Atlanta is always in the midst of an exciting restaurant explosion, with hundreds of restaurants, a myriad of cuisines, and a range of ambience from environmental fantasies to storefront coziness. The restaurant world of Atlanta is flourishing, spinning, and lighting up the eager and hungry faces of Atlanta residents and visitors. We hope that selecting your restaurant in our guide will match the pleasure we have had in presenting these interesting eating establishments.
Atlanta had a small cadre of local restaurants for many years, but the development of the hotel industry dramatically expanded the quality and variety of international menus. Award-winning international chefs preside over top-rated restaurant kitchens within major hotels and have, in many cases, established their own unique restaurants in the city. Atlantans now enjoy a sophisticated dining scene appropriate to the city's international status.
Atlanta's Southern cooking institutions have increased in number, and new Atlantans immigrating from other cities in the United States and from other countries of the world have opened restaurants reflecting their own tastes and cultures. Cuisines proliferate, including Italian, both southern and northern; French; Spanish; Chinese, including Mandarin, Szechwan, and Hunan; Japanese; Indian; Cuban; Mexican; Greek; Russian; Korean; Thai; Vietnamese; Middle Eastern; Continental; and American.
With a simultaneous rediscovery of Atlanta's neighborhoods, the small and specialized restaurant business has found new places to thrive, new markets of young professionals who like to eat out consistently during the week. You will notice throughout this chapter the names of these neighborhood areas—Virginia-Highland, Inman Park, Decatur, Midtown, East Atlanta, and Buckhead. Notice also the names of Atlanta's outlying restaurant districts such as Marietta, Sandy Springs, and Roswell. South Atlanta is also enjoying a restaurant renaissance
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