The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Mercado Mexico

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Koffee Kolsch · Favorite Local Craft Beer

The injera arrives with every order, a spongy sourdough flatbread that doubles as plate and utensil, and first-timers get a menu with a glossary to help them figure out what they've just ordered. This Ethiopian restaurant has been an ASU rite of passage for what feels like forever, a family-run strip mall spot that leans hard into vegetarian dishes and fragrant stews. The dining room is cozy and carpeted, and the coffee ceremony is not decorative.

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 Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

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

Mesquite and pecan wood smoke drifts out of the open kitchen at this Chihuahuan-rooted restaurant inside Tempe's Culdesac neighborhood, where the grill does serious work on meats, peppers, and open-faced quesadillas. The team behind Tacos Chiwas built something more personal here, moving from taqueria to family table. Moles, micheladas, and brunch dishes like concha French toast fill out a menu that runs morning to night. A James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist in 2024.

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Chiles Rellenos · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Double Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Quesabirria Tacos · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept

An old house in Tempe that may or may not be haunted, depending on how many drinks in you are. Casey Moore's is a seafood and oyster bar that's been around forever, and it draws the full cross-section of college town life, from freshmen to people who were freshmen here decades ago. The patio, the well-priced drinks, and the raw bar keep everyone coexisting peacefully, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Neighborhood Bar · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Neighborhood Bar · Best of Phoenix

A bright red neon sign marks this Sichuan restaurant tucked into a Tempe strip mall, where turquoise booths and mural-covered walls set the scene for lazy Susans loaded with mapo tofu, braised eggplant, and the Chongqing-style spicy chicken that Phoenix Magazine named one of Arizona's top dishes. The batter is thin and shatters, the peppercorns do their characteristic lip-numbing work, and the portions are large enough to make you reconsider your afternoon plans.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Traditional Chinese Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

The line forms before the doors open at this Texas-style BBQ shop, and a strip of tape slapped over a sold-out item on the menu board is a genuine source of anxiety by the time you reach the counter. The team came up out of competitive barbecue, and the Hill Country influences show in the smoke. A James Beard semifinalist in 2026, the place draws a crowd happy to stand outside in the Phoenix heat for brisket and jalapeño cheddar grits.

1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

The 1889 Saloon inside is supposedly designed by the cattle baron's wife, which is exactly the kind of detail that makes this old-school Phoenix steakhouse feel like it earned its spurs. Corn-fed aged beef and prime rib anchor the menu, alongside bison meatloaf and baking soda biscuits that haven't changed much since the place opened. The Western décor leans hard into its ranching roots, and nobody seems to mind.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Historic Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: Church Music · Favorite Local Craft Beer

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe
2. Phoenix Magazine Curry Lamb Pot Pie · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

The chef here trained at Tsuji Culinary Institute and cooked at Nobu before settling into a ramen shop in Ahwatukee, which is either a surprise or exactly what someone like that would do. The menu runs classic: tonkotsu, miso blended from Hokkaido pastes, rice bowls, takoyaki. The broth is unhurried and clear in its intentions, the kind of ramen that makes the fast-food versions feel a little embarrassed about themselves.

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

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best breakfast spots in Phoenix
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

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

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

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

The coffee here traveled from a family farm in Colombia to a mural on the wall mapping the whole journey, and eventually into your cup. This Tempe coffee shop serves arepas and pandebono alongside the usual avocado toast, and regulars at the counter tend to get greeted by name. The seasonal menu turns over often enough to reward repeat visits, and the vibe leans comfortably toward long mornings with homework or nowhere particular to be.

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

The sushi counter is the point here, not the parade of sauce-heavy rolls that crowds the competition. This upscale Chandler sushi restaurant leans traditional, pulling in harder-to-find cuts like escolar and sea urchin alongside the usual nigiri and sashimi spread. A few hot dishes and tempura round things out, but the kitchen knows where its priorities lie. Phoenix New Times has named it the area's top Japanese restaurant.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Best World Flavors
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Sushi · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Portobello Mushroom Pita Pocket · Best Vegan Delight

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Day Drinker · Favorite Local Craft Beer

Wood-paneled walls and a parking lot that fills before most people have checked their phones: Harlow's is an old-school Tempe diner that hasn't felt the need to update anything. Booths pack in early birds and retirees at dawn, then hand off to the hangover crowd around nine. The coffee is black, the burritos are large, and the servers are the kind who remember how you take it. Phoenix New Times named it one of the ten best brunch spots in Phoenix.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Old-School Diner · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix

The curved brick entryway opens into an oblong room of deep green walls, gold candelabras, and picture frames, which is a lot to pull off inside a Tempe strip mall. Bar Capri is an Italian restaurant and bar with the bones of a big-city neighborhood spot: cocktails and a tight wine list from a back bar, lasagna and arancini coming through the kitchen window. Tiramisu closes things out, and nobody seems in a hurry to leave.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe
3. Phoenix New Times The 10 best new Phoenix restaurants of 2025

1. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

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
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix

The name means "foreigner," which sets the tone for a modern Indian restaurant that treats the cuisine as a starting point rather than a finish line. Tucked into a Chandler strip mall, it runs cocktails spiked with masala chai vodka or ghee-washed whiskey alongside small plates, large plates, and pani puri worth sharing around the table. The room skews upscale without being stiff about it.

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Best World Flavor
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Indian Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Uniquely Arizona

Baby pink tiles and floor-to-ceiling windows set the mood at this Mexican coffee shop inside Tempe's car-free Culdesac community. Daytime runs on carajillos, mazapan lattes, horchata, and breakfast bites; Thursday through Saturday it pivots to wine, amari, and ceviche. The team behind Tacos Chiwas brought the same ease here, and the cozy booths fill with people who seem in no particular hurry to leave.

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

1. Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Day Drinker · Favorite Local Craft Beer

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Thai Peanut Poke Bowl · Standout Signature Dish
3. Phoenix New Times The 12 best restaurants in Scottsdale

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Korean Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

Saguaro fruit, tepary beans, and wild sumac foraged from Gila River Community land anchor the tasting menu at this fine-dining room on tribal grounds. The team turns those Sonoran Desert ingredients through a global fine-dining lens, so cactus lime pie and buffalo with saguaro syrup land somewhere genuinely unexpected. It holds a Forbes Five Star and AAA Five Diamonds, a combination that signals dress-up territory before you've even looked at the menu.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Service · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix

A cash-only donut shop in South Phoenix with a name that sets expectations high and a vanilla-glazed old-fashioned that does not blink. The craggy cake ring stays light enough that the glaze is doing structural work, which is either alarming or impressive depending on your engineering background. The butterfly, a folded cinnamon roll under glaze and buttery crumble, gives you something to do while you think about ordering another old-fashioned.

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

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

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

Named for the roadside pit stops where Indian truck drivers fuel up on cheap, filling food, this casual Punjabi restaurant in Tempe takes the concept seriously: long menu, affordable prices, homemade breads, and tandoori meats that smell like someone's actually cooking back there. The thali is the move if you want the full picture, chai and dessert included. Street snacks, deep-fried things, and curry round out a menu that rewards indecision.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Neighborhood Indian Spot · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: The Joy Bus · Favorite Local Craft Beer
2. Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Ultimate Patio Atmosphere

The rice gets as much attention as the fish, which tells you something about how seriously this strip-mall sushi spot takes its craft. Tucked into an Ahwatukee shopping center, Sushi Nakano turns out Edo-style nigiri and sashimi with meticulous sourcing and clean technique. American-style maki are on the list too, but catch the chef on a quiet night and ask what he's feeling, and the room rewards the curiosity.

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

1. Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe

A ramen shop where the broth might arrive laced with matcha or built around five preparations of garlic in a single bowl. Mensho brought its Japanese noodle concept to Arizona with this Mesa outpost, a light-wood room centered on an open kitchen where handmade noodles go into thick, creamy broths. The kind of place where the bowl keeps revealing itself as you eat, which is a polite way of saying you'll want to stay longer than you planned.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Ramen · Best of Phoenix

Sundubu jjigae arrives at the table still at a full boil, in a black earthenware bowl that stays screaming hot long after it lands. This Korean tofu house in Mesa's Asian District is the kind of place where a server drops off a raw egg and you crack it straight into the broth. The house-made tofu is silky, the broth is deeply red, and the white-shirt warning is sincere. Bulgogi and bibimbap round out the menu for anyone not ready to commit to the fire.

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

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

Tucked just off the food court at Mekong Plaza, this Northern Chinese bao shop has outlasted neighbors that came and went while it quietly became a fixture. Handmade dumplings arrive chewy and properly sealed, with steamed buns and xiao long bao filling out the menu. Dan dan noodles and a cucumber salad round things out for anyone who wants something beyond the folded stuff. Phoenix New Times named it the best dumplings in Phoenix.

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

Chris Bianco is the Bronx-born pizzaiolo who convinced the rest of the country that Phoenix belongs in the pizza conversation, and this snug 42-seat brick room in Heritage Square is where it started. Wood-fired Neapolitan pies come out of an oven that has been running for decades, drawing lines that have shown no signs of shortening. Bianco holds two James Beard Awards, which is two more than most people who make pizza for a living.

1. 50 Top Pizza 50 Top Pizza USA Excellent Pizzerias
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Food Pioneer · Chris Bianco
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

The delivery vehicle is called an Emergency Donut Vehicle, which tells you everything about the vibe here. This 24-hour doughnut shop leans hard into nostalgia and spectacle, piling its yeast and cake rings with candy bar crumbles, cereal, roasted marshmallows, and glazes in colors not found in nature. The flavors skew s'mores and Little Debbie rather than artisan restraint, so come hungry for dessert energy at any hour you please.

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

Chihuahua-style street food is the whole point here, counter-service and no-frills, with a menu tight enough that everything on it earns its spot. The gorditas have won over Phoenix two years running, and the tacos, barbacoa through lengua, hold up across multiple locations without the usual chain drift. A James Beard semifinalist, which for a fast-casual taco spot is its own kind of statement. Patio seating available if the line moves fast enough.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Gorditas · Best of the Valley

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

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

Latha means "flavor" in Swahili, which the kitchen takes as a brief. Housed in the bungalow-style Silva House in Heritage Square, this downtown Phoenix restaurant traces the food of the African diaspora through Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the American South, on both prix fixe and à la carte menus. The cooking has range, from piri piri chicken over jollof rice to Southern pound cake finished with tropical marmalade. A Michelin Selected restaurant.

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Best World Flavor
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Uniquely Arizona
2. Eater Flour Tortillas · The Most Iconic Dishes 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

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Chinese Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese 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

1. Eater Sashimi Spoons · The Most Iconic Dishes in Phoenix
2. Phoenix Magazine Sashimi Spoons · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

The rotisserie smoke reaches you before you open the door, which is either a warning or a promise. This counter-service Peruvian chicken shop on East Thomas keeps things focused: whole or half birds off a hulking oven, Peruvian sauces on the side, and thick-cut fries that Phoenix New Times handed a Best of Phoenix nod to. Wash it down with an Inca Kola and you're done. Eater named it one of the best new restaurants in America in 2025.

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. 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

The chef still works the line most nights, which tells you something about a creative restaurant that's been an Old Town Scottsdale fixture long enough to feel inevitable. Vegetables are taken seriously here, pulled from Arizona farms and steered through a menu that drifts from the Sonoran Desert to the Levant without announcing itself. The wine list leans hard into Arizona producers, and the tucked-away bar is a fine place to work through both.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Arizona Wine Selection · Best of Phoenix

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

Specials scrawled on brown paper rolls and a pastry case worth a long look set the tone at this low-key bakery and brunch cafe on McDowell Road. The kitchen leans on local ingredients, and the menu changes with what's good, so regulars learn to check the case before committing. Patio seating in the Phoenix sunshine makes the wait easier. Easy to miss from the street, which keeps it mercifully manageable on a weekend morning.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best breakfast spots in Phoenix
2. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
3. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

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. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Maggiore Group · Outstanding Hospitality Group

The entire menu is gluten-free, which sounds like a warning but reads more like a dare. Jewel's is a breakfast and brunch cafe on the east side of Phoenix where the doughnut holes are light, the tortillas stretch properly, and the waffles hold up under chicken and spicy bacon without apology. Dairy-free, vegan, and vegetarian options run alongside bottomless mimosas and locally roasted coffee. Nothing on the plate telegraphs its constraints.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
2. Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona

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

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Exceptional Culinary Experience
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. Phoenix Magazine Hiramasa Ceviche · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

Plastic dinosaurs lined up on the ledge, a letterboard menu that changes whenever it feels like it, and a taproom that still reads as someone's living room because it used to be one. This community-focused brewpub in Green Gables pours the Spellbinder hazy IPA alongside a rotating cast of fruit-forward beers, and food trucks regularly pull up out front to fill the gap. Small, friendly, and a little cluttered in the best way.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Spellbinder · Favorite Local Craft Beer
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Brewery · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Brewery · Best of Phoenix

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 New Times 2025 · Best Milkshakes · Best of Phoenix

1. Bon Appétit The Very Best Bagels in the US (Yes, Outside New York)
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Bagels · 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

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

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants

Tyson Cole's Austin-born Japanese fine dining concept has colonized Old Town Scottsdale, and the food makes it hard to resent the expansion. The menu runs well past sashimi and nigiri into tempura, grilled meats, and crudo, and you can order à la carte, build a tasting menu with your server, or hand over full control with an omakase. The room runs on polished service and the kind of care that makes a chain feel like a local obsession.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Top Sushi Restaurant
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Take a Foodie · Best of Phoenix

The dining room is painted in every color someone could fit on a wall, which turns out to be solid preparation for the menu that follows. This Sinaloan seafood restaurant in Phoenix runs a multi-page spread of aguachiles, whole fried fish, grilled shrimp Micheladas, and molcajetes loaded with carne asada alongside whatever came out of the ocean. A serrano margarita handles the heat. Families book out the patio on weekends, so call ahead if you're bringing a crowd.

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

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

Roosevelt Row gets a proper grown-up restaurant in Pretty Penny, where every table starts with a complimentary pour of bubbles and the kitchen sends out housemade pastas, bold proteins, and an octopus tostada that earned a spot on Phoenix Magazine's top dishes list. The forest-green room is sleek without being stiff, and the bar program holds its own, landing in the Spirited Awards' regional top ten for best new cocktail bar.

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Mixologist/Bartender · Brenon Stuart
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best New Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Exceptional Culinary Experience
2. Phoenix Magazine Navarro Grain Bowl · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
3. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hamburgers · Best of Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: In-Good Spirits · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Salad: The Original Chopped Salad · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix Magazine Lucky 7 Cereal Bowl · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Top Arizona Brewery, Winery, or Distillery Experience
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: American Pie · Favorite Local Craft Beer
3. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Mango Foxtrot · Favorite Local Craft Beer

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Maggiore Group · Outstanding Hospitality Group

1. Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Maggiore Group · Outstanding Hospitality Group

A banana leaf-wrapped branzino arrives at the table and you unwrap it yourself, releasing a cloud of curry-leaf steam. Indibar is a fine dining modern Indian restaurant, all desert neutrals and Art Deco curves, with the white-glove service of a high-end resort. The kitchen applies globe-spanning fine dining technique to tandoori and regional traditions. A James Beard Best New Restaurant semifinalist in 2026, and named by USA Today among its Restaurants of the Year.

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Tucson Import · Best of Phoenix
2. Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona

Menus written entirely in Spanish set the tone at this all-white coffee shop in downtown Phoenix, where the minimalism stops at the decor. The drinks lean on flavors from the chef's Mexican childhood: sweetened condensed milk and piloncillo folded into espresso, cafe de olla fragrant with cinnamon and anise, horchata made with wild rice and almond milk. It's a quiet, unhurried room that draws people who plan to stay a while.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Third Space · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
3. AZ Central Best downtown Phoenix coffee shops for curling up with a book · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes