Ligaya: Atlanta’s dining scene has grown and matured so much in the past decade. As restaurants across the metro area continue to garner national attention, we felt it was important that the AJC’s dining critics apply the same rigor we do for weekly restaurant reviews to compile a definitive list of the restaurants that are offering the best dining experiences right now. Across the food media landscape, there are plenty of best restaurants lists, but the methodology isn’t always made clear. As we state in the introduction to this dining guide, as well as the explainer about our process, this list isn’t solely about great food or great service. It considers the key aspects that go into operating a restaurant: food, drink, service and atmosphere. It will be interesting to see what the Atlanta 50 list looks like next year.

Ligaya: About four months. We got the go-ahead for the project from AJC Publisher and President Andrew Morse in late May. Next, we determined the scoring process. June through August, we ate our way across the metro area. Once we settled on the top 50, other departments became involved to ensure the digital and print versions of the dining guide were robust and offered engaging user experiences. The AJC’s food and dining team led the project, but bringing it to fruition involved dozens of folks who handled photography, video production, copy editing, print, web design and more.

Henri: Ligaya and I ate more than 150 meals in the process of researching this guide. A handful of times, we visited restaurants together, but most of our meals were independent, albeit with other dining partners. We referenced our review experiences for a few restaurants, but at least one of us ate at every restaurant on this list within the past few months. Between mid-June and the end of August, I ate at least one meal at a restaurant every day, on average. And these were not small meals. We were conscious about getting a full experience at every restaurant, so most of our visits included appetizers, entrees, desserts and drinks.

Ligaya: Can I name more than one? The foie gras parfait at Atlas is a build-your-own fancy toast adventure. For seafood: Kimball House’s hama hama clam tartine. Two salads at Southern Belle: the juiciest-ever peach caprese and a deconstructed Caesar that featured a grilled head of romaine wrapped in Georgia wagyu beef carpaccio, cloaked in bagna cauda foam and topped with fried white anchovies and Parmesan tuilles. So good! Just thinking about pasta at BoccaLupo makes me dreamy. For dessert, it would be the roasted sesame ice cream with miso rum caramel, satsumaimo and puffed rice at Mujo. What a combination of flavors, textures and temperatures — and so beautiful. Also, La Semilla’s plant-based guava flan with caramel sauce rivals any version made with milk and eggs.

Henri: I still think about the sawagani at Omakase Table, a small freshwater crab that was deep-fried and served whole. It looked so lifelike, about the size of a fiddler crab, and you just pop it in your mouth like a piece of popcorn. The warm cheesecake at Aria blew me away — it’s one of those dishes you must eat right in the moment, because it’s never going to taste the same once it cools off. The crispy panisse and the frites at Madeira Park are both amazing; you’d think we would have already achieved peak french fry, but somehow, they’ve taken theirs to another level. The Porter Beer Bar’s Philly-style pork sandwich is one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten, though it’s extremely spicy, so it’s not for everyone. And there was an incredible beet dish on Yuji’s menu that was almost like braised beef; it was called simply “roasted vegetables” on the menu, but it was maybe the best meat substitute I’ve ever tried.

Ligaya: The chilled jellyfish salad at Masterpiece in Duluth, one of the restaurants that received an honorable mention, comes to mind as a dish that featured an ingredient I don’t consume often. It was spunky with cilantro, thin ribbons of cucumber and a bright, acidic dressing — so refreshing on a hot August day.

Henri: The bluefin tuna “marrow” at Fawn Wine + Amaro in Decatur. It’s almost like a savory Jell-O shot, served directly in one of the tuna’s own vertebrae (which looks alarmingly human-sized). Months later, I’m still not sure if I liked it, but I think about it a lot.

Ligaya: No arm-wrestling or coin tosses were necessary. Henri and I were pleasantly surprised that our scores — which we determined separately — aligned so closely. In a few instances, we differed slightly, and those cases usually revolved around service. We discussed the discrepancy, but, for the most part, left our scores untouched.

Henri: Most of our restaurant evaluations differed only by a few percentage points, and there were just a couple of places where we disagreed. The way our scores lined up made me feel even more confident that our process was as rigorous and objective as it could be.

Henri: We were recognized at a couple of places, especially when we dined together. My review dinners at Ryokou and Aria come to mind. But it happens much less often than most people think, and usually it is not a good sign if a restaurant changes the way it treats you because they think you’re a critic. With that said, we always attempt to fly under the radar, and we always pay for our meals. If I had to put a number on it, I believe we were able to dine anonymously on more than 95% of our restaurant visits.

Ligaya: Yes, but with this preface: I don’t think a dining critic should visit a restaurant with presuppositions, but rather, an open mind. Did I expect Bones to end up in the No. 4 slot? Maybe not, but that’s how the numbers stacked up based on our scoring system. The Porter Beer Bar was perhaps another surprise, but its food is on par with its outstanding beverage offerings. As an example, the hen of the woods mushroom “fritters” with a French onion dip and dusting of Creole seasoning are as creative and delicious an appetizer as what I’d hope for from an upscale restaurant.

Henri: I’ll echo Ligaya here. The Porter Beer Bar was a surprise because it’s such a casual restaurant, yet it very nearly made the top 10. The way we focused on the full experience tended to favor fine-dining restaurants that aim to pamper customers, but we found plenty of restaurants with more approachable models that performed well in every phase.

Ligaya: Eating out constantly has pros and cons. And when I say constantly, there were some weeks where Henri and I ate out every day and sometimes two or three times a day. (Cue the smallest violin playing for Ligaya and Henri. Woe is us who must eat out!) Consuming a lot of rich food did tax my body. The upside is that dining out with great frequency enables of-the-moment frames of reference and points of comparison. Outstanding service stands out sharply when contrasted with standard or mediocre service. At this point, I could write a story just on bread service across the metro dining scene.

Henri: I missed cooking when we were in the thick of the process over the summer, so that was probably my least favorite thing about the process, although I did save money on groceries. Scheduling could also be a hassle; I play in the Sons of Pitches recreational soccer league (shoutout to my team Occasionally United), and I played multiple soccer games immediately after eating multicourse dinners. But the experience was almost entirely positive. Creating this guide helped me get to know the metro Atlanta dining scene better than ever, and it reinforced for me how many high-caliber restaurants we have here.