Worth visiting? Emphatically yes - it's one of the best eating streets in the South. Safe? It's an ordinary, busy commercial corridor: strip malls full of family-run restaurants, markets, and regulars of every age, day and night. Use the same common sense you'd use anywhere in a big metro, drive rather than walk between stops, and you'll spend your energy on the only real risk: ordering too much food.
What it's actually like
Buford Highway is not a walking street - it's a wide commercial highway lined with strip malls, and the action is inside them: dining rooms full of families, students, and late-shift workers. The corridor through Doraville and Chamblee is busy from lunch through late night, and parking lots at the restaurants (including ours) are free and right at the door.
How to do it right
- Drive between stops. Distances are longer than they look, and crossing the highway on foot is the one genuinely bad idea.
- Go where the crowds are. Full dining rooms are the corridor's quality signal - and its comfort signal.
- Come hungry, not scheduled. The best Buford Highway nights are two or three unplanned stops. Here's a simple guide.
- Late night is normal here. Master Pho is open 24/7 at 5145 Buford Hwy NE - a lit, busy dining room at every hour, with free on-site parking.
Why it's worth it
The corridor's whole story is immigrant families cooking the real thing at honest prices. That's what you're driving in for - and if you time it to the monthly Pho Challenge, you'll leave with a story too.
Join the Pho Challenge - $35
Only 99 seats · every contestant outside the top 5 gets a $25 gift card