Food & Drink

Located on the southeast corner of Third and Flower streets in central Phoenix, Ocotillo is much more than just a neighborhood eatery — though it certainly qualifies as that, too. With a full-service restaurant, coffee shop, and outdoor beer garden, this dining and drinking destination is a sort of catchall intended to meet all your needs. The restaurant, however, is the true centerpiece and an edible homage to the bounty of the Sonoran desert. Chefs Walter Sterling and Sacha Levine offer up an ever-changing, vegetable-focused menu highlighted by wood-fired roasted chicken, handmade pastas, and local produce often treated with globally inspired preparations. The sweet, earthy roasted cauliflower that’s complemented with chiles and mint is not to be missed, nor is the signature Ocotillo chicken, which comes steeped in the flavors of local honey and herbs. General manager and sommelier Dave Johnson heads up the service team and has crafted a fun, approachable wine program with a list that offers a symbol-based tasting note key.

When it comes to badass women chefs in metro Phoenix, no one can hold a candle to Chrysa Robertson. For more than two decades, she’s been serving simple, seasonal, Italian-influenced cuisine at her Rancho Pinot restaurant, now one of the Valley’s longest-standing dining spots. But Robertson’s career in the culinary arts goes back much further than that. She got her first job at 16, and has spent time working with some of the most legendary women chefs in Arizona, including Carol Steele of C. Steele and RoxSand Scocos of RoxSand, over her career. She founded the Phoenix chapter of the Slow Food Convivium in the ’90s — long before “farm-to-table” became one of the food world’s biggest buzz words — and continues to showcase the desert’s bounty through her food, often using local produce, fresh eggs, and homegrown herbs in the Rancho Pinot kitchen.

“Serious Food, Extemporaneous Style” is the mantra at Scottsdale’s Posh restaurant. And chef Josh Hebert truly means it. At this improvisational restaurant, chefs create specialized menus based on diners’ preferences — imagine a Choose Your Own Adventure book translated into a one-of-a-kind dining experience. Here’s how it works: Show up, select a number of courses, let the kitchen know what you’ll eat (and what you won’t), and wait for the magic to happen. Hebert and his team are known for creating thoughtful, modern fare, including “cheesecake” topped with raw uni and veal sweetbreads served over carrot puree with zucchini. Not a picky diner? Opt for the Chef’s Omakase, which means the kitchen team gets the freedom to throw down whatever their hearts desire.  

Most people who love good food can appreciate the subtle details that make great sandwiches stand out from merely good ones. And that’s why a true food lover will surely appreciate Jason Raducha’s simple-yet-elegant Noble Eatery, where rustic house-made breads serve as the foundation for excellent sandwiches loaded with imported Italian meats and cheeses and local vegetables. The menu at the lunch spot changes almost every day, but you can count on a concise selection of sandwiches, pizza, smorgas (open-faced sandwiches of Swedish descent), and the Ramon Navarro bowl. The last has become something of a Noble Eatery staple: a bowl of heritage grains like durum white wheat, lentils, and Khorasan wheat mixed with vegetables and seeds and dressed in oil. There’s only a handful of seats, and they’re nearly always full, but we like to think the wait just makes the experience seem all the more exclusive.

It isn’t a hidden gem, per se — after all, chef Jeff Kraus’ south Tempe breakfast and lunch spot has won awards from just about everyone in town, and it’s right there in plain sight in the middle of a strip mall — but for some reason, Crepe Bar does seem to fly below the radar. Except, that is, with the Valley’s food and drink devotees, who pack the restaurant’s dining room each and every chance they get. And it’s easy to understand why. The menu at Crepe Bar features sweet and savory crepes that show the chef’s knack for creating food that’s as fun as it is delicious. Kraus also offers a new expanded selection of sides that includes dishes ranging from tiny salads of local tomatoes, purslane, and tahini, to house-made “Rolos” for dessert. And it’s not just the food. Crepe Bar is also one of the Valley’s top spots for inventive coffee drinks. Always made with top-quality ingredients, Crepe Bar’s caffeinated creations range from coffee brulee (as in, coffee covered in a layer of burnt sugar) to the singular Moroccan latte, which combines espresso, spices, and honey for a truly inspired pick-me-up.

There’s no better to place to impress your guests than at this fine-dining restaurant located at the Four Seasons Scottsdale at Troon North. The service is always excellent, and chef Mel Mecinas puts out a menu that blends classic steakhouse fare with Southwestern flavors. Expect plates of top-quality Kurobuta pork served with achiote glaze, goat cheese, and tangerines, or a classic, corn-fed beef filet served with horseradish crust and marsala mushrooms. With more than 450 selections and over 30 options by the glass, the restaurant’s wine list should satisfy even the most fussy oenophiles, but the thing that truly seals the deal are the restaurant’s excellent views. From the Talavera dining room, you’ll enjoy stunning views of the Valley and desert landscapes that look straight off a postcard. Catching a sunset on the restaurant’s patio is easily one of the best ways to start an evening out on the town.

Lots of chefs talk about farm-to-table dining, but few do it as well as chef Charleen Badman at Scottsdale’s award-winning FnB restaurant. At the cozy Old Town eatery, Badman continually creates new menus of seasonal fare, showcasing locally grown produce while taking inspiration from an array of global cuisines. Deceivingly simple plates like sumac-roasted tomatoes with i’itoi onion quark and dukka are both rooted in the Valley and capable of transporting diners far beyond the Southwest — all while retaining a sense of rustic familiarity that’s helped make the restaurant one of metro Phoenix’s top dining destinations. The wine list also exposes Arizona’s terroir with dozens of locally made options by the bottle and a well-curated list of choices by the glass. Not familiar with the state’s winemakers? Just leave the decision-making to FnB front of house manager and beverage director Pavle Milic, who’s as least as charming as he is knowledgeable about the selections.

If you don’t happen to live on the east side, a visit to Rhema Soul Cuisine in Queen Creek will no doubt represent something of a gastronomical field trip. But rest assured that the long drive will be worth it, because nobody is making soul food quite like the twisty, creative dishes you’ll find at Rhema. House specialties include cheesy dishes like Symphony Fries, a delicious muddle of Parmesan and sweet potato fries glued together with four different cheeses and lavished with chopped barbecued pork. But you’ll come for the barbecue, a top-notch selection that includes gorgeous, smoked-on-site St. Louis-style ribs, brisket, and chicken, all deliciously sauced up with the homemade “magic” sauce (a blend of the kitchen’s sweet and spicy barbecue sauce). Of course, you’ll also have to sample the kitchen’s wonderful chicken and waffle dish, which is made with a fluffy red velvet waffle served with juicy, boneless chicken thighs.

There are steakhouses, and then there are steakhouses. And J&G Steakhouse at The Phoenician resort definitely falls into the latter category. Tucked away on the fifth floor of the resort, this sleek restaurant brings the talents of celebrity and Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten to the Valley, meaning you can expect modern takes on chophouse classics. You’ll find the usual array of steak options — from a 12-ounce filet to a 24-ounce porterhouse — as well as options for the non-meat lovers, including Maine lobster and slow-cooked salmon. The restaurant’s views also make it a splurge-worthy destination; from the patio, you can look out over the resort’s pool to the nearby Papago peaks.

Thanks to an appearance on Spike TV’s Bar Rescue, central Phoenix’s George & Dragon got a fancy new makeover this year. But the fresh coats of paint and shiny new tabletops haven’t affected the attributes about this pub that we love most — namely, the affordable beers and ever-friendly crowds. Yes, you can also still count of a menu of British classics, including fish and chips (now battered and fried to order — thanks, Jon Taffer), pasties, and a remarkably good plate of Indian curry, and the jukebox still offers plenty of options for any musical taste. And if there’s soccer — er, football on, you can bet you’ll find it on the televisions here, along with crowds of jersey-sporting fans with whom you can cheer along.

Where do you go when you want to see and be seen, while enjoying a bowl of very good guacamole on the side? The Yard in Phoenix, situated in the heart of the increasingly fashionable Seventh Street uptown corridor, is the ultimate hangout lounge. You may technically come to Barrio Urbano to eat and drink, but you will also come to witness the carousing of bros at Culinary Dropout, to play a game of cornhole with the next table over, or to liven up your Instagram feed with the colorful backdrop that is Barrio Urbano. Oh, and the food is pretty good, too.

In the wee hours of the morning, when your favorite taco truck has called it a night, there is La Korita Taqueria. The drive-thru is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the food is tastier than other late-night options that shall remain nameless. The carne asada is grilled over mesquite, the juicy nubs as smoky and rich as anything you’ve ever had in the clear light of day. The menu is also quite comprehensive, so you can quell any highly specific midnight cravings for deep-fried taquitos dorados, or perhaps a gordita stuffed with shredded beef. A chile relleno at 3 a.m. — why not?

The origins of cocktail culture don’t exactly trace back to our fair and young state — but we can lay claim to one classic: the Tequila Sunrise. Just orange juice and tequila, layered with bright red grenadine, it’s essentially, you know, only slightly better than sitting down to the bar and ordering a Shirley Temple. Luckily for us, California is the real culprit behind that interpretation — ours, invented at the Arizona Biltmore in the 1930s, was a much more respectable mixture of tequila, lime, and soda water layered with a deep purple blackcurrant liqueur. The Old Town Scottsdale bar Counter Intuitive does the California version — which might be regrettable if it weren’t for a couple of tricks up their sleeves, including fresh juice and a craft spin.

Keifer Gilbert is no stranger to the hustle. At one point this past year, he was tending three bars — three of the city’s best, in fact — at sister restaurants Crudo and Okra, and weekends at Counter Intuitive (as well as participating in food and beverage events around town). He left Crudo briefly, but only because Counter Intuitive was opening its own sister spot, the tiki-slinging UnderTow, where he began the hustle once again. That’s a lot, given that there are usually dozens of original drinks on each menu and only seven nights in the week. But far more to Gilbert’s credit than sound memorization and tight technique, though, is his sense of friendly, good-natured bartending.

You’ve seen the other side of the coin too many times: some of the most charismatic bartenders found guilty of building too much momentum in a night, struggling to find the line between sparking the party and becoming the party themselves. Gilbert, however, nails it. He’s appropriately attentive, earnest, and upbeat — it’s obvious he’s having fun, no doubt about it — but so are you. That’s the most important thing. He knows it and tends to it.

Young, hungry, and hospitable, Gilbert certainly has a great year behind him, and an even brighter future ahead as he continues to develop his personal style and tastes at two of the city’s very best.

As far as cocktail movements are concerned, “old school” is thought to refer to a time from the turn of the century through the Prohibition era that followed, when the foundation for most classic cocktails was laid. But there is an older school still — America’s first cocktail movement, which birthed the 18th-century mint julep. It was medicine then and still is; just brandy, ice, sugar, and mint in an unadorned tin cup — and in uptown Phoenix, Okra makes it better than anyone else. In fact, they dedicate an entire menu to the drink, providing historic variants (the original, with brandy, or instead, a version sporting bourbon dating to the era that followed) and some twists of their own; for instance, an island-inspired julep featuring rum and house-made pineapple syrup.

While most cocktail menus straddle a bias between classics on one page and a handful of their own creations on the other, Old Town Scottsdale’s Counter Intuitive went ahead and dreamed up a few dozen new, original drinks for their Mexican-inspired episode, Agua Caliente Racetrack. Just as the team created their Chinatown-inspired menu before it, the drink creation is entirely flavor-driven, starting with a list of ingredients that represent a region or a theme. From there, they work their way backward into cocktails that must withstand substantial criticism before any one drink makes the final menu. There is, indeed, a “new school” in the Phoenix craft cocktail movement, and it’s in session at Counter Intuitive.

Like bourbon and whiskey, rum has the power to warm the mind, body, and soul through a long and hard winter — but we don’t have those in Phoenix. It’s a good thing, then, that we have Rum Bar, guided by Jamaican-born owner Dwayne Allen, for the long and hard summers, where the bartenders know exactly how to beat the heat with concoctions that are refreshingly cool — and refreshingly creative, too. Here, the apothecary is stocked exotically and the house-designed shrubs flow into drinking territory less traveled. Not that the stalwarts of hot-weather rum drinks aren’t there to please and impress; Rum Bar does mojitos, daiquiris, and piña coladas better than any of the other guys.

Critics will call them watery salsa or liquified salad, and it can be true. Loaded up with celery sticks and skewered veggies, a Bloody Mary can often knock out a round of drinks and your salad course all at once.

But now, salads and vegetables are getting star treatment — and the Bloody Mary can just as easily steal the show when uncommon ingredients and better booze are in the mix. Cue the Bloody Mary at The Parlor — it’s prosciutto fat-washed (that means they let prosciutto fat sit and infuse with alcohol, giving it a rich taste), with a house-made mix, and green chile-flavored vodka. Not a bad way to get those veggies in.

Take one look at the Gladly’s towering whiskey collection, stocked from the ceiling down to the bar, and you’ll have little doubts they’ve got it all — or, you know, at least a lot of it. To be accurate, this collection clocks in at around 200 types of rye whiskey, bourbon, and scotch — bottled in bond, pot stilled, blended, or peated. Pick your poison. Tacking a few bucks to each order gets you a perfectly compressed ice ball, too — perfect for kicking around the glass with an agile pinkie and unquenchable thirst for the finer things in life. And, by that, we mean bourbon.

Arizona Distilling Co. has come a long way in just a couple of short years of producing spirits that not only Arizonans could be proud of, but which can compete with most anyone on a national stage. Originally, the company was best know for its gin, which blends a handful of Arizona botanicals into an aromatic and flexible gin — recently, though, it’s their Desert Durum Wheat Whiskey, made from locally grown durum wheat. Billed as “Arizona’s first-ever grain-to-bottle whiskey,” the spirit sets the pace for a company that’s wants to be known for quality and community before anything else.

For a couple of decades and counting, Seamus McCaffrey’s has helped anchor the downtown Phoenix nightlife scene as an unpretentious spot for friendly carousing and a late-night nightcap. It’s also the best place to go in metro Phoenix to experience the virtues of the classic Irish pub. Come here for a cold Guinness, of course, but also a good whiskey flight — the pub has one of the biggest selections of Scotch and Irish whiskey in metro Phoenix — along with standard bar fare mixed with traditional Irish dishes. Corned beef and cabbage and the menu of boxty pancakes are reliably good, but the real attraction is the friendly service and lively, music-filled bar.

The distillation industry may be large, but in Phoenix, things are still pretty small. That means that when a new distiller opens up its doors, it can potentially make waves quickly — and that’s exactly what CaskWerks did after setting up shop in Tempe. Owner Rick Burch and head distiller John Miller were hoping they had a recipe for success when they debuted the spirit they’re now so well known for: their delicious, signature Apple Pie Liqueur. What they didn’t have, yet, was a liaison to tap into the Valley’s bartender community. Enter bartender extraordinaire and one the community’s best-known ambassadors, Travis Nass, who joined the team to man the customer-facing side of the equation. Cheers to a bright future.

Though it hails from down south in Tucson, Hamilton Distillers has done a phenomenal job of getting their Whiskey Del Bac spirit placed onto shelves in Phoenix — after all, who wouldn’t want to stock and pour one of the state’s most intriguing alcoholic products? If you ask us, it’s a game-changer; the distillery is taking organic local barley grown in the Tucson area and malting it with mesquite smoke made from wood collected in the surrounding desert — a process not unlike Scotch-making, which requires grain be malted by burning peat. Mesquite is an important part of our local terroir, and Hamilton’s Whiskey Del Bac is an important part of appreciating that terroir. We can’t wait for what they do next.

Served at the cozy bar inside of downtown Phoenix’s Nobuo at Teeter House, every component of the Smokey Thompson — a textbook whiskey sour by build, something profound when you examine its pieces — says Arizona. There are local limes and yuzu orange citrus when they’re in season at Bob McClendon’s farm; honey made by desert-foraging bees; the whites of chicken eggs from Dave Jordan’s Two Wash Ranch in Queen Creek; and last, but not least, Whiskey Del Bac, a scotch-like spirit made from Tucson-grown barley, malted with burning mesquite collected in the neighboring desert. Hey, this is no prickly pear margarita — and that’s because it’s much, much better.

There’s nothing wrong with good, reliable beer that you can get just about anywhere in town — but there’s something about that jog out to the distant, previously brewery-less town of Gilbert all just to wet your whistle with one of what, after a few years, has grown into a solid collection of Arizona Wilderness’ very hyped small-batch brews. Their DC Mountain Double IPA is quickly gaining ground as one of America’s most delicious IPAs. Loads of local produce and the occasional heritage grain prove Arizona Wilderness are progressive beer makers, with buying practices that invest heavily in the local economy — concepts that elude most other breweries, even at the small and local level.

There aren’t many places where you can fill up on a hot meal for less than $7 these days, but at Da Vang in Phoenix, you’ll find dozens of options priced well under $10. This no-frills Vietnamese restaurant isn’t just a bargain, though, it’s also one of the best places in town for real-deal Vietnamese cuisine — we’re talking about everything from steaming bowls of pho to plates of springy vermicelli noodles topped with shredded pork, vegetables, crushed peanuts, and fermented fish sauce. Not familiar with intricacies of the Southeast Asian cuisine? No problem. Just keep these numbers in mind: 48 for an order of fresh spring rolls stuffed with shrimp, pork, and vegetables; 76 for a $2.25 bahn mi loaded with liver spread, ham, and pork sausage; and 1 for the restaurant’s signature bowl of pho, which includes sliced beef, brisket, tendon, and tripe.

Wren House could have been just like any other neighborhood bar in Phoenix — but it’s special. Not only do they brew their own beer, they do it in a stylishly designed, repurposed house that dates back to 1922. That means some cool Phoenix history, and even cooler: cold craft beer. At this small scale, the brewery nimbly built a cast of dependable beers that run the gamut from Jomax Oatmeal Stout, brewed with coffee from the local Press Roasters, to the Hi Jolly American Wheat Ale, which folds chamomile and local desert honey into each batch. Finally, we’ve got a brewery and bar that reflects a new, tasteful, and modern vision for Phoenix.

If you took a year and dedicated it to tasting a different craft beer every day, you would still need an additional month and then some to sample all of the beers available at the Strong Beer Festival. In 2017, there will be 400 different craft beers for brewheads to taste at the festival that will take over Steele Indian School Park. Four Peaks, the Phoenix Ale Brewery, SanTan Brewing Company, Mother Road Brewing Company, and many more all participate to show that Arizona knows beer, knows how to make it well, and probably most importantly, knows how to drink it.

In a tight-knit space, Central Wine seemingly does it all — they have wine by the glass, in half-glass flights, and by the half-bottle (always a good variety, whether you want to, say, start with a skin-fermented chardonnay or end the evening with a nice Californian syrah); great local beers (i.e., Historic Brewing Company’s Piehole Porter from Flagstaff — and beer flights, too, if you can’t decide on just one at a time); and plenty of snacks. That means everything from burrata and balsamic on Noble Bread toast or a local Crow’s Dairy cheese board, all the way down to a Patti Cakes fudge brownie. Wine has never been so much fun.

The French know their rosé. And though they swirl it in their glasses, sloshing with ice, they have never taken the drink to its logical American conclusion: Throw it in a can and add fizz. In terms of refreshment, nothing beats Dos Cabezas’ canned Sparkling Pink Rosé. It exploded on the scene last year, and, due to its popularity, was scarce on the market. No other wine quite captured that same magic this year, which means that Dos Cabezas remains king of the summer. Challengers are accepted; we like our wine cooler, so long as it doesn’t include wine coolers.

Be Coffee is tucked away in the monOrchid gallery and office space off Roosevelt Row. A good amount of be’s coffee comes from Swillings Coffee, a Colombian roaster started by SeedSpot’s C’pher Gresham — it’s nice hot, but even better cold. There are many schools of thought as to what a good cold brew should be like, but these guys are keeping it classy, with a cup of java that is clean as a whistle, has great malty and chocolatey flavor, a smooth feel — and, very importantly, is plenty strong to begin with, seeing as how ice melts at rapid speeds here in the desert.

Plenty of coffee shops claim to be all about forging relationships directly with coffee farmers, but there isn’t anyone in metro Phoenix doing it quite as well as Peixoto Coffee in downtown Chandler. The coffee shop gets a portion of its beans directly from Brazil — specifically from the Peixoto family farm called Fazenda São José da Boa Vista — and they’re then roasted right before customers’ eyes inside the comfortable East Valley storefront. Purists will appreciate the shop’s single-origin coffees, which can be explored at the shop’s pour-over bar, while those in search of something more playful can look forward to seasonal menus with creations such as summery coconut cold brew and rich hot cocoa made with local bean-to-bar chocolate during the cooler months.

Chef Matt Carter’s Zinc Bistro may not serve strictly classic French fare — we’re pretty sure, at least, that the French don’t specialize in scallops with chorizo risotto — but when it comes to finding a bona fide French dining experience in metro Phoenix, this Scottsdale brasserie simply can’t be beat. From the pressed metal ceiling tiles to the white tablecloths, everything about Zinc harkens back to a cozy Parisian sidewalk cafe, except here you can dig into a Plateaux de Fruits de Mer with oysters, lobster, mussels, and more, followed by a cup of the Valley’s best French onion soup. For the main entree, Carter offers up short ribs so tender they collapse at the lightest touch of a fork and perfectly prepared steak served, of course, with a side of excellent frites.

Old Town Scottsdale didn’t exactly need another good coffee shop option — but it was screaming for a little diversity (the Fifth Avenue Shops boast a Cartel outpost; Sip down the street serves Cartel as well), so we’re happy we not only got a shop serving famed San Francisco roaster Four Barrel, but along with it the unexpected, delightfully Porsche-themed nature of the shop, tucked into a little garage next to a multiuse space. Fourtillfour is quality performance in a compact and sleek package, just like a classic Porsche. The menu is short, simple, and built for speed.

Slow and steady wins the race. Press Coffee Roasters is nowhere near the flashiest of roasters in town, but when it comes to a having a warm, welcoming staff and a high-quality product, Press continues to deliver. And it doesn’t stop there; the roaster is also know for its cold brew, served both in standard fashion and tapped with nitrogen as well, creating a luscious, creamy texture that has us craving more.

Looking for a rare spirit? Maybe you heard good things about that quadruple nitro triple-hopped IPA from the friends who’ve tried everything good and bad so that you don’t have to? Head to Tops. The offerings in this Tempe liquor store are piled together and overflowing — in a manner that’s arguably charming — in an attempt to stock as much as humanly possible onto their shelves and into their fridges. Go ahead, dust off that bottle, create your own six-pack of everything you needed to cross off your to-drink list. You’re at Tops, where pretty much anything is possible, and, thanks to the knowledgable staff, findable.

Let’s face it, juice bars can be intimidating. They’re usually full of energetic, healthy people who just finished a marathon run or yoga sesh and need to replenish their fine-tuned bodies with pure fruit-and-vegetable goodness. But whether you’re a pro athlete or just struggle to eat your daily recommended dose of greens, there’s nothing to fear at Old Town Scottsdale’s Juice Core. This tiny juice shop offers everything from hardcore, no-fruit, all-green juice cleanses to super hydrating smoothies and even some simple food options. Best of all, the shop’s staff are usually happy to help you decide on a product, asking what you’re looking to achieve through the powers of organic, cold-pressed juice.

For many, the Palo Verde Lounge is a beloved oasis known for its jukebox, strong drinks, and some Tekken Tag faceoffs. But this neon-lit, band-sticker-laden, cash-only Tempe establishment at Beck Avenue and Broadway Road is known for yet another neighborhood treasure: the Pickle Shot. Acting as a night starter, eye opener, and for some, a holiday tradition, the Pickle Shot comprises a shot of well tequila or whiskey with a pickle juice chaser. So, it’s not mixology at its best, but it gets the job done. And though this award is for the Pickle Shot alone, a quick pro tip here: If you ask them to add a shot of hot sauce to the tequila or whiskey, you’ve now got yourself a Tijuana Hooker shot. Just saying.

After all these years, Citizen Public House still remains a valid threat to pretty much any other happy hour in town. Not-your-average bar snacks — still-warm roasted rosemary nuts, beer cheese fondue, popcorn slicked with bacon fat — hold down a menu next to a well-known rotation of barrel-aged cocktails, poured generously, especially considering the $6 price tag from 3 to 6 p.m. every day the doors are open. The vetted bartenders have a knack for making the bitter, boozy stuff go down easier than it should — a cool smile goes a long way. All of this and more are available at one of Old Town Scottsdale’s classiest haunts.

When it gets to be prime time in Phoenix, when dinner plates go whizzing by, when seats are saturated and the bubbly diner talk boils to a gentle rumble, you’d count yourself lucky to have scored a seat at Clever Koi’s bar — or better yet, the patio, which, east-facing as it is, gets itself a pastel backdrop each and every evening. A good view makes anything taste terrific — terrific-er in the case of the consistently great drinks under co-owner Joshua James’ careful guide. Whether it’s for Fourth of July fireworks or blowing off a little post-work steam, The Clever Koi is where you should let a good drink tell all and a great drink cure all.

Plenty of sensible people like to begin a night out when the sun goes down — which means dinner at 7, 8, or even 9 p.m. But at that juncture, when the next sensible thing to do is get a great cocktail and keep the night going, Phoenix leaves one wanting should you desire to stay out past 10 or 11 p.m. We must be grateful, then, for establishments like downtown Phoenix’s Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, which aim for quality — and do so till 2 a.m., when the law says they no longer may. Most food sucks in those final hours of the night, especially bar food — but not at Bitter & Twisted, where Bob Tam’s penchant for re-imagining classic Asian dishes in the style of upscale American comfort food (like the steam bun burger, with chili oil dipping sauce) is both tasteful and tasty.

How to cure your Sunday morning hangover, La Cruda-style: Take a glass of tomato juice, add a healthy splash of clamato, a squirt of tabasco, a squiggle of chamoy sauce, a sprinkling of Tajin chili seasoning, and some lime. Garnish with shrimp, a couple of celery sticks, and a hunk of chewy carne seca, aka beef jerky. At least, that’s how the folks at Clamatos La Cruda (“cruda” is Mexican slang for hangover) recommend you come back to life, and it’s pretty hard not to feel fully replenished after one of their post-hangover, alcohol-free mariscos-style cocktails on the menu at this east side hangout spot. Along with the menu of clamato-based drinks, this small eatery also offers snacks like shrimp tostadas, tacos, and fruit salad. Plus, there’s a crockpot of complimentary seafood broth by the counter, designed to give you a quick, life-giving boost of sodium.

A good margarita, like a daiquiri or an old fashioned, should be easy to get right, and yet the really good ones are so few and far between. Do most places over-complicate it? The ingredients — good tequila, orange liqueur, fresh citrus, and a salted rim — are simple enough to bore some, making the marg ripe for riffing. Crudo, being an Italian joint, is thematically about as far as things get from Mexico and its native margarita.

But Crudo’s proximity to the border and the bar’s commitment to quality in all things spirits and cocktails means co-owner Micah Olson feels the pressure to not only get it right, but to make it delicious and uniquely high-quality. No strange riffs here. It’s by the book. Furthermore, as you could guess by this point, he nails it.

Situated in a corner inside Scott’s Generations deli in central Phoenix, Tres Leches Café is the place to go for irresistibly good lattes (and other coffee and smoothie drinks), inspired by the flavors of Mexico and Latin America. On the menu, you’ll find delicious concoctions like the Café Churro, a blend of cinnamony “churro sauce,” fresh-ground espresso, and the cafe’s signature tres leches cream, which is kind of like the house version of half-and-half. Other drinks include Café Mexicano, a deeply flavored latte made with Abuela-brand chocolate Mexicano, and the Tres Aztecas Café, made with a deep, dark, “drink of the gods,” Aztec-style xocolate. You’d be hard-pressed to find a drink here that isn’t delicious.

There were so many cocktails across the Valley to choose from — mezcal, Jalisco’s state spirit, being the hottest thing show up since tequila — but the obvious pick may be the simplest, the one that shows off the spirit in bare-bones fashion, the Oaxaqueño margarita at Barrio Urbano. Nothing too flashy here — just a rim of sal de gusano (a classic Mexican ingredient; that’s salt ground down with dried worm, for the record) which adds a great savory quality to the drink that’s already so smoky. It’s an in-your-face, wonderful take on a classic margarita.

The guys over at the ever-changing Counter Intuitive got crazy with their Agua Caliente Racetrack menu, blending all sorts of chili peppers and spices into drinks anchored by a plethora of agave spirits and fresh juices — which leads to a lot of flavor. Case in point: the Gallant Sir, which is rooted with earthy and rustic bacanora, the state spirit of Sonora, and thrown for a loop with a supporting cast of amaro, scotch, cantaloupe, and muddled Fresno chilies. The cocktail is brash, requiring some bravery. But the reward is stellar drinking with a real sense of place here in the Sonoran Desert.

The Sotol Tale calls for what Bitter & Twisted proprietor Ross Simon describes as a “cheeky amount of sotol,” Chihuahua’s state spirit. Dusty-tasting and a bit herbal, it pairs nicely with Bitter & Twisted’s house blend of sweet vermouth, Maraschino liqueur, and bitters. The end result? A dusty Martinez, if you will, as opposed to the classic Dirty Martinez cocktail, somewhere in between the negroni and the manhattan. This classic is a spin, reborn with Northeastern Mexican flare — it’s worth the whirl — and is light enough to be the first drink of the night but boozy enough to be the last (unless you want a second — we’d totally understand).

If you willfully block out about 90 percent of the menu at Los Reyes De La Tortas — the part with all the griddled tortas, quesadillas, and pork-chop-stuffed “super tacos” — you could almost make the argument that this local Mexico City-styled chain is a bona fide health-food destination. That’s because the restaurant offers a sprawling menu of aguas frescas naturales — fresh fruit drinks made with real fruit, ice, and then lightly sweetened with sugar. The drink menu boasts an impressive selection, including standards like pineapple and limón, along with harder-to-find aguas frescas like papaya, mango, and watermelon. The restaurant also whips up novelty healthy drinks like the vampiro, which is made with orange juice, carrots, celery, and beets. No plastic foam here: Your smoothie comes in a chilled glass, with a cheery little paper umbrella.

Neighborhood restaurants are found all over this big sprawling place we call home, many of which have unbelievable specials. On Wednesdays, Las Glorias Grill has $1.99 margaritas that are out of this world, and provide more bang for the buck than they probably should for the price as the house tequila, Zarco, is pretty much the bomb diggity. Salt or not, on the rocks or blended, you can’t go wrong with this sweet and tangy margarita. Trade a picture of Thomas Jefferson for one today (as long as it is legal tender, of course) while you munch on Las Glorias’ delicious food. We recommend the fish tacos on Taco Thursday. Muy delicioso.

Mediocre horchatas can be found in every corner of metro Phoenix. It only takes one long pull of one of these chalky, cloyingly sweet horchatas — made from the powder stuff, no doubt — to experience a serious case of buyer’s remorse. It doesn’t have to be this way, though, as is proven by the fresh-made horchata at Presidio Cocina Mexicana in central Phoenix. The Presidio horchata is made tres leches-style — that is, it’s made using three milks — and this imbues every cool, tall glass with a rich, frothy sweetness. It’s an unmistakably fresh horchata that will help you forget all those bad horchatas in your immediate past.

The predominantly pedestrian paloma clocks in at a whopping two ingredients: grapefruit soda and tequila — so it’s no wonder that cocktail drinkers tend not to over-think it, if they think of it at all. That is, until recently — all of a sudden, agave spirits are in vogue again, some types for the very first time, and so the elevation of every tequila cocktail, no matter how regal or utilitarian, is well underway. The drink gets a beautiful makeover from The Brickyard, where they infuse a tart, house-made grapefruit shrub with Fresno chilies, throw in some fizzy soda, and rim the glass with a hot and sweet chili flake, sugar, and salt rim that renders this final drink with a profile reminiscent of Mexican candy — that is, with a kick.

Over in uptown Phoenix at The Yard, Barrio Urbano seemingly has more agave spirits than are possible to move off the shelves, but it’s a challenge they accept on a daily basis. Variety is king, from classic aged and un-aged tequilas, to smokier Oaxaca mezcals — and further down the rabbit hole they go, too, with lesser-known regional spirits, like earthy and herbaceous sotol from Chihuahua and the robust Sonoran spirit, bacanora. So when it gets down to the margarita or neat spirits alike, there’s plenty to dive into, especially at their daily happy hour, where every spirit here is half-price — an insane value.

Chon Thai Food is an unassuming, family-owned Thai restaurant situated in a sleepy east side strip mall, but don’t be fooled by the somewhat drab exterior. Service is very friendly and attentive, and the food is ultra-fresh, lively, and consistently delicious. The sprawling menu offers all your favorite Thai dishes like pad Thai and pad see-ew, along with excellent harder-to-find regional dishes, including a fiery and rustic larb. Garlicky stir-fried chicken is as good as it gets at Chon Thai, and a house specialty like the chicken pumpkin curry is not to be missed. Impeccable dishes, coupled with reliably friendly service, makes Chon Thai a first-rate destination for Thai in the Valley.

Korean cooking is finally beginning to flourish in metro Phoenix, but if you’re craving a first-rate bulgogi dinner, the place to go is still Café Ga Hyang. This small, quirky west side restaurant makes very good bulgogi indeed, the thinly sliced beef marinated and grilled to a delicious garlicky crisp. The selection of banchan, the small dishes of kimichi, the marinated vegetables, and other delights that appear at the beginning of a Korean meal are excellent, and you probably shouldn’t leave without trying the red-chili-laced chewy fish cakes and rice cake tubes. The bibimbap, however, is the thing to get when you only have room for one thing; the popular entree is served in a large bowl heaped with sauteed vegetables and slices of beef that you can customize with mixed-in rice and hot sauce. And when you’re craving something beyond these ultra-popular and stalwart Korean dishes, the menu is deep enough to hold your interest for many late-night meals to come.

Don’t let the uninspiring name fool you. House of Eggroll isn’t just another run-of-the-mill neighborhood Chinese restaurant slinging greasy chow mein and sticky sesame chicken. This unassuming east Valley spot is a true gem, specializing in northwestern Chinese fare, a hard-to-find regional cuisine known for blending spice and pungent vinegar to excellent effect. Specialties include hot and sour soup filled with hearty lamb dumplings, and biang biang noodles, a bowl full of gangly handmade noodles topped with bean sprouts, green beans, and succulent shredded pork. The restaurant’s tiny dining room can get crowded with large parties of diners who, smartly, opt to share several of House of Eggroll’s super-sized entrees. But with one taste of the not-to-be-missed braised chicken with potato and pepper, you’ll be happy to have endured the wait.

In a world full of sushi restaurants and ramen shops, Nobuo at Teeter House offers a Japanese dining experience that stands out from the crowd. By day, this small eatery located in downtown Phoenix’s Heritage Square presents as a tranquil tea house with a menu of thoughtful, playful Asian fare. House-cured salmon sits next to an order of Teeter Tots, or panko-fried tofu served with spicy miso sauce. By night, the restaurant gets even more creative with elevated izakaya-style dining and the chef’s famed omakase, or chef’s choice, menus. Nationally recognized chef Nobuo Fukuda takes diners’ expectations of Japanese cuisine and turns them on their head with dishes like the Tako and Tomato, made with grilled octopus and house-made mozzarella on a slab of miso-marinated, pan-seared foie gras.

Whether you’re looking for a South Indian dosa or excellent chicken tandoori, Marigold Maison in north Phoenix makes a solid destination for Indian cuisine in a casual, chic setting. You can start your meal with any of a number of appetizers, ranging from the usual options like samosa and chicken pakoora to something a little harder to find, including chickpea ceviche and aloo tikki chaat, an Indian street food that combines lentil cakes with yogurt, tamarind, onion, and tomato. From there, you can start to explore any of several regional specialties, including crispy rice cakes stuffed with potato and onion; classic, creamy tikka masala; and biryani hyderabadi, a southern Indian rice dish.

For a fast, affordable, and delicious lunch — and on top of that, an authentic Mediterranean one — there’s really no better stop than Al-Hana restaurant inside Baiz Market Place. The walk-up counter is just a portioned-off corner of the international market, but there’s good reason you’ll often find a queue of hungry customers lined up around lunch time. For under $10, you can get a plate of marinated chicken shawarma with rice, pickles, onions, and creamy garlic sauce or a large portion of tabbouleh that makes a perfect light lunch. Our go-to order is the simple falafel sandwich, which, for just $3.99, comes stuffed with hot, fried chickpea balls, lettuce, parsley, tomatoes, pickled turnips, and rich tahini. The price point certainly can’t be beat by anyone except Ronald McDonald or the Colonel — and we’d rather have some of city’s best Mediterranean fare than fast food any day.

Chef Chris Bianco has been known as one of the best pizza chefs in the country for years, and at his newest restaurant, he proves he’s got lots more than pizza up his sleeve. The highly anticipated Tratto restaurant opened its doors at Town & Country shopping center in central Phoenix this spring, serving a concise menu of excellent Italian fare including pasta, small plates of local vegetables, and more. A meal might start with a long piece of grilled house-made focaccia spread with buttery lardo and jelly, and star an entree of slow-braised pork shank with sweet summer corn and local peaches. From start to finish, Tratto makes a strong impression — even the cocktails surpass expectations, with craft ingredients including local honey and olive-oil-washed gin.

Romanelli’s is a wonderful family-run Italian deli that has been singlehandedly funneling tasty Italian import meats, cheeses, and chocolate-chip cannoli into the west side for decades. This is the place to go for the simple pleasures of an old-fashioned cheese and liverwurst sandwich, trays overflowing with homemade cheese ravioli, and deli sandwiches stuffed with your dream configuration of mortadella, salami, capicola, and other specialty cold cuts. The bakery case is replete with everything you need to impress at your next potluck, including an assortment of homemade eclairs, cannolis, cheesecakes, and sfogiatelle stuffed with custard. And if you love the homemade sauces, the Romanelli’s market pantry is stocked with jars of their homemade puttanesca, arrabbiata, and marinara, so you can bring the flavors to your own home pantry.

Haus Murphy’s has been a mainstay in downtown Glendale for nearly as long as the lifespan of the average millennial. The secret to the restaurant’s longevity is pretty simple: good, hearty German fare served in a hospitable, group-friendly dining room. Come here for the sausage sampler, the juicy bratwursts served over the house-made sauerkraut, and a whole menu of excellent schnitzels. The sauerbraten, or sweet-and-sour marinated beef, served with a side of spätzle, is as close as you’ll get to southern Germany without hopping on a plane. Of course, you’ll have to order the giant Bavarian pretzel, and if the weather allows, there may not be a lovelier outdoor patio in downtown Glendale.

Sure, La Tiendita Colombian Restaurant is a destination for excellent Colombian fare in metro Phoenix. But the Mesa restaurant is more than just a place to eat. It’s a gathering place for the Valley’s Colombian community, often hosting a packed house of jersey-clad fans for soccer — er, futbol — matches and other sporting events. So it makes sense, then, that this is where you’ll find some of the most authentic Colombian food in town, including excellent arepas, empanadas, and desayunos, or breakfast platters featuring chorizo, eggs, and coffee, for under $10. The go-to order is the bandeja paisa, a filling plate of chicharrón, ground beef, and chorizo sausage, as well as rice, beans, avocado, plantain, a mini-arepa, and a fried egg.

Stop by LaBella Pizzeria for lunch or dinner, and you’re getting two things: a great Italian meal and the best kosher food in town. You may not care so much about the latter, but to the Orthodox Jews in the Valley, LaBella is one of only a handful of eateries where they can order a meal that abides by the set of religious dietary restrictions known as kashrut. For everyone else, LaBella is a casual neighborhood eatery where the absence of meat on the menu (there are plenty of fish dishes, though) doesn’t at all detract from the quality of the food. Try the Louis pizza (with spinach, mushrooms, garlic, feta, Parmesan, and mozzarella), the can’t-eat-just-one garlic knots, or the best eggplant Parmigiana we’ve ever tasted. Where’s the beef? Who cares?

Breakfast at Ollie Vaughn’s might just be one of the most underrated ways to start your day in metro Phoenix. This quaint, sun-soaked eatery located on McDowell Road just west of 16th Street offers a small but worthwhile lineup of breakfast options, all priced under $10. For a morning on the go, there’s the breakfast sandwich, a fully customizable affair that can be served on your choice of a doughy house-made biscuit or a flaky, fresh croissant. For a heartier start, we love the pork chile verde, which, for just $9, includes a heaping portion of chile-kissed meat and a fried egg, all served over a buttermilk biscuit. Ricotta pancakes, French toast, and bagel and lox round out the options with a little bit of starch. The bakery and cafe even offers online ordering, so you can swing by and pick up your food without having to wait.

There’s something for every kind of brunch-er on Saturday and Sunday mornings at Windsor. The chic neighborhood eatery offers hearty morning fare, including biscuits and gravy and eggs Benedict, as well as healthier options such as quinoa oatmeal and The Simple Life, which includes eggs, an English muffin, bacon, and fruit — all delicious. Our favorite indulgence, however, is the homemade donut holes — a baker’s dozen of warm, cinnamon-coated orbs served with vanilla mascarpone and strawberry jam. And then there’s the booze. Choose from $5 Bloody Marys, which you can trick out with spices, salts, pickles, and garnishes from Windsor’s cart; $5 cocktails; and even $5 pitchers of beer. Throw in a few good friends and some pleasant weather, and there’s no better way to spend the morning.

The Clever Koi has already earned our esteem as a spot for a one-of-a-kind dinner and affordable happy hour, but the restaurant’s lunch menu also deserves a nod for being infinitely customizable, excellent, and fast. The idea is simple: Sit down, grab a pencil, and start filling out your order on the forms provided. Bowls start at just $5 a piece, and diners have their choice of noodles — everything from udon and ramen to chilled green-tea soba, stir-fried chow mein, or rice. Then you pick a protein from elevated options including pork belly, succulent duck, tofu, or steak, and throw on any vegetables you’d like. Best of all are the final add-ins, which include a fried egg, house-made kimchi, and pickled ginger. All said and done, you get a gourmet lunch that rarely costs more than a 10 spot. What more do you want?

You don’t have to go far to escape the hustle and bustle of central Phoenix — in fact, you really don’t need to look any farther than Lon’s at The Hermosa Inn, an upscale resort in a particularly quiet patch of Paradise Valley. The property, with its well-maintained landscape and bubbling fountains, is a true oasis, and Lon’s, the resort’s fine-dining restaurant, sits front and center. The restaurant’s spacious patio offers cozy fireplaces, trees hung with glowing lanterns, and stunning views of Camelback Mountain, all of which makes a perfect backdrop for a leisurely meal of chef Jeremy Pacheco’s Southwestern cuisine. Look for dishes including Scottish salmon with summer squash, tomatoes, onions, and corn broth, and garden gazpacho with a pickled green tomato salad and micro greens.

There’s no bad seat in the house at Hana Japanese Eatery, but if you want to go big, then make sure to grab a seat at the restaurant’s sushi bar. From there, you’ll have a front row view of the action behind the counter — where brother-and-sister team Rick and Lori Hashimoto, along with their stepfather, Kazuto Kishino, can often be seen turning whole fish into pristine pieces of sushi. It’s a real show, watching the chefs slice through rosy-pink fatty tuna belly like a stick of butter and draping bright, orange slices of sake over a perfectly shaped ball of rice.

There’s a good reason why Different Pointe of View has been the site of many memorable marriage proposals and wedding ceremonies: The views from the restaurant’s patio lounge, especially at sunset, are absolutely stunning. This fine-dining restaurant, situated atop a scenic outlook on North Mountain at the Pointe Tapatio Cliff Hilton Resort, isn’t simply a scenic lookout point, though. This is also a destination for anyone looking for a memorable meal. The menu features updated Continental classics and Mediterranean-inspired dishes like filet mignon served with white bean truffle, butter-poached lobster, and seared duck breast served with jalapeño-bacon griddle cakes. The wine and cocktail menu is also top-notch, and service is uniformly good — your server will probably offer to take you and your date’s photograph against the scenic city backdrop. You can try to resist the stirrings of romance, but there’s really no use.

Listen up, parents. St. Francis doesn’t just have one kids’ menu. No, Aaron Chamberlin’s hip central Phoenix eatery has two: lunch and dinner and brunch. The offerings are smart — healthy (simple fruit salad) and a little naughty (iron skillet chocolate-chip pancake). Chicken breast, cheese pizza, a “big” hamburger with fries — it’s hard to imagine that junior won’t be pleased. And, get this: Kids 12 and under eat for free. So order an extra Dark and Stormy cocktail, because gray skies are gonna clear up around the dinner table. And if not, ask to be seated upstairs, where it’s a little noisier than the rest of the restaurant. (You’re welcome.)

You’re at Chase Field, the Arizona Diamondbacks are possibly winning, and now, you’d like to take part in some of the deep-fried, cheesy, salted, lovely food items available from the many food and drink vendors throughout the ballpark. The only problem you really have is, just what do you choose — nachos, popcorn, pretzel? The answer is the Cheeseburger Dog, presented by Levy Restaurants at the start of the 2016 baseball season. This American fare mashup consists of ground chargrilled hamburger patties mixed with dill pickles, green onion, chopped smoked bacon, and cheddar cheese, then shaped into a hot dog, breaded, and deep fried. The result is dressed with shredded lettuce, diced tomato, and more chopped smoked bacon, with a drizzling of secret sauce. This brainchild will run you $10, and can be found at Big Dawgs on the main concourse, and Extreme Loaded Dogs on the Diamond Level.

Bacus Bros. Hot Dogs has become something of a late-night destination for irresistibly good hot dogs. But, thankfully, these dogs taste just as good in the clear light of day. The specialty dogs on the menu here may have silly names, but the kitchen doesn’t mess around when it comes to pulling together tasty and surprising flavor combos that really work. After a night of drinking, the Hair of the Polish Dog is as comforting as anything you might find in a diner: a robust, extra-juicy Polish sausage layered with grilled onions and peppers, lavished with shredded cheese, and topped with scrambled eggs and bacon. It’s a delight. The Foghorn Leghorn, featuring a plump chicken sausage topped with coleslaw, tomatoes, and horseradish mustard, is like a Southern picnic in a bun, and it’s hard not to love the Ich Liebe Dich brat, a classic grilled brat paired with sauerkraut, grilled onions, and peppers. Plus, this fast-casual restaurant also happens to be a fine destination for craft and import beer.

Angels Trumpet Ale House may be better known as a hip downtown beer garden, but the kitchen is no slouch when it comes to making a killer grilled cheese sandwich. The barbecue brisket grilled cheese is layered with root-beer-braised brisket, pickled onions, and thinly sliced tomato, then capped off with smoked mozzarella and fontina. The thick-cut sourdough is nicely griddled on the flattop and served with an equally delicious heap of golden-brown fries. And if you’re more of a grilled cheese purist, the kitchen also whips up a tasty grilled cheese with mozzarella and fontina, tomatoes, and a drizzle of honey. It’s delightful. Either way, your grilled cheese goals will be more than realized.

Sometimes simpler is better, and if you’re looking for proof, look no further than The Standard at The Stand Burger & Tacos in central Phoenix. This small restaurant keeps things about as simple as they can be with patties made from beef that’s ground in-house, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and Stand sauce. Sure, you could add cheese, but why complicate something that’s already perfect?

Fans of Asian food have likely heard of sheng jian bao, the oversized Shanghainese dumplings that come stuffed with seasoned pork and wrapped in a thick, doughy casing. These hard-to-find treats have been on trend with Asian food aficionados for at least the last year, so chef Bob Tam, known for serving fun contemporary takes on Asian classics, has merged the dumpling with a good, old-fashioned cheeseburger. To make the dish, he blends ground pork and beef with spices before wrapping the patty in American cheese, sauteed red onions, and scallions. To imitate the dumpling wrapper, Tam uses an English muffin, and the result is a burger that’s one part Asian delicacy and 100 percent all-American.

These days, there are sub shops that specialize in just about everything. One for toasted subs, one for subs with hand-carved meats, and another that brags about its fresh baked bread — even one that’s inspired by cannabis.

Well, that’s all fine, but if you ask us, none can beat Cheese ‘n Stuff, where for more than 60 years metro Phoenix diners have been able to find top-quality sandwiches made with the best ingredients. Our go-to order is the Doughboy, a straightforward combo of turkey, bacon, Swiss cheese, and avocado. Served on mayo-slathered pieces of sourdough bread, this toasted sandwich is the kind of meal that’s good for any and all occasions. Like the deli itself, which opened its doors in 1949, not a day goes by that we’re not grateful it exists.

Don’t get us wrong; we love a good pile of saucy, hot buffalo wings. But sometimes when we crave wings, we crave something a little bit different, and for that, we head to New Hong Kong Restaurant in central Phoenix. Beyond its worn vintage exterior, this Chinese restaurant offers some of the Valley’s best Cantonese food, specifically dishes of the deep-fried variety. The restaurant’s salt-and-pepper chicken wings are particularly memorable. Each wing features moist chicken meat encased in a shell of crispy golden batter, which alone would be delicious, but with the addition of diced garlic, onions, and Thai chili peppers become wings worthy of great praise.

Sure, there are only three different types of fried chicken served at Welcome Chicken + Donuts in central Phoenix. But when all three are so different and so good, it’s always a struggle to pick just one. After all, you’ve got to be pretty confident in your recipe to open a spot that serves pretty much just deep-fried pieces of bone-in chicken and house-made donuts, which is why it’s really not that surprising that Welcome’s fried chicken is our favorite in town. Each piece comes coated in a golden, crispy batter before being hand tossed in one of the restaurant’s Asian-inspired sauces. The Vietnamese Herb combines garlic, fish sauce, and cilantro for a pungent flavor that’s hard to forget, while the sweet and spicy Korean Chili makes a less aggressive meal. Then there’s always the mild Japanese BBQ, coated in sesame seeds for a little added depth. No matter which way you go, or if you opt out of sauce altogether, it’s hard to deny that no one in town does fried chicken quite like this.

Metro Phoenix has no shortage of great pizza, but it can still be hard to find a spot where you can grab a single slice to go — especially late at night. Thank goodness for Grand Avenue Pizza Company, where the creative, gourmet pies are forever baking into the wee hours of the morn. Four types of slices are regularly available for a quick infusion of carbs and cheese — the options include cheese, pepperoni, vegetarian, and a revolving daily special — and they are all reliably delicious. The dough leans toward being thin-crust, the toppings are fresh and ample, and you’ll detect an infusion of high-quality olive oil throughout. It’s a lovely bit of easy nourishment designed for those hunger pangs that only pizza can cure.

Nestled up against the Phoenix mountains, Base Pizzeria is a neighborhood pizza spot that’s well worth a drive from anywhere in the Valley. The restaurant specializes specifically in organic pizzas — almost everything on the menu comes certified organic — and if you don’t believe it, just quiz one of the restaurant’s three Australian owners on any ingredient’s origins. All three can usually answer anything you can think to ask, and in an adorable Aussie accent to boot. But the “organic pizzeria” thing isn’t just a gimmick. This place’s pies are seriously good, and feature quality toppings like organic crushed tomatoes, fior de latte cheese, and caramelized organic onions. Our favorites include the basic Base, topped with crushed tomatoes, basil, and cheese, or the Prawn, a spicy little number featuring shrimp, red onion, and organic chile.

Scott and Bekke Holmes may have gotten into barbecue recreationally, but with one bite of the brisket at the couple’s restaurant, Little Miss BBQ, it’s clear they’ve made the leap from amateur to pro. Located in a largely industrial area south of the airport, Little Miss BBQ manages to be a charming barbecue destination in metro Phoenix, thanks in large part to the ever-friendly service and excellent smoked meat. You’ll almost always find a line of customers queued up outside the small building, waiting to come face to face with glistening, pepper-crusted brisket that’s sliced right before your eyes and heaped onto a plate with sides such as jalapeno cheddar grits and coleslaw. But brisket isn’t the only option. There’s also snappy house-made sausages, ribs, pulled pork, and smoked turkey from which to choose. Avoid some of the struggle of selecting just one with a two-meat plate that includes two sides.

There are plenty of reasons to check out Mekong Plaza, the giant Asian supermarket and food court in Mesa where you can find everything from top-notch Vietnamese cuisine to boba tea and some of the best Taiwanese food in town. But don’t let the absurd number of dining options cause you to overlook the Mekong Palace Restaurant, a large sit-down eatery located within the food court that also offers some the Valley’s best dim sum seven days a week. The best selection of plates, however, will be found on the weekends, during which time you can count on seeing everything from translucent, shrimp-filled pouches to braised greens and golden-yellow egg tarts with perfect, flaky crusts. In both quality and quantity of options, Mekong delivers, and the price point makes this a favorite place for trying a little of everything.

Thanks to a slew of new locations that popped up all over the Valley last year, you can get your Angry Crab Shack fix at six eateries around metro Phoenix these days. But the truth is, we’re still partial to the original location, where longstanding customers have scrawled all over the walls in Sharpie and you can count on finding a crowd of diners waiting to nab a seat just outside the door. Why the wait? Because Angry Crab serves fresh Cajun-style seafood, including crawfish, shrimp, mussels, and several types of crab. The go-to order has to be king crab covered in the restaurant’s Trifecta sauce, a blend of Cajun spices, lemon pepper, and garlic that’s addictingly good and packs just enough heat when ordered with medium spice. You can always throw in some corn and potatoes to balance out the meal, but no matter what you do, don’t forget a side of “bread for soppin’.”

We love this Chandler sushi restaurant, where you can always count on finding a solid selection of fresh sushi and sashimi created by the restaurant’s talented chefs and served with a smile. If you’re craving low-price rolls full of imitation crab and spicy mayo, move along. But for real-deal sushi, including hard-to-find selections such as sea urchin and tuna belly, Shimo’s the spot. The chefs will create special, artful plates of fish and colorful chirashi bowls for diners with high-class tastes, and there are some less traditional rolls on the menu if you’re looking for something a little more fun. We like the Big ‘n’ Spicy roll, a mix of spicy salmon topped with seared escolar and salmon, jalapeño, Sriracha, and onion ponzu.

There are just about as many types of ramen out there as there are restaurants that serve the dish, but when we’re on the hunt for a great bowl of broth and noodles in the Valley, we head to Tempe’s Tampopo Ramen for our fix. The restaurant specializes in Hakata-style ramen, known for its signature tonkotsu-style broth and thin, straight noodles. Tampopo makes its noodles in-house (you can see the machine used to form the long strands of dough in the front of the dining room) and serves a top-notch pork broth that’s neither too oily or too fatty. Then again, if you’re a fan of a more intensely flavored tonkotsu, just ask to “add rich soup,” a $1 upgrade that’s well worth the splurge. With thick slices of roasted pork, garlic oil, bean sprouts, and a soft boiled egg, this ramen delivers comfort in a bowl.

If you’re still stuck in the mindset that vegetables are the foul-tasting greens of your youth, then you need to get yourself to The Larder + The Delta, chef Stephen Jones’ Southern-inspired food stall at the DeSoto Central Market. At this matchbox-size eatery, Jones makes vegetables fun, transforming everything from peas to beets into flavorful creations with a Southern lean. First, order the cauliflower, which combines the mild, nutty vegetable with pickled celery, bleu cheese, and locally made Homeboy’s Hot Sauce to make a pretty-much healthy take on the classic chicken wing. Jones and his team also dish up spring bean chow chow with corn, soybeans, and apple cider vinegar; an excellent heirloom tomato salad with peppered corn bread and cured strawberries; and wild green garlic and ramp “beignets” dressed in green goddess froth.

Fresh Mint owner and head chef Mai Ly has a way with herbs. It only takes a sip or two of her spicy lemongrass soup to understand that vegetarian cooking can be as fragrant and lively as anything coming off a barbecue grill. Everything is made to order at Fresh Mint, but it’s worth the wait for the restaurant’s pan-Asian dishes, which are often brimming with the flavors of bright sesame ginger sauce and fragrant coconut curries. Fried rolls stuffed with taro root, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, and herbs are wonderful, and the veggie kabobs with nicely seasoned hunks of eggplant, tofu, peppers, and mushroom, served with peanut sauce, are a revelation. Even your most ardent carnivore companions will enjoy the Kung Pao chicken dish, which uses a soy meat replacement in place of chicken, and comes loaded with chopped veggies and herbs deliciously dressed in a garlic sauce. Desserts, which include a wonderfully dense carrot cake, are pretty great, too.

Meat lovers may scoff at vegan cooking, but that’s only because they haven’t eaten at Loving Hut. The restaurant offers a sprawling menu of freshly prepared yet highly craveable vegan eats, including delicious, shatteringly crispy spring rolls stuffed with potato, onion and minced veggies, served with hot mustard and sweet and sour sauce on the side. Burgers, featuring juicy garden patties, are as satisfying as anything you’ll find sliding across a drive-thru window. But the real culinary magic is in the entrees menu, where Asian-inspired dishes shine. The Vietnamese-inspired barbecue noodle bowl is a small feast of rice noodles piled with finely shredded veggies, pickled daikon, heaps of fresh herbs, and crunchy slices of the crispy veggie rolls, the whole bowl sluiced with a lovely sweet and sour vinaigrette. The restaurant also offers an impressive menu of fresh fruit and herb drinks, which are reason enough to stop by the Loving Hut.

We know True Food Kitchen isn’t a gluten-free restaurant exclusively. But it is a restaurant that’s specifically designed to be accommodating to those with dietary restrictions, which, of course, includes our gluten-free friends. The menu at this trendy, health-focused eatery offers plenty of options for gluten-free meals, including an inside-out quinoa burger that’s popular with some of pickiest diners we know and a spaghetti squash casserole that’s so rich and creamy, you won’t be missing anything on the flavor front.

For Jewel’s Bakery owner Julie Moreno, going gluten-free isn’t just a business, it’s personal. Moreno first got into baking gluten-free treats when her young daughter developed an allergy to the protein, so you can bet her recipes have all been kid-tested and, yes, adult-approved. We love this cafe’s moist peanut butter cookies and rich rocky road brownies, and we don’t care whether they’re gluten-free or gluten-full. All we know is they’re delicious by any standard.

One of the Valley’s most unique bread houses is north Scottsdale’s Jerusalem Bakery, the passion project of husband-and-wife team Lior and Lily Ben-Shushan. Using traditional baking techniques they learned in Israel and perfected while living and working in San Francisco, the couple offers freshly baked pita bread, rye bread, sourdough, and more. The menu includes a Moroccan flatbread topped with herbs that’s baked on large river stones for a soft texture and sweet flavor, and challah bread that’s made without eggs and can be topped with raisins, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or nothing at all. But there’s much more to Jerusalem Bakery than the bread — the Ben-Shushans also keep customers coming back with a rotating selection of treats like rugelach, hamantaschen, chocolate croissants, savory Turkish bourekas, homemade preserves, and out-of-this-world lemon tarts.

Most people won’t get up at 4 a.m. for anything, but Odelay Bagel Co. owner Ryan Probst isn’t most people. He’s so dedicated to the pursuit of the perfect bagel that he’s up every day before the sun to hand-make scores of bagels in more than a dozen varieties. And yes, you can tell the difference. These bagels have the perfect, shiny, blistery exterior you only find on the very best bagels, as well as doughy interiors that offer just a little bit of chew. We’re partial to classic flavors like the shop’s Everything bagel, which gets coated completely on both the top and bottom, but you can also find some more unique options, including black pepper Parmesan. And the creativity doesn’t stop there. Odelay also offers 10 house-made schmears. Along with plain and “low phat,” you can load your bagel with spinach and feta, horseradish bacon, and even Sriracha cream cheese.

Food nerds, listen up. If you think something has to be artisanal, handmade, or just really expensive to be great, then you obviously haven’t tried the canned biscuit doughnut at Okra Cookhouse & Cocktails in central Phoenix. After your meal of excellent Southern fare like Tennessee hot fried chicken or a smoked ham hock with black-eyed peas and greens, it may be hard to find room for dessert, but do it. You’ll be rewarded with a fluffy, deep-fried doughnut with a thin, crisp exterior that’s coated in salty-sweet caramel that sticks to your fingers, lips, and just about anything else it touches. It may be made with simple canned biscuit dough, but a few seconds in a deep fryer turns the mundane into something magical. And to truly up your experience, order it topped with a couple of Okra’s fried chicken skins. The combo of salt, fat, and sugar is the perfect note on which to close out your dinner.

If there was a crown for being the dessert queen of the Valley of the Sun, it’d be sitting prettily atop Tracy Dempsey’s head. Not only has she been one of the Valley’s top pastry chefs for more than two decades, but she also continues to create fun, creative dessert menus for some of the city’s top restaurants. Ever wrapped up a meal at Citizen Public House or Crudo with a delectable dessert? Thank Dempsey, whose specialities include playful mashups like s’mores bread pudding or an elevated brownie sundae made with strawberry ice cream, fleur de sel caramel, and banana-peanut caramel corn. This year, Dempsey opened up her commercial bakery in Tempe to retail customers, meaning you can pick up some of her best-loved confections when you need to have a serious “treat yo self” moment. Our go-to is Dempsey’s pecan bacon brittle, a candy so light and buttery you’ll never be able to have just one piece.

Discriminating gelato lovers know where to find the best, creamiest stuff in town: Doc’s Artisan, where the Italian-style ice cream is made in small batches using quality ingredients, many of which are locally sourced. The flavor selections are regularly updated at this friendly ice cream shop, but it’s pretty easy to find at least one flavor to fall in love with on any given visit. The pistachio-almond is superb, smooth, and delightfully nutty, and sophisticated flavors like chicory coffee and Grand Marnier make regular appearances on the shop’s chalkboard menu. The gelato here is creamier and often less sugary than others, which adds to the simple pleasure of indulging in a cup of ice cream. The shop also makes short batches of tasty gelato ice cream pops. 

We don’t need goggles and a lab coat to enjoy our ice cream. You can have all that silly novelty science experiment business. We’ll take our ice cream handcrafted and rich, built from local ingredients like peaches or rhubarb, and even the occasional baked good from Welcome Chicken + Donuts across town. Helen Yung and Jan Wichayanuparp take ice cream seriously, and it shows.

Country and Sergio Velador are the sweetest couple we know, so it only makes sense that the two run a candy shop that would make Willy Wonka jealous. There’s definitely a scientific method to their madness, which includes odd but delicious gummies and other candies; the best sweet/salty popcorn combos we’ve ever sampled; ice creams and ices; and sprinkle-covered cakes. Super Chunk also retails an assortment of high-end, exotic chocolates, including one of our favorites, Zak’s. Country doubles as the pastry chef at next-door Cowboy Ciao, so you can try her wares there or stop by the super-cute shop for a sweet and even a sandwich, one of the couple’s latest menu additions.

If your childhood fantasy is an entire grocery aisle full of candies from all over the world, then you need to make a trip out to Mesa’s AZ International Marketplace, where all your sugary dreams can come true. This gargantuan market is a sort of international Wal-Mart, with everything from dozens of varieties of soy sauce to binders, backpacks, and dog toys on its shelves. The selection of international foods is the biggest draw, with shelves stocked with everything you could need to whip up a recipe from any corner of the globe. There are giant jackfruits in the large produce section and any piece of a cow you could want to eat, packaged up in plastic wrap over in the meat cases. In bulk, you can buy more than a half-dozen varieties of dried chilis, and in the frozen-food case, you’ll find everything from spicy Chinese sausage to more flavors of mochi ice cream than you could ever have dreamed up as a kid. You want it? They got it. And if they don’t, just ask. The staff is always willing to help hunt down items you can’t find.

With nearly 100 vendors during the fall and winter seasons, it’s not hard to understand why the Gilbert Farmers Market is one of the best places to get your shopping done on a Saturday morning. But the appeal goes beyond the numbers. Gilbert Farmers Market is also a year-round operation, meaning you can count on being able to find local produce and Arizona-made products any week of the year — and that’s in addition to food trucks, games, and family-friendly entertainment. We love that some of our favorite food artisans — including Homeboy’s Hot Sauce, Mama’s Cold Brew, Proper Beast Charcuterie, and AZ Food Crafters — make regular appearances, along with food trucks such as Mustache Pretzels, Waffle Crush, and United Lunchadores.

You’ll know you’ve found the Maine Lobster Lady food truck by the sprawling line of “lobster stalkers” queued up alongside the mobile eatery; it seems no matter where or when the Maine Lobster Lady makes a stop, she always draws a horde of hungry fans. Every fall, owner Diana Santospago loads up her blue and green food truck to hit the metro Phoenix streets, serving freshly trapped Maine lobster in a variety of preparations. There’s a classic Maine lobster roll, of course, loaded with hunks of sweet lobster meat and served on a buttered grilled roll, but also lobster bisque, lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, lobster salad, and even not-lobster dishes including clam rolls and fried fish. No matter what you order, you’re guaranteed to get fresh, responsibly harvested seafood that’s well worth the wait. Just make sure you catch Santospago before she packs up and heads back east for the summer.

Much like the fine wines being poured at this annual event, the Devoured Culinary Classic just keeps getting better with age. What started as a two-day blowout bringing together some of the biggest names in the metro Phoenix food scene has now grown into a weeklong schedule of events featuring top chefs, restaurants, winemakers, mixologists, and more. Of course, the weekend’s Culinary Classic remains the premier event, and chefs don’t seem to be reining in their Devoured offerings any time soon. Restaurants including Hana Japanese Eatery and Kai continue to raise the bar with multi-course tastings that make your typical food fest look like a $10 buffet line. As any true Valley food lover knows, there’s a good reason these tickets sell out almost as soon as you can say, “More please!”

A well-stocked Mexican candy shop is a thing of beauty: tight rows of industrial shelving, stocked with brightly colored boxes of everything from yellow boxes of marzipan to sugary guava rolls to crinkly plastic bags erupting with tamarind-and-chili lollipops. This is the bounty you’ll find at Dulceria La Flor, a small shop with a nicely curated selection of imported Mexican candies, all impeccably organized so that your eyes can easily make sense out of the sugary abundance. The shop also carries a good selection of the season’s most popular piñatas, balloons, and salty Mexican snacks, so that it’s nearly impossible to leave the store empty-handed.

The original restaurant shuttered almost two years ago, but later this year, the rooster will rise again. We’re talking, of course, about chef Doug Robson’s Gallo Blanco, which was once located inside the Clarendon Hotel and will relocate in the coming months to the Garfield neighborhood. The restaurant’s cheeky name translates literally to “white rooster,” a Mexican slang term for “white guy” and a not-so-ironic reference to the chef himself. While Robson might look like your average gringo, he was born and raised outside of Mexico City, and brings plenty of street cred to both his Mexican restaurants, Otro Cafe and Gallo Blanco. Robson grew up cooking traditional mole and making tortillas with his adopted grandmother before moving to Texas and later attending Scottsdale Culinary Institute. He worked under James Beard Award-winning chef Robert McGrath, and opened La Grande Orange as executive chef before striking out on his own with Gallo Blanco in 2009. Otro Cafe opened its doors several years later, helping cement Robson’s reputation as one of the best chefs in town at turning out authentic yet approachable regional Mexican cuisine.

Today, he oversees the dining outlets at one of the Valley’s top resorts, Scottsdale’s Four Seasons at Troon North, and two years ago, he traveled to New York to cook at the famed James Beard House. But before chef Meliton “Mel” Mecinas became one of the top chefs in metro Phoenix, he came from humble beginnings that take us all the way back to the southwestern Mexican state of Oaxaca, known as the “land of seven moles.” The self-taught chef learned the basics of cooking with his family in Mexico, eventually coming to Los Angeles at 18, where he began his culinary career as a $4.50-an-hour dishwasher. He eventually earned a spot working under Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Joachim Splichal, during which time Mecinas says his formal training really began. He’s been with the Four Seasons for a decade now, offering a top-quality dining experience at the resort’s Talavera restaurant.

If there is one thing the Valley knows, it’s tortilla chips. Just travel to anywhere outside of the Southwest, really, and try to buy a good bag of tortilla chips. For those who live in the northern part of Phoenix on the west edge of Sunnyslope, though, they know where to find a great bag of chips for less than you would pay for a medium-size bag of Tostitos and their ilk. El Rancho Market IGA, at the southeast corner of Dunlap Road and 19th Avenue, has the best chips in the city. There is nothing fancy about the packaging — simple, clear plastic bags secured with a twist tie, containing what many would agree are God’s gift to salsa, guacamole, or homemade nachos. The chips themselves are perfectly crisp corn chips with just the right amount of salt for almost any taste. In addition to the chips, El Rancho Market IGA has a wonderful salsa bar, a great little in-store cafe serving all your Mexican favorites, and everything else you would need to complement the four or five bags of chips you will probably buy every time you go.

Have you tried the frijoles charros at Tacos Chiwas yet? A visit to this central Phoenix taqueria would not be complete without ordering a cup of the restaurant’s signature bean soup. Beans, of course, are a staple of Mexican restaurants, but rarely are they shown as much love and attention as they get in the Chiwas kitchen. Whole pinto beans are slowly simmered in a broth flavored with salty nubs of bacon and chunky slices of hot dog, and infused with scatterings of fresh cilantro. The brothy beans are served in a plastic foam cup, a humble vessel for a richly layered, deeply flavorful dish that rivals the slow-cooked appeal of the Sunday afternoon bean soup simmering in your abuelita’s kitchen.

Consider the burrito, which is maybe the most enticing parcel of tinfoil-wrapped hot food to ever come out of a crinkled paper bag. The burrito is a multifaceted, highly personal piece of sustenance. Maybe your preference is a burrito wrapped in a slightly crackled tortilla, oozing molten-hot refried beans and ribbons of melted cheddar. Or maybe your dream burrito is a marvel of engineering, a soft, fleshy container for stewed beef made in the classic northern Mexico style. Either way, serious burrito connoisseurs will want to make a west-side pilgrimage to Taquerías El Chino for the restaurant’s consistently wonderful carne en salsa verde burrito. This green chile burrito is neither flashy nor revolutionary, but it hearkens back to the dish’s working-class roots: Hearty and life-sustaining, it’s last night’s stew swaddled in a soft, pliable tortilla. Its green sauce is thick and rich, its hunks of tender beef are succulent, and the seasoning is perfection. It’s a burrito for the ages. 

It takes time and patience to make a good tamale, and most of us will pay a premium for the very best. Lucky for us, the very best tamales are ready and waiting at the Tamale Store in north Phoenix. There is no other place around town making the kind of well-honed tamales you’ll find here: thick, half-pound bundles of corn masa, generously filled with ingredients like melted Monterey Jack cheese and roasted poblanos. Pork green chile, chicken mole, bean and cheese — there’s nary a dud on the menu here. Stop by to enjoy them fresh out of the steamer, or take a few frozen bundles home to stash away in your freezer for a rainy day. The frozen variety come carefully double-wrapped in wax paper and corn husk, with instructions on how to recreate the magic of freshly steamed tamales at home.

Unless you were raised on nopales from a young age, prickly pear cactus is probably not a staple of your regular diet. But why not? Easy to grow, nutritious, and quite tasty when paired with grilled meats, or in an ensalada of fresh tomatoes and onions, nopalitos are at once simple and sublime. The most troublesome thing about nopales, of course, is that, for the uninitiated, trimming spines and scraping off thorns can be time-consuming and intimidating. You can skip the prepping altogether and head to La Barquita, a neighborhood restaurant in central Phoenix where nopales are on the menu all day. They are exquisite in the Molcajete A La Mexicana, a minor feast served in the namesake, three-legged Mexican mortar. The dish comes piled with grilled slices of steak, caramelized bulbs of onion, feathery sprigs of cilantro, finger-length slices of fresh white cheese, and limp, charred nopal paddles, their natural tartness mellowed to a fine, smoky sweetness.

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s original Barrio Café restaurant helped put the Phoenix Mexican food scene on the national map, and it remains one of the city’s top destinations for distinctively artful, upscale dishes inspired by regional Mexican cooking. Here is the place to go for tableside guacamole punctuated with bright, ruby-like pomegranate seeds, enjoyed amid white tablecloths and the warm glow of a Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe candle. It’s the place to go for seared duck breast finished with a tamarind chipotle reduction, filet mignon topped with a lovely tangle of crab and goat cheese, or an impeccably crafted chile en nogada floating in buttery almond cream sauce. Barrio Café is the heart and soul — and stomach — of Calle 16, the place to go when six-pound burritos, humdrum combo platters, or the squawk of a drive-thru speaker simply won’t satisfy.

What makes a great tortilla? Handmade over machine-cut, thinner rather than thicker, supple rather than dense? No matter what criteria you apply, it’s hard to find fault with the tortillas made at La Sonorense in south Phoenix. The 15-inch flour tortillas, which are made fresh daily in this small, family-run factory, are engineered to be shaped into quesadillas and burritos. But they’re so good, you could easily devour a whole 12-pack all on their own. Buttery and powdery, papery thin yet pliant enough that you can roll them into a fine, edible scroll, these classic Sonoran-style tortillas are part of what makes it great to live and eat in Arizona. And if you’re not into the flour tortilla holy trinity — flour, salt, and, yes, lard — La Sonorense also makes excellent corn tortillas. 

La Santisima makes killer burritos, tacos, and quesadillas, but the restaurant’s marquee attraction is its fantastic salsa bar. With more than 10 homemade salsas to choose from, including unique offerings like spicy peanut salsa, sweet and chunky strawberry salsa, creamy pecan salsa, and refreshing jicama salsa, there is an option here for every mood and fancy. For traditionalists, there is the excellent Salsa Mexicana, a classic red, white, and green medley of smoky green chiles, white onions, tomatoes, and cilantro, which is the little black dress of the La Santisima salsa bar — it pairs well with everything.

Those of us who live for a freshly made batch of guacamole understand that a good guacamole is a necessity, not a luxury upsell side. Luckily, the folks at Diego Pops in Scottsdale understand the significance of a well-made, impeccably seasoned guacamole that can stand all on its own. The guacamole here is chunky, with the pleasing slow burn of blistered jalapeños mingling with the faint sweetness of fresh citrus. A squirt of lime, a sprinkle of salty cotija cheese, plus a basket of hot, crispy tortilla chips on the side — it’s an honest, simple guacamole that’s as timeless and pleasing as hot butter on fresh bread.

Finding great Mexican street corn on the streets of Phoenix is not always the easiest task. Sure, you could spend all Sunday driving around, looking for the neighborhood elote man. Or, you can save some precious eating time and head to Otro Cafe, chef Doug Robson’s uptown Mexican restaurant. There’s always Elote Callejero on the menu, and it’s always delicious. The elote is served entero (on the cob), neatly slathered with mayonnaise, and dusted with a generous helping of cotija cheese and a dash of smoked paprika. The sweet corn, and the faint peppery smokiness of the paprika, is like eating summer itself.

Machete Azteca, a west-side counter-service restaurant specializing in the street foods of Mexico City, is not the place to go to for oversize, cheddary cheese crisps, nor is it a destination for quesadillas made with store-bought flour tortillas, oozing with melted Monterey Jack. This is the place to go for sturdy, 16-inch-long, machete-shaped quesadillas — so big you’ll need a pizza box to carry them out of the restaurant. The quesadillas are thickly built on homemade corn tortillas, and stuffed with tender, cheese-smothered fillings like alambre de res (grilled, thinly sliced beef cooked with sauteed onions, peppers, and bits of bacon) and chicharrón prensado (rendered and pressed pork skins). There’s not really a bad quesadilla in the house, although we’re partial to the flor de calabaza, a squash blossom machete glued together with salty white cheese. 

Chilaquiles are the ultimate leftover comfort food, in the sense that you can quickly whip up a morning batch with the shards of leftover stale tortilla chips stuck in the back of your pantry or with the flabby, hardening tortillas lingering somewhere in the recesses of your uncleaned fridge. Sure, chilaquiles are technically easy to prepare, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to find a plate of restaurant chilaquiles that captures the full, glorious appeal of this comfort food dish. Enter Comedor Guadalajara, the boxy, nondescript Mexican restaurant on Central Avenue that has fed generations of Phoenicians. There is no choosing between red or green sauce here. There is only one chilaquiles plate, a no-frills breakfast of gently fried corn tortilla slices blanketed in a wonderful red chile sauce, which is lightly inflected with the heat of roasted chiles. It comes topped with a couple of eggs, and the soft, tender tortilla strips take on a meaty texture the longer you let them soak in the sauce. And, oh, that sauce. It’s so good, you’ll find yourself plotting your return to south Phoenix for one more taste.

Fancy resort kitchens have their own version of breakfast burritos, and they usually involve egg whites, pico, and thick, sturdy flour tortillas. These are fine burritos, but there’s something truly special about a breakfast burrito made on a flattop grill by a guy nicknamed Chuy, who wields a giant metallic spatula like a grizzled kitchen warrior. That’s the kind of breakfast burrito you’ll find at Rolando’s Mexican Food, a counter-service standalone joint that looks like the decor has gone unchanged since 1976. There are a few options to choose from, but the standard order here is Rolando’s Breakfast Burrito, a massive breakfast indulgence of buttery scrambled eggs, nicely seasoned breakfast potatoes, and crispy bits of bacon. Melted orange cheese cements the whole scrappy breakfast together, and the meal comes neatly packaged in an enormous, Sonoran-style flour tortilla.

At the height of the lunch hour, the parking lot at Ta’Carbon becomes a snarl of illegal park jobs, and inside, there’s almost always a line at the counter. Blame it on the exquisite tacos, little bundles of gorgeously seasoned meats piled into soft, fluffy tortillas, which you can garnish to perfection at the salsa bar. Try the Hazz, a green chile beef taco spilling over with blistery nubs of carne asada blanketed with white cheese. It’s fantastic. Al pastor, cabeza, lengua, tripitas — take your pick, because they’re all delicious. Put in your order at the counter, and pay after you’ve had your fill. 

An entire restaurant devoted to enchiladas? We like the way that Aaron Pool, the owner of Gadzooks and a lifelong enchilada aficionado, thinks. Gadzooks, the fast-casual restaurant on Seventh Street with the funny-sounding name, has become a staple of the central Phoenix Mexican food scene. It’s the place to go for succulent enchiladas made to your specifications with fillings like guajillo-braised short ribs and green chile pork shoulder. Top your enchiladas with the smoky red sauce, or the tangy green sauce, some Chihuahua or asadero cheese (or both), and prepare to take in the rich, bubbly layers of flavor and texture.

We’ve all met tortas that were all bun, no meat, dry as sawdust, or barely worth their weight in bolillo. These are not the type of tortas you’ll find at Tortas El Rey, a midtown strip-mall gem where the classic Mexican sandwich is transmuted into a minor feast. The torta that achieves its fullest, grandest expression is the El Rey, a thick, meaty vessel layered with succulent pig (jamón and pork sirloin), milanesa steak, a crackly strip of bacon, and for good measure, a healthy serving of chorizo. It comes thoroughly lubricated with melted cheese and topped with a fried egg, just in case that’s not enough protein for you in one sitting. The hardest thing about eating the El Rey is finding a way to fit it into your mouth. But once you figure that part out, the sandwich soon becomes another fond, delicious memory.

You know the Sonoran dog, the bacon-wrapped, mayonnaise-sluiced street food of the Sonora-Arizona borderlands. By now, you may have even started to take the Sonoran dog for granted. Don’t. Instead, make a dinner date with El Caprichoso, the popular Phoenix hot dog stand where service is fast and courteous, and the Sonoran dogs are perfection. The split-top bun is always fluffy, the hot dog nicely charred and juicy, the beans nicely seasoned, and the various toppings — pico, a dusting of salty cheese, and a squiggle of mayonnaise — are carefully composed and balanced. The El Caprichoso Sonoran dog, enjoyed on a picnic table with a curbside view of the streets of Phoenix, is one of best dinners in town.

Red, green, or white? That’s the question at hand when you pay a visit to Pozoleria Guerrero, a barebones strip-mall restaurant that specializes in the rainy-day birthday meal of so many Mexican childhoods: pozole. Pozole comes in an infinite number of variations — and no one can quite decide on a definitive spelling — but all three of the varieties at Pozoleria Guerrero are fantastic. We prefer the white pozole, where the earthy funk of the hominy is complemented with lavish amounts of garlic and herb seasoning. Your broth is studded with hunks of succulent pork, and every bowl comes with a grizzled piece of chicharrón, which is perfect for soaking up the salty, flavor-rich broth of your pozole.

Mexican-style seafood is surprisingly abundant in Phoenix. We don’t let a little thing like living in the middle of the Sonoran Desert stop us from enjoying platters of ostiones (oysters), citrus-sluiced ceviche, or fiery plates of shrimp soaking in lime-scented aguachile sauce. You’ll find all these dishes, and much more, at Mariscos El Cochorit, a west-side mariscos joint where the banda music blares out of the speakers and enormous platters of Sonoran- and Sinaloan-style seafood stream out of the kitchen. The thing to get on a hot day, when you want to pretend you’re on vacation but couldn’t make it to the beach, is the coco con campechana, a hollowed-out coconut brimming with a refreshing, tomato-based cold seafood soup of whole shrimp, octopus, and calamari. And the camarones cucaracha may not sound very appetizing, but the plate of sizzling shrimp dripping in garlic butter is pretty great.

Tortas are easy enough to find in Arizona. But tortas ahogada? That’s going to require a little bit of digging. Fortunately for you (and us), we’ve done the legwork and have found what may be the best, possibly only, tortas ahogada eatery in the metro area. The Guadalajaran specialty, which literally means “drowned sandwich,” takes torta eating to another, albeit messier, level. And at Tortas Ahogadas Guadalajara, this fried pork dish is served between two slices of toasted bolillo bread and drenched in piping hot chile de arbol, a light-but-spicy sauce that may or may not set your tongue on fire. Delicious for many, dangerous for the more sensitive, the tortas ahogada at this Chandler establishment warrant caution as much as they do a tall glass of ice water.

If breathing in the sputtering fumaroles of charcoal-grilled carne asada is your version of heaven, we recommend a lunchtime pilgrimage to Sonora Taco Shop near downtown Phoenix. The tiny restaurant recently underwent a renovation (including a slight re-branding — it used to be known as Tacos Sonora Grill), but the tacos are as good as ever. The spartan menu is devoted exclusively to a handful of popular cuts — carne asada, al pastor, and pollo — but it’s more than enough to make your taste buds tingle in anticipation. The carne asada is divine, served blisteringly hot off the grill, and cradled in your choice of flour or corn tortilla. Chase it with a pull from your Mexican Coke bottle for the perfect meal.

Looking for high-quality honeycomb tripe for your weekend pot of menudo? Chicharrón prensado for your gorditas? Suadero beef for your tacos? Carnicería Los Reyes makes it easy to get all those hard-to-find Mexican cuts that you can’t locate at your neighborhood big-box grocery store. The service here is friendly, fast, and all the meats are clearly labeled and organized. Plus, the store carries locally made tortillas, and there’s a small but well-curated inventory of fruits, veggies, and herbs. Like all good Mexican carnicerías, Los Reyes also carries a fine selection of hot and ready meats like carnitas, barbacoa, and pollo asado, so you don’t even have to wait to get home to enjoy your bounty.

A weekend afternoon spent wandering the aisles of Los Altos Ranch Market on Central Avenue is never time wasted. Wander over to the produce section to breathe in the fresh, dewy bundles of hard-to-find herbs like hoja santa. Linger by the cremería, which stocks more than 30 specialty cheeses, for a free sample of queso fresco. Have lunch at the in-house taqueria, where you can order everything from tacos to chile rellenos to carnitas made in house. Wash it all down with a visit to the agua fresca bar, where you can neutralize your heavy lunch with a refreshing cup of fresh watermelon, cucumber, or pineapple agua fresca. And if you managed to spend an afternoon at Los Altos Ranch Market without eating or drinking anything, we congratulate you.

Even late into the evening, the pan dulce pastries in the bakery cases at La Reyna Bakery are impossibly soft and fresh. This modest neighborhood panadería and repostería produces conchas so fluffy and sweet, they make the dense, grocery-store variety seem like gluten bricks by comparison. Sweet potato empanadas are nutty and tender, and the little Danish-style pastries called manitas are perfect for dunking into your morning cup of coffee or tea. While you’re here, stock up on freshly made bolillos, and some of the fluffiest hot dog buns (perfect for your Sonoran dogs) to be found anywhere around town.

No one makes Mexican antojitos (“little cravings”) quite like Tim and Kim Cobb, who are best known around the Valley for their popular fleet of United Lunchadores food trucks. At their Calaveras Snack Shop in north Phoenix, you can stop in for a quick sugar pick-me-up in the form of a fresh-out-of-the-fryer churro. As churros go, the cajeta-stuffed churro made at Calaveras is pretty much flawless. The hot, fresh fried dough is beautifully crisp and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Even better, the pastry is filled with molten hot cajeta on the inside. It may sound like a perfect storm for sugar overload, but you certainly won’t hear us complaining.

El Migos Water-n-Ice is a small, pleasant ice cream and water shop wedged into a sun-faded west-side strip mall. The shop sells all manner of Mexican snacks, but the house specialty is raspados. The Mexican raspado, in its modern incarnation, is usually composed of a cup of shaved ice bathed in a fruity syrup, and often finished with a dousing of La Lechera condensed milk. Fresh fruit toppings and a sprinkle of salt elevate this simple treat beyond a simple snow cone. Try one of the house Obispos (“bishops”) at El Migos, which are essentially raspados topped with your choice of ice cream. As the ice cream melts, the raspado gets frothier and sweeter. The El Migos Obispo raspado is pure indulgence.

Paletas, the classic Mexican fruit popsicles, used to be the special domain of the neighborhood paletero — the ice pop pushcart vendor whose jingle bells rang merrily across barrios everywhere. Lately, it seems paletas have migrated to the grocery store, where they are strategically located in checkout freezer coolers. But why risk grocery store freezer burn? Realeza Michoacana on 16th Street has been making their own paletas on site for something like 20 years now. And the flavor selection is breathtaking: Mango and chile, bubblegum, pistachio, piña colada, tamarind, and guava are just some of the shop’s specialty flavors. Fresh, sweet, and surprisingly bulky, these paletas will never go out of style.

If you’ve not yet experienced Mercado de Los Cielos at Desert Sky Mall, it’s time to take a field trip. What was once a Mervyn’s department store has been transformed into a lively Latino marketplace, the kind of place where you can buy a wedding dress, sign up for a new cellphone plan, and sit for a medical consultation with a Mexican herbalist, all without having to set foot inside the actual mall. Still, by far the best reason to visit the Mercado is to eat at its food court, a sprawling collection of food stands serving everything from Mexico City-style pambazo sandwiches to seafood platters of fresh oysters. The hardest part about eating at the Mercado is finding an empty table — the food court is a west-side weekend destination for families, and fills up quickly. Aim for a weekday supper, where you can have your pick of Mexican tortas, quesadillas, seafood, and pretty much anything else your heart and stomach desires.

One of the best places to experience the strange and wondrous alchemy that is Mexican sushi is also one of the oldest Mex-sushi spots around town: Sushi Sonora. Try the restaurant’s take on the cielo, mar, y tierra (a surf-and-turf roll made with shrimp, steak, and chicken), or the deep-fried beauty that is the cronchi roll, which is stuffed with shrimp, imitation crab, and cream cheese. Still, if you want to experience Mexican sushi at its fullest, wackiest expression, you’ll want to try the Percheron, a massive roll that’s named after the famously oversize draft horse. It’s an appropriate moniker for this bulky, tinfoil-wrapped roll, which is crammed with carne asada and bacon and capped with enormous amounts of melted cheese. If you survive the Percheron, you can officially proclaim yourself a Mex-sushi veteran.

Rosita’s Place has been hanging around McDowell Road since the late 1960s, so you know they’re doing something right over there. Case in point: the house chimichanga, an Arizona culinary invention that approximates the size, shape, and heft of a small log. To say that the chimichanga at Rosita’s is big would be a gross misrepresentation. This massive, crackly-skinned flavor bomb comes with a fork and knife, and you will need these tools to carve small, bite-size wedges of your piping hot chimichanga. You can have it stuffed with stringy machaca, hunks of green chile beef, scraps of moist, shredded chicken, or just oozing with molten-hot refried beans. The default version comes topped with big scoops of guacamole and sour cream, which is pretty much the best way to enjoy the Rosita’s Place chimichanga.

Let it be known here: The I-10 Nachos made at Cocina 10, the Mexican kitchen inside Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix, are flawless. Nachos, of course, suffer a reputation for being a lowbrow snack food, the sort of thing enjoyed at bowling alleys and baseball stadiums. But that doesn’t mean nachos aren’t delicious. The I-10 Nachos elevate the humble snack food to new flavor heights. This is a carefully engineered nacho plate, made with a sturdy, crunchy base of tortilla chips, layered with refried pinto beans, and then generously lubricated with Tillamook sharp cheddar and Oaxaca cheese. The whole thing is baked into one delicious unit, then topped with fresh guacamole, scatterings of cilantro and cotija, and given a final blessing — a dollop of sour cream. As far as nachos go, the I-10 Nachos are perfection.

If you’re a fan of chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s culinary forays into the heart of modern Mexican cooking, a visit to her latest effort, Barrio Café Gran Reserva, is mandatory. Gran Reserva has transformed the old Bragg’s Factory Diner space on Grand Avenue into an artful, 27-seat cafe space — the ideal showcase for chef Silvana’s latest culinary experiments. It’s the first of the Barrio Café restaurants to offer a tasting menu, which offers seven small-plate courses with exquisite bites like chicharrón de pancita, the tender meat bearing crisp edges and deliciously caramelized with Coca-Cola. Gran Reserva also boasts what might be the biggest Mexican wine list in town and an expanded menu of mezcal. If that’s not reason enough for a visit, we don’t know what is. 

Your cousin is visiting from out of town. Or maybe, it’s your old college roommate. When you live and eat in Phoenix, it’s inevitable that eventually you’ll host an out-of-town visitor, and it’s inevitable that they will demand you take them out to eat Mexican food. There are so many options, but Most Wanted Taco Shop is a standout choice. Picky eaters will be indulged here — they can sample all the various slow-cooked meats and veggies for free and select their favorite. Voracious appetites will be satiated with the restaurant’s enormous one-pound burrito. Hipsters will approve of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the brightly colored walls, and the luchador painting on the wall, vestiges of when this used to be called Santos Lucha Libre. More importantly, however, discerning taco eaters will be impressed by the smoky-sweet al pastor, the succulent carne asada, and the vaguely exotic cochinita pibil.

A staple of the country and western spots along Cave Creek Road, the Buffalo Chip Saloon & Steakhouse is known for its live music and dance hall, authentic barbecue, allegiance to Wisconsin sports teams, and of course, its backyard rodeo arena. Whether it is in fact your first rodeo, or you’ve been part of bull-riding audiences since your boots were snug, the Chip offers live bull-riding sessions on Wednesday and Friday nights. Starting as an 800-square-foot feed and bait shop for anglers on their way to Bartlett and Horseshoe lakes, the Chip has grown to cover more than five acres — and has been overseen by proprietor Larry Wendt since 1999. Though a fire took down the previous saloon on Thanksgiving 2015, the rodeo arena and backyard patio area went virtually undamaged. The new 5,000-square-foot saloon is open during construction, and will be completed later this fall.