4 metro Atlanta restaurants earn new stars in 2024 Michelin Guide
ATLANTA - Four metro Atlanta restaurants now have major culinary bragging rights after they each earned one Michelin star in the company's 2024 guide.
The ceremony and big announcement happened Monday night at the Georgia World Congress.
Last year, the tire company and restaurant guide gave five Atlanta-area restaurants its coveted one-star rating, which the guide says is given to restaurants that use top quality ingredients and have dishes with distinct flavors that are prepared to a consistently high standard. Ten restaurants were given the Bib Gourmand award, which is given to restaurants who serve great food at an affordable price.
To achieve this recognition, restaurants undergo multiple inspections annually, each conducted anonymously. Inspectors evaluate five key criteria: the quality of products and ingredients, the harmony of flavors, and the mastery of cooking techniques, among other factors.
This year, Michelin honored four restaurants, Buckhead's O by Brush, Atlanta's Omakase Table and Staplehouse, and Marietta's Spring, with the designation.
This photograph taken on March 18, 2024, shows the embroidered three Michelin stars on a chefs uniform during the Michelin Guide for France 2024 awards ceremony in Tours, center France. (Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP via Getty Images)
The guide is refreshed every year and restaurants that have been reviewed in the past could gain or lose a star. This year, all the restaurants from previous years kept their stars.
RELATED: MICHELIN releases first Atlanta guide to fine dining
While 2023's guide focused only on restaurants within the perimeter, the anonymous reviewers looked OTP to grant Marietta's Spring a star in the 2024 guide.
Four restaurants also received the Bib Gourmand designation: Masterpiece, Superica, Table & Main, and Whoopsies.
Michelin announced its first North American Guide in 2005 for New York. Guides have also been added in Chicago (2011); Washington, D.C. (2017); California (San Francisco in 2007, statewide 2019); Miami/Orlando/Tampa, Florida (2022); Toronto (2022); Vancouver (2022); Colorado (2023); Atlanta (2023), Mexico (2024), Texas (2024) and Quebec (2024).
You can see the full Michelin guide to Atlanta here.
New MICHELIN one-star Atlanta restaurants
Here are the 4 new MICHELIN one-star restaurants for 2024:
O by Brush (Sushi-Japanese)
Brush Sushi is located in a swish shopping center with the likes of Rolex and Dior, but step inside this stylish space to discover O by Brush, a separate omakase counter helmed by Chef Jason Liang. The extensive procession will begin with several starters before moving into nigiri such as beautifully rich shima aji, warayaki sawara that is hay smoked over coals then sliced and filled with rice, and anago tempura temaki finished over binchotan coals. A tasting of dry-aged hirame and kanpachi is a delightful surprise, as is the tamago tasting, featuring the classic style alongside a tender, cake-like version. The wide-ranging sake selection, also available by the glass or carafe, is the perfect complement.
Omakase Table (Sushi-Japanese)
Here at this serious counter-focused setting, find Chef Leonard Yu and his small team presiding over a multicourse experience that leans traditional while offering a nice balance of variety and seasonality. A smattering of otsumami begin the evening on a strong note with shaved Waygu beef lightly poached in sukiyaki sauce with a quail egg. The chef's signature dish, uni gohan with otoro, is decadent, while corn potage delivers an impressive depth of flavor. Meanwhile, nigiri showcases character without any flash: Kawahagi is topped with flash-frozen liver paste that melts on the tongue, while sharkskin sole with engawa is given a fantastic sear. Not to be outshined, vanilla ice cream is taken to new heights with the addition of aged shoyu.
Spring (Contemporary Cuisine)
Find your way to this small but well-appointed restaurant in Marietta where exposed brick and a vaulted ceiling done in dark wood create an endearing charm. Chef Brian So oversees a tightly edited, contemporary American menu with a strong focus on seasonality. Skillful but simple cooking is the dictum here, where ingredients speak for themselves, and plates are stunning without ever being showy. The house-made sourdough with garlic chive butter is delicious, but don't fill up, as the pan-seared wild king salmon topped with Hollandaise sauce and trout roe is equally appealing. A maple-glazed cruller with sliced almonds in an amaretto crème anglaise is a bold and distinctive dessert, and the wine list is especially impressive.
Staplehouse (Contemporary cuisine)
Open two nights a week for dinner (Friday-Saturday) and located in the Old Fourth Ward, Staplehouse promises a convivial evening of conversation and talented cooking. An open kitchen, exposed brick, and a high ceiling lend a rustic/industrial vibe to this charmingly attended-to place. Here, a contemporary tasting menu flips the script with a hearty, far-from-fussy offering. You won't find foie gras or caviar here, but you will discover a cabbage course that sings with character and flavor. A thick slice of grilled sirloin steak with a crispy morel mushroom is sided by a wedge of grilled gem lettuce with tiny florets of sprouting cauliflower. Finally, a citrus tart with honeycomb candy is spot on
Atlanta restaurants that maintained their one-star status:
Atlas (American Cuisine)
When the night calls for a grand celebration, few places fit quite like Atlas. Snuggled inside the posh St. Regis Atlanta, this restaurant is impossibly elegant. Fine art graces the walls—it's home to The Lewis Collection and its works by Japanese-born painter and printmaker Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita—but it's not just the artwork that impresses. Order à la carte from this seasonal American menu with European influences or celebrate with the tasting menu for dishes like tender lobster plated with smoked paprika butter sauce and heirloom summer squash, and poached halibut composed with a trio of beet preparations. Wagyu beef from Australia is a decadent end to the savory courses. Impressive cocktails, a cheese cart and whimsical desserts complete the well-rounded experience.
Hayakawa (Japanese)
A local legend for his Japanese cuisine on Buford Highway, Chef Atsushi Hayakawa has begun a new chapter in West Midtown. Located in a sparkling office structure, the slick lair hosts a mere handful of diners per seating. His stage is a backdrop of dark-streaked stone and a silken wood counter; and the use of a microphone to banter with guests amplifies Hayakawa's buoyant personality.
The meal is a procession of small courses and hews toward the structure of kaiseki. After items such as an appetizer trio with clear fish soup, scallop sashimi with miso-mustard sauce and simmered monkfish, it's time for sushi. The chef crafts nigiri from imported fish that needs little embellishment and is amply sized in the tradition of Hokkaido style in deference to the chef's hometown.
Lazy Betty (Contemporary Cuisine)
Now located in midtown, Chef Ron Hsu and Chef/co-owner Aaron Phillips oversee a contemporary tasting menu with clever combinations that highlight regional ingredients. The tuna roll is a stunner, made with feuille de brick and filled with lemon, crème fraîche, and wrapped in paper-thin sheets of bluefin tuna. Cod, poached in a ham hock broth, rests atop fava bean and zucchini succotash with a green tomato relish for an especially flavorful plate, while crown-roasted duck with a caramelized miso sauce is another strong savory course. Finished with a blackberry banyuls reduction at the table, it's a beautiful dish. Lemon panna cotta, surrounded by mint granita and covered with a coconut foam is a refreshing finale.
Mujō (Japanese)
Located in West Midtown, Mujō is an intimate setting with a moody elegance. A U-shaped counter crafted of Southern cypress pops in this square room with dark walls and low lighting. This is the domain of Chef J. Trent Harris and his skilled team who make all feel well cared for. Here, tradition has been replaced with a rollicking good time, where the always-surprising interpretation of omakase begins with an array of zensai like a morsel of Florida cobia grilled over binchotan, dressed with a red miso sauce and some local pattypan squash. After some cooked bites, it's time for the raw. Nigiri needs little to impress, while supplemental dishes offer the likes of Hokkaido hair crab, tosazu and mozuku. Regulars know dessert isn't an afterthought; so save room.