The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Alzohour Restaurant

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Uniquely Arizona

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept

A churro waffle with a cult following and a soft pretzel served with butter blended from guinea hen fat says about everything you need to know about Valentine's priorities. This all-day cafe and restaurant in the Melrose District does wood-fired Sonoran cooking with Arizona ingredients treated like the whole point, not a talking point. The chef is a James Beard semifinalist, and the elote pasta has its own fan club. The vintage furniture store in the back is not a joke.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Crystal Kass
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Crystal Kass
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Desert-toned walls and a condensed, always-shifting wine list set the mood at this neo-bistro and wine bar on Seventh Street. The team pulls from old and new world bottles for both pours and a rotating spritz selection, while small plates from the kitchen give you a reason to stay for another glass. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that actually talks to the table next to them.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

The family owns a 68-foot harpoon fishing boat that works the Pacific for swordfish, which is a more convincing sustainability pitch than a wall decal. This fast-casual seafood spot in Uptown Plaza keeps the fish never-frozen and the menu wide, running from poke bowls and swordfish tacos to grilled oysters and a lobster BLT on weekends. The chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2026, which is notable for a counter-service fish place.

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Thai Peanut Poke Bowl · Standout Signature Dish
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

The line outside most mornings tells you what kind of place this is before you even smell the smoke. Little Miss BBQ is a Central Texas-style barbecue shop where the brisket gets sliced to order with a thick smoke ring, and the Thursday-only pastrami runs a deep, almost beet-red from its pepper rub. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the team behind it earned a James Beard semifinalist nod.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Phoenix Magazine Pastrami · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southwest · Scott Holmes

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

The fry bread here comes out puffy and golden, stuffed with ground beef and beans or finished with chocolate, and it gives the whole menu its name. This family-run Tohono O'odham restaurant has been an anchor in Phoenix's Melrose District long before the neighborhood got interesting, serving tacos, stews, and tostadas alongside it. The kind of spot where out-of-towners finally understand what Arizona actually tastes like.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Authentic Arizona Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Authentic Arizona Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

Pink and orange neon casts a moody glow over the Camelback Road location of this coffee shop, which leans into creative, photogenic drinks alongside the usual caffeine agenda. The menu runs from lattes built around burnt cream or cookie flavors to matcha, ube, and Lotus energy drinks for the non-coffee contingent. A second, sunlit outpost sits inside the Melrose District's Royale collective, better suited to a quick grab-and-go.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best coffee shops in Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for working or studying · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Top Sushi Restaurant
2. Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix

Five varieties of mole anchor the menu at this Oaxacan restaurant in Sunnyslope, where a string-lit patio softens the strip-mall surroundings considerably. The cocktail list leans heavily on mezcal, with rare agave spirits showing up across most of the drinks. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top Oaxacan restaurant, and the mole negro has a following of its own.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mole · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mole · Best of Phoenix

A European restaurant tucked into the Melrose District's Wagon Wheel building, where the back patio's twinkle lights and two-top tables make the whole thing feel like a date you actually planned. The menu changes with the seasons and you can do a five-course tasting or just pull a bottle from the adjoining wine shop and order à la carte. A James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Southwest.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Date Night Spot · Best of Phoenix

The laminated dough at this French patisserie takes the kind of patience most kitchens quietly skip. Croissants, kouign-amann, pain au chocolat, and thick slices of quiche fill the cases, alongside macarons and fresh-baked loaves worth tucking under your arm on the way out. Seasonally flavored coffees keep the morning crowd happy while they deliberate. A James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, this uptown Phoenix spot makes a convincing case for the detour.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Pastries · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Pastries · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Sushi/Japanese · Best of the Valley
3. Phoenix Magazine Honeymoon Shooter · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

Carts trundle through this spacious Cantonese dim sum hall on weekends, and by midday the entrance is already a bottleneck of people clutching numbered tickets. Point at what rolls past: lacquered duck, chewy lo mein, dumplings, fried wontons. The servers are moving fast and the tables are crowded and dimly lit, and the whole operation hums along in cheerful, productive disorder. Phoenix New Times handed it Best Dim Sum in 2025.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Dim Sum · Best of Phoenix

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Tacos · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group

Cajeta pancakes topped with banana, crème fraîche, caramel, and candied peanuts are doing a lot of the heavy lifting at this colorful, homey Mexico City-style brunch spot in uptown Phoenix. The chef behind Gallo Blanco brings the same seriousness to chilaquiles and thick, crackling papas fritas. Weekend waits get real, so the attached coffee bar next door exists to make the line bearable. The salsas are not messing around.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
2. Eater Chilaquiles · The Most Iconic Dishes in Phoenix

A converted gas station in the Melrose District that starts pulling shots at six in the morning, Copper Star is a coffee shop where the bagels are made in-house and take the menu seriously. Jalapeño cheddar, sun-dried tomato, blueberry, all built into breakfast sandwiches that come out hot. Drive-thru, shaded patio, eclectic interior, the whole spectrum of Phoenix mornings covered.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best breakfast spots in Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Midtown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

Beef heart on a skewer is not a timid opener, but El Chullo's anticuchos, marinated and grilled dense and chewy, set the tone for a traditional Peruvian restaurant that doesn't hedge. The Melrose location on Seventh Avenue is cozy and colorful, the kind of room where a Pisco Sour tastes better than it has any right to. Lomo saltado, ceviche mixto, and arroz chaufa round out a menu that takes the Lima-meets-Canton fried rice angle seriously.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Top Sushi Restaurant
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Most Creative Handcraft Cocktail Program
3. Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix

The tortas here are the size of a small architectural project, stacked high on soft telera rolls with combinations like fried beef, ham, egg, chorizo, and avocado all grilled together. This casual Mexican sandwich shop in Sunnyslope sprawls through several rooms, and the menu takes real time to navigate. The juice bar deserves equal attention, especially the agua cremosa, a condensed milk and fresh fruit drink that arrives under a paper umbrella, which feels right.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Tortas · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Tortas · Best of Phoenix
3. Eater Nopales Asado · The Most Iconic Dishes in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best coffee shops in Phoenix
3. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Neighborhood Coffee Shop: Phoenix · Best of the Valley

Chris Bianco's trattoria keeps a rotating pasta menu built around local flours matched to specific shapes, which sounds precious until you taste it. The kitchen runs classic cacio e pepe alongside whatever Arizona's season hands them, and the drink program goes equally deep into esoteric Italian amari and house-made liqueurs. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list, and the room feels like it earned that quietly.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Food Pioneer · Chris Bianco
2. The New York Times The Restaurant List
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best West Valley Sushi · Best of the Valley

1. AAA Four Diamonds

Leather booths, stone and copper accents, and woven rugs on the wall set the tone for a sit-down New Mexican restaurant that skews considerably more swanky than the cuisine's roadside reputation suggests. The marble bar is massive and the patio invites lingering, especially at brunch. Green chile shows up in nearly everything, from eggs Benedict to a pecan-wood-grilled cheeseburger, and the dinner menu runs to rack of lamb and enchiladas.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Uniquely Arizona
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best New Mexico Cuisine · Best of Phoenix

1. Esquire The Desert Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail Program
3. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Exceptional Culinary Experience
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Christopher Gross
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

The line at this cash-only Mexican bakery in Glendale moves slowly because everyone freezes in front of the cases. Giant pink pig-shaped cochinitos glazed with molasses, chamoy-dipped apples, tamales, fresh tortillas, and trays of pan dulce all compete for your attention at once. Phoenix New Times named it the best Mexican bakery in the city, and the regulars waiting ahead of you look like they already knew that.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mexican Bakery · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mexican Bakery · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mexican Bakery · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Food Pioneer · Chris Bianco

The restaurant's unofficial motto translates roughly to "I don't give a damn," which is a curious thing to post when your birria arrives in hand-pressed squid ink tortillas with miso consommé. Chilte is a modern Mexican restaurant and bar in a revamped motor hotel on Grand Avenue, and Food & Wine named the chef one of its Best New Chefs. The seasonal menu shifts often, and the team pulls in guest chefs regularly, so the room rewards repeat visits.

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Lawrence "LT" Smith
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

The green chile burro is what people are actually here for, and on busy days the line confirms it. Rito's is an old-school Mexican counter-service spot, been around forever, run by the same family across a handful of Valley locations. The move if you're feeling committed is to get any order done chimichanga-enchilada style, deep-fried and drowned in red sauce with cheese, lettuce, and tomato piled on top.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Burritos · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Burritos · Best of Phoenix

The signature move here is the Hazz blend, carne asada folded with mild green chile and melted cheese, and it shows up across the menu at this no-frills Sonoran taco shop in west Phoenix. Order at the counter, everything à la carte, then stake out a table and work the salsa bar, which runs from fresh green to roasty red to a piquant orange. The horchata comes in a bucket. Phoenix New Times has it in their top 50 right now.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Coffee Flavors · Best of Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for working or studying · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
3. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Breakfast Burrito · Best of the Valley

The burgers get a splash of red wine on the flat top, which is either the gimmick or the whole point depending on how you order. Harvey's is a neighborhood dive bar on 16th Street, bright green walls, pool table, jukebox, and cheap burgers that come with fries. Weekend happy hour runs weekend mornings, and last call stretches to midnight. The regulars who never needed a menu figured all this out a long time ago.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Hamburgers · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

Rene Andrade runs a short, rotating menu over a mesquite grill in a small, triangular room, and the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest followed. This Sonoran Mexican restaurant in Phoenix trades in carne asada, caramelos built on crisp flour tortillas, and beans that make you reconsider how seriously you've been taking beans. The menu is a handful of items on any given night, many of them changing, all of them smelling like fire.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · Best Chef: Southwest · Rene Andrade
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner · Top Mixologist/Bartender · Moises Castro
3. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Tomahawk Steak · Standout Signature Dish

A black bungalow in downtown Phoenix that turns out northern Thai food rooted in Chiang Rai, where the chef grew up cooking alongside her mother and grandmother. The menu is built to share, the flavors run deep, and the cocktails are doing interesting things with fish sauce and fresh coconut cream. Yotaka Martin took the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2025, which in Phoenix is basically a neighborhood fact at this point.

1. Food & Wine Yotaka Martin · Best New Chefs
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best Chef: Southwest · Yotaka Martin
3. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Yam Mamuang Boran · Best Dish in a Supporting Role

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Esquites · Best of Phoenix

The Kothu Parotta, a pan-grilled flatbread shredded and tossed with spicy vegetables and your choice of protein, is the kind of dish that makes a strip-mall address irrelevant. This casual Indian restaurant started as a food truck and found a permanent home on Thomas Road, where the booths fill fast with regulars who already know to ask the server what to order. The dal makhni and tikka masala pull their weight too.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Neighborhood Indian Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The 10 best Indian restaurants in Phoenix

The name means "far from home," which tells you something about what the chef is doing here. This central Phoenix Thai restaurant draws on Bangkok street food and the cooking of the Isan region, with a tight menu of small plates, noodles, and skewers that reads like a personal dispatch rather than a crowd-pleasing survey. The cocktail program is serious enough to make parking on this stretch of Osborn Road feel like a design choice. A James Beard semifinalist, 2024.

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Best World Flavors
3. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Mango Sticky Rice · Most Delectable Dessert

The team once competed on Food Network's Cupcake Wars under a different name and won, which tells you something about what's happening at this bright, family-run bakery near Seventh and Camelback. Frosted cupcakes and cookies rotate with the seasons and holidays, so there's almost always a reason to stop in. The signature brown boxes travel well and double as a gift when flowers feel lazy.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Cookies · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Cookies · Best of Phoenix

A red-brick building with white trim and a weathervane off Central Avenue that reads more Boston than Phoenix, until the palm trees remind you where you are. This outdoor coffee shop serves espresso drinks, cold brew, and specialty lattes through a window, with fresh-griddled waffles and Bagelfelds bagels to go alongside. Bring a book and a jacket in winter; in summer, you're in the sun.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best New Coffeehouse · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix

A three-level, sunlight-flooded cafe in uptown Phoenix that also runs a full cocktail program, which makes the brunch crowd's priorities refreshingly transparent. Provision is a modern coffee shop doing the classics alongside seasonal lattes and mocha with Oreo crumbles, with quiche, pastries, and sandwiches filling out a menu that gives people a reason to stay well past the first cup.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best coffee shops in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Food Pioneer · Chris Bianco
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Artisanal/Fancy Pizza · Best of the Valley
3. Phoenix Magazine Francesca's Meatball Sandwich · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

Yellow booths, green walls, and neon lighting make Tambayan look like someone decorated with pure enthusiasm, which turns out to be the right call for a Filipino homestyle restaurant that spent years as a pop-up and food truck before landing a permanent spot on Camelback. The halo halo, layered and rainbow-colored, is the dessert equivalent of that same energy. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top Filipino restaurant.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Filipino Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

A mother-and-son Cajun and soul food restaurant where the menu shifts with the day of the week: catfish on Fridays, wings on Wednesdays, Sharon's soul food the first Sunday of the month. Their Louisiana and Mississippi roots show in a shrimp étouffée that's lighter and brighter than you'd expect, and a beef debris over grits that rewards patience. Hong Kong-style praline French toast with cardamom and fennel is either the strangest thing on the menu or the most logical.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Southern Food · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Southern Food · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

The cracked-laminate menus at this Vietnamese restaurant in a Phoenix strip mall are entirely on purpose. Fourteen kinds of pho anchor the menu, portions are generous enough to require a to-go container, and the hot coffee with sweetened condensed milk is a good reason to linger. Prices hover around $15, the room is multi-roomed and no-frills, and the com tam dac biet piles broken rice with what feels like the entire menu on one plate.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

The bright yellow building in Phoenix's Melrose District is hard to argue with at 7 a.m. Joe's is an old-school diner with booths, round group tables, and road signs on the walls, the kind of place where the coffee is black and nobody's trying to impress you. Weekends bring a line out front, which the regulars seem to take as confirmation rather than inconvenience. The biscuits and gravy and oversized burritos do the heavy lifting.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Classic Diner · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best breakfast spots in Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for curling up with a book · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
2. AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix

The owl-themed knick-knacks, artwork, and furniture covering every surface are all for sale, which is either charming or a lot to process before coffee. This casual brunch cafe imported its loyal following from Flagstaff, where lines used to stretch down the street on weekends. Giant cinnamon rolls, football-sized burritos, and a full vegan menu cover the table. The Newton location sits conveniently next to Changing Hands Bookstore, for after.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Flagstaff Import · Best of Phoenix

Fresh rosemary on wooden tables and a bottle of house-made hot sauce waiting when you sit down sets the tone at this counter-service cafe. The farmhouse-chic room has soft bistro lights, chalkboard menus, and a walk-up window that made takeout brunch a neighborhood ritual. The line down the block on weekends is the real menu recommendation. Phoenix New Times named it best breakfast in 2024.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Breakfast · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Restaurant to Take a Geek · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

Frida Kahlo shares wall space with a pink-legged chameleon and a saguaro the size of a doorway, which tells you a lot about this cheerful Mexican brunch spot in downtown Glendale. Weekend mornings fill with families and kids while the drinks arrive dressed up: horchata in a jar with a peanut dulce de leche rim, cafe de olla in mismatched earthenware. The pambazo, a football-sized sandwich dunked in guajillo chile, is not a thing you order by accident.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: In-Good Spirits · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Phoenix Magazine Original Chopped Salad · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

Marinated skewers sit in the case waiting their turn over live coals, and a haze of mesquite smoke follows the grill man out of the kitchen on a good night. This Armenian kabob counter on 16th Street landed on the New York Times restaurant list and keeps turning up on every Phoenix rundown worth reading. Combos come with enough meat, basmati, and Shirazi salad to feed two people, and regulars treat first-timers like a conversion project.

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona

1. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for more than just coffee · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Low-Key Cocktail Menu · Best of the Valley

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix
2. Phoenix Magazine Szechwan Prawns · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Phoenix New Times A delicious dozen: The 12 best doughnut shops in the Valley

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Brunch With a Punch

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Common Ground Culinary · Outstanding Hospitality Group

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Chef · David Bowman
2. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: After’Mac’ Mac & Cheese · Best Dish in a Supporting Role

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Caribbean Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

A Modelo in a champagne chiller tells you everything about the vibe here. From the team behind Taco Boys, this seafood restaurant on North 7th is the dressed-up counterpoint to a casual taqueria, built for date night rather than a paper-plate lunch. The menu runs from a cold bar and ceviches to tacos and things grilled over mesquite charcoal, and the molcajete arrives with shrimp and octopus in hot or cold form.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best New Mexican Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for curling up with a book · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Pho · Best of Phoenix
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

The salsa bar alone could justify a visit: nearly a dozen house-made salsas, each in its own small cup, running from tangy pineapple to smoky morita to a bracingly fresh serrano. Casa Corazon is a gourmet Southern Mexican restaurant tucked into a small red building on Phoenix's 16th Street corridor, where the menu leans into regional dishes and pairs naturally with Mexican wine or a fresh-fruit margarita. Eater counts it among Phoenix's best.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mexican Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Upscale/Modern Mexican · Best of the Valley

1. AZ Central Best Midtown Phoenix coffee shops for curling up with a book · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Canto-American Chinese Food · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix

The bubble-ring shape of a mochi doughnut, six or eight chewy spheres connected in a loop, is practically engineered for the "just one more piece" problem. MochiDot is a local dessert shop making them with rice flour for that signature springy chew, with flavors that rotate by season, running from Oreo to vivid purple ube to Lotus Biscoff. Bring someone to share with, or don't and pretend you did.

1. Phoenix New Times A delicious dozen: The 12 best doughnut shops in the Valley

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Hen of the Woods Mushroom Tacos · Best Vegan Delight

Glowing red neon and a tight menu of smash burgers and waffle fries in a downtown Phoenix storefront that used to pour rum cocktails. Bad Jimmy's is a casual burger shop that moonlights as a cocktail bar, which explains why half the room looks like they just escaped a nearby venue. The rotating specials reward repeat visits, and vanilla soft serve finished with olive oil is the kind of thing that sounds wrong until it doesn't. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top smashburger spot.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

The broad patio sweeps out from a small turquoise-trimmed adobe inn with the Camelback range as a backdrop, which is doing a lot of work before the food even arrives. Lon's is a white-tablecloth Southwestern restaurant in Paradise Valley, seasonal and quietly inventive, with weekend brunch drawing the kind of crowd that lingers over customizable margaritas and monkey bread loaded with caramel and cream. The bar is serious, the mountain views are free.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Ultimate Patio Atmosphere
3. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Sticky Toffee Pudding · Most Delectable Dessert

The electric pink neon sign is your landmark, and the shareable platters are the reason you came. This Sonoran taqueria from James Beard Award winner Rene Andrade runs on big, festive plates of ribeye or carnitas surrounded by beans, elote, and salsas, all meant to be wrapped into soft tortillas at the table. The cocktail program runs wilder than you'd expect from a taqueria. Bring people; the portions assume you did.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now

Floor-to-ceiling glass walls frame a sweeping Phoenix skyline view, which does most of the decorating in this contemporary fine dining room beside the historic Wrigley Mansion. The chef runs a live-fire kitchen where modern French technique shapes the menu, prix fixe on weekdays and a full tasting menu on weekends. The full-service bar has a direct sightline into the kitchen, so you can watch things catch fire while sipping something civilized.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Top Mixologist/Bartender · Kyla Hein

A tamale shop that sells exactly one thing, in more than twenty flavors. The family operation skips lard, gluten, and preservatives, and the masa shows it. Standards like beef red chile sit alongside spinach and cream cheese, a rotating monthly special, and dessert tamales for when you've already committed. Find them at the North Phoenix storefront on Cave Creek Road or at area farmers markets if the drive feels ambitious.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Tamales · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Tamales · Best of Phoenix

1. AZ Central Best Midtown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

1. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for working or studying · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes

High ceilings and big windows flood this New American neighborhood restaurant with afternoon light, and candlelit booths handle the evening shift. The rotating dinner menu runs from clams to pasta to brick chicken, and the bar pours cocktails serious enough to justify a second round. Lunch added focaccia sandwiches and grandma-style pizza slices, which turned a quietly beloved dinner spot into something the whole city suddenly had opinions about.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

A Moroccan restaurant tucked inside a hybrid dining room, market, and clothing boutique, where the same woman cooks your tagine and then comes out front to seat you. Steaming lamb tagines and bastilla, the savory-sweet phyllo pie dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar, are the reasons to linger. Patience is part of the deal, but the food rewards it. Phoenix New Times named it the valley's best North African restaurant in 2024.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best North African Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
3. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix