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The Best Places in Phoenix

Eat + Drink + Stay, change section
  1. A globe-hopping dinner spot in Old Town Scottsdale built as a love letter to Anthony Bourdain, which means handmade pasta shares the menu with egg yolk nigiri and bison ribeye without any of it feeling like a theme park. The warm, conversation-friendly room earns its vibe. The bar team applies something closer to lab technique to the cocktails, and the mocktail program picked up a Phoenix Magazine Best of the Valley nod, which is a sentence Bourdain would have found deeply funny.


    Address
    7137 E Stetson Dr, Ste 12, Scottsdale, AZ · Scottsdale
    Hours

    Open now, until 10 PM

    Sunday 3 PM–10 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  3. The Arcadia Burger, topped with grilled onions, guacamole, and the house sauce, is the one to order at this drive-thru-only burger shoppe with no indoor seating whatsoever. The double-stacked patties are properly juicy, the fries are the obvious companion, and the milkshakes invite mixing flavors in combinations you'll immediately claim were your idea. Phoenix New Times put it in the top ten burger joints in town, and the neighborhood regulars roll through like they know something.


    Address
    3538 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 9 PM

    Sunday 11 AM–9 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram


  4. Address
    4041 N 40th St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 10 PM

    Sunday 10 AM–10 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram




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  6. Address
    5749 N 7th St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 8 PM

    Sunday 2 PM–8 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  9. Address
    635 W Glenrosa Ave, Ste 109, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Closed now, opens Thu 7 AM

    Sunday 7 AM–2 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  10. Address
    2 N Central Ave, Unit 101, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 9 PM

    Sunday 10 AM–2 PM, 4 PM–9 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  14. Rotating TV screens overhead walk you through the menu before you've even sat down, which sets the tone for this welcoming Indian restaurant on the east side of Phoenix. The family behind it grew up in the restaurant business back in India and brought that instinct for hospitality with them. Dosa arrives shattering crisp, the malai kofta is deeply comforting, and the staff nudges you toward something unfamiliar if you let them.


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  21. A Mexican restaurant in a converted brick building in Garfield, where the large windows keep things bright enough that you don't feel like you're day-drinking when you order a Paloma at noon. Gallo Blanco runs all three meals, so the crowd shifts from coffee-and-eggs regulars to the burrito-and-margarita contingent by midday. The guacamole and chips make a persuasive case for arriving hungry and starting slow.


    Address
    928 E Pierce St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 9 PM

    Sunday 8 AM–9 PM

    Reserve
    Resy
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  34. The cardstock to-go box comes with chopstick handles built into the sides, which is either the cleverest packaging in Phoenix or a sign that the city has simply been doing lunch wrong. This grab-and-go dumpling shop on a downtown corner keeps the menu short: pick your base, pick your filling, pick a sauce. The whole thing runs about thirteen dollars, which buys considerably more than whatever sad situation you had going on at your desk.


    Address
    116 E Roosevelt St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 11 PM

    Sunday 11 AM–11 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  36. Rank 318. Melindas Alley

    Cocktail Bar

    A chalkboard of rotating cocktail specials and a basement bathed so completely in red light that no other color survives the trip down. This speakeasy-style cocktail bar is tucked beneath the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel, behind a mural and open only two nights a week, which is exactly the energy. Vintage velvet chairs and low tables give it the feel of a sitting room someone forgot to leave, and the drinks arrive in coupes and crystal-cut rocks glasses.


  37. Rank 318. Mensho Ramen

    Japanese Noodle Shop

    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.


  38. 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.


    Address
    1845 E Broadway Rd, Tempe, AZ · Tempe
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 5 PM

    Sunday 11:30 AM–3 PM, 5 PM–9 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  39. Rank 318. pa'la wood-fired cooking

    Wood-fired Mediterranean


    Address
    2107 N 24th St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 5:30 PM

    Sunday 5:30 PM–9 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  47. Address
    3213 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 5 PM

    Sunday 5 PM–9 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

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  49. Old Town Scottsdale runs heavy on sushi and gourmet burgers, so a candlelit Mexican restaurant with a serious tequila program reads almost as contraband. The Mission leans modern Latin rather than strictly regional, but the street tacos and bacon-wrapped hot dogs hold their own against the fancier plates. The room is dark and unhurried in a way that makes a second round of $15 cocktails feel inevitable.


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  52. The outdoor bar lives inside a repurposed shipping container, which tells you something about this brewpub's sensibility. Arizona Wilderness pours a rotating slate of seasonal ales alongside house classics, and the kitchen keeps pace with oversized burgers, an Arizonan hot fried chicken sandwich, and duck fat fries that have developed their own following. The vegan options are less afterthought than actual draw. Bench seating, a beer garden, and desert weather do the rest.


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  55. 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.


    Address
    850 S Ash Ave, Tempe, AZ · Tempe
    Hours

    Open now, until 1 AM

    Sunday 11 AM–1 AM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  58. Part coffee shop, part design store, part Taschen outpost, Dialog sits at the base of a mural-wrapped building on Roosevelt Row and dares you to categorize it. The matcha is stone-ground and ceremonial-grade, with baristas reaching for a scale before the whisk ever touches the bowl. Beans come from Stereoscope in LA. Browsers drift between arched light fixtures and esoteric objects while something simmers on the U-shaped bar.


    Address
    1001 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Closes soon, 5 PM, in 25 min

    Sunday 8 AM–5 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  60. Rank 361. Espiritu

    Mexican Cocktail Bar


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


    Address
    9230 N 7th St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 8 PM

    Sunday 11 AM–8 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  71. 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.


    Address
    1605 E Garfield St, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 9 PM

    Sunday 11 AM–9 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
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  75. Rank 361. Stemistry

    Coffee

    The build-your-own bouquet bar is the first thing you notice, a wall of loose stems you pull and arrange yourself while your coffee order is being made. This is a coffee and flower shop in downtown Phoenix, the kind of concept that sounds precious until you're standing in it and it actually works. The rose latte has become something of a signature. Breakfast and lunch round it out, and private floristry classes are available for groups.


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  78. Address
    7419 E Indian Plaza, Scottsdale, AZ · Scottsdale
    Hours

    Open now, until 10 PM

    Sunday 11 AM–10 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  79. Address
    8240 N Hayden Rd, Unit B-105, Scottsdale, AZ · Scottsdale
    Hours

    Closed now, opens Mon 7 AM

    Sunday 7 AM–3 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  80. Frosted mugs pulled straight from a freezer behind a bar draped in kitschy tchotchkes: this Grand Avenue tiki dive bar has been an institution since truckers were rolling through on Route 60. Wood paneling, tiki-style tables, a pool table, and a patio where the smoking happens. On Tuesdays a DJ spins vinyl, playing what the regulars call "funky mutant dance music," and somehow the night outlasts your intentions. Cash only, so plan accordingly.


  81. Rank 388. Boycott Bar

    Cocktail Bar



  82. The taco truck parked out front sets the tone before you even get inside. Charlie's is an old-school gay bar and dance hall on Camelback with a big outdoor patio, bleacher seating, two bars, and a dance floor that earns its own reputation after midnight on weekends. The calendar runs from drag nights and karaoke to Latin and country two-stepping, so the crowd varies wildly depending on when you show up, which is most of the fun.


    Address
    727 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 2 AM

    Sunday Noon–2 AM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  83. Rank 388. Coach House

    Dive Bar




  84. Address
    300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ · Phoenix
    Hours

    Open now, until 8 PM

    Sunday 9 AM–8 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram


  85. Address
    7212 E Ho Hum Rd, Carefree, AZ · Carefree
    Hours

    Open now, until 9 PM

    Sunday 3 PM–9 PM

    Reserve
    OpenTable
    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  86. Rank 388. Kobalt Bar

    Cocktail Bar

    Karaoke spills out of this LGBTQ+ bar at Park Central before you even reach the door. Inside, Kobalt runs on the pleasant fiction that everyone already knows each other, with drag shows, RuPaul's watch parties, and trivia filling the calendar alongside the sing-alongs. Show tunes, '80s ballads, and early-aughts pop keep the room generous and loud. Cocktails hover around eleven dollars, which makes it easy to stay for one more song, then another.


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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

    How we score →

    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      Four fifths of the score is the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin Key outweighs a listicle. The last fifth is where it is: the ranked places to eat and things to do around it, and how safe the country is. When you sort by what's nearby, distance from you changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. The places are 60% of it: the best of what's within reach, weighed by distance. The setting is the other 40%: how life goes in that country (how people rate their own lives, how long and how well they live, how safe they are) and what it's like right there (the air, and the weather). If the score looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.