty, New Zealand meat pies come with a substantial double crust. The hand-sized pastry also features much more gravy in the filling and is baked, not fried. Harvey fashioned his hand-pie restaurant after the bakeries, cafes, and dairies found across New Zealand. In addition to savory meat pies like beef and cheddar, Thai chicken curry, and lamb and vegetables, the menu also features New Zealand-style fish and chips with fresh cod and sides of chips (fries) and curry and mashed potatoes with marmite gravy.
Madeira Park ($$-$$$)
640 North Highland Ave., Poncey-Highland
It’s been 15 years since Chef Steven Satterfield opened Miller Union on Brady Avenue. But in March, Satterfield and Miller Union partner Neal McCarthy opened wine bar Madeira Park in Poncey-Highland. Satterfield and McCarthy partnered with Dive Wine pop-up founder and sommelier Tim Willard. Expect shareable appetizers of charcuterie and cheese, crispy fries, oysters, and the must-order tempura shrimp and ham and cheese beignets. Entrees include poulet rouge drizzled in Armagnac jus and a coulotte steak with bordelaise sauce. But the star of the show at Madeira Park is wine, including a not-so-secret orange booklet of off-menu wines you should absolutely ask for, curated by general manager and sommelier Jade Palmer. Look for fortified wines like vermouth, sherry, port, and madeira, along with low-ABV cocktails, spritzes, and non-alcoholic concoctions from bar manager Philip Weltner.
Fawn ($$$)
119 E. Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur
James Beard award-winning chef Terry Koval debuted Fawn last month, an amaro and wine bar next door to Cafe Alsace in downtown Decatur. The bar channels an Old World, European vibe as a low-lit and rustic space with a moody atmosphere. Amaro and wine lie at the heart of Fawn, a menu created by Matt Watkins that includes 40 amari from countries across the globe and wines with volcanic terroir from countries and regions like the Canary Islands, Sicily, Verne in France, the Willamette Valley, Hungary, and the Baden region of southwest Germany. Look for caviar service, oysters, charcoal-grilled fish, and other clever takes on seafood. (Koval and his team experimented for months with fish charcuterie by dry-aging and curing a variety of seafood.) And a new reservation-only tasting menu at the chef’s counter just launched in late March.
Yum Cha food tours ($100 per person)
Food tour exploring Atlanta’s Asian restaurant scene
Here’s a little bonus for folks who love a good guided food tour: put Yum Cha (“drink tea”) on your to-do list. Led by Candy Hom of dumpling pop-up Soupbelly and Howard Hsu of Sweet Auburn BBQ, people meet at Sweet Auburn BBQ and are greeted with a welcome drink before boarding a bus for a three-hour food tour. A recent tour took a group of ten people to Duluth for dim sum, dishes from an Asian food court, traditional Taiwanese fare, and stops at an Asian grocery store and Japanese boutique.
