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French silk pie made by pastry chef Claudia Martinez at Miller Union in Atlanta garnished with edible purple and yellow flowers and chocolate tuille.
French silk pie made by pastry chef Claudia Martinez at Miller Union.
Miller Union

17 Decadent and Delightful Desserts to Try Right Now in Atlanta

Never skip dessert from these Atlanta restaurants

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French silk pie made by pastry chef Claudia Martinez at Miller Union.
| Miller Union

Dessert may be the last course of the meal, but it’s certainly not the least important. Fortunately, Atlanta is chock-full of delicious dessert options that are anything but boring. Here are the restaurants around Atlanta in which to grab desserts, ranging from simple and succinct to decadent and completely mind-blowing.

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Spring Restaurant

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Like its dinner offerings, Spring’s desserts are elegant yet unfussy and make use of what’s currently in season in Georgia. Each of the three desserts available on the menu are on the lighter side, so think muscadine sorbet with a lime semifreddo and granita or parsnip cake, served with parsnip ice cream topped with banana cream and banana brittle.

The peach tart with Bavarian cream from the curbside menu at Spring in Marietta
Peach tart with Bavarian cream.
Beth McKibben

Muss & Turner's

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These sandwich wizards in Smyrna happen to also know a thing or two about sweets. The restaurant’s most unique treat is the goat cheesecake with seasonal compote. Don’t let the small, individual-sized portion fool — it’s rich and totally shareable.

Goat cheesecake from Muss and Turner’s in Atlanta. Muss and Turner’s

Why mess with perfection at the classic riverfront restaurant? On the menu since Canoe opened over 20 years ago, the popcorn sundae is a buttery-sweet concoction of popcorn-flavored ice cream, caramel, and house-made Cracker Jacks.

The popcorn sundae is a buttery-sweet concoction of popcorn-flavored ice cream, caramel, and house-made Cracker Jacks from Canoe in Atlanta. Canoe

The Manchester Arms

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The glazed doughnut bread pudding at Manchester Arms starts with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and ends with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkling of powdered sugar. Forgoing it is a disservice to your taste buds.

Miller Union

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The pastry program at this westside Atlanta institution is now led by Claudia Martinez. And she brings her flair for fruit-forward desserts and whimsical plating to Miller Union. Look for desserts using in-season fruits, like wine-poached pears with white chocolate panna cotta and coconut cake and chocolate hazelnut mousse with satsuma and hazelnut cremeux. If it’s on the menu, order the French silk pie without hesitation. At lunch, Martinez whips up sweet treats like a churros ice cream sandwich, which owner and chef Steven Satterfield calls “one of the best desserts I have ever had the privilege of eating.”

French silk pie made by pastry chef Claudia Martinez at Miller Union in Atlanta garnished with edible purple and yellow flowers and chocolate tuille. Miller Union

After a hearty dinner at this Ford Fry steakhouse, there may not be enough room for dessert. Go ahead and order the baked Alaska anyway, because it’s a showstopper. Cake and ice cream (the flavors change frequently) are covered in marshmallow, doused in liquor, and torched table side. Try the 12-layer chocolate cake, too.

Bananas foster baked Alaska with perfectly bruleed meringue and an espresso martini from Marcel in Atlanta. Marcel

Momonoki

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ChingYao Wang’s pastries and desserts for Momo Cafe and Momonoki in Midtown are not to be missed, especially her take on the social media sensation the supreme croissant. It’s a cross between a buttery croissant and a cream-filled doughnut, which Wang fills with cream flavors like matcha, black sesame, and bursts of lemony-orange zest from yuzu. When in season, the strawberry supreme croissant made from fresh local strawberries is a delight, and the tiramisu mascarpone supreme croissant never disappoints.

Momo Cafe

Polaris at the Hyatt Regency

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Resembling a blue-domed flying saucer, Polaris first opened in 1967 and makes a full rotation every 45 minutes. People arrive via a glass elevator that ascends 22 floors where they step into a dining room that once played host to Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, and Gladys Knight. Food at Polaris leans into the seasons and local farms. Polaris even uses honey made by the nearly one million bees living in hives on the rooftop of the Hyatt Regency. After dining on steak Oscar or a delicate filet of fresh-caught fish, order the restaurant’s signature dessert. The blue dome chocolate mousse contains a caramel honey center. It’s sprayed with a blue-tinted cocoa butter meant to mimic the restaurant’s distinctive domed roof.

Polaris Blue Dome: chocolate mousse containing a caramel honey center sprayed with a blue-tinted cocoa butter to resemble the Polaris’s distinctive domed roof in Atlanta accompanied by chocolate sorbet and a pecan praline sauce. Ryan Fleisher

Lyla Lila

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There are many worthy desserts on the menu at chef Craig Richards’ Italian gem in Midtown. While the tiramisu is never the wrong move at Lyla Lila, chocolate lovers will fall in love with desserts like the chocolate-orange mousse tart topped with Sicilian pistachios and ricotta froth. Seasonal cheesecakes here are fantastic, as is the ice cream sandwich using pizzelle waffle cookies stuffed with gelato flavors such as amarena cherry dipped in magic shell.

An ice cream sandwich using pizzelle cookies stuffed with Amarena cherry gelato dipped in magic shell from Lyla Lila in Atlanta. Lyla Lila

Yalda Persian & Middle Eastern Restaurant

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Chef and owner Ashkan Familli, who was born and raised in Iran, named his restaurant based on fond childhood memories of the winter holiday of Yalda, celebrated on December 21 (the longest, darkest night of the year.) Yalda serves a variety of Persian and Mediterranean mezze plates, spreads such as za’atar labneh and mirza ghasemi with flatbread, a selection of kebabs, and other dishes like tahdig (crispy Persian rice), lamb shank braised for eight hours, and wraps stuffed with falafel or lamb shawarma. Dessert includes baklava with coffee. But the real star of the dessert show at Yalda is the Persian ice cream sandwich made with waffle cookies stuffed with ice cream infused with saffron, rose water, and pistachios. It’s hard not to order this dessert every single time. A location of Yalda is also open at the Osprey complex on the corner of Howell Mill Road and 10th Street in Atlanta.

Persian ice cream sandwich made with waffle cookies and stuffed with ice cream infused with saffron, rose water, and pistachios from Yalda in Atlanta. Yalda

Tiny Lou's

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Charmain Ware took over the role of executive pastry chef at Tiny Lou’s in 2020, following the departure of Claudia Martinez. But she quickly made the role her own with desserts like a lemon crepe cake with layers of lemon curd and coconut marscarpone icing topped with brulee coconut or a matcha and strawberry cream-filled Swiss roll. Ware takes seasonality seriously, too, in desserts such as a satsuma cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and delicate orange gelee topped with fresh mint during the winter months or the brown butter blondie using Pearson Farm peaches to create a mousse in the summer.

Tiny Lou’s

Novo Cucina

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This Dunwoody neighborhood restaurant is known for pasta and pizza, but it’s worth noting the gelato here is outstanding. It’s made in house (originally helmed by Meridith Ford, owner of Cremalosa) and is incredibly rich and creamy. There are seasonal flavors, but regular flavors on the menu include hazelnut Nutella swirl and pistachio. 

Novo Cucina

Gigi's Italian Kitchen & Restaurant

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Chefs Eric Brooks and Jacob Armando transformed their weekly pop-up in Candler Park into a permanent restaurant in 2022, transforming the former Gato space into a cozy Italian bistro with tables draped in red checkered linens set off by candlelight and flowers. It’s now an award-winning restaurant serving traditional red sauce classics made with in-season produce and freshly made pastas. While the dessert portion of the menu might be small at only two choices, the flavors pack a memorable punch. The runaway favorite among regulars is definitely the tiramisu, but don’t skip the chocolate budino, which changes with the seasons (Think muscadine and miso caramel.) Our advice: order both desserts to share.

Foundation Social Eatery

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When chef Mel Toledo announced the closure of his beloved Roswell restaurant in 2020, regulars mourned its loss. But he promised to bring the restaurant back bigger and better than ever. Now open in Alpharetta’s burgeoning downtown dining district, Foundation Social Eatery offers a sense of familiarity for regulars to the Roswell restaurant, but with a fresh take on the food and decor. Expect to find a few of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, including the crispy Spanish octopus, pate, and chicken bolognese, along with new dishes like salt and sugar cured scallop crudo served with warm brown butter vinaigrette or turnip and ricotta tortelli filled with duck confit and pickled mushrooms. End the meal with the opera cake — layers of almond sponge soaked in coffee syrup with ganache and buttercream. The tropical fruit posset is another winner at Foundation Social Eatery with flavors like coconut-lime crowned with a lemongrass and lime leaf gel sprinkled with salted graham cracker crumble garnished with a honey tuille.

The tropical fruit posset at Foundation Social Eatery in Alpharetta with coconut-lime custard crowned with a lemongrass and lime leaf gel sprinkled with salted graham cracker crumble garnished with a honey tuille. Foundation Social Eatery

The Deer and The Dove

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The Deer and the Dove in Decatur, owned and operated by James Beard award-winning chef Terry Koval, offers a tight list of desserts that like his dishes on the dinner menu, tend to ride a seasonal wave. Order the creme caramel French custard given a decidedly Southern twist from the sorghum syrup and candied nuts. The blondie brownie is a rich and decadent dessert choice drizzled with dark chocolate fudge sauce and served with popcorn ice cream.

Creme caramel French custard given a decidedly Southern twist from the sorghum syrup and candied nuts from the Deer and the Dove in Decatur, GA. The Deer and the Dove

Meet Fresh

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Tucked away in the corner of the H Mart complex, Meet Fresh is a Taiwanese dessert shop popular for its shaved ice desserts known as bao bing. The signature black sugar boba milky shaved ice is a mountain of delicious decadence packed with indulgent toppings, including sweet and chewy boba, creamy caramel pudding, earthy red beans, and vanilla ice cream. It’s drizzled with lashings of brown sugar syrup.

Black sugar boba shaved ice from Meet Fresh Taiwanese dessert shop. Meet Fresh

An Atlanta-area institution since 1997, Zyka on Scott Boulevard in North Decatur serves up delicious Indian fare, ranging from halal meats to vegetarian options, in a no-frills dining room setting. Ordering kulfi — a dense frozen dessert — is a must here. The dessert comes in a variety of flavors, including pistachio and mango, and is served in a little clay pot. There’s also a location open in Alpharetta.

Spring Restaurant

Like its dinner offerings, Spring’s desserts are elegant yet unfussy and make use of what’s currently in season in Georgia. Each of the three desserts available on the menu are on the lighter side, so think muscadine sorbet with a lime semifreddo and granita or parsnip cake, served with parsnip ice cream topped with banana cream and banana brittle.

The peach tart with Bavarian cream from the curbside menu at Spring in Marietta
Peach tart with Bavarian cream.
Beth McKibben

Muss & Turner's

These sandwich wizards in Smyrna happen to also know a thing or two about sweets. The restaurant’s most unique treat is the goat cheesecake with seasonal compote. Don’t let the small, individual-sized portion fool — it’s rich and totally shareable.

Goat cheesecake from Muss and Turner’s in Atlanta. Muss and Turner’s

Canoe

Why mess with perfection at the classic riverfront restaurant? On the menu since Canoe opened over 20 years ago, the popcorn sundae is a buttery-sweet concoction of popcorn-flavored ice cream, caramel, and house-made Cracker Jacks.

The popcorn sundae is a buttery-sweet concoction of popcorn-flavored ice cream, caramel, and house-made Cracker Jacks from Canoe in Atlanta. Canoe

The Manchester Arms

The glazed doughnut bread pudding at Manchester Arms starts with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and ends with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkling of powdered sugar. Forgoing it is a disservice to your taste buds.

Miller Union

The pastry program at this westside Atlanta institution is now led by Claudia Martinez. And she brings her flair for fruit-forward desserts and whimsical plating to Miller Union. Look for desserts using in-season fruits, like wine-poached pears with white chocolate panna cotta and coconut cake and chocolate hazelnut mousse with satsuma and hazelnut cremeux. If it’s on the menu, order the French silk pie without hesitation. At lunch, Martinez whips up sweet treats like a churros ice cream sandwich, which owner and chef Steven Satterfield calls “one of the best desserts I have ever had the privilege of eating.”

French silk pie made by pastry chef Claudia Martinez at Miller Union in Atlanta garnished with edible purple and yellow flowers and chocolate tuille. Miller Union

Marcel

After a hearty dinner at this Ford Fry steakhouse, there may not be enough room for dessert. Go ahead and order the baked Alaska anyway, because it’s a showstopper. Cake and ice cream (the flavors change frequently) are covered in marshmallow, doused in liquor, and torched table side. Try the 12-layer chocolate cake, too.

Bananas foster baked Alaska with perfectly bruleed meringue and an espresso martini from Marcel in Atlanta. Marcel

Momonoki

ChingYao Wang’s pastries and desserts for Momo Cafe and Momonoki in Midtown are not to be missed, especially her take on the social media sensation the supreme croissant. It’s a cross between a buttery croissant and a cream-filled doughnut, which Wang fills with cream flavors like matcha, black sesame, and bursts of lemony-orange zest from yuzu. When in season, the strawberry supreme croissant made from fresh local strawberries is a delight, and the tiramisu mascarpone supreme croissant never disappoints.

Momo Cafe

Polaris at the Hyatt Regency

Resembling a blue-domed flying saucer, Polaris first opened in 1967 and makes a full rotation every 45 minutes. People arrive via a glass elevator that ascends 22 floors where they step into a dining room that once played host to Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, and Gladys Knight. Food at Polaris leans into the seasons and local farms. Polaris even uses honey made by the nearly one million bees living in hives on the rooftop of the Hyatt Regency. After dining on steak Oscar or a delicate filet of fresh-caught fish, order the restaurant’s signature dessert. The blue dome chocolate mousse contains a caramel honey center. It’s sprayed with a blue-tinted cocoa butter meant to mimic the restaurant’s distinctive domed roof.

Polaris Blue Dome: chocolate mousse containing a caramel honey center sprayed with a blue-tinted cocoa butter to resemble the Polaris’s distinctive domed roof in Atlanta accompanied by chocolate sorbet and a pecan praline sauce. Ryan Fleisher

Lyla Lila

There are many worthy desserts on the menu at chef Craig Richards’ Italian gem in Midtown. While the tiramisu is never the wrong move at Lyla Lila, chocolate lovers will fall in love with desserts like the chocolate-orange mousse tart topped with Sicilian pistachios and ricotta froth. Seasonal cheesecakes here are fantastic, as is the ice cream sandwich using pizzelle waffle cookies stuffed with gelato flavors such as amarena cherry dipped in magic shell.

An ice cream sandwich using pizzelle cookies stuffed with Amarena cherry gelato dipped in magic shell from Lyla Lila in Atlanta. Lyla Lila

Yalda Persian & Middle Eastern Restaurant

Chef and owner Ashkan Familli, who was born and raised in Iran, named his restaurant based on fond childhood memories of the winter holiday of Yalda, celebrated on December 21 (the longest, darkest night of the year.) Yalda serves a variety of Persian and Mediterranean mezze plates, spreads such as za’atar labneh and mirza ghasemi with flatbread, a selection of kebabs, and other dishes like tahdig (crispy Persian rice), lamb shank braised for eight hours, and wraps stuffed with falafel or lamb shawarma. Dessert includes baklava with coffee. But the real star of the dessert show at Yalda is the Persian ice cream sandwich made with waffle cookies stuffed with ice cream infused with saffron, rose water, and pistachios. It’s hard not to order this dessert every single time. A location of Yalda is also open at the Osprey complex on the corner of Howell Mill Road and 10th Street in Atlanta.

Persian ice cream sandwich made with waffle cookies and stuffed with ice cream infused with saffron, rose water, and pistachios from Yalda in Atlanta. Yalda

Tiny Lou's

Charmain Ware took over the role of executive pastry chef at Tiny Lou’s in 2020, following the departure of Claudia Martinez. But she quickly made the role her own with desserts like a lemon crepe cake with layers of lemon curd and coconut marscarpone icing topped with brulee coconut or a matcha and strawberry cream-filled Swiss roll. Ware takes seasonality seriously, too, in desserts such as a satsuma cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and delicate orange gelee topped with fresh mint during the winter months or the brown butter blondie using Pearson Farm peaches to create a mousse in the summer.

Tiny Lou’s

Novo Cucina

This Dunwoody neighborhood restaurant is known for pasta and pizza, but it’s worth noting the gelato here is outstanding. It’s made in house (originally helmed by Meridith Ford, owner of Cremalosa) and is incredibly rich and creamy. There are seasonal flavors, but regular flavors on the menu include hazelnut Nutella swirl and pistachio. 

Novo Cucina

Gigi's Italian Kitchen & Restaurant

Chefs Eric Brooks and Jacob Armando transformed their weekly pop-up in Candler Park into a permanent restaurant in 2022, transforming the former Gato space into a cozy Italian bistro with tables draped in red checkered linens set off by candlelight and flowers. It’s now an award-winning restaurant serving traditional red sauce classics made with in-season produce and freshly made pastas. While the dessert portion of the menu might be small at only two choices, the flavors pack a memorable punch. The runaway favorite among regulars is definitely the tiramisu, but don’t skip the chocolate budino, which changes with the seasons (Think muscadine and miso caramel.) Our advice: order both desserts to share.

Foundation Social Eatery

When chef Mel Toledo announced the closure of his beloved Roswell restaurant in 2020, regulars mourned its loss. But he promised to bring the restaurant back bigger and better than ever. Now open in Alpharetta’s burgeoning downtown dining district, Foundation Social Eatery offers a sense of familiarity for regulars to the Roswell restaurant, but with a fresh take on the food and decor. Expect to find a few of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, including the crispy Spanish octopus, pate, and chicken bolognese, along with new dishes like salt and sugar cured scallop crudo served with warm brown butter vinaigrette or turnip and ricotta tortelli filled with duck confit and pickled mushrooms. End the meal with the opera cake — layers of almond sponge soaked in coffee syrup with ganache and buttercream. The tropical fruit posset is another winner at Foundation Social Eatery with flavors like coconut-lime crowned with a lemongrass and lime leaf gel sprinkled with salted graham cracker crumble garnished with a honey tuille.

The tropical fruit posset at Foundation Social Eatery in Alpharetta with coconut-lime custard crowned with a lemongrass and lime leaf gel sprinkled with salted graham cracker crumble garnished with a honey tuille. Foundation Social Eatery

The Deer and The Dove

The Deer and the Dove in Decatur, owned and operated by James Beard award-winning chef Terry Koval, offers a tight list of desserts that like his dishes on the dinner menu, tend to ride a seasonal wave. Order the creme caramel French custard given a decidedly Southern twist from the sorghum syrup and candied nuts. The blondie brownie is a rich and decadent dessert choice drizzled with dark chocolate fudge sauce and served with popcorn ice cream.

Creme caramel French custard given a decidedly Southern twist from the sorghum syrup and candied nuts from the Deer and the Dove in Decatur, GA. The Deer and the Dove

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Meet Fresh

Tucked away in the corner of the H Mart complex, Meet Fresh is a Taiwanese dessert shop popular for its shaved ice desserts known as bao bing. The signature black sugar boba milky shaved ice is a mountain of delicious decadence packed with indulgent toppings, including sweet and chewy boba, creamy caramel pudding, earthy red beans, and vanilla ice cream. It’s drizzled with lashings of brown sugar syrup.

Black sugar boba shaved ice from Meet Fresh Taiwanese dessert shop. Meet Fresh

Zyka

An Atlanta-area institution since 1997, Zyka on Scott Boulevard in North Decatur serves up delicious Indian fare, ranging from halal meats to vegetarian options, in a no-frills dining room setting. Ordering kulfi — a dense frozen dessert — is a must here. The dessert comes in a variety of flavors, including pistachio and mango, and is served in a little clay pot. There’s also a location open in Alpharetta.

Related Maps