Name a cuisine, and Buford Highway probably has it — right down to the micro-region within a particular country. Atlantans are fortunate to have access to the world of food available along this road, which stretches from just within the city limits north into Gwinnett County.
Eater Atlanta’s editor, with help from some contributors, traveled to a handful of restaurants along Buford Highway and New Peachtree Road in Chamblee and Doraville in search of platters and steaming baskets filled with all sorts of great dumplings. It’s highly advised you bring along a few friends to really experience this food crawl.
Got a food theme, dish, drink, or neighborhood crawl idea for a future installment? Send Eater Atlanta an email to atlanta@eater.com.
Fried pot stickers and xiao long bao at LanZhou Ramen
5231 Buford Highway NE, Doraville
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LanZhou Ramen resides at the Pine Tree Plaza shopping center in the same complex as Supermarket Chicago. This is where to head for heaping plates of hand-pulled noodles and noodle soups. Before indulging in pork hand-pulled noodles or the pork noodle soup here, kick off the meal with fried pot stickers and a steamy basket of soup dumplings.
OTHER DISHES TO TRY: Duck hand-pulled noodle soup, fried pork buns, and the family-sized portion of Xinjiang stir-fried chicken with sliced noodles.
Fill the table with dumplings at Northern China Eatery
5141 Buford Highway NE, Doraville
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Just south of LanZhou Ramen, Northern China Eatery isn’t lacking in dumpling choices. To truly get a taste of as many dumplings as possible here, it’s best to bring along plenty of friends to help fill the table full of everything from pork and chive and pork and fennel dumplings to steamy baskets of plump xiao long bao and lamb and zucchini dumplings. Northern China Eatery also sells packages of frozen dumplings.
OTHER DISHES TO TRY: Cumin lamb skewers, Chongqing spicy chicken, and Mandarin lions head pork meatball.
Beef green onion and sour cabbage dumplings at Beijing Kabobs
5090 Buford Highway NE, Doraville
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For the next stop, pop over to Beijing Kabobs at Intown Plaza for dumplings stuffed with beer or lamb and green onions or sour cabbage (similar in flavor to sauerkraut). The restaurant also makes a solid bowl of comforting dough drop soup. Most dumplings come by the dozen here.
OTHER DISHES TO TRY: Kebabs, including the spicy lamb charcoal bake, fish ball charcoal bake, and sausage charcoal bake.
Shumai and har gow at Best BBQ
5000 Buford Highway, Chamblee
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Further south on Buford Highway, Best BBQ is a counter service dim sum restaurant located next door to City Farmers Market. Like Northern China Eatery, the menu isn’t lacking in dumpling choices, including hot tins of steamed shrimp and pork shumai and har gow (Cantonese shrimp dumplings). There’s also a location at the food court at GW Supermarket in Duluth.
OTHER DISHES TO TRY: Crispy duck or honey barbecue pork and fish cakes with chive flowers. On a cold day, order a bowl of roast duck congee.
Mandu and Lucky Pockets at Dish Korean Cuisine
5000 Buford Highway, Chamblee
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Located across the parking lot from Best BBQ, hop over to Dish Korean next door to Food Terminal for a palate cleanser (and gut reset) to snack on some banchan before ordering steamed vegetable mandu or lucky pockets fried and filled with cream cheese.
OTHER DISHES TO TRY: Japchae with sweet potato noodles, seafood or kimchi pancake, jjampong sundubu (spicy silken tofu stew with shrimp, mussels, squid), and the dduck galbhi (burger made with short rib topped with kimchi and mayo).
Dumplings galore at China Kitchen and New Lan Zhou Noodle at Atlanta Chinatown
5383 New Peachtree Road, Chamblee
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The final stop on this food crawl is China Kitchen and New Lan Zhou Noodle at Atlanta Chinatown Mall food court located on New Peachtree Road. China Kitchen offers a variety of dumplings on its expansive menu, including baskets of xiao long bao (listed as Shanghai juicy buns) and a dozen spicy and saucy Master dumplings. Over at New Lan Zhou Noodle, order a bowl of the pork rib hand-pulled noodle soup and steamed pork and cabbage dumplings.
OTHER DISHES TO TRY: Old Beijing-style dry noodles at China Kitchen; Roast duck hand-pulled noodles and hot and spicy beef hand-pulled noodles at New Lan Zhou Noodle.