Where Can You Eat Near the Georgia World Congress Center?

By Mary Welch

Published April 18, 2018
Last Updated September 12, 2023

If you are in town for a convention at Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) and you need to find lunch or dinner within walking distance, we’re here to help. While the 3.9 million-square-foot center is home to more than 15 permanent restaurants and eateries including Social Table and Southern Roots, here are some delicious dining options off-premises that you can get to and back between sessions.

• CNN Center, which is located across the street, offers a variety of dining options including everything from Taco Mac (famous for wings and burgers) to fast food offerings such as China Breeze, BurgerFi, Arby’s, Moe’s, Chick-fil-A and Fresh to Order. For more upscale dining, try Dantanna’s, famous for its steaks and television sets, which are perfect for watching Atlanta’s teams, or McCorrmick & Schmick’s that features a large selection of seafood, poultry, meats and pastas.
• On the other side of the GWCC is Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home to Atlanta United FC and the Atlanta Falcons. You don’t have to be there for a game as several restaurants are open even if there’s not a game. These include Kevin Gillespie’s GameChanger, Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Que, Shock Top Brat and Molly B’s Kitchen.
• The nearby Omni Hotel offers Prime Meridian, a restaurant with an open-kitchen atmosphere that serves innovative upscale American cuisine. Latitudes Bistro and Lounge, located in the South Tower, is a favorite place to have a cocktail and relax.
• Across the street is Embassy Suites, which houses the universally loved Ruth’s Chris Steak House, famous for its thick-cut steaks as well as its veal, lamb and seafood. There are special luncheon offerings.
• The Glenn Hotel, just a long block east of CNN Center, is a beautiful historic boutique hotel, and its restaurant, Glenn’s Kitchen, serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner. For those early meetings, try the oatmeal buttermilk hot cakes, while lunch and dinner items include Nashville hot chicken, shrimp and grits, and Maryland crab cakes. For a real treat go up to SkyLounge at the Glenn, which offers cocktails and small dishes from the rooftop bar with panoramic views of Atlanta.
• A few blocks from the GWCC, on Luckie Street, is Ted’s Montana Grill, co-founded by Atlanta’s own Ted Turner. The restaurant’s specialty is bison, and popular items include bison meatloaf, bison pot roast and bison short ribs. Of course, there are other delicious offerings such as roast turkey, pecan-crusted trout and salmon.
• Flats serves fast and fresh food, especially hand-crafted flatbreads. There is a variety of options – everything from Thai chicken to grilled steak to scrambled eggs. Flats also serves fresh salads and smoothies.
• Der Biergarten gives Atlantans and visitors a true taste of German culture. Der Biergarten offers authentic German cuisine such as wurstplatte (bratwurst, knackwurst), frikadellen (meatballs) and gegrillte forelle mit senfsauce (grilled trout). But the real attraction is beer. Der Biergarten offers dozens of German draft beers as well as bottle beer from around the world plus craft cocktails and wine. And, if you want to work off your meal, there is an outside alley with Fussball and table shuffleboard as well as lots of flat-screen TVs. Don’t miss the model railroad that encircles the restaurant.
• Near Der Biergarten is Twin Smokers BBQ, famous for both barbecue and bourbon — not a bad combination. The barbecue includes Texas-style dishes such as a beef brisket sandwich, which is cooked over Texas mesquite and post oak. Or, you can opt for the Southern-style, smoked over white oak and hickory. A must order — if you dare — is the dinosaur beef rib. Yes, it’s worthy of Fred Flintstone! For a barbecue place, Twin Smokers has an enviable selection of whiskey, bourbon, moonshine and cocktails.
• Thrive is an upscale, casual restaurant that offers salads, sushi, steak and sandwiches. Located just a few blocks from the GWCC, Thrive is open late and even has a happy hour during the week from 5 to 7 p.m. with reduced prices on selected food and drinks.
• Legal Sea Foods is a fantastic national restaurant within walking distance that specializes in  fresh fish — all kinds of fresh fish. Try the shrimp and grits.
• Max’s Coal Oven Pizzeria is the go-to place for delicious pizzas. The coal-fired oven at Max’s is always turning out authentic New York-style pizzas as well as pastas, Italian sandwiches and signature coal oven wings. Located on Marietta Street, Max’s has the only coal-burning oven in Georgia, which is the secret key to perfectly crisps pizzas.
• Atlanta is a sports town and Stats Brewpub is a terrific place to cheer on Atlanta’s teams — or your hometown favorites. Stats offers tried-and-true American favorites as well as six home-brewed beers. A crowd favorite is the beer tap system that, on select tables, allows guests to pour their own beer with no server or bartender. Stats has five bars and almost 16,000 square feet of restaurant space — not to mention 70 high definition televisions.

Check here for a full list of restaurants near GWCC.

Journalist Mary Welch writes business and lifestyle stories for local and national publications.