La Vida

As the years go by, the Mercado de los Cielos at Desert Sky Mall in west Phoenix only seems to get bigger and more ostentatious. The marketplace is located in a space that used to house a Mervyn’s Department store back in the 1990s. It’s now one of the biggest indoor Latino marketplaces in the city, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The highlight of visiting El Mercado is its food court, which manages to squeeze several restaurants and snack shops into a somewhat diminutive space. Come here to snack on Mexico City-style specialties like pambazos and machetes; feast on platters of colorful Mexican-style sushi; or treat yourself to some Mexican raspados and aguas frescas. It’s all here, and it’s all pretty delicious.

Carne asada is arguably the unofficial dish of metro Phoenix. You can hardly drive a block in the city without bumping into someone grilling up thinly sliced, marinated steak. At the height of backyard barbecue season, it perfumes the air of certain neighborhoods. And on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Camelback Road, you can follow the scent of it straight to Taqueria Los Yaquis, a wildly popular Mexican food truck and Yelp sensation that’s located on the same block as Charlie’s Phoenix, a raucous country-themed gay nightclub. The menu at Taqueria Los Yaquis is abbreviated, but it doesn’t really matter, because most people line up for one thing: the carne asada, which is dark, griddle-charred, and chopped into bubbly, juicy nubs that are wrapped up in a warm, corn tortilla. It’s simple carne asada, yet somehow always divine.

Formerly known as Pozoleria Guerrero, Pozoleria Mexican Food is one of the city’s finest purveyors of pozole. In the wrong hands, pozole can quickly devolve into a greasy, overly spicy jumble. Thankfully, this modest counter-service restaurant continues to deliver fragrant, flavorful pozole, made daily in three pork-laden varieties: white, red, and green. The pozole rojo is the most popular order; it’s full of deep flavor with pleasant traces of heat. The white pozole is garlicky and rich, and green pozole is gratifyingly spicy. Every bowl comes generously and deliciously accessorized with fresh avocado and a big, grizzled hunk of chicharron.

ACR Elotes is certainly the best elote cart in metro Phoenix, but it’s also one of the most elusive. It’s worth chasing down this particular elote cart, though, which does not always keep regular hours but which makes regular appearances on Calle 16. Bring cash (no cards accepted, at press time), and prepare to delight in the pleasure of a cup of freshly prepared elote. The kernels are tossed in bright, vivid blend of cotija cheese, mayo, butter, lemon juice, and secret spices. True, there’s nothing particularly revelatory about it, but it’s somehow still a cup of corn for the ages.

Nopalitos remain strangely absent from many Mexican restaurants in the Valley, despite the fact that they are a ubiquitous ingredient in so many strains of Mexican cooking. But you can always find nopales at El Tlacoyo, Tempe’s long-running, Mexico City-style restaurant. Most people go to El Tlacoyo to feast on specialties like barbecued lamb, but don’t overlook a fresh-made huarache smothered in beans, crumbly white cheese, and topped generously with a bright, tangy and oniony salad of nopalitos. If you have not yet learned to embrace and love nopales, this simple, timeless dish might get you there.

Mariscos Ensenada is one of the most reliable sources of fresh Mexican mariscos in the Valley. Whether you’re on the hunt for your Sunday morning Michelada or a platter of palate-tingling aguachile, the menu here is expansive. Highlights include botana mixta de camaron y pulpo, an invigorating shrimp and octopus salad. Tacos stuffed with breaded marlin are hard to resist, if you love fish tacos. Like much of modern Mexican seafood dishes, mariscos can often be pleasantly over the top. To that end, don’t miss Mariscos Ensenada’s take on the pineapple-stuffed seafood, a dish you have to see to believe. Fortunately, it’s as delicious as it is photogenic.

In the burgeoning culinary genre that is Mexican sushi, El Tataki stands out as one of the most refined Mex-sushi spots in metro Phoenix. For newcomers to the Mex-sushi scene, this west-side spot is one of the best places in town to sample rolls like the Cielo, Mar y Tierra, a classic surf-and-turf roll made with shrimp, chicken, beef, avocado, and cucumber. The restaurant also serves a whole menu of traditional Japanese sushi, if that’s your thing, as well as more conventional Mexican fare. The restaurant should be moving into its new digs (listed above) any day now.

The number of Sonoran hot dog carts has multiplied in metro Phoenix over the years, but El Caprichoso is still the best. The beloved hot dog cart has been in operation for more than 20 years, so it’s no surprise that its hot dog has been fine-tuned to near-perfection. The hot dog is squeezed onto a fluffy split-top roll that is beautifully griddle-charred. If you order it with all the toppings, it comes ladled with beans and pico, dusted with cheese, and decorated with a squiggle of mayonnaise. It’s one of metro Phoenix’s most quintessential and addictive meals.

The hand-lettered sign outside Carnicería Castillo in south Phoenix makes a bold claim: “The Best Carne Asada and Pollo al Carbon in Phoenix!” Thankfully, this is not just an empty boast. This longtime neighborhood butcher shop sells consistently great carne asada, along with some of the juiciest, smokiest grilled whole chickens in town, prepared daily on the grill outside and sold in big, gorgeously wrapped aluminum packs in the shop’s small takeout kitchen. Of course, this is not merely a takeout joint. If you’re looking for meats to take home and cook yourself, Carnicería Castillo carries an extensive selection of harder-to-find cuts, including lengua, tripas, thinly sliced cecina, and house-made longaniza sausage. The meat case alone will put your chain grocery store butcher counter to shame.

When you come to Los Altos Ranch Market, it’s best to budget more time than you think need for a quick grocery run. “Popping in” to pick up a few essentials can easily turn into an hourlong shopping expedition, thanks to Ranch Market’s comprehensive selection of traditional Mexican and Latin American food items, including meats, produce, cheeses, fresh and dried herbs, and bakery items. It’s worth a visit just to pick up fresh cheese from the in-store cremería, which stocks more than 30 specialty cheeses, or to pick up meat cuts that you simply won’t find at more mainstream supermarkets. If you get hungry, stop by the cafeteria for hot combo platters, or grab a fresh fruit drink at the agua fresca bar. Along the perimeters of the store, a motley assortment of vendors provides everything from cellphones to on-site jewelry repair.

Tortas ahogadas, or “drowned” tortas, are the famously fiery sandwiches of Guadalajara. The tortas are traditionally smothered in a lip-numbingly hot chile de arbol salsa. There aren’t too many places to find Guadalajaran-style tortas ahogadas in metro Phoenix, but it just happens to be the marquee specialty of Tortas Ahogadas George, a friendly counter-service restaurant situated in a Tolleson strip mall. The sandwiches are true flavor bombs: crusty loaves stuffed with shredded pork and then thoroughly drowned in a deliciously spicy, slightly watery salsa. The plastic basket they are served in is wrapped in plastic to protect your sandwich from dripping salsa all over the floor. If you can handle the tortas ahogadas at Tortas Ahogadas George, we salute you.

Located in a Sunnyslope strip mall, Pan y Pasteleria San Sebastian is a small, bright Mexican bakery with a terrific selection of traditional Mexican pastries. For a small shop, the selection at Pan y Pasteleria San Sebastian is pretty astounding, running the gamut from staples like conchas, empanadas, and cuernitos, to harder-to-find pan dulce like cacahuates (creamy, peanut-shaped pastries). You’ll also find muffins, fresh bolillos, and a nice assortment of cakes. You really can’t beat the value and freshness, either, a winning combo at what is a truly great neighborhood panaderia.

It’s hard to be in a sour mood when you’re at Dulceria Importaciones Valentinas. This family-run shop is more than just a candy shop — it’s a full-fledged party emporium. The store is festooned with brightly colored piñatas and balloons at every turn, and the selection of both Mexican and American candies is mind-boggling. The inventory runs the gamut from the classics — tamarind-flavored lollipops and mazapan — to the latest candy and snack fads imported from Mexico. Service is consistently friendly, and the store frequently offers deals on bulk candies that rival wholesale pricing, which mean you can stuff your massive piñata with abandon.

Palabras had barely opened before owner Rosaura “Rosie” Magaña left Grand Avenue for McDowell Road — but with good cause, as swamp cooling wasn’t so healthy for the books. And that’s what this store is about, along with comics and zines. It’s a small but lovely selection, and now with a market and coffee shop in the same complex, we may head over and never leave.

If you haven’t yet stopped by Mexican Arts Imports, it’s time to plan a visit to this well-worn, family-run Mexican imports shop on Phoenix’s east side. The store offers an excellent selection of Mexican imports, selling everything from small, decorative Mexican tchotchkes to colorful religious items like painted ceramic rosaries and Frida-emblazoned crosses. Day of the Dead-themed statuary abounds, and the store carries a comprehensive selection of colorfully glazed Mexican ceramics and outdoor pottery. The store’s layout, with long, meandering aisles chock-full of clearly labeled merchandise, makes it a pleasure to browse. Service is consistently cheerful and helpful, too.

They’re the new kid on the block, sure, opening only halfway through 2017 — but that’s proof that an agave-spirits cocktail bar (and, in this case, restaurant) with craft sensibilities has been sorely missing from Phoenix’s drinking scene. Casa moves a few steps in the right direction past its closest competitors, by offering not only margaritas in a requisite array of fruity flavors — kiwi, watermelon, mango with chile, and an unexpectedly welcome berry hibiscus — but also tropical, modern tiki drinks from bar manager Riley Jones, in addition to tequila and mezcal drinks, where the spirit does the talking.

Sky Lounge has been a go-to spot for the Latin crowd — or anyone else interested in shaking their groove thang — since the ’90s. And, quite frankly, the vibe at the two-story downtown Phoenix discoteca hasn’t changed much over the years. Sky Lounge still serves up a mix of sultry Latin sounds, cheap drinks, and an abundance of eye candy on both of its floors every weekend. And the clientele that frequent the place is still of the young and sexy variety, including chicas in form-fitting clubwear and the cabrones who admire them. You can find them on Sky Lounge’s dance floors or huddled in its VIP booths during the club’s popular Latin Ladies Saturdays party, which features a soundtrack of reggaeton, cumbia, and hip-hop, as well as live music from local orchestra Banda la Xplosiva. There’s even a hot dog cart outside, in case you and your novio or novia have worked up an appetite while dancing and drinking.

Over the years, Taqueria La Hacienda has become something of a landmark on Buckeye Road. This longtime, cash-only Mexican food truck might not seem as hip as the fleet of trucks parked outside the city’s night clubs and bars. Obscure location aside, though, it doesn’t take long to fall in love with La Hacienda. The taco selection is comprehensive — try the spicy chicharron if you love your pork with some heat — and the service is generally very prompt and friendly. Even better, night owls are well-accommodated. La Hacienda is open until midnight on weeknights and until 2 a.m. on the weekends. It’s no wonder, then, that the truck has become a popular spot for late-night travelers making their way to and from nearby Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

For many Hispanics, the holiday season is not officially over until Día de Reyes on January 6. Día de Reyes celebrates the arrival of the Three Wise Men — Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar — to visit baby Jesus. This day is also known as the Feast of the Epiphany. In some parts of Latin America, kids typically get presents on Día de Reyes instead of Christmas. They leave their old shoes outside their rooms or in the living room, and in the morning they find them surrounded by gifts given by the Three Kings. The traditional food, Rosca de Reyes, is an oval-shaped (to symbolize the crown) sweet bread with dry and candied fruits. The rosca has a small plastic figurine inside representing baby Jesus. Whoever gets the figurine in their slice of rosca must throw a party with tamales and atole on Día de la Candelaria on February 2. The Rosca de Reyes is usually eaten in the morning with hot chocolate and champurrado, making it the perfect reason to keep binge-eating and delay those New Year’s resolutions. You can usually find the rosca during the first week of January in local panaderías. Freshly made roscas await you at this traditional panadería, which also serves tasty pan dulce. Antigua Bakery offers two sizes of roscas. Be careful when you bite into the Rosca de Reyes; you don’t want to break a tooth on baby Jesus.

Did you know that there’s a patron saint for farmers (St. Isidore), nurses (St. Agatha), and truckers (St. Christopher)? There’s even a patron saint of television — St. Clare of Assisi. You’ll find both popular and obscure saints represented at Books and Blessings, a pleasant and friendly religious gift shop located at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale. The shop carries a wide array of saint prayer cards, saint figurines, saint-related literature, and high-quality saint statuary. The store also offers a nice selection of Mexican folk art, greeting cards, imported Italian art, and religious jewelry. Whether you’re looking for a saint who’s been known to help in matters of real estate (selling your house), or matters of the heart (finding a spouse), you’ll probably find that saint at Books and Blessings.

Rita’s Mexican Food is one of the west side’s quiet gems, a long-running Mexican restaurant with refined airs and great service. It also happens to have some seriously good guacamole. Order it tableside, which at Rita’s feels less like a trite menu cliché and more like a delicious indulgence. The whole avocados are sliced right in front of you, the meat of the fruit smashed against finely sliced onions and tomatoes, and seasoned to your liking. The chips are part of the equation, of course, and they are hot and perfectly crisp.

Ladera Taverna y Cocina is the latest project from Genuine Concepts, which is better known for hip neighborhood outposts like The Vig than for its traditional Mexican restaurants. For its first Mexican concept, the group has tapped chef Jorge Gomez, who has devised an accessible menu of refined, regional Mexican cooking. Highlights include the cochinita pibil tacos and the savory green chile, both of which benefit from expert slow-cooking. The drink menu, featuring fun and novel diversions like a house margarita paired with a frozen paleta, is reason enough to visit.

What did local Mexican food enthusiasts obsess over before the arrival of Tacos Chiwas? The small, standalone Mexican restaurant on McDowell Road has become a favorite of the local Mexican food cognoscenti, thanks to the restaurant’s soulful take on northern Mexican cooking. In a city glutted with Sonoran-style taquerias, Tacos Chiwas specializes in Chihuahuan staples like homemade gorditas and montados, generously stuffed or topped with specialties like desebrada, shredded beef slow-cooked in your choice of red or green sauce. For local scenesters, especially those looking to fill Instagram feeds with gorgeous platters of tacos and gorditas, a visit to Tacos Chiwas is an absolute must.

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s Barrio Cafe has been instrumental in helping advance and expand what we talk about when we talk about Mexican cooking in metro Phoenix. The chef’s highly personal, regionally inspired take is refined, artistic, and bold, and you can pretty much say the same thing about any dish on the Barrio Cafe menu. The restaurant has earned national recognition over the years and has become the essential spot in town to take any out-of-towners with an interest in Mexican cuisine.

Taqueria Lucy is a venerable west-side lonchera that’s been parked in the general vicinity of 27th Avenue and Buckeye Road since 2002. True, it’s not the speediest food truck around — there rarely seems to be a lull at the order window, and the lines can get long at peak dinner hours. But the wide-ranging menu — everything from tacos to Sinaloan-style mariscos — rivals the flavor and quality that you’ll find at many brick-and-mortar Mexican restaurants. Tacos are made on freshly made corn tortillas, and burritos are enormous, pocketbook-size affairs, stuffed with tendrils of beautifully grilled meat. The setting might seem gritty, but the food is impossibly and irresistibly delicious.

For fans of Doug Robson’s Gallo Blanco Cafe — and there are plenty of them — 2017 is the year that the white rooster came back to life. (White rooster refers to Robson, a white guy raised in Mexico.) And for that, we tip our hats to Robson, who brought his much-loved contemporary Mexican concept back to life in a gorgeously renovated space. The spirit of the old rooster now lives in downtown Phoenix’s Garfield District, in a space that befits the menu’s old-new, high-low aesthetic. The old menu has been lovingly fine-tuned, and its offerings include Mexico City-inspired antojitos like huaraches, along with an expanded menu of tacos, tortas, and assorted especiales. Long live the white rooster.

El Horseshoe Restaurant is a small, family-run Mexican restaurant that has been a landmark on Buckeye Road for decades. The restaurant offers Sonoran-style specialties like machaca, mariscos, chimichangas, and carne asada. The restaurant has a particularly strong breakfast menu, which includes a very delicious menu of breakfast burritos. How about a breakfast burrito bulging with saucy machaca, eggs, and verduras (veggies)? Or a big, powdery flour tortilla wrapped around an eggy bundle of chorizo and potatoes, all of it beautifully lubricated with melted cheese? However you like it, the nice folks at El Horseshoe will graciously make you the breakfast burrito of your dreams.

Comedor Guadalajara may not come to mind as one of the most popular Mexican restaurants in town, but it only takes a handful of visits to this south-central Phoenix staple to witness the crowds that gather there daily. There is almost always a line to get into Comedor Guadalajara, including for breakfast. Maybe it has something to do with the irresistible allure of the chilaquiles? They are wonderful — a little soupy, drenched in savory red sauce, and just spicy enough to make them interesting. The mountain of saucy chilaquiles comes topped with a couple of eggs, and the dish only seems to taste better as the minutes tick by. The sauce softens the slivers of corn tortillas on your plate, until they become not much more than delicious gravy.

El Gallo de Lagos Taqueria is the kind of family-run strip-mall hole-in-the-wall that is a taco-lover’s dream. The restaurant delivers a very strong assortment of tacos, including al pastor cut off the trompo, and luscious, melty buche (pork stomach) tacos. The restaurant is also known for its birria, tortas, huaraches, flautas, sopes, and quesadillas. Only one thing makes all of these delicious dishes taste even better, and it’s the house-made assortment of salsas: a deliciously tangy green salsa, a spicy red salsa, and a heady chile-infused oil salsa that might bring to mind the stuff you find at your favorite Sichuan spot. Come for the tacos, but definitely stay for the homemade salsas.

Asadero Toro is the kind of nondescript, standalone Mexican restaurant that seems to fade into the metro Phoenix landscape without notice. But if you’re the kind of Mexican food aficionado who can appreciate a well-made side of beans, it’s worth taking note of Asadero Toro. First, there’s the bean and cheese burrito, a simple classic that nevertheless has been known to produce feelings of immeasurable joy. Then there’s the simple side of beans, which you can order with pretty much anything on the menu. The beans are about as creamy as melted Brie, and lovingly seasoned to extract intense flavor from the humble legume. It may not be fancy, but it’s delicious.

Considering the city’s size, the roster of upscale Mexican restaurants in metro Phoenix is surprisingly small. Barrio Café Gran Reserva is a pleasant outlier, a small, intimate spot with fine-dining airs and a multicourse menu de degustación, with optional wine pairings. Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s refined and distinctive take on regional Mexican cooking is more interesting than the Mexican fare you’ll find at most of the city’s high-end resort restaurants. The intimacy of the space also adds to its general allure. With only 22 seats, and walls adorned with original murals, Barrio Café Gran Reserva feels at once casually intimate and elegant.

Every week, thousands of tortillas — both corn and flour — are produced at La Sonorense Tortilla Factory in south Phoenix, many of them headed straight to the kitchens of the region’s top Mexican restaurants. Why are the tortillas at La Sonorense so highly coveted? They are produced with tried-and-true recipes that have stood the test of time. The hallmark of La Sonorense is the factory’s buttery, papery thin flour tortillas, which contain only a handful of ingredients — including flour, shortening, water, and salt — and pressed to a thin yet pliant consistency. They are marvelous, as are the factory’s signature yellow corn tortillas. Swing by the friendly storefront early in the morning, when you can pick up a pack of tortillas hot off the conveyor belt.

There is likely not a more elemental Mexican-American dish than nachos. This borderlands staple — invented somewhere in between Mexico and the United States — is frequently looked down on as the lowbrow foodstuff of bowling alleys and movie theater snack bars. But most everyone secretly loves nachos, a dish that marries flavor and texture in beautiful and delicious ways. If you’re a secret (or not-so-secret) aficionado of nachos, consider paying a visit to Juan’s Authentic Mexican Food, an old-fashioned and unassuming Mexican restaurant on Thomas Road, where the nachos are made in their full and abundant glory. Get the Supreme Nachos, which are loaded with your choice of beef or chicken (the ground beef seems to work the best), plus generous scatterings of tomatoes, green onions, beans, and of course, small lakes of melty, buttery cheese. It’s no secret that it’s delightful.

Tacos may be the specialty of the house at Tacos Sahuaro, but this friendly counter-service restaurant also happens to be a destination for terrific quesadillas. The quesadillas at Tacos Sahuaro are extra-cheesy and thickly built on tortillas made from scratch daily. They come stuffed with your choice of meat; the selection includes standards like carne asada, pollo asado, and al pastor, along with harder-to-find offal like buche (pork stomach). The meat and cheese is pressed into a sturdy, thick quesadilla, beautifully griddle-crisped on the outside and opulently cheesy on the inside. A quesadilla here is a satisfying meal all on its own.

Ta’Carbon is certainly not the prettiest taco spot in town. But it’s nearly always the busiest. At both its west Phoenix and Glendale locations, the restaurant’s mesquite grill never seems to get a rest, and the line never stops forming at the counter. The menu is simple yet complete, featuring very good carne asada, lengua, tripas, and even huevos de becerro, also known as calf fries. This is one of the few taquerias in town serving calf-fries tacos, and they are delicious. The secret to Ta’Carbon’s success is not just the selection of meats, though, but the careful, studious attention paid to seasoning. Meats are consistently well-seasoned, plunked onto soft corn or flour tortillas, and left to be beautifully dressed up to your liking at the well-stocked salsa bar. Put in your order at the counter and the staff will keep track of it. It’s not unusual to return to the counter two or three times over the course of a single visit.

Tacos, obviously, are the specialty at Mucha Lucha Taco Shop. But while tacos may get all the glory, you will definitely want to indulge in one of the restaurant’s enormous and delicious burritos. The Surf & Turf specialty burrito at Mucha Lucha is arguably one of the most ambitious in town. It’s an overgrown tube crammed with spicy shrimp, carne asada, peppers, and rice. It might not be particularly elegant, and it’s certainly not light eating, but this diet-buster also happens to be distinctly delicious and unforgettable. A burrito at Mucha Lucha is not so much a meal as it is a minor feast.

The Tamale Store is a small, family-run shop in north Phoenix that delivers a killer assortment of homemade tamales. There are few places around town where you can find as diverse a selection of tamales as you will here. Chicken mole, green chile pork, bean and cheese, and even a healthy selection of vegetarian and vegan tamales are all readily available. The tamales are sturdy and thick, half-pound bundles of pure flavor (but made gloriously lard-free). You can buy them fresh, or pick out a frozen bundle to take home, to be steamed back to life in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Nobody seems to know for certain exactly where in Arizona the chimichanga was born. Few, however, will dispute the fact that chimichangas are calorie-laden and delicious. One of the most unforgettable chimichangas in the city is on the menu at Mi Patio Mexican Restaurant, a staple of Seventh Avenue in central Phoenix. Chimis are all over the menu at Mi Patio, but for a distinctively Mediterranean take on the classic deep-fried burrito, the Baja Spinach & Feta Cheese Chimi is irresistible. It’s crammed full of spinach, but the general blandness of the greens is overwhelmed by lavish amounts of melted cheese and the restaurant’s signature cream cheese Baja sauce. It’s a messy, extra-indulgent dish, layering flavor upon flavor.

TEG Torta Shop is the sleek new name of Tortas El Guero, a longtime destination for massive and frequently delicious Mexican tortas. The name may be slightly revised, but the restaurant’s expansive menu of sandwiches is as formidable as always. There are more than a dozen tortas on the menu, including harder-to-find specialties like colitas de pavo (turkey tail tortas); pork leg tortas; cochinita pibil; and classic configurations with pounded-thin milanesa steak. Tortas are available in three sizes, served on lightly toasted, fresh telera bread, and richly accessorized with Mexican cheeses, fresh avocado, and crispy french fries on the side. For less than $10, you can eat like royalty.