After 13 years on Buford Highway, chef Atsushi “Art” Hayakawa relocated his beloved eponymous sushi restaurant in January to Star Metals on Howell Mill Road. And its new location isn’t the only change for the popular sushi restaurant. Unlike the space on Buford Highway, the Star Metals restaurant is intimate and serene, featuring just eight seats at the sushi bar, which focuses on the omakase experience and personalized attention. Now simply called Hayakawa, people can still expect to see the charming Chef Art behind the counter preparing extravagant courses of sushi throughout the meal with interludes of other Japanese small bites and cooked dishes. In its new location, Hayakawa continues to be an essential Atlanta restaurant and a must for sushi lovers. Reservations required.

Backed by Lazy Betty chefs Ron Hsu and Aaron Phillips, Humble Pie joins a collection of new restaurants now open at the Interlock on Howell Mill Road. An open and airy restaurant filled with natural light and multiple seating areas, including an upstairs mezzanine and patios with indoor/outdoor bars, expect wood-fired pizzas like a classic margherita, a clam pie, or broccoli and cheddar on wheat and sourdough crusts made using grains from Athens-based farm DaySpring Farms. Pizzas also come with the option to add caviar and black truffles. Beyond pizza, look for other dishes, too, like a French onion hand pie, a potato croquette topped with trout roe, grated eggs, and crème fraiche, and shrimp casarecce pasta from chef Evelyn Ling (Pancake Social, Bacchanalia.) Open for lunch and dinner. A weekday happy hour and late-night food begin soon. Reservations encouraged.

The team behind Muss and Turner’s, MTH Pizza, and Local Three just opened another Atlanta restaurant together, this time an Atlanta version of a “21st-century diner” called Roshambo. Another name for the game “rock, paper, scissors,” Roshambo replaces those trio of choices with a hodgepodge of breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods served throughout the day, including buckwheat pancakes, shrimp and grits, a fried bologna sandwich, spaghetti cacio e pepe, and daily specials. Chef Kevin Leveille pays homage to the late Jim White and his longtime Peachtree Battle restaurant Jim White’s Half Shell, offering oysters Rockefeller and blackened redfish Pontchartrain with cheddar grit cakes. In addition to wine and beer, order classic cocktails like the Aviation, Manhattan, and Hemingway daiquiri and pitchers of martinis served wet, dirty, or dry.

With a design and menu influenced by the Amalfi Coast, Alici brings to Midtown Promenade a lively Italian seafood restaurant and oyster bar built for lingering with friends. Backed by Pat Pascarella (the White Bull, Bastone, Grana), Alici takes over the former Frogs Cantina space at the complex, serving a selection of fresh oysters, crudos (try the red snapper dentice rosso with apple, chili, mint, and walnut crumble,) and appetizers like tender polpo (octopus) served with caper-tarragon aioli, red onions, and burnt olives. Whole fish entrees come with a choice of sauces, and Pascarella’s pastas are on full display here, including a campannelle neri tossed with rock shrimp, tomatoes, and garlic crumbs. Order sparkling wines and light-bodied reds, along with cocktails, such as the Fumo, Fumo with smokey mezcal and elote liquor, from the bar. Reservations encouraged.

Celebrated baker Erika Council relocated her popular biscuit stall to the former Field Day space on Highland this past fall. Now open as a full-fledged restaurant, Bomb Biscuit Co. continues to offer Council’s fluffy buttermilk biscuit sandwiches, including her signature Glori-Fried chicken biscuit and breakfast standards like the BEC topped with American cheese. Not into biscuits? Order one of the scrumptious cinnamon rolls or trio of B’Onuts (deep-fried biscuit dough balls coated in cinnamon sugar). Council eventually plans to expand the menu, offering catfish and grits and pancakes made from biscuit dough. She’s also considering launching Sunday brunch in the future, with dishes styled after those found on menus at restaurants frequented by parishioners after church. Order takeout at the counter or asked to be seated in the sunny dining room beyond the kitchen or on the back patio.

La Semilla flexes the flavors of Cuban and Mexican dishes on a menu rooted in veganism and family recipes. And for owners Sophia Marchese and Reid Trapani, La Semilla (or the seed) is just the beginning of a new chapter in their restaurant careers. Forged from a pop-up launched just before the pandemic, La Semilla is a flavor-packed triumph of vegan dishes, like meatless versions of vegan chicken tamals steamed in banana leaves served with a punchy ancho sauce, croquetas de jamon stuffed with seitan ham Tranpani makes himself, and bistec de palomilla made with Lion’s Mane mushrooms. Start off with sikil pak (spicy pumpkin seed and tomato dip) served with fresh tortilla chips. And don’t skip the chochoyotes (masa dumplings filled with corn puree) served atop a thin layer of coconut-corn broth topped with a poblano-corn sofrito and matcha oil and fried tortillas for scooping. A zero food waste policy means unused ingredients are incorporated back into sauces and salsas for dishes at La Semilla or made into tinctures or syrups for riffs on classic cocktails. Reservations highly encouraged.

This unpretentious cocktail lounge from barman Tim Faulkner (Octopus Bar) and chef Hudson Rouse is worth the trip to Reynoldstown alone for its tight list of exceptional cocktails and fun and funky wines. And for folks who’ve eaten at Rouse’s Avondale Estates restaurant Rising Son, it should come as no surprise that the food served at Whoopsie’s punches far above its weight for a cocktail bar. This includes a delectable roast beef sandwich with horsey sauce and a refreshing satsuma salad dressed with champagne vinaigrette. Make sure to start off with a snack tray of deviled eggs, house-made chow chow and pimento cheese, and toasted sourdough points. Daily dinner specials at Whoopsie’s include porchetta on Thursdays, poached sea bass on Sundays, and perfectly cooked prime rib on Saturday nights. The daily dessert might feature mint ice cream with crushed Oreo’s, fashioned after the classic grasshopper cocktail, or the Tarzan’s Delight, based on Rouse’s grandmother’s take on a chocolate mousse ice box pie. Low lit and at just 40 seats, Whoopsie’s is intimate and unfussy, and built for an evening of convivial conversation while indulging in amaretto sours and top-notch food you can’t seem to stop eating. Open Thursday through Monday, 5 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Laotian pop-up So So Fed (2022 Eater award winner for best new pop-up) is now in residency on Sunday and Monday evenings at OK Yaki in East Atlanta. With a name inspired by the storied Atlanta record label, this pop-up is a culinary love letter dedicated to family recipes and foods often cooked by Molli Voraotsady’s late grandmother. Comforting bowls of red pork curry served with sticky rice are laden with vegetables like Thai eggplant, zucchini, and bamboo shoots beside tender chunks of pork shoulder swimming in aromatic chili broth. Subtle spice radiates from the crispy skin of the Hat Yai fried chicken, enhanced by sides of fragrant jasmine rice. Heat from chilis in the Lao papaya salad are balanced by warm fermented flavors that build with each bite. Look for cocktails created by former 8ARM general manager and bartender Joshua Fryer during the pop-up, too. Follow on Instagram for updates.

Owned by the team behind Banshee, Bona Fide Deluxe is serving up seriously legit sandwiches. Some say these sandwiches might be the best in Atlanta right now. The name of this restaurant certainly isn’t hyperbole, especially when it comes to the chopped chicken stuffed with muhammara potatoes, feta cheese, olives, and arugula dressed in zhoug mayo encased in a soft hoagie roll or the vegan banh mi with sweet and sour shiitake mushrooms, jalapenos, and julienned carrots and cucumbers. The roast beef sandwich sees thinly shaved top round roast smoked and cooked medium rare and dressed with pickles, fried onions, steak sauce, and horseradish creme fraiche. Looking for a total indulgence? Order the bread bomb, which sees a toasted hoagie roll split down the middle, then slathered in garlic butter and topped with cheddar cheese, bacon, and scallions. Cocktails, beer, and wine will be available soon.

Chefs Eric Brooks and Jacob Armando transformed their weekly pop-up in Candler Park into a permanent restaurant in August 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 a menu of traditional red sauce classics made with in-season produce and fresh-made pastas, expect dishes like rigatoni fazool with cowpeas replacing cannellini beans and chicken marsala served with fresh focaccia. Dessert features Gigi’s popular tiramisu. A tight list of cocktails, wine, beer, and amaro round out the beverage list, which includes the Dirty Gigi martini and a rye Old Fashioned punched up with espresso and coffee bitters.

When chef Mel Toledo announced the closure of his beloved Roswell restaurant in 2020, regulars mourned the loss of the good food, cocktails, and vibe they always experienced there. But he promised to bring the restaurant back bigger and better than ever. And it appears he’s done just that in Alpharetta. Now open in the North Fulton city’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 both the food and decor. Expect to find a few of the restaurant’s most popular dishes, including the crispy Spanish octopus, pate, PEI mussels, and chicken bolognese, along with new dishes like salt and sugar cured scallop crudo served with warm brown butter vinaigrette, turnip and ricotta tortelli filled with duck confit and pickled mushrooms, and a confit lamb neck for two. Look for drinks like the Ghosted made with bourbon, lemon and a float of cabernet sauvignon (a spin on a whiskey sour using a technique to create clarified milk punches.) The London dry gin-based Little R&R is a play on the Clover Club, featuring raspberry syrup mixed with rosemary, dry vermouth, and lemon loomy (dried limes). Parisian-style market and daytime cafe Petite FSE opens inside the restaurant soon. Reservations highly encouraged.