Eat your way through the vegetable kingdom with these Atlanta feasts

Wherein we welcome mac and cheese to the veggie family—we’re still in the South, after all. Plus: Korean banchan, superbly spiced Ethiopian platters, and more.

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Rumi’s
Rumi’s

Photograph by Bailey Garrot, food styling by Tami Hardeman

Indulge in an endless Persian repast at Rumi’s
With the addition of the Colony Square location to his growing family of restaurants, Rumi’s chef Ali Mesghali created a new menu of sumptuous vegetable-focused plates: corn “ribs” with dukkah and jalapeño butter, charred tomatoes over labneh, chermoula eggplant with date molasses—and much more. Midtown, rumiskitchen.com

JS Kitchen
JS Kitchen

Photograph by Bailey Garrot, food styling by Tami Hardeman

Pick up a bunch of banchan at JS Kitchen
A few years ago, the owners of the popular Korean restaurant Jang Su Jang opened this sister business specializing in immaculately prepared banchan: various kimchis, colorful lotus root, spicy cucumbers, all sold to take home to accompany a Korean feast—or, frankly, the makings of a pretty good picnic all on their own. Duluth, js-kitchen-by-jang-su-jang.business.site

Ghion
Ghion

Photograph by Bailey Garrot, food styling by Tami Hardeman

Go old-school Ethiopian at Ghion
You could easily split a single veggie platter at the popular Cheshire Bridge Road restaurant and go home full: There are chickpeas, several kinds of lentils, collard greens, green beans and carrots, and potatoes and cabbage, all brilliantly spiced and served with homemade injera (and, if you want it, honey wine). ghionatl.com Since this issue went to press, Ghion closed its Cheshire Bridge location and announced it’s reopening this fall at 3761 North Druid Hills Road in Decatur. Check the website for updates.

Magnolia Room Cafeteria
Magnolia Room Cafeteria

Photograph by Bailey Garrot, food styling by Tami Hardeman

Stretch the meaning of ‘vegetable’ at Magnolia Room Cafeteria
This is a Southern-style meat-and-three, so mac and cheese is absolutely a vegetable, available alongside standards like fried chicken or on an all-veg plate with collards, squash Lyonnaise, cabbage, fried okra—and, obviously, congealed fruit salad. The produce here comes from Sherry’s, just down the road. Tucker, magnoliaroomcafeteria.com

Back to The Joy of Vegetables

This article appears in our June 2022 issue.

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