Best Neighborhood Mexican Restaurant, Scottsdale 2010 | Habanero's Mexican Grill | La Vida | Phoenix
Navigation
Support Us
Search

Best Neighborhood Mexican Restaurant, Scottsdale

Habanero's Mexican Grill

Every neighborhood should be so lucky to have a family-owned Mexican joint like Habanero's, a special little gem in North Scottsdale. Here, owner Arturo Diaz serves up recipes he brought to the states from Jalisco, Mexico, where his parents ran taco stands. And, yes, Habaneros does tacos brilliantly, from carne asada, fish, and excellent carnitas de Jalisco to blackened shrimp with chipotle sauce and pico de gallo. Sink your teeth into a burrito, plump with chorizo, refried beans, and pico, or put some color into your cheeks with fragrant red chile tamales. Or, if you're hankering for straight-up protein, get the parrillada tampiqueña, a meat-lover's fantasy of grilled steak, chicken, chorizo, and carnitas.

Best Mexican Restaurant Decor con Queso

Casa Reynoso

Natalie Miranda
We've lauded Casa Reynoso in the past for its comidas muy auténticas, yummy, old family recipes from the Mexican-cuisine-heavy Globe-Miami area. And, indeed, the tacos filled with beef shredded to near-pâté consistency and not a speck of cheese, the meticulously roasted green chile dishes, and the traditional scorching-hot plates are a dependable comfort in an almost deserted strip mall. But look around a bit, and hope no pickers or dealers will read this section. From hand-tooled leather chairs in the lobby to random macramé fake-plant hangers, serapes, dozens of family photos going waaaaay back (some of those cherubic little girls have got to be cougars by now), and — hey, that's an actual saddle by the cash register — the huge mirror surrounded with incongruous pastel Capodimonte porcelain flowers . . . well, it all makes the original bullfighter painting you'll spy on the way to the restroom seem a little low-key by comparison.

Best Salsa

Kissed With Fire

Bill Hutichison won't divulge all the secret ingredients in his Kissed With Fire salsa, but he stands firmly on the belief that roasted green peppers are essential to producing just the right bite. Hutichison traveled throughout the Southwest in pursuit of the perfect pepper until he discovered a New Mexican green variety worthy of his tasty salsa. Loaded with fresh ingredients, this salsa, which comes in both mild and hot, is great on a chip, but its hearty consistency also works well as an accompaniment for eggs, burritos, and even burgers.

Best Tortillas

Verde

Evie Carpenter
Although we can't prove it unless we start sneaking into some kitchens, it's pretty obvious that a lot of Mexican restaurants get their tortillas straight out of a bag — and some don't even bother to reheat them. What gives, people? There's a lot of competition for good Mexican food in the Valley, and to set yourself apart from the pack, you need to make grand gestures. That's what they do at Verde, a humble little downtown spot serving cheap, casual eats and flour tortillas we're absolutely certain are as fresh as can be. Just take a look in the big front window, where you can see ladies hand-forming and cooking them on a griddle right on the premises. These are a little thicker than the norm, tender, and perfect for scooping up gobs of Verde's fragrant green chile pork — or simply enjoying plain.

Best Huitlacoche

Los Sombreros

Courtesy of Los Sombreros
When it comes to names, "corn smut" just doesn't do it for us. "Mexican truffle" sounds a whole lot better. Funny, though, that they're the same thing: huitlacoche, a delicacy that's starting to show up on more local menus as people catch on to its earthy, flavorful allure. At Los Sombreros, it gets a sexy spin in the form of crepes. Here, huitlacoche is wrapped in moist, thin pancakes, and smothered in a sauce of blue and goat cheeses, as well as pomegranate sauce. Los Sombreros serves a lot of killer apps, but this one is don't-miss-it delicious.

Best Tortas

Gallo Blanco Cafe & Bar

Robrt Pela
Street tacos seem to be Gallo Blanco's thing, but what can we say? The juicy carne asada torta is killer, topped with charred tomato salsa, while the cochinita pibil is a delightful mélange of sweet and savory flavors. And then there's the beautifully sinful Naco Torta, which teams tender grilled rib eye and charred tomato salsa with two oozy fried eggs on top. The tortas here are truly addicting, better than what you'll find at places that specialize in these hefty Mexican sandwiches.

Best Sonoran Hot Dog

Nogales Hot Dogs

The heck with healthful eating. As long as there are Sonoran hot dogs in the world, we must eat them. Any dog served in a piping hot, freshly baked sweet bun and wrapped in bacon, then smothered in diced tomato, guacamole, chopped onion, and beans is one worth eating. And the best of these can be found at Nogales Hot Dogs, a humble roadside stand with wieners so good we've forgotten all about Coney Island dogs and Chicago dogs and chili-cheese dogs and pretty much every other kind of hot dog we've ever tried.

Best Tamales

The Tamale Store

With 23 flavors of tamales, The Tamale Store offers everything you can think of — and if you don't find what you're looking for on the menu, just ask. The Tamale Store will custom-make specialty batches for events. It also offers a special flavor of the month. What is even more fantastic is that it sells and delivers to most of the farmers markets in Central Phoenix.Taste-wise, these tamales really are the best. The Tamale Store does not use lard, so if you order a vegan variety, it really will be delivered vegan. Nothing beats a green chile and corn tamale — well, except maybe a chicken mole tamale or maybe a blueberry cream cheese tamale. Oh, just get over there and discover your own favorite.

Best Carne Asada

Sonora Mesquite Grill

Sometimes the urge to seek out good carne asada hits us so hard that we'll drop whatever we're doing to go devour a plate of meat. But things have gotten a lot easier since we discovered Sonora Mesquite Grill, a tiny, super-friendly spot that specializes in the stuff. What's the secret to such juicy, flavorful carne asada? We wish we knew the answer to that, but in the meantime, we'll keep doing our "research" by testing out as many burritos, tacos, and combo platters as we can. Top-notch homemade salsas make it even more appealing.

Best Carne Adovada

Dick's Hideaway

Patricia Escarcega
The unforgettable carne adovada at Dick's Hideaway is the same recipe that used to be served at the late, great (and soon-to-reopen, in a different location) Richardson's. When that restaurant succumbed to fire last year, we were beyond relieved that our favorite dish could still be had at the Hideaway. Why? It's the kind of food that revives you when you're hungover or fills your belly when you're ready for a night of drinking or simply puts a smile on your face on any otherwise uneventful day. The pork is smoky and tender, simmered in a complex red chile sauce that's blazingly hot but too flavorful to stop eating. To taste it is to become addicted to it.

Best Of Phoenix®

Best Of

Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms of use, our cookies policy, and our privacy policy The Phoenix New Times may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. ©2024 Phoenix New Times, LLC. All rights reserved.
Do Not Sell or Share My Information
Powered By Foundation