Systems and methods for efficient prioritized restoration of services implemented in a node in a network utilizing a control plane include releasing higher priority services affected by a fault on a link adjacent to the node immediately via control plane signaling such that the higher priority services mesh restore; tracking mesh restoration of the released higher priority services; and releasing lower priority services based on the tracking, subsequent to the mesh restoration of the higher priority services, wherein the higher priority services and the lower priority services comprise one or more of Optical Transport Network (OTN) connections, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) connections, and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) connections.