People living in the southern suburbs of Atlanta have long coveted this hidden gem in Peachtree City. Owned by Hadi Rabai and Fatima Hojaij, the Beirut has served classic Lebanese dishes with fine dining touches for nearly a decade, with people raving as much about the lovely hospitality here as they do about the food. Try the foul mudammas (fava and garbanzo bean salad), Kefraya (Lebanese wine)-marinated steak tips, or lamb and beef shish kaftas. Order a grand feast for dinner that includes three mezzes, three kebabs, and dessert or coffee.

This is one of those hidden gems that even residents of Marietta are still discovering. Opened in 2001 by Australian natives Mark Allen and Neville Steel, this bakery and counter-service spot is where to head for real-deal Australian sausage rolls and meats pies like steak and kidney and curry lamb. Australian Bakery Cafe also serves breakfast and lunch, including quiche-style breakfast pies, a meat pie and soup or salad combo, and fish and chips. If available, make sure to order some pavlova for dessert, and maybe do a little grocery shopping in the market. Seating is available inside and outside in front of the bakery.

This yellow food trailer parked near the corner of County Line Road in south Fulton County has been serving satisfying Jamaican fare for more than a decade. Whether picking up takeout from the roadside stand or hanging around in the screened seating area, Scotch Bonnett serves up a menu full of comforting flavors and spices. Try the jerk chicken, but don’t skip the smoked jerk lamb and sauteed coconut salmon. This spot will also jerk a whole turkey with a week’s notice. If torn between menu options, go for the “heavy hitter” combo consisting of up to seven meats on the plate: jerk sausage, wings, pork, curry oxtails, sauteed snapper, salmon, and shrimp.

This restaurant is hiding in plain sight in Berkeley Park, just south of I-75 at Northside Drive. It may not be as popular as its Doraville sibling Shoya Izakaya, but local residents know Ginya Izakaya is the real deal. The menu here is extensive, with sushi and ramen counted among the most oft-ordered items. For a true izakaya experience, order everything served family style, from the lotus chips and ko-ebi-karaage (fried shrimp) to bowls of yakisoba and udon and plates of okonomiyaki.

For years, this restaurant has been quietly churning out some of the city’s best vegetarian dishes along bustling Peachtree Road on the southern tip of Buckhead. Cafe Sunflower offers a variety of vegetarian and vegan food influenced by the cuisines of Asia, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the American Southwest. Order steamed dumplings filled with Asian cabbage, tofu, black mushrooms, and spinach or artichoke and spinach dip using vegan cheese. Try a square of orzo eggplant lasagna, a bowl of spicy pad Thai noodles, or a gyro wrap stuffed with marinated seitan. End the meal with a slice of carrot cake. Stop by on Saturdays for brunch and order a loaded tofu scramble breakfast burrito.

Agave in Cabbagetown may be one of those restaurants where you question why it’s been so long since your last visit. While it used to be one of the hottest reservations in town, the nearly 25-year-old restaurant has settled into a steady service rhythm of regulars, couples on dates, and groups celebrating special occasions looking to indulge in Southwestern fare and margaritas. The restaurant is eclectic and charming serving dishes like veal, chorizo, and Hatch green chile meatballs and ranchero chicken taquitos to red pepper salmon and racks of lamb in a New Mexico guajillo red chile sauce. A vegetarian menu is also available. And order the Smoking Hot or spicy jalapeno margarita.

Blink and you might miss this tiny breakfast and brunch spot tucked away on Lake Avenue, just east of busy Krog Street Market and the Irwin Street entrance to the Eastside trail. Located inside a circa-1901 house, this intimate, counter-service Inman Park restaurant serves Hungarian-style savory and sweet crepes made from an old family recipe. In the morning, order the Breakfasty One with scrambled eggs, ham, Swiss, and sauteed mushrooms or the Pecan Pleasure with strawberry, cinnamon, and pecans topped with honey. The Royale with tasso ham, gruyere, field greens, and peach chutney is a hearty choice for lunch.

Sports bars abound around Atlanta, but for regulars of the Bucket Shop Cafe on Lenox Road, those other establishments don’t exist, and haven’t for a while. For fans of Auburn football (if you didn’t already know,) this is your bar on Saturdays in the fall. Longtime Atlantans may remember the venerable sports bar from its heyday at Underground Atlanta in the 1970s, before moving to Buckhead in 1982. Open at 11 a.m. until the wee hours of the morning, expect bar grub like wings, cheeseburger sliders, and chicken egg rolls to triple decker club sandwiches and even a New York strip. Be sure to order the Bucket Shop’s popular Reese’s peanut butter pie. Open until 3 a.m. every day except Sunday.

People who frequent this Japanese-Korean restaurant gem on Buford Highway already know to come for its sushi, sashimi, and hand rolls, along with bowls of udon and teriyaki and tempura selections. But the underrated meal deal at Kang Nam is served during lunch. Bento boxes come packed with a choice of entrees like galbi (Korean barbecue beef short rib), tempura shrimp, sashimi and sushi combos, or beef bulgogi accompanied by a salad, vegetable tempura, gyoza, edamame, jap jae, fried rice, and California rolls.

It may be in the name, but the fact that everything on the menu from this Mexican food spot is vegan still surprises with every bite. Owned and operated by Queretaro, Mexico natives Mayra and Sandra Peralta and partner Michael Chatman, put Calaveritas Taqueria Vegana on your list for flavor-packed vegan versions of birria, street tacos, and over-stuffed burritos. Think mission-style burritos filled with rice and beans, vegan cheese, vegetables, and vegan protein of choice dressed with crema or carnitas and carne asada tacos so real you forget they’re not made with meat or other animal proteins.

With an exterior painted the colors of the Eritrean flag, Merhaba Shawarma is a gem of a restaurant in Clarkston serving halal spit-grilled meat plates and gyros. The smells wafting from the building, then the sweet smile from owner and operator Manna Samuel, will draw you in first, before you’re treated to seriously stunning, generously portioned plates and gyros full of tender shawarma. Be sure to add falafel and baklava to your order.