The Best Places to Eat in Phoenix, by the Record
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Rank 590. Franco's Italian Caffe
Old-School Italian
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Rank 590. Hiro Sushi
Traditional Sushi
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Rank 590. Inca Fusion
Fusion Peruvian
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- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times Chicken Tecolota @ Requinto · The 10 best bites we tasted at Phoenix restaurants
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Rank 590. Marcellino Ristorante
Classic Italian
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Rank 608. Bar1
Cocktail Bar
Pinball machines and candlelight set the tone at this casual gay cocktail bar on 16th Street, where the vibe leans more neighborhood hangout than high-drama nightclub. Lounge seating, a patio, and daily drink specials keep regulars coming back through the week. The menu covers craft cocktails, bar snacks, and specialty shots, which is all you really need when the room is this relaxed.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Gay Bar · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 608. Coabana
Cuban Cocktail Bar
Gold palm fronds hang over the bar like a permanent vacation has been declared, and the drinks menu at this Cuban cocktail bar treats rum the way a serious wine list treats Burgundy. The daiquiri and mojito get thoughtful treatment alongside wilder tropical builds. The same team runs Pigtails and Rough Rider, so the pedigree tracks. Pink tiles, cozy booths, and food to keep things grounded.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best New Bar · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 608. Low Key Piano Bar
Cocktail Bar
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Piano Bar · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 608. Nutowne Saloon
Beer Bar
A seven-foot plaster rooster presides over the bar, and a miniature Eiffel Tower tops the roof, and somehow neither feels out of place. Nutowne Saloon is an old-school gay bar in east Phoenix that has been around forever, surviving a fire that gutted the place and still coming back kitschier than before. Pool tables, a Merlin fortune-telling machine, and a patio covered for the crowds round out a room that grandma's attic would recognize immediately.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Gay Bar Decor · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 608. Palo Verde Lounge
Dive Bar
Cash only, dark inside, and on any given night you might have to squeeze past a metal band unloading gear in the parking lot just to get through the door. Palo Verde is a Tempe dive bar where construction workers in hi-vis vests share the rail with ASU newcomers and neighborhood lifers. Drinks are cheap and poured strong, and the bartender has your order memorized before you've taken your jacket off.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 608. Roosters Country
Beer Bar
The 12 tap handles are mounted in a repurposed fire truck behind the bar, which tells you everything you need to know about the vibe. Roosters is a country bar that's been an East Valley institution forever, with a red-and-black checkered dance floor, pool tables, live music most nights, open mics, and karaoke. A second stage and beer tubs sit out on the smoking patio. Strangers introduce you to their friends before the first round is done.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Bar for Country Music · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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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.
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Rank 608. Valley Bar
Dive Bar
A hanging mobile about Phoenix's infamous trunk murderess sets the tone before you've even ordered a drink. Valley Bar is a basement dive, reached through an alley off Central Avenue that will make you question your life choices right up until you hit the stairs and descend into genuinely good energy. Cheap beers, cocktails named after Arizona politicians, skeeball, shuffleboard, and live DJs on weekends round out a room that has no interest in taking itself seriously.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Basement Bar · Best of Phoenix
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
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Rank 617. Alzohour Restaurant
Moroccan Middle Eastern
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.
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Rank 617. Berdena's
Coffee
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Rank 617. Call Her Martina
Modern Mexican
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.
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Guacamole · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Guacamole · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 617. Com Tam Thuan Kieu
Vietnamese
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Rank 617. Cool Gelato Italiano
Dessert
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Rank 617. Cool Vybz Jamaican Restaurant
Caribbean
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Rank 617. Cornish Pasty Co
British
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.
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Late-Night Eats · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 617. Deseo A Coffee Shack
Mexican Coffee Shop
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Rank 617. Dulce Churro Café
Dessert
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.
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Churros · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Churros · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 617. El Norteño
Mexican
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Rank 617. El Tataki Sushi Fusion
Fusion Sushi
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Rank 617. Goldman's Deli
Jewish American
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Rank 617. Juanderful Tacos
Mexican
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Rank 617. Kare Ethiopian Restaurant
Ethiopian
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Rank 617. La Mejor Barbacoa
Mexican
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Rank 617. Maple House
Cocktail Bar
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.
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Rank 617. Mimi Forno Italiano
Italian
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.
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Rank 617. Oaxaca Restaurant
Oaxacan
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Rank 617. Oscar's Pier 83
Seafood
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Rank 617. Sauvage
Natural Wine Bar
A converted cottage on McDowell Road that smells faintly of old rugs and good intentions, Sauvage is a natural wine bar and bottle shop where the list leans toward obscure regions and the staff will talk you through all of it. Charcuterie and tinned fish are always on hand, and local chefs occasionally pop up to cook. Esquire named it one of the best bars in America, which the room, unhurried and candlelit, seems entirely unbothered by.
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- Eater The Best Bars in Phoenix
- AZ Central Best bars in metro Phoenix
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Rank 617. Seamus McCaffrey's
Irish British
Pint glasses hang from the ceiling and dollar bills plaster the columns at this Irish pub tucked into the back of a downtown Phoenix hotel. The menu runs shepherd's pie, fish and chips, and beef stew, with Guinness on draft doing most of the heavy lifting. A jug of apple pie shots on the bar suggests the night can go a few different directions. Phoenix New Times named it one of the top 100 bars in the city in 2025.
- Phoenix New Times The Top 100 Bars in Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Irish Pub · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 617. Taqueria El Trompo
Mexican
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Rank 617. Ted's Hot Dogs
American
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.
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Rank 617. Tortas El Rey
Mexican
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Rank 617. Tortas Manantial
Mexican
- Phoenix New Times 2023 · Best Aguas Frescas · Best of Phoenix
- Phoenix New Times 2024 · Best Aguas Frescas · Best of Phoenix
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Rank 655. Birrieria Tijuana
Tijuana-style Mexican
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Rank 655. Carolina's
Mexican
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Rank 655. Cocina 10
Sonoran
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.
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Rank 655. Dwntwn
Cocktail Bar
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.
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Rank 655. El Bravo Mexican Food
Mexican
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Rank 655. El Rinconcito Del D.F.
Mexican
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.
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Rank 655. La Frontera #1
Sonoran
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.
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Rank 655. Presidio Cocina Mexicana
Michoacán-style Mexican
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.
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Rank 655. Sushinola Roll
Sinaloan Japanese
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.
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Rank 655. 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.