The Best Places to Eat in Phoenix, by the Record
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- Foodist Awards 2024 · Winner: Vegan Bahn Mi · Best Vegan Delight
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: Refuge IPA · Favorite Local Craft Beer
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
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Rank 102. Buck & Rider
Seafood
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.
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist: Voodoo Fried Rice · Best Dish in a Supporting Role
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 102. China Chili Restaurant
Chinese
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix
- Phoenix Magazine Szechwan Prawns · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
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Rank 102. Harumi Sushi Bar
Modern Sushi
The rice comes out burgundy, not white, because Harumi uses Forbidden black rice, and that detail alone tells you this is a modern sushi spot with a point of view. It sits in downtown Phoenix, small and lively, with an omakase option that won't require a financial intervention. The fish is clean and familiar rather than obscure, which suits the pre-show crowd it draws. Phoenix New Times named it a top pick for eating before a downtown event.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Place to Eat Before a Downtown Event · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 102. Origami Ramen Bar
Noodles
The chef here trained at Tsuji Culinary Institute and cooked at Nobu before settling into a ramen shop in Ahwatukee, which is either a surprise or exactly what someone like that would do. The menu runs classic: tonkotsu, miso blended from Hokkaido pastes, rice bowls, takoyaki. The broth is unhurried and clear in its intentions, the kind of ramen that makes the fast-food versions feel a little embarrassed about themselves.
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Ramen · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 102. Rito's Mexican Food
Mexican
The green chile burro is what people are actually here for, and on busy days the line confirms it. Rito's is an old-school Mexican counter-service spot, been around forever, run by the same family across a handful of Valley locations. The move if you're feeling committed is to get any order done chimichanga-enchilada style, deep-fried and drowned in red sauce with cheese, lettuce, and tomato piled on top.
- AZ Central The 100 Best Metro Phoenix Restaurants
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Burritos · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Burritos · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 102. Taco Boys
Mexican
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Phenomenal Fast Casual Concept
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Horchata · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 102. Tía Carmen
Southwestern Mexican
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Emerging Restaurant of the Year
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Top Chef · Angelo Sosa
- Phoenix Magazine Ember-Roasted Purple Yam · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
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Rank 109. Baja Roots AZ
Baja Mexican
- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Best Food Truck Experience
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Late-Night Mexican Food · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Mexican Food Truck · Best of Phoenix
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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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Floor-to-ceiling glass walls frame a sweeping Phoenix skyline view, which does most of the decorating in this contemporary fine dining room beside the historic Wrigley Mansion. The chef runs a live-fire kitchen where modern French technique shapes the menu, prix fixe on weekdays and a full tasting menu on weekends. The full-service bar has a direct sightline into the kitchen, so you can watch things catch fire while sipping something civilized.
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Rank 109. Essence Bakery Cafe
French Bakery
- Phoenix Magazine 2025 · Best Nutty Croissants · Best of the Valley
- Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona
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- Eater The Best Bakeries in Phoenix, Arizona
- Phoenix Magazine Tuna Sandwich · Top 100 Dishes of Arizona
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- Foodist Awards 2024 · Finalist · Exceptional Culinary Experience
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Chef · Jason Alford
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Rank 109. Pho 43
Vietnamese
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The team once competed on Food Network's Cupcake Wars under a different name and won, which tells you something about what's happening at this bright, family-run bakery near Seventh and Camelback. Frosted cupcakes and cookies rotate with the seasons and holidays, so there's almost always a reason to stop in. The signature brown boxes travel well and double as a gift when flowers feel lazy.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Cookies · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Cookies · Best of Phoenix
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Sandwiched between carburetor and machine shops on Buckeye Road, this cash-and-linoleum Mexican diner has been feeding the neighborhood long before the concept of "hole-in-the-wall chic" existed. Breakfast is the reason to show up: chilaquiles drowning in red or green salsa, Sunday menudo, and hearty caldo stews that have no interest in being photogenic. Phoenix New Times has named it Best Mexican Diner, and Eater flagged the machaca as one of Phoenix's most iconic dishes.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Chilaquiles · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Mexican Diner · Best of Phoenix
- Eater Machaca · The Most Iconic Dishes in Phoenix
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Rank 117. Taco Boys
Mexican
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Rank 117. Taco Boys
Mexican
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Rank 117. Taco Boys
Mexican
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Rank 121. Bobby-Q BBQ
Barbecue
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Rank 121. Provision
Coffee
A three-level, sunlight-flooded cafe in uptown Phoenix that also runs a full cocktail program, which makes the brunch crowd's priorities refreshingly transparent. Provision is a modern coffee shop doing the classics alongside seasonal lattes and mocha with Oreo crumbles, with quiche, pastries, and sandwiches filling out a menu that gives people a reason to stay well past the first cup.
- Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best coffee shops in Phoenix
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Rank 121. The Green Woodpecker
Modern Mexican
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Rank 121. UnderTow
Tiki Cocktail Bar
The whole room is built to look like the cargo hold of a 19th-century ship, portholes and all, which sets the stakes early at this immersive tiki bar on Indian School. The cocktail menu runs from classics to the team's own riffs on the genre, leaning into the full theatrical bit without apologizing for it. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top tiki bar, and the Spirited Awards put the bar team among the top four in the U.S.
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner: Barter & Shake · Outstanding Hospitality Group
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Top 4 Finalist · Best U.S. Bar Team
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Winner · Most Creative Handcrafted Cocktail
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Two-thirds of this coffee shop's floor space belongs to the roasting operation, not the tables, which tells you everything about where the priorities are. Bags of beans, multiple roasters, all the gear, and baristas who actually want to talk through the difference between a washed process and an unwashed one. The website specifies that specialty coffee newcomers are in a safe place here, and they mean it.
- Phoenix New Times The 10 Best Coffee Shops in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best coffee shops in Phoenix
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Rank 129. Fàme Caffe
New American
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.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Breakfast · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 129. Joe's Diner
American
The bright yellow building in Phoenix's Melrose District is hard to argue with at 7 a.m. Joe's is an old-school diner with booths, round group tables, and road signs on the walls, the kind of place where the coffee is black and nobody's trying to impress you. Weekends bring a line out front, which the regulars seem to take as confirmation rather than inconvenience. The biscuits and gravy and oversized burritos do the heavy lifting.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Classic Diner · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best breakfast spots in Phoenix
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Rank 129. Killer Whale Sex Club
Cocktail Bar
The walls at this dim Roosevelt Row cocktail lounge are lined with polaroids of patrons who've shed a little more than their inhibitions, all tasteful enough that you'd call it art if pressed. The drinks from the veteran team change often and lean experimental, which pairs nicely with the dark, slightly conspiratorial atmosphere. Named a Regional Top 10 Honoree at the Spirited Awards, it earns the recognition without trying too hard to.
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Mixologist/Bartender · Brenon Stuart
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Cocktails With a Side of Tasteful Nudity · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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The communal high-top near the entrance is the first thing you notice, and on social hour nights it's the last thing you want to leave. Beckett's Table is a neighborhood restaurant in Arcadia doing Southwestern comfort food with the kind of ease that comes from a chef who's been cooking since childhood. The fork-tender short ribs and a fig-and-pecan pie that the city seems to have adopted as its own keep regulars coming back without much deliberation.
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Rank 132. Brunch & Sip
Southwestern Southern
The fried chicken biscuit comes with a wooden skewer through it just to hold the whole thing together, which tells you something about the kitchen's ambitions. This Southern-Southwestern brunch spot from the family behind Lo-Lo's Chicken and Waffles leans into the occasion: tableside bananas Foster, a full cocktail menu you can nurse past noon, and a cheerful indoor-outdoor room that has enough energy to feel like a party without scaring off anyone's parents.
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Rank 132. Da Vang
Vietnamese
The cracked-laminate menus at this Vietnamese restaurant in a Phoenix strip mall are entirely on purpose. Fourteen kinds of pho anchor the menu, portions are generous enough to require a to-go container, and the hot coffee with sweetened condensed milk is a good reason to linger. Prices hover around $15, the room is multi-roomed and no-frills, and the com tam dac biet piles broken rice with what feels like the entire menu on one plate.
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- AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for curling up with a book · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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- Imbibe Where to Drink in Phoenix
- AZ Central Best Uptown Phoenix coffee shops for meeting friends or making new ones · The ultimate guide to the best Phoenix cafes
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Rank 132. Malegria Latin Cafe
Central American Mexican Coffee Shop
A shaded patio tucked behind a corner cafe on Grand Avenue is a good argument for slowing down on a weekday morning. Malegria is an all-day Latin cafe drawing on Mexican, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran cooking, so the coffee comes sweetened with piloncillo or horchata, and the breakfast sandwich arrives on bolillo bread with fried plantains and crema verde. The crowd tends to linger, which the patio quietly encourages.
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Rank 132. Tambayan Filipino Food
Filipino
Yellow booths, green walls, and neon lighting make Tambayan look like someone decorated with pure enthusiasm, which turns out to be the right call for a Filipino homestyle restaurant that spent years as a pop-up and food truck before landing a permanent spot on Camelback. The halo halo, layered and rainbow-colored, is the dessert equivalent of that same energy. Phoenix New Times named it the city's top Filipino restaurant.
- Phoenix New Times The top 50 restaurants in Phoenix right now
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Filipino Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
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The owl-themed knick-knacks, artwork, and furniture covering every surface are all for sale, which is either charming or a lot to process before coffee. This casual brunch cafe imported its loyal following from Flagstaff, where lines used to stretch down the street on weekends. Giant cinnamon rolls, football-sized burritos, and a full vegan menu cover the table. The Newton location sits conveniently next to Changing Hands Bookstore, for after.
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best brunch restaurants in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Flagstaff Import · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 132. Vovomeena
New American
A pastry case you have to walk past before you even reach the counter is a clever design choice for a breakfast spot. Vovomeena runs a casual line-order setup near downtown Phoenix with a genuinely neighborhood feel, leaning on local suppliers for eggs, sausage, and coffee. The Pain Perdu swaps bread for banana bread pudding, and the chile-corn Johnnycakes remind you this is the Southwest.
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- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist · Top Chef · David Bowman
- Foodist Awards 2023 · Finalist: After’Mac’ Mac & Cheese · Best Dish in a Supporting Role
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Rank 163. Birrieria Obregon 2
Mexican
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Rank 163. Chicago Hamburger Company
Chicago-style American
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Rank 163. El Fogon Taqueria
Authentic Mexican
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Rank 163. Estero Beach
Mexican
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Rank 163. JL Smokehouse
Barbecue
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Rank 163. Los Dos Molinos
Mexican
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Rank 163. Los Dos Molinos
Mexican
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Rank 163. Phở Thành
Vietnamese Noodles
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Rank 163. Phoenix Coqui
Caribbean
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The cemita poblana here comes stuffed with thinly pounded, breaded beef cutlet, which tells you immediately what kind of restaurant this is. El Rincon Poblano is a family-run Mexican spot in a strip mall off Thomas Road, with Pueblan art on pastel walls and a menu that goes well past mole. The taco arabe, pork carved off a trompo and folded into a near-translucent flour tortilla, is a lesson in where al pastor came from.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Pueblan Restaurant · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Pueblan Food · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best Mexican restaurants in Phoenix
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- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Canto-American Chinese Food · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The 10 best Chinese restaurants in Phoenix
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Rank 197. Sushi Nakano
Edo-style Sushi
The rice gets as much attention as the fish, which tells you something about how seriously this strip-mall sushi spot takes its craft. Tucked into an Ahwatukee shopping center, Sushi Nakano turns out Edo-style nigiri and sashimi with meticulous sourcing and clean technique. American-style maki are on the list too, but catch the chef on a quiet night and ask what he's feeling, and the room rewards the curiosity.
- Phoenix New Times 2025 · Best Sushi · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times Our top 12 favorite sushi restaurants in Phoenix