The Top 58 Restaurants 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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- 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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Rank 7. 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 10. 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 12. 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 13. 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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Rank 14. 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 16. 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 18. 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 21. 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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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 25. 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 top 10 burger joints in Phoenix
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Rank 26. 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 29. The Hidden House
New American
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Rank 31. 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 32. 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 35. 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 2025 · Best Dumplings · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Dumplings · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 39. Chou's Kitchen - Chandler
Northeast Chinese
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Rank 40. Drunken Tiger
Korean
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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 49. 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 51. 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 54. Feta Cowboy
Mediterranean
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Rank 57. Com Tam Thuan Kieu
Vietnamese
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Rank 58. 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.