La Vida

Looking for the most irresistible churro in town? Head to north-central Phoenix to feast on the signature dessert at Dilla Libre: a cajeta-stuffed churro. The churro is fried to order and tossed in a blend of brown sugar and cinnamon. It’s served with a berry dipping sauce on the side, which adds a sweet and tangy element to an already delicious dessert. Crisp, sweet, and slightly chewy, it’s a churro that will likely set off every pleasure point in your brain.

On an average weekend morning, a short line trails out the front door of Hola Cabrito in south Phoenix. What’s all the fuss about? It’s Hola Cabrito’s wonderful birria con consomé, a light stew of chile-rubbed goat meat roasted to a tender finish, then dampened with a meaty, flavorful clarified broth. You can also order your birria tatemada, or charred lightly on the grill, if you prefer. No matter how you take your birria, Hola Cabrito’s rendition is deeply flavorful. It’s served with a short stack of freshly pressed corn tortillas that you can use to make birria tacos right at the table.

There’s a reason why the parking lot in front of Ta’Carbon is always packed to the gills. The Sonoran-style menu features some of the city’s best tacos, including standards like mesquite-grilled carne asada, barbacoa, and al pastor. And you’ll definitely want to drop in for the taqueria’s healthy selection of top-notch offal tacos. Try Ta’Carbon’s lush, melty lengua (beef tongue) tacos, and crispy tripitas (beef intestines) tacos. Of course, if they’re available, you’ll want to try the huevos de becerro (calf fries) tacos at least once. They have a soft, eggy quality and subtly mineral flavor that is surprisingly delicious.

If you’re looking for your next favorite bowl of hangover menudo, look no further than Menuderia Guanajuato. This mom-and-pop restaurant delivers a truly wonderful menudo rojo, which comes generously furnished with melty, extra-savory slivers of tripe and pancita (stomach). The meat is steeped in a fragrant red chile broth with hominy (you also can request it without hominy). The fragrant stew is flecked with fresh cilantro, and comes with your choice of bread or freshly pressed corn tortillas. There aren’t many better ways to spend a Sunday morning than nursing a hot bowl of this comforting stew.

Metro Phoenix isn’t home to a surplus of pozolerias, restaurants that specialize in the quintessentially Mexican pork hominy stew. Thank goodness, then, for Pozoleria Mexican Food, an east-side counter-service restaurant where you’ll find some of the best homestyle pozole in the city. There are three varieties to choose from — white, red, and green — and all three are superb. The most popular variety, though, is the red, which features a deeply flavorful and spicy red chile broth. No matter which one you select, it’s topped with a crisp chicharrón and some fresh avocado.

Elote callejero, or street corn, is a classic Mexican street snack that’s become subject to countless interpretations. The version of elote cajellero at Otro Café, though, is one of the best in town. Chef Doug Robson’s rendition involves a simple, wood-grilled ear of corn, which is lightly dressed in a salty, savory blend of mayonnaise and cotija cheese. A light dusting of paprika adds a tinge of peppery heat and smoke. Every bite is crisp and juicy, a potent reminder of why elote remains one of Mexico’s most classic and ubiquitous street foods.

Sushi Sonora, one of the first Mex-sushi restaurants in metro Phoenix, makes the kind of cheesy, deep-fried rolls that Mex-sushi fanatics daydream about. The menu is huge, but don’t miss the Dinamita (“dynamite”) roll, a tempura-battered and deep-fried roll stuffed with cooked shrimp, cream cheese, and avocado. The most indulgent thing on the menu is probably the Percheron roll, named after the much-loved, oversize draft horse. The sushi roll, which resembles a small burrito, is stuffed with carne asada, pollo, bacon, and avocado, all of it glued together with enormous amounts of melted cheese. Your taste buds may never recover.

In a city chock-full of bacon-wrapped hot dogs — the unofficial street food of the Arizona-Sonora borderlands — Lupita’s Hot Dogs is a standout purveyor. The bacon-wrapped dogs are grilled to a juicy consistency, and topped generously with well-seasoned beans, onion, tomato, mayo, and melted cheese. The dogs are safely encased in a soft, lightly sweet toasted split-top roll. There’s also a full toppings bar where you can heap even more fixings onto Lupita’s formidable Sonoran dog.

This modest west-side marisqueria brings the flavors of Sinaloa’s famed resort city to the Arizona desert. The menu is enormous, spanning botanas frias (cold snacks), seafood cocktails, aguachile and ceviches, and surf-and-turf parrilladas (beef and seafood served on a small tabletop grill). Don’t miss the discada de mariscos, a sizzling seafood platter of well-seasoned calamari, shrimp, sea snail, and octopus topped with grilled onions and peppers. Boldly flavored and scrupulously fresh, the seafood dishes at Mariscos El Malecón de Mazatlan make it a must-visit for dedicated mariscos aficionados.

Nopales are a staple ingredient of Mexican cooking, yet the cactus pads are still something of a rare find on many Valley Mexican menus. Not so at Centrico, the Mexican cafe inside the historic San Carlos Hotel in downtown Phoenix. The kitchen serves up a terrific steak and nopales taco. The grilled skirt steak is chopped up into blistering nubs, topped with juicy strips of grilled cactus punched up with chipotle salsa, and served over buttery flour tortillas. It’s a great taco, one that skillfully makes use of grilled nopal to add a pleasingly smoky and tart dimension to a familiar dish.

What makes the tortilla chips at Food City so special? The magic is in their consistency — no matter which of the more than 20 Valley locations of Food City you visit, you can leave with the satisfaction of knowing exactly what to expect: a bag of thin, shatteringly crisp tortilla chips. Nicely salted and always fresh, the tortilla chips are the kind of snack food that tends to disappear quickly at family barbecues and picnics.

This friendly south Phoenix coffeehouse offers a small but strong menu of flavorful and unique Mexican-inspired coffee and tea drinks. Lattes (available hot or iced) are delicious, including cafe con leche, made with Nescafe and espresso. Don’t miss the Caramelo Mio, a smooth, velvety drink made with Mexican caramel. The Agave Mesquite, featuring locally made mesquite syrup, has a deep, earthy sweetness. The coffeehouse also offers a small selection of pan dulce and light breakfast and lunch snacks, along with a small menu of refreshing limonadas.

It’s well worth driving from all corners of the Valley for a taste of Tacos Calafia’s Baja-inspired tacos — especially the al pastor. The chile-sluiced pork is rich and extra savory, and skillfully paired with oozing melted cheese and some of the restaurant’s house-made, ultra-fresh guacamole salsa. Try it in the house al pastor mulita, which features two freshly pressed corn tortillas stuffed with gently charred slivers of the sweet-savory pork.

You can’t beat the paleta selection at Paletas Betty, which specializes in producing handmade Mexican ice pops using high-quality fresh fruits. The shop avoids concentrates, powders, and premade juices, and you can definitely taste the difference. Some of the shop’s top sellers include sandia (watermelon), pepino (cucumber), and fresa con crema (strawberry and cream). You’ll also find unique blends like mango con chile and a creamy arroz con leche (rice pudding). Paletas Betty also sells its own take on Mexican aguas frescas, called Agua Vita, a refreshing blend of white tea with fresh fruit.

You haven’t really lived until you’ve eaten a Mexican raspado, which is kind of like a regular shaved ice on steroids. You’ll find excellent raspados at this small, north-central Phoenix restaurant and sweets shop. The selection of fruity flavors is extensive, ranging from standards like tamarindo, strawberry, and coconut to salty-sweet blends like diablitos (a spicy and tangy mix featuring chamoy and hot sauce). The raspados are topped with big chunks of fresh fruit, along with garnishes like shredded coconut and sweetened condensed milk. You’ll also find seasonal flavors, including a wintertime eggnog.

This friendly south Phoenix carnicería offers an excellent selection of high-quality meats. The meat case is packed tightly with a neatly labeled assortment of Mexican sausages (including homemade longaniza and chorizo), beef, chicken, various steak cuts, pork, tripe, and pretty much everything else you need to make carne asada, menudo, pozole, or whatever happens to be on the menu. Carniceria Los Amigos also carries harder-to-find meats, including godorniz (quail) and buche (pig stomach). Even if you’re not planning a family barbecue, you may want to swing by for a quick taco or burrito infusion. The carnicería sells some excellent carryout barbacoa, carne asada, carnitas, and pollo asado.

There are seven locations of Los Altos Ranch Market in metro Phoenix, including the flagship market on south Central Avenue. In terms of selection and quality, Los Altos Ranch Market’s inventory of Mexican and Latin American products and produce is unbeatable. This location features an in-house cremería (creamery) where you can shop for an assortment of fresh cheeses; a tortilleria and panadería where you can pick up fresh tortillas, breads, and pastries; and a sprawling food court where you can dine in or carry out Mexican entrees like pollo asado, chiles rellenos, burritos, and taco meats. A trip around the produce section is a highlight of any Los Altos Ranch Market visit; fresh herbs and fruits not widely available in other Valley grocery stores, including the likes of hoja santa and epazote, are always on hand here.

Serious fans of Mexican cooking will want to make a pilgrimage to El Mercado de Los Cielos, a lively food court located inside Desert Sky Mall in west Phoenix. The sprawling boutique marketplace is home to more than a dozen Mexican food stalls, selling everything from thick, sturdy Mexico City-style machete quesadillas to Sinaloan-style Mexican sushi. Enjoy whipped fruit licuados from La Carreta de Lily; carne asada tacos from La Cosinita; and the enormous seafood platters at Mariscos La Phoenikera. If you’re craving it, chances are you’ll find it at El Mercado de Los Cielos. And when you’re done eating, you can easily spend an hour or two browing the wares of dozens of local merchants.

This tiny, unassuming south-side panadería is well-stocked with a fresh assortment of baked goods, including Mexican breads, cakes, and pastries. Stop by for notably fresh and fluffy bolillo rolls, pillowy conchas, creamy tres leches cake, and some of the best fruit-stuffed empanadas in the city. Looking for a quick birthday cake? Panadería y Pastelería La Mejor carries an assortment of grab-and-go cakes and cupcakes. On the weekends, the kitchen makes a terrific white corn menudo, which you can enjoy in the shop’s small dining area. The panadería offers great value, too — a dozen fresh Mexican pastries will set you back less than $10.

No matter what kind of Mexican candy you’re on the hunt for, chances are you’ll find it at Dulceria La Bonita, a wholesale candy retailer that is open to the public. Behind its nondescript exterior, this candy warehouse is stocked with a vast assortment of Mexican candies, snacks, toys, and party decorations. Among the bulk items, you’ll find iconic Mexican brand candies like Tres Reyes, La Imperial, De La Rosa, and Lucas.

Palabras is a unique gathering place in central Phoenix, a bright, energetic space that caters to the community while providing an invaluable resource for the city’s large Spanish-speaking population. The book selection veers toward titles in Spanish and English that promote diversity and social and cultural awareness. There’s other merchandise for sale, too, including shirts, home goods, and work by local artists. Palabras offers far more than just what it sells, though. The space is home to programming like POC (people of color) open mics, language classes, and writing nights for both Spanish and English writers. We’re lucky to have it in the Valley.

We love accenting our home with beautiful Mexican handicrafts; what we don’t love is when those “Mexican handicrafts” are actually mass-produced in a factory overseas. Fortunately, we have stores like Mercado Mexico in the southeast Valley, where the real thing is available (and at great prices, to boot). There’s a little bit of everything here, from piñatas, colorful blankets, and Dia de los Muertos figurines to vibrant dishware, rustic pottery, and outdoor decor. We often lose track of time roaming the aisles of Mercado Mexico, looking for that next perfect acquisition and admiring the craftsmanship of our neighbors to the south.

By day, it’s an award-winning barbecue joint. Once the sun goes down, however, things really get cooking. Four nights a week, the northwest Phoenix location of Bobby-Q transforms into high-energy nightspot Q-Lounge, boasting two dance floors, cheap drinks, and a mix of Latin Top 40, cumbias, reggaeton, and hip-hop. Chicos and chicas alike flock to the spot, especially on the weekends, to shake their culos or pop bottles in the VIP section. Things get particularly lit on Friday nights, when a live ensemble performs in one room while DJ Nicasio holds it down in another and bartenders pour drink specials. (Ladies also get in free before 11 p.m., which is also a plus.) The biggest night of the weekend happens every Saturday during the Sabados Latinos session, when the joint offers a puro pinche parii with DJs lighting up the sound system, go-go girls shooting confetti cannons, and patrons going hard on the dance floor. It’s muy loco and makes for a helluva night out.

Described as a collaboration between chef Suny Santana, designer Gennaro Garcia, and restaurateur Aaron Chamberlin, Taco Chelo in downtown Phoenix is the most stylish and Instagram-worthy new taqueria in town. Gennaro, a versatile artist and designer who works in several mediums, has fashioned a dining room full of color and Mexican-inspired motifs. Check out the turquoise bar trimmed with striking calavera-inspired tile work. Of course, you’ll probably want to strike a selfie pose in front of the restaurant’s cheeky neon sign (“Taquero Mucho”), which is mounted onto an artfully faded brick wall. It’s a perfectly Insta-worthy selfie background.

The flour tortillas at La Sonorense Tortilla Factory in south-central Phoenix are fashioned out of four basic ingredients: flour, shortening, salt, and water. They are pressed into thin, par-cooked disks, which means they puff up enticingly when you warm them up over fire. Thin and pliable, La Sonorense’s tortillas have the kind of richly buttery profile that makes them good enough to eat all on their own. Not surprisingly, many metro Phoenix restaurants and food trucks source their tortillas from La Sonorense. You can enjoy these terrific tortillas anytime by dropping into the factory’s storefront on Central Avenue and grabbing a dozen (or two).

If you want to impress your taco-loving hipster friends, take a spin out to Arcadia for a taste of chef Richard Hinojosa’s terrific gourmet tacos. Don’t miss the duck taco, which is slicked with a nice, bittersweet mole sauce and paired with salsa verde. Other highlights include a Texas wagyu steak taco paired with soy-pickled mushrooms; a pork belly taco served with house-made kimchi and Sriracha aioli; and a decadent vegetarian tempura avocado taco. All the tacos are served on notably fresh house-made tortillas. The restaurant also has a full bar and a craft cocktail menu.

This all-day restaurant/cafe — a collaboration between Nadia Holguín and Armando Hernandez of Tacos Chiwas and James Beard Award-winning pizza icon Chris Bianco — is an understated gem. Situated in an artfully restored century-old building that once housed a market for immigrant communities, Roland’s offers a small menu that is rooted in the norteño culinary traditions of Holguín and Hernandez’s native Chihuahua. Dishes like chile colorado and entomatadas (corn tortillas stuffed with asadero cheese and smothered in a vibrant red chile sauce) demonstrate an underlying reverence and respect for homestyle Mexican fare.

Where do you take out-of-town visitors with a serious Mexican food obsession? You take them to Barrio Café, of course, arguably the most famous Mexican restaurant in metro Phoenix. Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s long-running restaurant on Calle 16 has been lauded for its distinctive take on regional Mexican cooking since its debut in 2002, and it remains an important local touchstone for Mexican food and culture. Many of the chef’s dishes have become local classics, including her pomegranate-studded guacamole; creamy chiles en nogada; and banana leaf-wrapped cochinita pibil.

This long-running Mexican food truck has been a landmark on Buckeye Road for a decade. While it’s certainly not the flashiest or trendiest food truck in town, Taqueria La Hacienda is one of the most reliable purveyors of consistently delicious food truck tacos. The meat selection is extensive — try the extra-spicy chicharrón taco, or the incredibly rich cabeza tacos. For a meal that will leave you satiated for hours to come, feast on the cheesy and spicy chile relleno burrito, a flavor bomb if ever there was one. The service at Taqueria La Hacienda is friendly and efficient, and the selection of house-made salsas is impressive. Be sure to bring cash.

Open until 1 a.m. on most nights (the exception is Sunday, when the truck closes down at midnight), Taqueria Tepehuaje is a longtime neighborhood food truck that’s parked day and night near the corner of Central Avenue and Broadway Road. The selection of tacos, quesadillas, tortas, and combo plates is wide-ranging and uniformly strong. Highlights include street staples like vampiros — your choice of meat piled onto a thick, crisp, comal-toasted tortilla. Don’t miss the tortas, which feature shiny, basted, extra-fluffy rolls stuffed with meats like the house-made birria, which has a thick, earthy succulence that’s impossible to forget once you’ve had it.

Traditional southern Mexican cooking is still hard to find in the Valley. Thank goodness for Las 15 Salsas, a colorful Sunnyslope restaurant that specializes in homestyle Oaxacan fare. Appetizers include Oaxacan treats like memelitas con queso, thin corn patties topped with heaps of queso fresco and salsa. There’s a whole menu of tlayudas — crisp, pizza-shaped tortillas lightly smeared with asiento (pork lard), refried beans, queso fresco, lettuce, and your choice of meat, including options like cecina (thinly sliced marinated beef). Other highlights include thick, dark mole negro; empanadas stuffed with melted Oaxacan cheese and squash blossoms; and a wonderfully cheesy, banana leaf-wrapped tamal Oaxaqueño.

The paths to breakfast burrito nirvana at Phoenix Burrito House are many, but however you choose, you’ll end up in the same place. Machaca provides the fastest, warmest, and most direct route. The strings of beef have a robust animal flavor, the element that unites the many others jammed to dangerous capacity within the hot flour walls of this football-size meal. A toasting brings out nuanced flavors from the tortilla, and heady warmth. Salsa is cool and fresh. Potatoes are warm and give minimal resistance to your eager chomping. And the best thing about this breakfast roll-up might be its sheer size: There’s enough there for breakfast, yes, and part of lunch.

Although many chefs are content to smother tortilla chips in red sauce, chef Doug Robson of Gallo Blanco takes a different approach with his chilaquiles recipe. Served as a short stack of oven-crisped corn tortillas, the Gallo Blanco chilaquiles are pasted together with a blend of melted Chihuahua and Oaxaca cheese, and then topped with two fried eggs. The tortillas soak up the kitchen’s lovely, fire-roasted tomatillo salsa. To eat it, you slice into it like a round cake. The Gallo Blanco take on this classic Mexican brunch staple is decadent and not to be missed.

The salsa bar at Casa Corazon in central Phoenix is a thing of beauty. You’ll find nearly a dozen house-made salsas and fresh taco garnishes, enticingly well-organized and bearing unique flavors that will have you making return trips during your visit. Don’t miss the creamy, blended pineapple salsa, or the bracingly fresh serrano pepper salsa. For extra heat, try the smoky morita salsa. It doesn’t hurt that the restaurant makes its own fresh tortilla chips, which is further incentive to make multiple trips to the salsa bar.

The cheesy rajas, beefy desebrada roja, and peppery picadillo get top billing at Tacos Chiwas, midtown Phoenix’s beloved Chihuahua-style taqueria. But it would be a mistake to leave without trying the restaurant’s excellent frijoles charros. Whole pinto beans are simmered in a broth flavored with bacon, hot dog slices, onions, and fresh cilantro. The result is a velvety, richly layered stew that’s a meal all on its own. Beans are a staple of most Mexican restaurants, but they’re rarely as memorable and delicious as they are here.

Guacamole doesn’t get much more flavorful, fresh, and baroque than the rendition you’ll find at this popular taco shop. La Santisima’s ultra-fresh, chunky guacamole features a base of freshly smashed avocados, cilantro, onion, and tomato. Diced jicama adds texture and crunch, while diced mango and cranberries add pops of fruity sweetness. It’s served with a side of thin, crisp tortilla chips, perfect for shuttling the creamy and delicious pastiche into your mouth.

The Valley is home to a handful of upscale Mexican restaurants, but few are as singular as chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s Barrio Café Gran Reserva. The small eatery is artful and elegant, with tables draped in white linen and original mural art gracing the flatiron-shaped dining room. This is one of the only Mexican restaurants in the city offering a multicourse menu de degustación (tasting menu), which acts as a showcase for Esparza’s latest experiments in modern Mexican cooking. The menu shifts frequently to accommodate the chef’s interests, but its dynamism is part of what makes Barrio Café Gran Reserva one of the city’s most interesting restaurants.

Why are the nachos at Cocina 10 so good? They start with a base of thick, hot tortilla chips, which are layered with refried pinto beans and glued together by melted Cheddar and Oaxaca cheese. They’re topped with cilantro and fresh pico, and finished off with a thin lashing of sour cream and a sprinkling of cotija cheese. A fresh mound of guacamole is served on the side, which you can dig into at your own pace. Every crisp mouthful is palpably crispy, fresh, and delicious. And if you want to turn up the flavor even more, top off your nachos with some of the kitchen’s slow-cooked barbacoa.

Have you ever eaten a machete? These Mexico City-style quesadillas are about 2 feet long and hand-molded to approximate the size and shape of the namesake blade. They’re thick and sturdy, built on house-made corn tortillas and stuffed with cheese-smothered fillings that include chicharrón prensado (rendered and pressed pig skins); sesos (cow or pig brains, depending on availability); buttery, wilted flor de calabaza (squash blossoms); and huitlacoche, the earthy, inky-black corn fungus that has been a culinary staple in Mexico since pre-Colombian times. No matter what you order, these machetes will forever change the way you look at a quesadilla.

This family-run east-side taquería offers nine mouth-watering taco options. You’ll find popular standards like carne asada, pollo asado, and al pastor, as well as harder-to-find offal like buche (pig stomach). The carne asada is a highlight, the steak chopped up into bubbly, slightly crisp nubs. Don’t miss the chicharrón tacos, served homestyle and soupy; the melty slivers of pork skin are irresistibly tender and spicy. And though it might seem like one of the least exciting options on the taco menu, the pollo asado tacos are a revelation. The chicken, finely chopped and aggressively seasoned, is skillfully crisped so that none of the flavor or juice is lost to the griddle.

Gadzooks has become synonymous in metro Phoenix with succulent, made-to-order enchiladas. The fast-casual scene at Gadzooks is efficient yet friendly, and the selection of fillings and toppings is top-notch. Options for fillings include guajillo-braised short ribs, green chile pork shoulder, and even beer-braised bison (available during lunch only). Top your enchiladas with the house-made smoky red sauce, or the tangy green sauce. Then pick your cheese — Chihuahua or asadero (or both). Finally, sit back and watch the kitchen staff turn your enchilada platter into a cheesy, bubbling feast.

Since 1981, El Norteño has been dishing out consistently delicious Sonoran-style Mexican grub near downtown Phoenix. Machaca — intensely flavored dried, shredded beef in a bright, pungent chile sauce — is the house specialty. Perhaps the tastiest way to enjoy El Norteño’s machaca is with an order of the restaurant’s freshly fried chimichangas. These crackly skinned, deep-fried burritos are a marvel of texture — notably crisp on the outside, and stuffed with soft, fragrant, saucy shredded beef on the inside. A heap of sour cream melts deliciously into every crevice of your chimichanga.

Rito’s Mexican Food isn’t fancy, but this Mexican hole-in-the-wall has become a lunchtime institution for good reason. Namely, there’s the allure of Rito’s terrific green chile burrito. It features an ultra-savory, saucy blend of tender beef and spicy green chile, all contained inside a buttery flour tortilla. This is a drippy, messy, two-napkin kind of burrito. But it’s a small inconvenience for an extravagant amount of flavor.

This family-run tamale shop in north Phoenix makes tamales the old-fashioned way: with lots of elbow grease. All tamales are handmade in small batches, using a house-made, lard-free masa featuring a flavorful blend of canola and olive oil. Don’t miss the pork red chile, stuffed with shredded pork in an earthy red chile adobada sauce. The shop also makes several unique varieties, including a sweet-savory Arizona Cornbread and Colby Jack tamale. You’ll also find vegetarian and vegan options, along with two or three rotating seasonal varieties.

The Mexican torta is a little under-appreciated in metro Phoenix, where norteño-style tacos and burritos prevail. You can remedy this injustice with a visit to Los Reyes de la Torta, a local micro-chain that specializes in Mexico City-style sandwiches. There is nary a bad torta on the menu, but a highlight is the mammoth Torta King Carlos V, which is stuffed with a thin pork sirloin, breaded chicken, sausage, ham, and an egg omelet. It’s lubricated with melted cheese and dressed with avocado, chipotle sauce, and a smear of beans. The ultra-savory bundle of meat and cheese is tucked into a buttery, fluffy telera roll, which is nicely crisped up on a griddle. The Torta King Carlos V, in other words, is a sandwich for royalty.

Tortas ahogadas are the marquee specialty at Tortas Ahogadas George, a casual counter-service restaurant located in a Tolleson strip mall. Owners Jorge and Maritza Santoyo, natives of Guadalajara, Mexico, make these “drowned” torta sandwiches in traditional Guadalajara fashion. Thick, crusty birote bread is sliced and stuffed with chopped, fried pork topped in a sweet tomato sauce and a smear of refried beans. The sandwich is then submerged in a fiery, lip-numbing red salsa. This porky, spicy flavor bomb is so drippy, it’s served over a plastic-lined basket designed to contain the inevitable overflow of sauce. But it’s so flavorful that you likely won’t regret the inevitable mess you make while eating it.

This popular roadside taco stand is the unofficial late-night restaurant of Charlie’s Phoenix, the country-themed gay bar and nightclub near the corner of Camelback Road and Seventh Avenue. Crowds line up nightly for the taqueria’s juicy carne asada tacos, which are sold for a whopping $1 a pop. The steak is beautifully charred, chopped to smithereens, and deposited on a lightly greased corn tortilla that’s topped with the requisite chopped onions, cilantro, and house-made salsa. You’ll want to order at least two or three of these beauties. Remember to bring cash — no plastic is accepted at this taco stand.