The Top 79 Places to Eat Near Picketpost Trailhead
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Rank 1. Queen Creek Olive Mill
Italian
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner · Uniquely Arizona
- Phoenix Magazine Stromboli Siciliano · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
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Rank 4. Caldwell County BBQ
Texas-Style Barbecue
The red weathervane out front reads "BBQ," which is all the signage a place like this needs. Walk past the giant mesquite smokers on your way in and you'll already be hungry before you hit the counter. This Gilbert BBQ shop does Texas-style brisket with a coarse peppercorn crust, served by the pound on tin trays at wooden picnic tables. Order early; the popular cuts sell out, and nobody drives out near Mesa Gateway Airport to settle for sides.
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Expansion · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 5. Peixoto Coffee
Brazilian Coffee
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Coffee Roasters · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best coffee shops in Phoenix
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- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
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- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Voodoo Fried Rice · Best Dish in a Supporting Role
- Phoenix Magazine New Orleans Shrimp and Grits · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
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- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Best World Flavors
- Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 11. Hapa Food
Hawaiian
The lines at this Mesa plate lunch counter are long because the menu is short and the food moves. Hapa is one of the few independent Hawaiian spots holding its own against the chains in Phoenix, and it earned a Phoenix New Times Best Hawaiian Restaurant nod for the effort. Check their Instagram before you go since daily specials rotate fast. Save room for the malasadas, fried to order and stuffed with vanilla custard or ube cream.
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hawaiian Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
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- Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Genuine Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group
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Rank 14. Tacos Chiwas
Chihuahuan Mexican
- Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Gorditas · Best of the Valley
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Rank 15. Randy's Donuts
Dessert
The giant rooftop donut made Randy's a Los Angeles landmark long before the chain showed up in the Valley, and the Gilbert shop carries the same energy: a bright display case packed with vivid, glazed options and a drive-thru line that moves faster than you'd expect. It's a classic donut shop, which means cheap, cheerful, and open early. The maple cake and cinnamon crumb cake are the regulars' picks, but the matcha raised donut is hard to walk past.
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Rank 16. Dutch Donut Factory
Bakery
The glazed donuts here come out warm if you time the drive to east Mesa right, and that detail explains most of what you need to know about this family-owned donut shop. The menu stays classic on purpose: pillowy raised donuts, apple fritters, old-fashioned buttermilk bars. No novelty toppings, no Instagram bait. Phoenix New Times named it Best Doughnuts in 2024, and the regulars in line at opening would find that completely unsurprising.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Doughnuts · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times A delicious dozen: The 12 best doughnut shops in the Valley
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Rank 18. Peixoto Coffee
Brazilian Coffee
The roaster works in plain sight at the back of this Brazilian crop-to-cup coffee shop, which pulls beans from the Peters family farm in Minas Gerais. No flavored syrups, no blenders, just coffee, milk, and water in various combinations, which sounds austere until you taste it. Pastries come from a local bakery and empanadas round out the food side. A second location sits inside Epicenter at Agritopia.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Coffee Roasters · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Coffee Roasters · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 19. Feringhee Modern Indian Cuisine
Modern Indian
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.
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Best World Flavor
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Upscale Indian Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 20. Shimogamo
Sushi
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.
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Best World Flavors
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Sushi · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 21. Lujos Cocina Mexicana
Mexican
A strip mall Mexican restaurant where everything, walls, floors, booths, even the plates, is painted black so the food glows against it like a still life. The brothers who run Lujos took over their parents' spot and rebuilt it almost entirely. The regular menu covers tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, but there's a permanent off-menu section worth asking about, including birria enchiladas drowning in red sauce with crema and guacamole. Wash it down with the horchata.
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- Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Top Arizona Brewery, Winery, or Distillery Experience
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Mango Foxtrot · Favorite Local Craft Beer
- Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: American Pie · Favorite Local Craft Beer
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Rank 23. Espiritu
Mexican Cocktail Bar
- Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Roberto Centeno
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Rank 24. Shaanxi Garden
Northern Chinese
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix
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- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 27. Maeva
Fine dining French
Dark walls, checkerboard tile, and a four-course French tasting menu in a Gilbert strip suite, which is not a sentence anyone expected to write. Maeva runs all day, so you can stop in for a lavender latte in the morning and then come back dressed up for dinner. The kitchen does a la carte too, but the tasting menu is the main event, with servers who steer the pairings and explain each plate without making you feel like you're being graded.
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best new Phoenix restaurants of 2025
- Phoenix New Times Chicken Soup en Croute · The 10 best bites we tasted at Phoenix restaurants
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Rank 29. Mensho Ramen
Noodles
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.
- Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Ramen · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 32. Board & Batten
Modern New American
String lights, a sprawling patio, and a wedding venue next door set the tone at this cozy modern bistro tucked behind an office park in Mesa. It reads like an elegant garden party that wandered off and found a better location. The menu rotates with the seasons, leaning toward steaks, fresh seafood, and handmade pasta, with shareable starters and a dessert list worth saving room for. A Phoenix New Times top 50 pick.
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Rank 33. Rayoog Cafe
Middle Eastern
A Middle Eastern breakfast cafe in the Gilbert suburbs, Rayoog has other locations in Jordan and Iraq, which gives you a sense of what this place is actually for. The move is to come with people willing to share: platters arrive loaded with eggs, hummus, falafel, yogurt, fava beans, and baba ghanoush, and the signature trays stack two metal teapots on top of a ring of small sweet and savory dishes, which is a genuinely dramatic way to start a morning.
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Rank 35. Don Guerra's Barrio Bagel & Slice
Sonoran Bakery
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Tucson Import · Best of Phoenix
- Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona
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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.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Korean Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 38. Main Burgers
American
White tiles, pastel trim, and a cartoon burger grinning at you from the wall set the tone at this retro counter-service burger joint on downtown Mesa's main drag. The team behind Tacos Chiwas and Espiritu kept things deliberately simple: a short menu of semi-smashed burgers, hot dogs, loaded fries, and aguas frescas. The Sonora burger, stacked with griddled cheese, chiltepin, and bacon, is the one people talk about.
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times Sonora Burger · The 10 best bites we tasted at Phoenix restaurants
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best new Phoenix restaurants of 2025
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Rank 39. Ban Chan Korean Cuisine
Traditional Korean
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Korean Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
- Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 42. The Hidden House
New American
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Rank 44. Que Chevere
Venezuelan Caribbean
Thick griddled corn arepas, stuffed or served alongside shredded beef and rice, are the spine of this Venezuelan Caribbean restaurant in downtown Mesa. The team graduated from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar, and the kitchen still rolls out hot cheese sticks every morning. The patacon swaps buns for fried plantains, and the cachapa, a sweet corn pancake, earns its own detour. A bar handles tropical drinks.
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Rank 45. Bar Capri
Italian
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.
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best new Phoenix restaurants of 2025
- Phoenix New Times Our top 10 favorite restaurants in Tempe
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Rank 48. Happy Baos
Northern Chinese
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.
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Dumplings · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 52. Chou's Kitchen - Chandler
Northeast Chinese
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Rank 53. Drunken Tiger
Korean
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Rank 56. Outcast Doughnuts
Dessert
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Rank 57. Proof Artisan Bread
Sourdough Bakery
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- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Chinese Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 65. All Pierogi Kitchen
Eastern European
The attached market selling frozen pierogi and chilled soups to go tells you everything about the vibe here. This casual Ukrainian family restaurant in Mesa treats borders as a loose suggestion, pulling in beef goulash, plov over cumin-scented rice, pork schnitzel, and thick, buttery pierogi that pair well with griddled sausage. The chicken Kiev arrives loaded with dill and herb butter. Unpretentious, generous portions, and priced like someone actually wants you to come back.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Eastern European Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Eastern European Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 67. The Great Gadsby
British Bakery
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Rank 68. Guadalupe On Main
Jalisco Mexican
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Margaritas · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix Magazine Street Corn Queso · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
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Rank 69. Caldwell County Mexi-Q
Barbecue
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Rank 72. Feta Cowboy
Mediterranean
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Rank 73. Roosters Country
Beer Bar
The 12 tap handles are mounted in a repurposed fire truck behind the bar, which tells you everything you need to know about the vibe. Roosters is a country bar that's been an East Valley institution forever, with a red-and-black checkered dance floor, pool tables, live music most nights, open mics, and karaoke. A second stage and beer tubs sit out on the smoking patio. Strangers introduce you to their friends before the first round is done.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar for Country Music · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 74. Dulce Churro Café
Dessert
Churros come in loops, bites, or sticks here, all fried to order, so you wait a minute and they arrive properly hot. Dulce is a dessert café in a Gilbert strip mall where the menu is essentially a build-your-own operation: pick a shape, choose a dip or glaze, add toppings if you like. The plain cinnamon sugar version makes the strongest case that the rest of the menu is just fun extras.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Churros · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Churros · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 75. Maple House
Cocktail Bar
A low-ABV cocktail bar tucked inside an actual house in downtown Chandler, where the default is a sherry or vermouth base rather than something that'll flatten you by nine. The menu runs from a gentle negroni to a spritzy Cappelletti situation to a vermouth margarita with heat, and coffee rounds things out if you'd rather not drink at all. The nooks and the porch invite lingering, which seems to be the whole point.
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Rank 78. Com Tam Thuan Kieu
Vietnamese
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Rank 79. Tumi 2.0
Peruvian
Peruvian cooking has always been a quiet argument that fusion was never a modern invention, and this Mesa restaurant makes that case across a menu that moves from Japanese-inflected ceviche to Chinese-Peruvian lomo saltado to chicken stew finished with Parmesan. The chef behind it has opened more Peruvian spots around Phoenix than anyone, and calls this one his last. The spit-roasted chicken, served with fried yuca, tends to do the convincing.