The Best Places in Phoenix

1. AAA Five Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: In-Good Spirits · Outstanding Hospitality Group
2. Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Five Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

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

A white bungalow on a quiet stretch of Second Street, with string lights on the porch and climbing plants inside, that happens to be one of Phoenix's better French brasseries. Marble tables, exposed brick, and a vinyl record spinning somewhere set the mood for oysters on the patio or baked brie and beef tartare by candlelight. The wine list pulls from around the world, which keeps the date-night crowd very happy and very unhurried.

1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best French Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Challah soaked in Grand Marnier, griddled until the sugar crust cracks like a crème brûlée top, is the thing people come back for at this Southern brunch spot in Scottsdale. Catfish and grits, chicken and waffles, and a waffle so light it barely holds its own weight round out a menu that swings comfortably between sweet and savory. Weekends bring a DJ and mimosas on every table; weekdays are quieter and the wait is shorter.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Brunch · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Brunch · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Top Sushi Restaurant
2. Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

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.

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 2025 · Best Expansion · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Phoenix Magazine Lobster Tarte · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

Élephante lets you print a photo on top of your espresso martini, which is either the future of cocktails or a sign we've collectively lost the plot, possibly both. This lively Mediterranean restaurant on the sixth floor of Scottsdale Fashion Square draws a crowd that skews festive and photograph-ready. The espresso martini comes with a choice of vodka, mezcal, or tequila as the base, and the mocha variation leans into creme de cacao and vanilla.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best New Pizza Hot Spot · Best of the Valley
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Espresso Martini · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The chef comes from a line of Italian bakers, and the pizza crust at this Peoria trattoria and pizzeria makes that lineage hard to miss, with blistered char and a chew that most Phoenix spots across town can't match. The menu runs well past pizza, into house-made porchetta, light gnocchi with cheese-heavy sauces, and fresh stuffed pastas. For a neighborhood that usually gets everyone else's leftovers, this one was built here from scratch.

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 2025 · Best Italian Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Fresh rosemary on wooden tables and a bottle of house-made hot sauce waiting when you sit down sets the tone at this counter-service cafe. The farmhouse-chic room has soft bistro lights, chalkboard menus, and a walk-up window that made takeout brunch a neighborhood ritual. The line down the block on weekends is the real menu recommendation. Phoenix New Times named it best breakfast in 2024.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Breakfast · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
3. Eater The 15 Best Brunches in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

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

Five varieties of mole anchor the menu at this Oaxacan restaurant in Sunnyslope, where a string-lit patio softens the strip-mall surroundings considerably. The cocktail list leans heavily on mezcal, with rare agave spirits showing up across most of the drinks. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top Oaxacan restaurant, and the mole negro has a following of its own.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mole · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Mole · Best of Phoenix

A Modelo in a champagne chiller tells you everything about the vibe here. From the team behind Taco Boys, this seafood restaurant on North 7th is the dressed-up counterpoint to a casual taqueria, built for date night rather than a paper-plate lunch. The menu runs from a cold bar and ceviches to tacos and things grilled over mesquite charcoal, and the molcajete arrives with shrimp and octopus in hot or cold form.

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 2025 · Best New Mexican Restaurant · Best of 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

Cajeta pancakes topped with banana, crème fraîche, caramel, and candied peanuts are doing a lot of the heavy lifting at this colorful, homey Mexico City-style brunch spot in uptown Phoenix. The chef behind Gallo Blanco brings the same seriousness to chilaquiles and thick, crackling papas fritas. Weekend waits get real, so the attached coffee bar next door exists to make the line bearable. The salsas are not messing around.

1. Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
2. Eater Chilaquiles · The Most Iconic Dishes in Phoenix
3. Eater The 15 Best Brunches in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix Magazine Kash O'Bademjan · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A neon sign behind the open kitchen reads "Al Dente or Die," which tells you most of what you need to know about this downtown Phoenix pasta joint. Frank Ocean plays where Sinatra might, and "The Sopranos" loops on the wall behind the bar. The vodka sauce built a cult following when the place was a food truck, and the no-reservations line outside suggests that reputation held. Craft cocktails and low-intervention wines round things out.

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 2025 · Best Sauce · Best of 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 2025 · Best Japanese Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The steaks arrive already drenched in butter, with truffle butter on standby if you feel that wasn't enough of a statement. Steak 44 is a high-end steakhouse on the north side of Phoenix that somehow sidesteps the usual corporate-vault atmosphere, landing closer to a neighborhood spot where the bar fills with regulars and families stake out booths for birthdays. The menu wanders past its brief with soft-shell crab in vanilla tempura alongside the expected shrimp cocktail.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
3. Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Steakhouse · Best of the Valley

The signature move here is the Hazz blend, carne asada folded with mild green chile and melted cheese, and it shows up across the menu at this no-frills Sonoran taco shop in west Phoenix. Order at the counter, everything à la carte, then stake out a table and work the salsa bar, which runs from fresh green to roasty red to a piquant orange. The horchata comes in a bucket. Phoenix New Times has it in their top 50 right now.

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

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Phoenix Magazine Pan con Tomate · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

A red mirrored hallway leads you down into this speakeasy-style cocktail lounge beneath a north Scottsdale restaurant, which is exactly the kind of entrance that makes people feel they've earned their drink. Inside, gold ceilings, red velvet drapes, and live music set a mood that commits fully to the bit. The cocktails lean sweet-and-savory strange, and small bites keep the evening going. Phoenix New Times named it Best Bar in 2025.

1. Industry Excellence Awards Bar of the Year
2. Sunset Better Bars · Where to Eat and Drink
3. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Iconic Speakeasy Experience

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The counter stools and cozy booths have the feel of a midcentury diner, which is exactly the point: The Eleanor is a breakfast and brunch spot built as a deliberate antidote to Scottsdale's party-brunch scene. Pancakes, hash, and biscuits and gravy share the menu with avocado toast and Buddha bowls, and the grab-and-go fridge means you can linger over slow coffee or bolt, your call.

1. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Breakfast · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times The 10 best breakfast spots in Phoenix
3. Eater The 15 Best Brunches in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

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. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Two bars for the price of one obsession: an energetic street-level cantina with patio and a reservation-only basement room for quieter, deeper agave rabbit-holing. A food truck parks outside when hunger arrives. The agave selection runs wide enough that the bartenders will happily guide you in, and the cocktails, like a mezcal-and-pistachio-milk situation, suggest this is not your average tequila shelf.

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Bar/Nightlife Experience
2. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail Program
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Agave-Based Cocktails · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

Seafood flown in daily from both coasts and the Sea of Cortez keeps this polished seafood restaurant on Camelback Road from feeling like a landlocked afterthought. The dining room leans comfortable and upscale, the kind of place where booths fill with date-night couples while the bar handles happy hour with enough seriousness to earn a Best Happy Hour nod from Phoenix New Times. The cocktail list gets the same care as the fish.

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Voodoo Fried Rice · Best Dish in a Supporting Role
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Voodoo Fried Rice · Best Dish in a Supporting Role
3. Phoenix Magazine New Orleans Shrimp and Grits · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona

A mother-and-son Cajun and soul food restaurant where the menu shifts with the day of the week: catfish on Fridays, wings on Wednesdays, Sharon's soul food the first Sunday of the month. Their Louisiana and Mississippi roots show in a shrimp étouffée that's lighter and brighter than you'd expect, and a beef debris over grits that rewards patience. Hong Kong-style praline French toast with cardamom and fennel is either the strangest thing on the menu or the most logical.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Southern Food · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Southern Food · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

Beef heart on a skewer is not a timid opener, but El Chullo's anticuchos, marinated and grilled dense and chewy, set the tone for a traditional Peruvian restaurant that doesn't hedge. The Melrose location on Seventh Avenue is cozy and colorful, the kind of room where a Pisco Sour tastes better than it has any right to. Lomo saltado, ceviche mixto, and arroz chaufa round out a menu that takes the Lima-meets-Canton fried rice angle seriously.

1. Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. Foodist Awards 2025 · Finalist: Hush Burger · Most Crave-Worthy Burger
2. Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner: Hush Burger · Standout Signature Dish
3. Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner: Cast Iron Concepts · Outstanding Hospitality Group

Carts trundle through this spacious Cantonese dim sum hall on weekends, and by midday the entrance is already a bottleneck of people clutching numbered tickets. Point at what rolls past: lacquered duck, chewy lo mein, dumplings, fried wontons. The servers are moving fast and the tables are crowded and dimly lit, and the whole operation hums along in cheerful, productive disorder. Phoenix New Times handed it Best Dim Sum in 2025.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Dim Sum · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Dim Sum · Best of Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

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. AAA Three Diamonds

Lux Central is a coffee shop, bakery, and bar that can't commit to one job, and the schedule makes that a feature. Pastries hold down the morning, the bar wakes up soon after, and the egg plates and hashes drift into diner-leaning fare as the day goes on. Plenty of people arrive for a quick latte and are still at the table when the cocktails show up, laptops open, no one embarrassed.

1. Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
2. AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
3. Eater The 15 Best Brunches in Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

The Brulee Burger, with its torched sugar crust on the bun, explains the whole ethos of this Scottsdale burger shop in one order. The chef here treats fast-casual comfort food as an excuse to get weird in the best way, battering and frying patties, folding blueberry-habanero compote into guacamole, stacking corn-muffin fritters between the buns. Guy Fieri has been by, and the memorabilia is on the wall to prove it. Napkins: take several.

1. AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
2. Phoenix New Times The top 10 burger joints in Phoenix

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.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Coffee Roasters · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Coffee Roasters · Best of Phoenix
3. Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix

1. AAA Four Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Four Diamonds

Thirteen seats arranged at an L-shaped bar set the scale here: this is a reservation-only omakase counter in Old Town Scottsdale, two seatings a night, no improvising. The chef behind it, Shinji Kurita, is a name Phoenicians say with a certain reverence. Courses run for about two hours, and the sake list includes a bottle priced like a used car, should the mood strike. A James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurant.

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Japanese Restaurant · Best of Phoenix

Palomas come in tajín-rimmed Jarritos bottles here, and the bartender's expression suggests you should feel lucky to have one. Sidewinder is a diner-bar in Garfield that leans hard into the dingy-vintage aesthetic, the kind of place where a $3 Bud Heavy and a sloppy joe feel like the whole point. It was opened by the team behind an upscale French bistro, which explains nothing and everything at once.

1. Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Trendy Diner · Best of Phoenix
2. Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Trendy Diner · Best of Phoenix
3. The Infatuation The 20 Best Restaurants In Phoenix

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds