The Best Places in Phoenix

A small vintage shop on the Scottsdale-Tempe border stocked with psychedelic rompers, prairie dresses, and old Levi's that will make you quietly reconsider your entire wardrobe. Pieces are true vintage, some carefully restored, and the selection rotates enough that nothing feels like a costume bin. Prices are on the higher side for thrift but reasonable for the category, and the occasional fill-a-bag sale draws a line out the door.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vintage Clothing · Best of Phoenix

A movie theater that runs 35mm repertory screenings alongside cult oddities like "Reefer Madness" is already a different animal from the multiplex down the road. Majestic mixes first-run releases with arthouse picks, grindhouse fare, and anime imports, plus weekly horror nights and movie parties with singalongs and themed food pairings. There's a full bar, which makes the celluloid oddities go down easier.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to See a Classic Movie · Best of Phoenix

Colored concrete runs through the contest-style street course here, and the mini ramp sits in-ground where the desert sun can bake it properly. This is a full-featured public skate park in Queen Creek, newer enough that the surfaces still feel fast and smooth. It's a haul from central Phoenix, but skaters making the drive find an 11,000-square-foot layout that doesn't feel like an afterthought bolted onto a rec center.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Skate Park · Best of Phoenix

Once a month in the Melrose District, vendors spread out midcentury color across an outdoor vintage market, fall through spring. Clothes, jewelry, vinyl, and house decor carry the neighborhood's funky retro energy, and a few snack booths keep you going through the browsing. Dogs are welcome, which matters more than you'd think when the find of the morning turns out to be nothing.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Outdoor Vintage Market · Best of Phoenix

The clack of a Remington or an Olivetti fills this old-school typewriter shop, which has been around forever and looks every year of it. The shelves run from clunky pre-war workhorses to sleek midcentury portables, and the staff will sell you one, rent you one, or fix the one gathering dust in your closet. Ideal for anyone who's decided that a glowing screen is the problem and a ribbon-inked page is the solution.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Typewriter Shop · Best of Phoenix

A rotating light tunnel will make you grab for a wall you don't need. The Museum of Illusions is an interactive attraction where slanted rooms make one person look like a giant beside another, and every exhibit comes with a plain-language explanation of why your brain got fooled. It sits inside the Arizona Boardwalk complex and runs well on a hot afternoon when you want air conditioning with a side of mild existential confusion.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Have Your Mind Boggled · Best of Phoenix

A neon sign shop that's been bending glass tubes for Phoenix since the early 80s, Naturalite Neon has lit up everything from Ferrari dealerships to dive bars without anyone knowing to credit them. That anonymity is sort of the point. Half the glowing signs you've admired on a slow summer drive through the city probably came from this warehouse in Avondale, doing quiet, luminous work in the background of Phoenix's whole visual identity.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Neon Signs · Best of Phoenix

A VR lounge in Mesa that leans hard into the basement-gaming aesthetic rather than the cold, sleek future that VR always threatens to become. You can race cars, hit the slopes, or survive a zombie cage, and an hour runs just over twenty-five dollars. The crowd spans hardcore gamers and curious first-timers, which is sort of the whole point. Phoenix New Times named it the best virtual reality lounge in the valley in 2023.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Virtual Reality Lounge · Best of Phoenix

A nonprofit arts center running classes in ceramics, drawing, glass, jewelry, painting, and music across two Phoenix locations, this is the kind of place that assumes you want to actually learn something. Instructors cover theory alongside technique, and most courses run five or six weeks, so the commitment is real but not daunting. A good antidote to wandering a craft store hoping for inspiration to strike.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Art Classes · Best of Phoenix

An outdoor outlet mall on the Gila River Indian Community, Phoenix Premium Outlets trades indoor air conditioning for open-air discount hunting across a solid spread of name brands. Coach, Kate Spade, Nike, Adidas, and a Saks OFF Fifth anchor the handbag and sneaker heavy lineup, with factory stores for Banana Republic, Gap, and Columbia filling out the rest. It won't be confused with Scottsdale Fashion Square, but the prices will remind you that's fine.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mall · Best of Phoenix

Ten acres, four greenhouses, imported pottery, and occasionally a yoga class held among the succulents. Plant Stand of Arizona is a nursery that runs a little wild with its square footage, stocking everything from hardy desert plants to indoor exotics to the kind of statement specimen that needs its own corner of the room. It draws beginners hunting for something to not kill and collectors who already know what they want and just need fifty of them.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Nursery · Best of Phoenix

Mini-golf gets the nightlife treatment at this high-energy entertainment venue inside Scottsdale Quarter. Ball-tracking sensors handle the scoring so you can focus on navigating four illuminated nine-hole courses, each with inventive obstacles loosely themed around gems. Bars on both floors and DJ sets on weekends keep things moving, and yes, you can carry a cocktail through the whole round, though the pinball-style holes may test that commitment.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mini Golf · Best of Phoenix

Seven lakes filled with reclaimed water sit inside a 110-acre desert preserve in Gilbert, and that unlikely combination pulls in birds you'd never expect this far from a coast: egrets, avocets, herons, stilts, and peregrine falcons passing through on migration. Doves and quail show up too, but they're almost beside the point. Veteran birders patrol the paths with telescope lenses, and they tend to be generous with tips if you're just starting out.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Take Up Birding · Best of Phoenix

A mile of Roosevelt Street running between Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street, this walkable arts corridor threads past galleries, historic bungalows, live music venues, and enough bars and restaurants to justify multiple laps. It reads differently depending on the night, but the through line is a Phoenix that feels genuinely patched together rather than planned. Best experienced in the cooler months, when the weather finally cooperates with the city's ambitions.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place for a Night Stroll · Best of Phoenix

A pirate-themed dive bar in Sunnyslope that opens at 6 a.m., which should tell you most of what you need to know. Drink specials are listed on the wall under "Grogs," free pool and shuffleboard tournaments fill the back, and biscuits and gravy come with your first drink if you show up early enough to need them. Burgers and corn dogs handle the rest. The merch, featuring a peg-legged mascot, is genuinely good.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar for Pregaming · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Name Change · Best of Phoenix

A historic park in Glendale where peacocks graze under fruit trees while doves call from tall palms overhead. The grounds are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the old ranch buildings make a handsome backdrop for a walk through the gardens. There are playgrounds and sports fields on the other side if you need a reason to bring kids. The peacocks, though, do most of the convincing on their own.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Park · Best of Phoenix

Wild horses standing in the shallows while the skyline sits just out of frame is the image that makes the Salt River stretch near Phoenix worth knowing about. Drop one car at Phon D Sutton, put in at Water Users, and you have a mellow half-day float with a few Class I bumps at the Pinball section. Bighorn sheep, otters, and the famously unbothered feral horses tend to do most of the entertaining. You'll need a Tonto Pass for the parking lots.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Kayaking · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Art Museum · Best of Phoenix

The fuzzy handcuffs are practically the greeting cards section here. Smokin' Lingerie is an adult shop where the inventory goes well past anything you'd find at Target, stocking a deep run of BDSM gear, kink equipment, and smoking supplies for good measure. The Phoenix New Times named it the best place to buy BDSM gear in the Valley, which tracks given the sheer ambition of the catalog. Come with a clear sense of what you're after, or at least a tolerance for surprises.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Place to Buy BDSM Gear · Best of Phoenix

Every night in Mesa, a neon woman dives forever into a pool that isn't there, which is either poetic or just very Phoenix. The Starlite Motel's "Diving Lady" sign is a midcentury relic that got knocked out by a storm and came back after a community-funded restoration effort that cost six figures. She glows in the way old neon does, warm and slightly buzzing, the kind of thing worth slowing the car down for.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Neon Sign · Best of Phoenix

The Arizona Cardinals call it home, but State Farm Stadium earns its keep on the concert calendar. The retractable-roof arena seats 64,000, which means when a stadium tour rolls into the Phoenix metro, the spectacle scales accordingly. The Rolling Stones, Metallica, and U2 have each played it twice, and Taylor Swift launched the Eras tour here. Big room, big sound, big crowds dressed accordingly.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Stadium Venue · Best of Phoenix

A showroom full of classic cars and trucks where you can walk the floor without anyone pressuring you to buy. Streetside Classics is a national dealer specializing in vintage American iron, and the Mesa location keeps a deep inventory, the kind where a '53 Buick and a '72 Bronco might be neighbors. Even if dropping five figures on a Road Runner isn't the plan, an afternoon here passes easily, half browsing, half quietly doing the math.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vintage Cars · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vintage Home Market · Best of Phoenix

Frank Lloyd Wright built Taliesin West as his own desert home and studio, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site is about as far as you can get from a velvet-rope museum. Docent-led walking tours cover the office, a private home theater, and a collection of Asian art, with the McDowell Mountains as the backdrop. Evening tours run too, if the afternoon heat is uninviting. Workshops and rotating exhibitions go deeper into Wright's philosophy for the genuinely curious.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Architectural Gem · Best of Phoenix

Film still on the shelves is the first clue that this isn't a big-box camera department pretending to care. Tempe Camera is an old-school camera shop and repair house where the staff are all photographers, happy to talk you through a lens decision without making you feel like a tourist. Downstairs handles repairs, sensor cleanings, and gear rentals. They also run workshops if you're still figuring out what half the buttons do.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Camera Store · Best of Phoenix

The Duce is part-bar, part-gym, part-vintage trailer diner, part-dance hall, which sounds like a fever dream but somehow holds together. You can swing dance, throw a punch in the boxing area, browse vintage goods, and still find time for a pot pie and an old-school cocktail, all under one roof. Ping-pong and shuffleboard are there if you need to justify the drinks as cardio. Phoenix has plenty of bars, but few with this particular range of excuses to stay.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Salsa Night · Best of Phoenix

A bar that closes at ten, and that's the whole point. The Joy Lush Club is a low-key neighborhood wine and beer bar with 16 taps, a serious wine list, live music, and food trucks rotating through. You can even take a bottle home on your way out. It draws the kind of crowd that wants a proper drink without the performance of a late night. Think comfortable chairs, zero pretension, and somewhere to be by morning.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Low-Key Bar · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Jazz Club · Best of Phoenix

No signage in the lobby, no floor indicator in the elevator, just the sound of a crowd spilling out when the fifth-floor doors open. The Pub at Thunderbird is a full bar on a Thunderbird School of Global Management campus, open to the public on weekdays, with alumni spirits behind the bar, a rooftop with downtown Phoenix views, and Thursday nights where students and professors share a table like it's the most normal thing in the world.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar on a College Campus · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Local-Centric Venue · Best of Phoenix

A dachshund-shaped iron toilet paper holder is the kind of thing that ends up in somebody's bathroom forever, and it came from a strip mall next to a Kohl's in Ahwatukee. Vintageous is a vintage furniture and decor shop with a well-curated rotation of midcentury modern pieces, old denim, and oddball gifts, all spread across a roomy, easy-to-navigate floor rather than the usual tchotchke labyrinth.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Vintage Home Goods · Best of Phoenix

A 190-foot-long mural running along Adams Street between First and Second, painted by local artist Kayla Newnam. Gila monsters, saguaros, and mountain ranges roll across the wall in bold desert colors under a painted sunset that takes up most of the sky. Newnam opened two community paint days during the process, so a fair number of Phoenicians had a hand in it. The Phoenix New Times named it Best Mural in 2023.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mural · Best of Phoenix

A half-day on the Salt River for the price of a decent lunch is the pitch at WildHorse Paddleboards, a Mesa outfit that rents boards by the half or full day. The owner's enthusiasm for Arizona's waterways is the kind that turns a transaction into an orientation, so first-timers leave knowing more than which end to stand on. A solid way to spend a Sunday without committing to garage storage.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Paddleboard Rentals · Best of Phoenix

Xico has been anchoring Latino and Indigenous arts in downtown Phoenix since the mid-seventies, and it shows in the best way. This nonprofit gallery and arts hub runs the full range: rotating exhibitions, artist talks, and classes that draw a crowd well beyond the First Friday tourists. Shows skew toward Latina and Indigenous voices, and the programming actually changes, so there's a reason to come back.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Latino Arts Hub · Best of Phoenix

A deli case crammed with dozens of sausages, hams, and forcemeats is the first thing that stops you cold at this Polish specialty market in Surprise. Shelves run deep with pickles, sauerkraut, jams, and imported Eastern European spirits, and a hot deli turns out rotating Polish plates packed to go. The range is wide enough that the name barely feels like a stretch.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Eastern European Market · Best of Phoenix

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

The display case here looks like it belongs in a European charcuterie, packed with cuts trimmed as carefully as a jeweler sets stones. This is a full-service butcher shop sourcing beef, pork, and lamb from Arizona ranches, with house-made sausages, cured meats, and a freezer worth raiding. Fresh pasta, local eggs, and pantry staples round it out. The staff actually know their meat and will talk you through it, which remains a butcher shop's rarest offering.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Butcher · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Breakfast Sandwich · Best of Phoenix

A black-and-white dining room tucked into the Scottsdale Waterfront strip mall, where the guacamole arrives studded with pomegranate seeds and warm steak cubes, which sounds like a gimmick until it doesn't. This modern Mexican restaurant runs from quesabirria tacos to charred octopus, and the cocktails come dressed with flower petals and charred cinnamon sticks, because subtlety is apparently optional. The flan, cracked with caramel shards, lands the ending.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Guacamole · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Guacamole · Best of Phoenix

A small chocolatier in Fountain Hills where the bonbons are the reason to make the drive. Louis and Denise Mirabella work in the bean-to-bar mode, making chocolate in-house, but the real draw is their bonbon range, which runs from classic cherry cordials and gianduja to passionfruit caramel and zinfandel ganache. The fillings hit with an intensity that makes each piece feel like it's been concentrated down to its purest form. Phoenix New Times named them best bonbons in 2024.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bonbons · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Vietnamese Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Gelato · Best of Phoenix

The smell of jerk chicken charring over fire hits you before you reach the door, which is all the orientation you need. Cool Vybz is a no-frills Jamaican spot on the north side of Phoenix, the dining room strictly functional, the cooking anything but. The chef came up on the island and keeps the menu short: curry goat, oxtails, brown stew snapper. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top Caribbean restaurant in 2024, and the jerk alone makes a reasonable argument for why.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Caribbean Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

A pasty bar doing roughly fifty fillings, from tikka masala to cheeseburger, in a cavernous downtown Phoenix space that somehow feels more Cornish pub than desert Southwest. The multi-story room stays dark despite the chandeliers, and the second-floor railing gives you a perch over the pool tables below. Draft Guinness is the obvious move. Phoenix New Times named it among the top 100 bars in the city.

1. Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Late-Night Eats · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mexican Coffee Shop · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Churros · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Churros · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Breakfast Burrito · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mexican Sushi · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Jewish Deli · Best of Phoenix

The food court inside this sprawling Korean supermarket runs from fried pork belly to bulgogi risotto to French-inspired desserts, which tells you something about the ambition of the place. H Mart is the kind of grocery store where you come in for kimchi and leave with Hello Kitty sake and a skincare regimen. The seafood section alone could occupy a long afternoon, and the ready-to-eat station in back earns its own trip.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Asian Grocery Store · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Tacos · Best of Phoenix

The injera here is nearly chocolate-dark, made from pure teff with a sharp fermented tang that most Ethiopian spots in town don't bother chasing. This laid-back restaurant on a stretch of McDowell more famous for traffic than food serves bold, uncompromising classics, and the staff makes you feel like a regular on the first visit. End with the traditional coffee service, which is not optional.

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

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Barbacoa · Best of Phoenix

A Sonoran seafood chainlet wedged into the strip-mall sprawl near Westgate, Los Arbolitos de Cajeme handles ceviche tostadas, fishbowl cocktails, and stone molcajetes with more care than the surroundings would suggest. The grilled octopus arrives sizzling with a smoky morita chile sauce that makes a convincing case for the detour. Go before a game when you want real mariscos and the other options are the usual suspects.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Eat Before a Glendale Event · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Carnitas · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Non-Alcoholic Drink Options · Best of Phoenix

Arancini the size of baseballs are the opening argument at this Italian restaurant tucked into a southwest Valley strip mall. The room runs small and lively, with couples and regulars filling tables over Neapolitan-style pies, both red and white. The pizza list skews local-neighborhood-Italian in the best way, and the Phoenix New Times named it Best Pizza in 2024. Worth the drive from central Phoenix if you're tired of pretending the closer options are just as good.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Pizza · Best of Phoenix

The ice cream sandwich here comes on a fresh-sliced doughnut, which is either genius or a personal liability depending on your self-control. This small-batch ice cream shop keeps a core menu of eight flavors, rotates in new ones weekly, and does fruit sorbets for the dairy-free crowd. The original location sits in a tiny historic building on Grand Avenue, which gives it more character than a strip mall scoop shop ever could.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Ice Cream · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Oaxacan Food · Best of Phoenix

Order-at-the-counter fish and chips in a strip mall, priced mostly in the teens, with your choice of fish battered and fried to order. The clam chowder is the thick, goopy kind you feel slightly embarrassed to enjoy, and the fried shrimp are plump enough to make you forget you're in Glendale. Tartar sauce is creamy, cocktail sauce has actual kick. Phoenix New Times named it Best Fast Food in 2024, which is either a surprise or exactly right depending on how you feel about Long John Silver's.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Fast Food · Best of Phoenix

Pears, gorgonzola, dried cranberries, and toasted hazelnuts in a house cider vinaigrette is the move that explains the name at this family-owned East Valley bistro. Ten composed entree salads anchor the menu, with enough add-on proteins (salmon, shrimp, falafel, mock chik'n) to handle any table's dietary politics. Quinoa bowls, tacos, pasta, and a full bar round things out for groups that can't agree on anything except where to go.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Salads · Best of Phoenix

A living wall and copper accents soften what is otherwise a properly dark cocktail bar doing its best not to be found. Pigtails is a speakeasy that skips the password theatrics and the reservation-or-else attitude, which puts it ahead of most places bothering with the genre. The drinks riff on classics, a rotating mystery punch keeps things loose, and the raw bar snacks suggest someone thought past the ice bucket.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Speakeasy · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Al Pastor · Best of Phoenix

Charcoal-grilled hot dogs at a counter where the walls are buried in memorabilia: Ted's is an old-school hot dog shop with roots in upstate New York. The White Hot, dressed with sauerkraut and mustard, is the move, but the real sleeper is the fries with gravy, a combination rare enough in Phoenix that people drive across town for it. The buns come toasted or plain, which feels like a small thing until you're asked.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Hot Dogs · Best of Phoenix

The water gets filtered and softened to mimic East Coast chemistry, which tells you everything about how seriously this Ahwatukee bagel shop takes its product. The bagels come out big, with a crisp shell and a chewy interior, and the Phoenix New Times named them the city's best in 2024. A plain schmear lets the bagel do its thing, though breakfast sandwiches move fast on weekend mornings.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Bagels · Best of Phoenix

The Churchill is an open-air food hall in downtown Phoenix with a courtyard packed enough during peak hours that finding a seat becomes a sport. Most people never notice the staircase tucked past the restrooms at the north end, which leads to a rooftop with a quiet view over the city. Grab something from one of the vendors below and take it up; the crowd thins considerably and the evening light does most of the work.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Secret Patio · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Tortas · Best of Phoenix

The aguas frescas here run from safe-harbor strawberry and watermelon all the way to soursop and cucumber lemon, which is a solid argument for branching out. This is a torta shop, so the sandwiches are the main event, but the drinks have their own following and earned Phoenix New Times's Best Aguas Frescas in 2024. When the Phoenix heat is doing what Phoenix heat does, a cold glass of something made with fresh fruit feels less like a beverage and more like a public service.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Aguas Frescas · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Aguas Frescas · Best of Phoenix

A wing shop that keeps the menu short by design, Valley Wings puts its energy into texture: the skin cracks, the meat stays juicy, and the honey hot flavor threads sweet and heat together without either one winning. The Phoenix New Times named it Best Chicken Wings in 2024. Three metro Phoenix locations means it's rarely far away, which is convenient, because once you know the order, the craving has a very specific address.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Chicken Wings · Best of Phoenix

The jollof rice arrives with a fried turkey quarter, crisp-skinned and juicy, habanero sauce on the side. This no-frills West African restaurant in north Phoenix carries a largely Liberian menu with a few wider regional dishes folded in, including egusi soup thick with smoked fish and goat pepper soup that brings genuine heat without quite crossing the line. The room is modest, the cooking is not, and Phoenix is richer for having it.

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

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1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Champion of Latino Culture · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Quesabirria · Best of Phoenix

The fajita quesadilla here is the size of a small country, stuffed with chicken or beef, bell peppers, onions, and molten cheese, with carne asada cut thick enough to surprise anyone expecting a casual counter spot. This neighborhood Mexican restaurant in Peoria earned a Phoenix New Times Best of Phoenix nod for its quesadillas, and the tortilla, crisp and golden, holds everything together better than most plans do.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Quesadillas · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Tortillas · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Margaritas · Best of Phoenix

The kitchen inside Crescent Ballroom wraps burritos in foil and marks them with stickers bearing faces like Morrissey and Mr. Bean, which tells you most of what you need to know. This Sonoran Mexican spot was shaped by Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco fame, and it runs until midnight, so the crowd skews toward concertgoers and touring bands who just rolled off I-10. Sonoran dogs, tacos, nachos, and burritos, done with more care than the venue setting suggests.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Nachos · Best of Phoenix

A serpentine bar stocked floor-to-ceiling with tequila and cerveza anchors the main room at this Latin nightclub on Central Avenue, where resident DJs rotate through reggaeton, cumbia, salsa, and bachata until 3 a.m. or later. The $10 door gets you the dance floor; $20 buys plush couches and bottle service on the VIP side. A michelada and taco bar rounds things out for anyone who needs a breather.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Latin Nightclub · Best of Phoenix

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Chimichangas · Best of Phoenix

The huaraches here come on hand-pressed masa that's thick enough to hold its shape under a pile of toppings, queso fresco, onion, and cilantro. This casual Mexican counter runs through tacos, tortas, burritos, and those huaraches all day, with carne asada and al pastor doing the heavy lifting. The building from the outside makes no promises, but the salsas inside range from warm to genuinely alarming, which seems to be the point.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Tacos · Best of Phoenix

The password comes from the barista at Stir Coffee upstairs, which is a reasonable amount of theater for a cocktail bar tucked below a strip mall. Gin & Reel leans hard into the speakeasy aesthetic, and the basement room does pull off a convincing other-era feeling despite the square footage. Cocktails skew citrusy and creative, and charcuterie or pizza is available to pace yourself. Weekends fill fast, and the two-hour limit keeps things moving whether you're ready or not.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best New Speakeasy · Best of Phoenix

A taco truck parked in a lot on 16th Street, deep into the night, serving Sonoran Mexican to anyone who finds their way there. The meats are the point: carne asada, sure, but the lengua is rich and fatty, the buche carries real animal intensity, and the tripas come out screaming hot and crackly. Onions and chopped herbs are all they need. Burritos and vampiros round things out, and yes, there is a cheese-buried Sonoran dog.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Late-Night Mexican Food · Best of Phoenix

A Mexican import shop tucked into the small town of Guadalupe, Mercado Mexico rewards wandering more than it rewards a list. The sprawling aisles run from handpainted ornaments to big bottles of vanilla extract to terracotta planters, and most people leave with things they had no intention of buying. Come with a loose agenda and check every corner before you head to the register.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mexican Imports Store · Best of Phoenix

A narrow strip-mall storefront off Thomas Road that serves Michoacán family recipes to a weekend brunch crowd that knows exactly what it came for. This festive, casual Mexican restaurant keeps its menu rooted in the cooking of one region, which tends to produce that rare strip-mall meal you find yourself describing to people. When mole negro is on the specials board, the table next to you has probably already ordered it.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mexican Brunch · Best of Phoenix

A local Arizona chain spreading across the Valley one location at a time, Someburros is a casual Mexican restaurant where the happy hour margarita is the main event. Original and strawberry margs come in at a price that makes rounding up to a third feel almost responsible. Mini chimichangas and cheese crisps help absorb the damage. Phoenix New Times gave it a Best Cheap Margaritas nod, which is perhaps the most honest award category in existence.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Cheap Margaritas · Best of Phoenix

Sinaloan-style sushi, where the emphasis lands firmly on Sinaloa. This casual roll shop in west Phoenix leans into the coastal Mexican seafood traditions of the northwest, so expect aguachile poured over crab rolls and shrimp cocktail ladled on top in a gloriously soupy heap. The kitchen rotates experiments freely, meaning octopus, mango, or caramelized banana might all show up on a roll depending on the week.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mexican Sushi · Best of Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Ceviche · Best of Phoenix