How to Spend 24 Hrs Eating Your Way Through Buford Highway
You can travel the world without leaving Atlanta when you visit Buford Highway! This stretch of highway is home to HUNDREDS of restaurants that have all the flavor and culture your heart desires. If you’ve got 24 hours and a stretchy waistband, I’ve got the guide for you.
9:00AM – Start off with pastries at one of Buford Highway’s famous Asian bakeries
Start your morning off right with a visit to any of BuHi’s delicious Asian bakeries. Korean bakery White Windmill is an OG, with fantastic pastries, cakes, and coffees you’ll love. The garlic bread is insane, and the croissants are fantastic. Sweet Hut, started by two Georgia Tech grads, helped introduce Asian sweets to an even broader audience of fans. Cafe Mozart has beautiful interiors with great bubble tea, pastries like yuzu cruffins and red bean donuts.
12:00PM – Visit Asian Square for Lunch
This isn’t just a square. It’s truly a food universe! You can have the best banh mi and Vietnamese coffee of your life at Quoc Huang, or beef chow fun at Mamak. You can pick up some roasted duck to go from any of the restaurants with succulent hanging ducks in their windows, or head to La Mei Zi for the best Three Cups Chicken and Singaporean noodles! The dry hot pots at Good Harvest are positively delectable, and Java Saga and their fantastic Taiwanese fried chicken is right across the street. Pick your favorite!
2:00PM – Peruse the international offerings at Buford Highway Farmer’s Market
I’ve long chronicled my love for Buford Highway Farmer’s Market, a grocery store that’s so much more than a grocery store. It’s a true marvel for the international palette! You can choose from dozens of varieties of dumplings, sample tropical fruits and vegetables from all over the world, and enjoy sushi grade fish for less. There’s also a small selection prepared foods to enjoy, like seafood pancakes and kimchi fried rice.
6:00PM – Order food family style at Kamayan
Hopefully you’ve worked off your lunch by now and are ready for dinner at Kamayan, a Filipino treasure that’s been recommended by the Michelin guide. It’s a great place to order family style with a group of friends (though if you want to do their Kamayan style feast where the dishes are laid out like in the photo above, you’ll have to book ahead of time for a day the restaurant is closed). The gluten-free and vegan eggplant curry is the stuff of dreams, and the grilled prawn skewers are a must order.
7:30PM – Pick up some chicken for tomorrow
Pick up some fantastic charcoal grilled chicken to enjoy for tomorrow at Pollos Asados Autentico Sinaloense, a little hole-in-the-wall spot–it’ll taste fantastic heated back up in the event and rolled up in some tortillas for breakfast and lunch!
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8:00PM – Ice cream break
Ready for a sweet treat? Go for rolled ice cream at ICE NY or Roll It Up Ice Cream, or enjoy matcha and ube soft serve at Matcha Cafe Maiko. The mango sticky rice flavor at ICE NY in particular is so great!
8:30PM – Karaoke your heart out
Work off some of that food with friends at one of Buford Highway’s many karaoke rooms! It’s a total blast, if you’ve never tried it before. Happy Karaoke, Karaoke Melody, and Let’s Go Karaoke are all excellent spots to sing your heart out! There is usually a public communal room if you want to sing with everyone, or you can get a private room to sing with your friends! All usually have great extensive bar menus too for you to enjoy.
10:00PM – One last boba before you hit the road
If you can somehow find room, head to any of the late night boba spots for a last drink before you head home. Spots like Kung Fu Tea, Cuckoo’s Cafe, Te’Amo Boba Bar, and Tea Leaf & Creamery are all open until around 10PM or 10:30pM.
