Il Forno, 4225 East Camelback, Phoenix, 952-1522. Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. Uh-oh. Whenever I hear the mandolin strains of “Santa Lucia” and “Come Back to Sorrento” as I enter an Italian pasta restaurant, I’ve not only got a fix on the decor and menu,…

Landmark Restaurant, 809 West Main, Mesa, 962-4652. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 4 to 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 7 p.m. Do you ever get tired of rich French sauces? Do you recoil from spicy Szechuan cuisine? Do Indian curries turn…

Famous Pacific Fish Company, 4321 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 941-0602. Hours: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 10 p.m. “Mais, non,” cried my Parisian friend, Yann, when I sketched out our vacation eating plans. “Don’t even think…

Mr. T’s Bar-B-Q, 1539 East Buckeye, Phoenix, 256-9322. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Growing up Jewish in a kosher home, I never saw pork, except for Sunday nights at the Chinese restaurant. After college I moved away, spending five years teaching in Muslim countries, where pork…

Jean-Claude’s Petit Cafe, 7340 East Shoeman, Scottsdale, 947-5288. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Saturday, 6 to 11 p.m. I wonder if Ferdinand Marcos remembered the first time he took Imelda shoe shopping. Does Jim Bakker recollect the day he let the Avon…

Royal Barge, 8220 North Hayden, Scottsdale, 443-1953. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. Remember Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve? She won an Oscar depicting a woman with multiple…

The Restaurant, 2401 East Camelback (the Ritz-Carlton), Phoenix, 468-0700. Hours: Sunday Brunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. As I strolled into the Restaurant, the Ritz-Carlton’s tony Sunday brunch spot, I had to fight the desire to make sure that my shoes were tied, my zipper zipped and my wallet secure…

Players Bar & Grill, 455 North Third Street (Arizona Center), Phoenix, 252-6222. Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. There are plenty of places in the Valley where you can get some eats and watch a football game in comfort…

Chopandaz Afghani Cuisine, 1849 North Scottsdale Road, Tempe, 947-4396. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m. Some years ago, I happened to be riding a bus in northern Iran headed toward the Afghanistan border. It was winter. The weather…

Scenic Mirage, 1290 North Scottsdale Road, Tempe, 894-0460. Hours: Monday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. My mother-in-law taught me everything I know about Hawaii. But I’m caught in a time warp, since her knowledge comes from childhood memories as an Army brat who left…

C-Fu Gourmet, 6438 South McClintock, Tempe, 831-8899. Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. The car needs a $500 engine repair. It’s September and still beastly hot. I’ve just received the 20-month payment schedule from my kid’s orthodontist. Six months…

Dos Flamingos, 10155 East Via Linda, Scottsdale, 391-0460. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Sunday, 4 to 10 p.m. What makes America’s great cities great? Museums? Sure. Nightlife? Absolutely. Cosmopolitan bustle? Of course. But most of all, great cities are identified with distinctive…

Nick’s Cuisine of Southern Europe, 3717 East Indian School, 955-5225. Hours: 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week. Back in ninth grade, Mr. Brodsky assigned our English class Charles Dickens’ mammoth novel David Copperfield. Although we had three weeks’ notice, I didn’t bother picking up the book until…

8700, 8700 East Pinnacle Peak Road, Scottsdale, 994-8700. Hours: Dinner, Monday through Sunday, 6 to 10 p.m. Isaac Newton proved mathematically what people know instinctively: Bodies at rest tend to remain at rest. That’s why most people prefer to live near work, make friends close to home and marry the…

Chompie’s, 10858 North 32nd Street, Phoenix, 971-8010. Hours: Sunday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Monday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Tuesday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday, 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Without rituals, anthropologists tell…

La Fontanella, 4231 East Indian School, Phoenix, 955-1213. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, 4:30 to 10 p.m. For two years, my wife and I lived in a remote Peace Corps outpost on the fringes of the Sahara Desert. During that time,…

Handlebar-J, 7116 East Becker, Scottsdale, 948-0110. Hours: Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.; Sunday, 4 to 11 p.m. My mama didn’t let her baby grow up to be a cowboy. The only headgear I ever sported was a navy-and-white New…

Ayako of Tokyo, 2564 East Camelback (Biltmore Fashion Park), 955-7007. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 5 to 9:30 p.m. For 23 years, I’ve had a grudge against Japanese restaurants…

Minga’s, 4323 West Cactus, Phoenix, 978-5167. Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Deep-thinking book reviewers don’t delve into the latest Harlequin romance to keep up with fiction’s cutting edge. Music critics don’t analyze the latest…

Delhi Palace, 5050 East McDowell, Phoenix, 244-8181. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Dinner, 5 to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Remember the old commercial, “Is it true blondes have more fun”? And the woman who beseeched…

The Swiss and Dutch have a centuries-old reputation for precision work, sharp business sense and a passion for order. The burghers’ stolid, middle-class virtues of frugality, sobriety and diligence have brought them international leadership in banking and commerce. Their governments run as smoothly as handcrafted Swiss watches. Much of the…

She’s back. The scourge of restaurants is making her annual visit to the Valley. Eateries around the country know my mother as the Will Rogers of dining–she never met a meal she didn’t like to send back. And the place had better be clean. To my mother, Chanel #5 is…