Best Restaurants for Quiet Conversations in Atlanta

By Carol Carter

Published October 24, 2023

Sometimes you need a restaurant where you can have a quiet conversation with colleagues, friends or family. Here are Atlanta restaurants where you will find a quiet atmosphere conducive to conversation.

Alma Cocina

Enjoy contemporary Mexican cuisine in either Downtown or Buckhead. Start with guacamole or salsa — or both, then consider a fish taco. Main plate choices include vegetarian paella, a chili-rubbed pork chop and a mole-spiced New York strip steak. Private and group dining are available.

Where: 191 Peachtree St. NE, Downtown; 3280 Peachtree Road NE, Buckhead

Bread and Butterfly

This Inman Park restaurant is known for its intimate dining room as well as its porch, small bar and patio. You can meet friends or business acquaintances there for breakfast, lunch or early dinner. Have a cappuccino and croissant for breakfast, salad and sandwich for lunch or come for a bistro-style dinner.

Where: 290 Elizabeth St. .

By George

Located inside Atlanta’s historic Candler Hotel, By George is the place to find classic cuisine influenced by contemporary American cooking. The inviting breakfast menu features, among several options, organic Icelandic yogurt, croque madam (sunny side up egg, gruyere, ham and artisan greens). Start lunch with George’s buttermilk muffins. Follow that with pickle fried chicken. For dinner, perhaps Atlantic sea scallops will satisfy.

Where: 127 Peachtree St. NE

Cafe Intermezzo

European-influenced Cafe Intermezzo features small dinner plates such as mussels and Italian bruschetta. Other dinner options are a seafood crepe and spicy tri-color tortellini. You should not skip dessert. Choices include Nutella banana crepe and torte with schlag. Breakfast is served all day. Sandwiches and salads are available for lunch.

Where: 1065 Peachtree St., Midtown

Canoe

Dine alongside the banks of the Chattahoochee River at Canoe. It’s so pretty and peaceful that you may not want to leave. Settle in for dinner with a bowl of Moor Farm African squash soup. For your entree, consider the panko-crusted George’s bank cod with Georgia shrimp ravioli and Parmesan-shrimp broth. You might not be able to resist the popcorn sundae with peanut Cracker Jack Chantilly for dessert.

Where: 4199 Paces Ferry Road NE

The Chastain

Billing itself as a new American bistro, The Chastain is located next to Chastain Park. In addition to lunch, brunch and dinner service, there is the AM Cafe, open from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. daily (8 a.m. on weekends). A few menu options to consider are the double fermented house sourdough, sweet corn & crab soup, and the chicken biscuit pot pie. End your meal with a chocolate chip cookie served with black lava sea salt and vanilla bean ice cream.

Where: 4320 Powers Ferry Road

Cultivate Food + Coffee

You can get bites such as sausage balls; a handheld such as an egg and cheese biscuit; a create your own bowl; or a meal such as the Kindness salad. There’s an extensive coffee menu plus cocktails and shrubs.

Where: 1952 Howell Mill Road NW

Hartley

In addition to breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch and dinner Hartley also offers a daily afternoon menu that’s good from 2:30 until 5 p.m. A couple of standouts from the breakfast menu are the house-made cinnamon rolls and the malted waffle. Just one comment about the lunch menu: pimento cheese fritters. On to dinner where a beef brisket pot roast awaits.

Where: 1340 West Peachtree St. NW

Isla & Co.

Isla & Co. is your place for coffee, brunch, cocktails and dinner. The Brekkie roll sounds perfect for brunch. It is soft scrambled eggs, white cheddar, bacon, spicy kimchi aioli on a toasted brioche bun served with fries or salad. Available all day is the Kangaroo Tucker, traditional Australian rubbed kangaroo skewered over herbed tahini, marinated cucumbers, pickled onions and fried lentil. After 5 you can get Aussie chicken Parma — fried chicken Parmesan served with mixed green salad or fries. Sticky Date, on the dessert menu, comes with bourbon caramel and whipped mascarpone.

Where: 56 East Andrews Drive NW

La Tavola Tattoria

You could start with a salumi board, then order a pasta dish, perhaps rotolo. For your main dish, the New York Strip comes with local mushrooms, fingerling potatoes and salsa verde. Don’t skip dessert because you would be missing the olive oil cake (lemon curd, blueberry compote, fior di latte gelato). Finito.

Where: 992 Virginia Ave. NE

Le Bilboquet

Open daily for lunch and dinner, Le Bilboquet is known for French cooking. For lunch, you might try les escargots de bourgogne followed by a main course of la bouillabaisse At dinner, les salade d’ endive is a good starter. Follow that with les poulet Cajun or le steak frite for dinner. Dessert has to be vanilla creme brulee.

Where: 3027 Bolling Way NE

Low Country Steak

Low Country Steak is not open for lunch right now, but the owners expect to resume lunch in 2024. For dinner, start with Big Den’s Famous crab cake or, hmm, the wonton ravioli. After a wedge salad, move onto, perhaps, Georgia shrimp and stone ground grits or, what else, a steak. Sauces include spicy hollandaise, garlic herb butter, truffle butter and Cajun garlic butter.

Where: 1010 West Peachtree St. NW

Mission + Market

The menu is nicely divided into these categories: first, raw, salads, farm and sea, pasta, land and veggies. Here are samples from all categories: first — grilled Spanish octopus; raw — West Coast oysters; salads — kale and apple; farm and sea — pistachio crusted Atlantic cod; pasta — wild mushroom; land — grilled market burger; and veggies — roasted potatoes.

Where: 3550 Lenox Road NE

The Palm

The Palm got its start in New York City in 1926. It must be doing something right to have lasted so long. Indeed. The menu is extensive, starting with appetizers (thick-cut steak house bacon); advancing to soups and salads (lobster bisque); then providing a choice of classic Italian (lobster gnocchi). seafood (sea bass Oscar), steaks and chops (prime New York Strip), butcher’s selections (double-cut lamb chops) and sides (three cheese au gratin potatoes.

Where: 3391 Peachtree Road NE

Postino

Among “snacky things,” there is the OMG grilled cheese. You may choose from a choice of boards such as Nick’s Board with a warm soft pretzel, Italian sausage, Spanish pork link, creamy pimento cheese, spicy Peruvian corn nut, sweety drop pepper and a packo pickle. There are soups and salads — and paninis, which include one with tuna, a vegetarian and a chicken and mozzarella.

Where: 3655 Roswell Road NE, Buckhead; 1000 Marietta St. NW, West Midtown

Ray’s in the City

Farm fresh salads can be enhanced with salmon, chicken, steak, scallops or shrimp. Soups include seafood gumbo with white rice and Charleston she crab. Just a sampling of available starters are a basket of artisanal breads and goat cheese pimento fritters. There are burgers and a fish sandwich. Just a few of the chef’s creations are shrimp & grits, pecan-crusted trout and the jumbo lump crab cake

Where: 240 Peachtree St.

Ruby Chow’s

You’ll probably want to start with a mantou, or steamed bun. Choices are Peking duck, soft-shell BLT and katsu (crispy pork cutlet). There are rice and noodle dishes, and small plates, too. A few small plate choices are seared scallops, sake butter mussels and shaking beef.

Where: 620 Glen Iris Drive NE

Saltwood Charcuterie & Bar

Small plates your thing? Step inside the Loews Atlanta Hotel and belly up to the Saltwood Charcuterie & Bar where small plates and the charcuterie bar rule. Get breakfast, lunch, dinner, salad bar or visit the bar and lounge. The deviled eggs are made with hackleback caviar, frisee, roasted tomatoes and Georgia olive oil. Not your mother’s deviled eggs.

Where: 1065 Peachtree St. NE

Sun Dial Restaurant Bar & View

The “view” mentioned in the name of this restaurant refers to the view from atop the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, which is where you’ll find the Sun Dial Restaurant Bar & View. Note that dinner is by reservation only. A few menu highlights are summer corn chowder with bacon, crab and chive oil, an appetizer of snow crab claws and a main course of lump crab stuffed lobster. Truffle mac and cheese sounds good for a side.

Where: 210 Peachtree St. NW

Three Arches

This pan-Mediterranean restaurant and bar is located inside the Hyatt Centric Buckhead Atlanta hotel. For breakfast you can get everything from a house-made bagel to eggs, sweet potato hash and a variety of house-made pastries. Dinner offerings include small plates such as roasted beets, grilled wings and roasted shrimp. You can get lamb kabobs for your main dish, a New York strip steak or fish of the day.

Where: 3301 Lenox Square Parkway

White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails

When in the South, you gotta order the fried green tomatoes. Ditto for the poached Gulf shrimp salad. Main dish: sorghum-based short ribs with Yukon mashed potatoes, carnival cauliflower, broccolini and confit tomatoes. You may as well go all out and order Gateau Basque for dessert. That’s banana-bourbon, fried pecans, caramel sauce and whipped pastry cream.

Where: 270 Peachtree St. NW

For more restaurants in Atlanta, check our dining guide. Or select from Atlanta’s Best Chef-Owned Restaurants.

Journalist Carol Carter writes and edits for Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.