Food & Drink

We’ve argued for years that Phoenix is a first-rate barbecue town, and our conviction comes from solid spots like JL Smokehouse, newcomers like Eric’s Family Barbecue, and especially the Arizona-famous Little Miss BBQ. Even “soul food scholar” Adrian Miller — a former lawyer and special assistant to President Clinton, a food historian, and a certified barbecue judge — has heard of Little Miss BBQ. So has everyone else in town. Little Miss is the kind of barbecue joint where you fold waiting in line into the allotted time and experience. (And while you wait, a piece of tape may get slapped over the very item you planned to order on the large, displayed menu; like we said, the place is popular.) The double location barbecue restaurant was started by a competitive barbecue team inspired by the meat joints of Texas Hill Country, all to the benefit of hungry Phoenicians. This fanaticism is mostly because of the fatty brisket, pulled pork, and like-butter beef ribs weekend specials. But sides hold their own here, too. In fact, any bite of the smoked turkey or housemade sausage should be followed with swallows of the jalapeno grits and creamy mac and cheese. And don’t even get us started on the barbecue sauce. We’re glad we can buy bottles to take with us so we can have a bit of Little Miss BBQ at home.

Who do you want making your bagels? At 3-year-old Bongiorno, you get a Culinary Institute of America grad and a former FDNY lieutenant and firehouse chef, both New York natives adhering to New York style. It’s as good a bagel pedigree as you’ll find in Arizona. Using a system that emulates the enigmatic H20 of the Big Apple, John Bongiorno and Ed Cancro kettle-boil bagels and then finish them in an old-school deck oven. All the right touches are there: chew, a whisper of fluff, seeds not only on the tops of sesame and everything, but on their undersides. As in New York, these bagels, when freshly made, are good enough that they should never see the inside of a toaster.

A croissant from the hands and oven of Nathas Kraus isn’t a pastry. It’s toasty wheat and rich butter expressed in one of their highest forms — not a mere breakfast, but a portal to grain fields, dairies, and the land. This is his artistry: Targeting French baked goods, especially viennoiseries, and making them so good that they seem to transcend what they are. That croissant? It has such an intricate, calculated shatter. You can feel the care he puts into the shape, into the laminations. This is just one of Kraus’ baked goods, and one of his most basic. Everything from his chestnut-hued caneles to cream-stuffed “rhino” croissants to his simple French loaf is mesmerizing.

As Arizona’s first dedicated and certified gluten-free bakery, Gluten-Free Creations has a reputation to live up to. The two locations in Phoenix and Scottsdale certainly rise (heh) to the challenge. We dream about these delectable, all-homemade, and freshly baked goodies — the cinnamon rolls and everything bagels in particular. As an added bonus, many of the options, like the marshmallow treats and the berry Champagne cupcakes, are vegan. There’s also a selection of sugar-free items, like coconut bread and vegan super seed bread. We recommend it all.

Is there a food more sleep-inducing than the 20th-century dinner roll, wan and milquetoast, sent out in a basket on a clothed restaurant table? Forget that crusty fossil. Chris Lenza, executive chef at Café Allegro at the world-class Musical Instrument Museum, has souped up the dinner roll with three local flours — white Sonora wheat and red fife from Hayden Flour Mills, both freshly ground, and then the kicker: mesquite flour. There is shatter to the outer shell, and softness, intrigue, and dusky caramel notes within. This hot-and-chewy roll is the stodgy old staple dragged through the thunderbolts, deluge, and aromas of a Sonoran monsoon. There’s a reason the recipe took Lenza 10 years to perfect.

As of press time, Americans still aren’t allowed to travel to France (thanks, coronavirus). But you can get a little taste of the country when you visit either of Chef Jenna Leurquin’s shops. Depending on the season, you might find eclairs; colorful tartlets; a rainbow of macarons; or her famous gluten-free square carrot cake, topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting. Leurquin uses seasonal and local ingredients when possible, and butter imported from France for its higher fat content. We fantasize often about her chocolate pistachio cake, a glorious, round creation with a shiny chocolate mirror glaze and a crumbled pistachio skirt. There are simpler treats as well: cookies, croissants, quiche, and bread. We recommend almost all of it. We may not always have Paris, but at least we’ve got JL Patisserie.

Not all restaurant takeout is equal, and the pandemic has left a hole in the dim sum lover’s heart the size of a tiny-wheeled cart rumbling around laden with chicken feet and shumai. Sure, you can get dim sum to go, but great dim sum is the sum of many parts, just one of them being food. Others: community, the first sip of hot tea in an energetic room, and just piling on the dishes whimsically as the cart wanders by. Weekend dim sum at Mekong Palace crackles with energy and provides the best experience in town. Spare ribs gluey with bean sauce are rich. Barbecue pork buns are the same, only puffy, fragrant and sweet. Coconut buns are pillowy and sweet in a different way, touched with coconut cream. Empty plates gather on your table, and as you eat, every hungry soul in the room seems to fill with joy.

By the time you swallow your last entropic morsel of nigiri, perhaps brushed with soy, perhaps deepened a shade with the blue fire of a torch, your meal’s beginning feels like a distant memory. Many orders of rare Japanese beer and sake ago, you sat down for omakase at ShinBay, Shinji Kurita’s high-end sushi counter in Old Town Scottsdale. He may have started you off with a trio of bites highlighting Japanese eggplant and mountain yam. By the end of the early creative courses, the sea comes into full focus via a plate decked with novel preparations like an artist’s palette has paints. Jellyfish on ice. Creamy lobster reduction on shrimp. Ponzu jelly on a fat oyster. From there, Kurita whisks you to an ethereal finish in a long flight of nigiri, cutting, brushing, and plating, turning dinner into a dream.

LAMP Pizzeria is serious about Neapolitan-style pizzas. The centerpiece of the dining space is a red brick oven, where owner Matt Pilato — who prepares his dough and cheese in-house — slides all his pies, cooking them at some optimal temperature that produces ideal levels of crunchiness once they are finally removed from the heat. LAMP offers 20 pizzas, and this is not the place to go with your tried-and-true order. Pick one of the pies that lists ingredients you’ve maybe never considered combining. A few of our favorites: The Scientist, which has three types of thinly sliced salami and juicy green olives; The Simple, a margherita pizza topped with arugula and Parmigiano-Reggiano; and The Kavorka, a pie with Sicilian sausage, wood-roasted red onions, and piquante peppers. Despite the experimentation in the kitchen, there’s a comforting atmosphere at LAMP. When he’s not distracted at the oven, Pilato roams around and chats with diners. Everybody needs a go-to pizza spot, and it’s easy to see why so many people have chosen LAMP as theirs.

Myke Olsen, now long settled into his brick-and-mortar spot within Cider Corps, is making the most inspired pizza in the Valley. Not only are all components thoughtfully pondered, they are executed with a flair that gives Olsen a style that bears his own signature. He uses lots of Gouda cheese and cooks a crust that carries the flavor and warmth of great bread. He can nail a classic sauce-only marinara, one of the true tests of any pizzaiolo. Toppings on specialty pizzas track the seasons: cherries, squash, peaches, and pistachios. Olsen is growing and innovating at a rate far beyond that of any other pizza artisan in the Valley, making him 2020’s best.

Barbecue in greater Phoenix? Widespread. Stellar brisket? A rare find. And especially rare in the west Valley, where Eric Tanori has been smoking top-notch brisket using nothing but mesquite wood, fire, a late papering, and a salt-and-pepper rub. His style emulates central Texas with a few nods to Mexico and the Southwest. Slabs of dark-barked, thickly carved brisket are his best meat. Plenty of others are strong, notably a flavorful turkey jolted at the 11th hour with butter au jus. Eric’s low-key smokery is still growing (on deck at some point: house-shaped tortillas), but it’s already a barbecue joint deepening and rounding out our greater scene.

We’re proud to say we make pretty decent cookies. So if we’re abandoning our oven to go buy cookies somewhere, they must be incredible. The offerings at Urban Cookies meet this standard. They’re big. They manage to be soft all over without being underdone in the middle. These are cookies that will have you closing your eyes and saying “mmm” like you’re in a cookie commercial. Our favorites are the snickerdoodle and the dark chocolate with sea salt, but there’s only good stuff here, like the oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and pineapple coconut. We can also say from experience that the other baked goods at Urban Cookies are just as crave-worthy, from the cupcakes to the doughnuts. The shop has a coffee and tea menu too; if you haven’t had enough sweetness yet, the birthday cake latte is quite tasty. As of press time, Urban Cookies is doing curbside pickup only, so you can get your sugar rush that much faster.

Free idea: ATL Wings should offer a sampler platter so we don’t have to pick which variety to order. It’s too hard to choose every time we visit one of the Arizona chain’s locations. Do we opt for a dry rub, like the rich garlic Parmesan? Or do we keep it saucy with the sweet heat of the honey habanero or the classic burn of the hot wings? (We stay away from the ultra-spicy Toxic wings, but maybe you’re braver than we are.) Whichever flavor we’re in the mood for, we know the wings will always be served fresh and crispy by the helpful staff. We particularly enjoy hitting up an ATL location on Tuesday or Wednesday, when wings are less than a buck each, allowing us to experience all the flavors we crave on the cheap.

What would the fried chicken situation in Phoenix be without the White family? Matriarch Elizabeth White opened Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Cafe back in 1964. Her grandson, Larry White, gave us the popular chain LoLo’s Chicken and Waffles years ago, and just last year, he opened Phoenix’s first hot chicken restaurant, Monroe’s Hot Chicken downtown. (And if you don’t feel like navigating the one-way streets of downtown Phoenix, hold tight: A Tempe location is scheduled to open in October. ) At Monroe’s, juicy, succulent meat comes wrapped in a crispy breading, spiced to your liking. You choose the level of heat from none (Southern) to “call the fire department” (What the Cluck). Get it in a bucket with fries and pickles; in a triple-decker Belgian waffle sandwich with butter and syrup; or on a bed of greens so you can pretend you’re eating healthy. We love Monroe’s chicken best in a sandwich — served inside a pillowy brioche bun, every bite is a balance of texture and flavors. The crunch of the chicken plays off the softness of the brioche. The slaw and pickles add acidity, while the sauce and bread give a hint of sweet against the spice of the chicken. It’s finger-lickin’ good, but don’t lick your fingers. It’s not polite.

In an increasingly buzzing downtown Mesa, new classic Worth Takeaway continues to bun sandwiches on a whole other level. The old favorites still impress, from a roast beef on focaccia to a shattering, crisp-yet-juicy chicken embellished with honey-sweet Sriracha. All touches are well considered. None feel needless. And the reason they click so well, other than putting sandwich ratios into perfect alignment, is that the produce comes from top local sources like Steadfast Farms and is treated with exceptional care. Weekly specials cover ample turf: a chicken cordon bleu sammy, a caprese with heirloom tomatoes and burrata, and even a Philly cheesesteak with house-made wiz.

The ubiquitous hamburger can be found on menus all around the Valley, and at nearly every price point. Out of all these options, Zinburger is our first choice. We usually go with the titular burger: The Zinburger, a thick, juicy, perfectly cooked Angus beef patty topped with Manchego cheese, zinfandel-braised onions, lettuce, and mayo. But you can’t go wrong with the El Diablo burger with jalapenos and pepper jack cheese, and if you want to get fancy, there’s always the wagyu burger with cheese, mushrooms, and onions. Sides come a la carte, and you definitely should order the zucchini fries to accompany your entree (ask your server for a side of the truffle aioli to go with them). Still have room? Split the cookies and cream milkshake with your companion, capping off a truly excellent Phoenix dining experience.

Cattle, one of Arizona’s 5 Cs, is the star of this polished neighborhood meat shop — and not just because its grass-fed beef comes from some of our finest ranches. The array of cuts at Arcadia Meat Market is majestic: tomahawk ribeye, bavette, short ribs, tri-tip, tongue, heart, brisket, and so on. Nick Addante, owner and shop fixture, also sources Arizona chicken, regional pork, and grass-fed lamb. You can watch animals being broken down in the back room, where dry-aging cuts hang, building flavor almost like fine wine (but in far funkier directions). As a bonus, AMM stocks products by a slew of local food and beverage artisans. And they shuffled supplies in the early days of the pandemic to accommodate not only these producers, but customers struggling with grocery store shortages. Like any truly great butcher, this shop has proven to be a neighborhood cornerstone.

When H Mart, the popular Korean supermarket chain, opened its first Arizona location in Mesa this summer, we waited outside, in the sun, in a face mask, to get in. And it was worth it. H Mart blends contemporary grocery store aesthetics like dark wood and clever graphic signage with a dizzying array of Asian food products. However deeply you want to dive into Korean cuisine, you can do it at H Mart, whether with marinated galbi ready to cook up (delicious) or frozen durian (hard pass). The fish department is huge and packed with seafood both familiar and not-so-familiar, and there’s a whole side of one aisle devoted to ramen. The store also carries a pretty decent selection of Western food items you’d find in any regular supermarket, so you can get your gojuchang and fresh udon noodles along with your Pop-Tarts and orange juice. The adjoining food hall boasts even more culinary delights to explore. It would take a very long time for anyone to discover everything H Mart has to offer, which is why we keep returning, again and again.

Tempe Farmers Market stands proudly across the street from a brand-new Whole Foods and just down aways from a brand-new Trader Joe’s. Proud because it’s jam packed with made-in-Arizona products. Marked by its bright red T for the town it serves, this small grocer has been open since 2009 in downtown Tempe. On its shelves, you’ll find local produce, cheeses, meats, and liquids from creamer to beer. The locally owned market is also something of a bodega, with a vegan deli known for its excellent vegetarian and/or gluten-free wraps, as well as colorful, organic smoothies (we recommend the Desert Palm). Another perk of the Tempe Farmers Market? The east end is where you’ll find cocktails and live music at The Dark Side bar.

Many local farmers’ markets have similar amenities and vendors, but what sets apart the Uptown Farmers’ Market from other such gathering spots is vital in these socially distant times: space. There’s ample parking at its home at North Phoenix Baptist Church, so you don’t have to walk for blocks carrying your farm-fresh haul to your car. (And during summers when the pandemic isn’t keeping us separated from one another, it’s nice to grab a savory breakfast burrito in the air-conditioned comfort of the church’s Family Life Center.) The vendors can spread out nicely, so we’re able to socially distance while we buy gorgeous loaves from Proof Bread, award-winning tamales from The Tamale Store, sweet treats from The Bakery PHX, and organic produce from local favorite McClendon’s Select. There are plenty of sanitation stations around the premises to keep those hands clean, too. Uptown Farmers’ Market allows us to shop beloved metro Phoenix businesses and still feel safe in these times.

Gluten-sensitive and food allergy sufferers will find much to love at Jewel’s, but so will regular consumers of gluten — a true test of how tasty a gluten-free restaurant is. When we dine here, we don’t miss the gluten in the famous chicken and waffles, or the hot chicken sandwich, or the green chile pork grilled cheese sandwich. Definitely not at the bakery counter with brownies, muffins, cakes, cookies, and more — all of which are made sans gluten. The homey neighborhood feel, friendly staff, and bright, airy dining room add to the good vibes. Go for breakfast or lunch and order freely; you won’t be disappointed.

“Delicious AF” is how Giving Tree Café describes its banana bread with macadamia butter, but that moniker could be applied to lots of things on its all-vegan menu. The fare includes an all-day breakfast menu (the spinach-packed vegan quiche is especially good), spicy-leaning starters like blistered shishito peppers and turmeric cauliflower, soups, pizzas, and sandwiches. (There’s a juice bar, too.) We’re partial to the “Main Events” entrees — savory, inventive dishes like mole tacos made with lion’s mane mushrooms and vegan seafood gumbo studded with okra and jackfruit.

Chef Damon Brasch was the first restaurateur in the Valley to seduce herbivores and carnivores alike with meatless variations on burgers, chicken, crab puffs, po’ boys, cheesesteak, and those legendary Buffalo wings. Green’s mock meats could fool even the most anti-veggie meat-eater, and hearty sides like chili fries, soy-free samosas, fried Brussels sprouts, and eggless rolls make it a meal that leaves just enough room for dessert from next-door sister business tSoynami (at the Phoenix location), where soy-based ice cream treats in 18 varieties await — including popular flavors like cookies ‘n’ cream, mint, peanut butter and chocolate, rocky road, peach cobbler, and chocolate chip cookie dough. Green’s two locations stand out as the places in town where we miss meat the least.

We love a good buffet. Why commit to just one entree when there’s so many different flavors to explore? Same with wine. Which is why we dig what Sorso Wine Room at Scottsdale Quarter does with its vino selection. Sure, Sorso has more than 100 wines by the bottle, so if you’re the decisive type, go ahead and order a glass from that list. But we prefer to snag a wine card and help ourselves to one of the 32 wines available in the Sorso dispenser system. Each is available in a sip, taste, or glass size. Insert your card, press a button, and you get your desired portion. The card acts as your running tab. It allows us to try several wines while enjoying an Italian-leaning menu of bruschetta, flatbreads, sandwiches, salads, and more. Cheers to that.

When you bite into the Steak and Blue Pizza at Fired Pie, it bites back. That would be the gorgonzola, a pungent Italian cheese made from unskimmed cow’s milk that has salty sass running through its blue veins. The way the cheese interacts with the rest of the Steak and Blue’s ingredients — garlic, oil, mozzarella, mushrooms, peppers, onion, and thin-sliced steak — doesn’t change much about its dirty-foot aroma. Against these odds, though, this pie tastes amazing. We recommend it for a solo outing, though. Maybe not great for date night.

To be fair, this is the only insect-based entree we’ve been able to find in the Valley, so technically it’s the best by default. But it’s a culinary experience not to be missed. Silkworms are a delicacy in Korean cuisine, but they don’t make it onto the menus of most Korean restaurants, which … isn’t really surprising. If you decide to take the plunge at Drunken Tiger, you’ll get a medium-sized bowl of soup. The broth is earthy and a little pungent, with just enough spice to make the mouth tingle. Bobbing around in the broth are shredded carrots, mushrooms, onions — and a lot of silkworm pupae. They have a gentle crunch that gives way to a smooth, creamy texture like a bean. If we’re being honest, the next time we’re at Drunken Tiger, we’ll probably order one of our perennial favorites, like the galbi or the yang nyum chicken (popcorn chicken tossed in Korean red sauce). But we’ll always be glad we sampled this one-of-a-kind metro Phoenix dish.

Onetime punk-rock bandmates Randall D. Ordovich Clarkson and Justin Slusher have summoned the green fairy to Phoenix. Since December 2019, the duo have been selling two absinthes macerated in Tempe. Their Gold bottle punches hard. At 140 proof, it’ll swirl and sharpen the world in under two glasses. But this lucent, yellow-green nectar offers more than ABV. Clarkson and Slusher built it using the old-school formulation out of Pontarlier, France. You get a hit of anise and fennel, sure, but these big flavors are reasonably soft. They also deploy extra botanicals like juniper berry and star anise. Enjoy it at spots like Zinc Bistro and Adventurous Stills.

Ever sat around a campfire with friends, just chilling, melding into the sights and sounds of the woods after a long day hiking? That’s the blissful sensation the founders of Adventurous Stills sought to channel into a spirit. Their particular inspirational hike occurred in Fossil Creek, hence the name of their creation, Fossil Creek Whiskey. It begins with a blend of corn, wheat, and rye, all grown by local providers. The distillate is then aged in charred white oak. The final product? It has something of bourbon, a slight sultry sweetness. But it also recalls Scotch, with a wisp of smoke, like the column rising from a campfire, making sips, life, and the universe feel all gravy.

Months before Tales of the Cocktail and the James Beard Association anointed Little Rituals with nominations, the people who are very, very wonky about cocktails were frequenting this new downtown bar. It’s the brainchild of Aaron DeFeo and Ross Simon, the latter the man behind Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, just down the street. B&T is famously intense in its approach to mixology, and Little Rituals goes even further. A pink number unites miso-infused genever, lychee, and raspberry falernum. A daiquiri seamlessly integrates curry. An alliance of many amari chills under a frothy peak of salty foam, meant to conjure beachside drinking. If you want a glimpse of the cocktail’s potential, post up at Little Rituals.

The Shop Beer Co. keeps things simple but executes well. The tasting room is clean and intimate; the staff is tight-knit and knowledgeable; the patio is a roomy backyard, softly lit. The latter, which separates the taproom from the onsite brewery, is a magnet for craft beer drinkers around Tempe and beyond. But they come for the beer, too. The Church Music is one of The Shop’s best brews —a 6.7 percent IPA composed of pineapple juice and a little bit of “loud.” Other tasty bevs include the Coffee Brown, an American nut-brown ale, the F.Y.I.T.M. double IPA, and the crispy blonde lager. Around since 2016, The Shop was formerly known as Cartel Brewery, but broke off from the flagship location of Cartel Coffee Lab to do its own thing about a mile north — where we hope they’ll remain for years to come.

Imagine the taste of an apple. Sweet. Crisp. Sweet some more. You might think appley sugar is a necessary component of hard cider. But Stoic Cider, produced by the Routson clan and led by biologist Kanin Routson, turns out ultra-small-batch apple ciders so bereft of sugar they seem to wick moisture from your mouth. Stoic Cider reimagines what apple cider can be — tamping down sweetness, sharpening carbonation, and multiplying funk. The Routsons have elevated Arizona cider to a new, strange, beautiful, almost Champagne-like plane, and one that’s different from bottle to bottle. At their on-farm cidery near Prescott, they ferment using unusual, well-considered apple varieties from across the American West. They also grow arcane apples on their farm, and even make spellbinding micro cider batches from wild fruit.

Many Arizona wine producers led a different life before turning into vineyard parents in our arid state. Aside from Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan’s Caduceus Cellars in Jerome, there’s also Pillsbury Wine Company’s Sam Pillsbury — a famous filmmaker turned winemaker. The New Zealand-to-Arizona journey Pillsbury made is storied, but we’re here to talk about his products — Arizona wines, the best in the state. We’re not the only ones who think so. Pillsbury continues to score awards from the San Francisco Chronicle American Wine Competition, earning 14 medals for 14 entries three years in a row. Want to try a bottle of WildChild Red, a bottle of WildChild White, or a bottle of One Night Stand rosé? Try spots like Hidden Track Bottleshop, Tracy Dempsey Originals, Sphinx Date Ranch, and the Arcadia Meat Market; big stores like Bashas’, AJ’s Fine Foods, and Total Wine; or metro Phoenix restaurants like Hearth ’61, Persephen, Fabio on Fire, and The Breadfruit & Rum Bar. Or, the Pillsbury team will deliver in the Phoenix and Cottonwood areas with a six-bottle minimum order during the hotter months.

Not that it needs the validation, but FnB Restaurant was a semifinalist nominee for outstanding wine program for the James Beard Foundation 2020 awards (2017, too). The individual behind this lauded beverage program is Pavle Milic, who’s also been FnB’s co-owner since it opened in 2009. Milic curates a varied roster of mostly Arizona wines, a passion he brought home after helping with vintages at a friend’s Napa winery. FnB offers Arizona bottles from Callaghan Vineyards in Elgin, Caduceus Cellars in Jerome, Laramita Cellars in Willcox, and Dos Cabezas WineWorks out of Sonoita. Any glass here should be enjoyed in the intimate bar area in the restaurant’s eastern chamber. There, the dark-wood bar is inviting, and the intricate, colorful tile is fun and pretty iconic to Arizona food fans — it’s an often-used and easily recognizable backdrop for food and drink photos. Milic is also in the process of opening his own vineyard, Los Milics, in Elgin, Arizona — one of Arizona’s two southern wine regions — at some point in 2020.

In the age of COVID, one can no longer wander into Chris Lingua’s shop inside The Churchill, pepper him with questions, and fantasize about the bottles displayed on the north wall. Instead, his online store awaits. It contains the most thrilling selection of wine and wine-adjacent bottles in town. Lingua sells low-intervention wines, meaning natural-leaning bottles. This is progressive stuff, the opposite of your sleepy industrial cab from Napa. Lingua stocks biodynamic ciders, orange wines from the Puglia avant-garde producer Valentina Passalacqua, and experimental cocktails canned by alums of the groundbreaking Danish restaurant Noma. If you love to drink weird and well, going to Sauvage is like going to church.

Here, the mien is friendly, reading the deep menu is like falling into a wormhole, and the portions are grand — and it all adds up to make this New York-style Jewish deli a worthy stop for breakfast, lunch, or a gargantuan cinnamon roll for the road. JJ’s boils more than 20 kinds of bagels every morning. They’re of the giant, fluffy variety, and they do best under a mountain of whitefish salad or lox. Hot sandwiches on rye with stacks of pastrami or corned beef are also top-notch. An underrated nook on the menu is the robust knish selection, which includes a glorious doughy knob perfumed with bacon. And if you’re ever feeling under the weather, we suggest picking up a bowl of Jewish penicillin, a.k.a. a hearty, comforting bowl of JJ’s matzah ball soup.

We were already crazy about Copper Star before we discovered they sell their own locally grown, house-roasted coffee beans. At first, we worried that owning a bag might keep us from the cozy confines of Copper Star, where the staff is so nice to us and the homemade bagels are so fresh and tasty. But even after dragging home a bagful of his mellow, rich beans, we found that we kept visiting Bill Sandweg’s swell coffee shop as often as we could. As tasty as our home-brewed Copper Star is, as both a hot latte and a chilly iced coffee, we can’t stay away from our favorite corner cafe.

If craft coffee is a foreign concept to you, visit Driftwood Coffee Co. in Old Town Peoria. This west Valley coffee house, founded in 2017 by buds and owners Luke Bentley and Lance Linderman, uses beans by Arizona companies like Mythical Coffee as well as other artisan roasters around the country, like Iowa’s Horizon Line Coffee. The menu is divided into three sections: the speed bar, the slow bar, and the espresso bar; patrons can walk away with anything from a quick cold brew to something brewed via a Chemex, V60, or French press. Choose from an ever-changing menu of pastries, or just go straight for a specialty drink like the Dostoevsky (ginger beer, espresso, simple syrup, peach bitters, and lime). Other perks? Local art for sale, ceramic drinkware for in-house sipping, and a clean, simple space for work, chats, or just focusing on drinking these tasty, caffeinated bevs.

In the midst of a global pandemic, English Rose Tearoom was there, packaging up to-go containers of sandwiches, petit fours, and scones with all the fixings as part of its curbside offerings. That was hardly a surprise. All year long — during regular years, at least — owner Jo Gemmill goes above and beyond, wowing adult and child guests alike with events like an afternoon with Edgar Allan Poe and a visit with Santa in July. Along with multiple variations of afternoon tea, menu items like the green apple, chicken, and Stilton salad; cottage pie; and mini teacups of the soup of the day make this place truly stand out. Bonus: There’s a lifesize cutout of Queen Elizabeth herself you can pose with as you walk in. Do it for the ‘gram.

A female-owned vegan cafe, 24 Carrots is as veggie-focused as its name suggests. Here, you’ll find a substantial selection of 100 percent vegan and gluten-free items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but 24 Carrots originated as a juice bar in 2008 and has stayed true to those roots. The juice options at the cafe, which is tucked away at the adobe-style Tempe Square Shopping Center, include some house concoctions like the Apple Zinger, Beet It, and the Carrots Over Easy, as well as some daily specials. These are often scrawled on the charming (colorful with chalk and doodles) blackboard behind the register (which is also often posted on Instagram in case you’d like to check ahead). The knowledgeable staff is there to guide you in the right direction if you have any questions, such as if ginger would taste good with carrots, or what would be the best order if you feel a cold coming on. And the dining room is as appealing as the juice in your hand, so feel free to stick around for a sipping session.

When we crave boba, we head to Tea Stop, where the boba has just the right combination of chewy and melty. We’re partial to the Mango Sunrise smoothie (fresh mango bits and boba) and the Purple Rain, a concoction with taro and the honey version of boba; you’ll feel impossibly refreshed as you slurp down the last bits of its tapioca goodness. If you’re looking for a little something extra, try the pandan waffle, a Vietnamese version of the breakfast favorite loaded with coconut and vanilla. You should explore the entire boba menu, though: You can’t go wrong at Tea Stop.

Absolutely Delightful, owned by Eleanor Dziuk and operated by Dziuk and her family, buys raw honey from Arizona’s beekeepers and sells this sweetness on its website and at farmers’ markets around town. A wide range of honeys are available — desert wildflower, mesquite, orange blossom — as well as beeswax candles, bee pollen, and even flavored whipped honey. Our favorite by far, though, is camelthorn honey. It’s typically harvested from camelthorn plants in Winslow, Arizona, around July. In Arizona, it’s classified as a noxious weed. But its honey is light and thick with a bright, floral scent that’s irresistible.

You’ve heard of burnt ends in the world of barbecue. But what if you took that same approach and applied it to dessert? You’d get something like the burnt cheesecake at St. Amand Kitchen & Cocktails, which opened last spring in Chandler’s Ocotillo neighborhood. It’s the type of dish that would have all four Golden Girls gabbing till sunrise. This is a thick and heavy, crustless cheesecake — each bite is all cake. Its shiny black surface is topped with mandarins, a sweet goo for extra moisture, and a mint garnish. It also comes with a fun story: Its creator misread a recipe, creating a seemingly seared cheesecake sans the usual grainy (though usually delicious) crust, resulting in what turned out to be a literally perfect dessert. Pair it with the house-selected sherry and you’ll have trouble deciding when to — or if you even should — leave. One catch: It’s not on the permanent menu at St. Amand. It’s on the list of specials, so if you spot it, be sure to flag down one of the extremely friendly servers and get that order in.

You needn’t cross the pond to indulge in a bit of Italian splendor. There’s a lovely, wildly talented couple from Italy who make gelato for their cozy shop near Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, and spend their days welcoming people who make time to enjoy it. Alberto Della Casa and Letizia de Lucia arrived in Arizona eager to share their passion for artisanal gelato after two decades at food-related desk jobs in Italy. Trained by a gelato master in Chieti, they’ve finessed the fine art of gelato, creating rich varieties with primarily organic and locally sourced ingredients. The selection changes from day to day, so you’ll find a fresh flavor to explore each time you visit. The pistachio is a revelation: Cool Gelato Italiano is one of the few places in town that makes it with real Sicilian nuts. We suggest you return often to try the rich Italian custard, the sweet stracciatella, or one of the shop’s vegan flavors like guava or pomegranate.

In this sweltering desert, it’s always a good time for ice cream, and Sweet Republic is a constant, tempting, reminder of that fact. Don’t let the unexpected flavors here intimidate you. Dive into cold delights like the kulfi, a traditional Indian ice cream that Sweet Republic blends with hints of saffron, pistachio, and cream. Or stick with the Belgian chocolate, a straightforward crowd favorite that comes with no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or additives. Owners Jan Wichayanuparp and Helen Yung make everything in-house, including the marshmallows, waffle cones, and other toppings; it’s one of the reasons why Sweet Republic keeps appearing on national and local lists as one of the best ice cream parlors in the state. This ice cream is the opposite of manufactured. It’s the real deal. (Note: A third location of Sweet Republic, located at 410 North Scottsdale Road in Tempe, was not open at press time but is scheduled to open in late September.)

There’s a special part of Old Town Scottsdale where a gourmet doughnut shop has more or less invaded. Alien Donuts, a.k.a. the Mothership, landed on Fifth Avenue in 2018 and keeps its display case loaded with delicious space-themed treats. Divided into specialty and classic doughnuts, the menu lists fun orders like the Chocolate Spacecake, Red Planet, Cinnamon Vortex, and Alien Ice. Some treats get extra cheeky, like the Moon Rocks doughnut holes, the Alien Probe bar-shaped doughnut, and the Space Jam doughnut — which is just a traditional jelly doughnut with chocolate and sprinkles and has nothing to do with Michael Jordan or Bugs Bunny. The alien chefs here get crazy with Savory Sundays, topping their doughnuts with sausage and gravy, chicken and waffles, and pulled pork and spicy barbecue. Alien Donuts also offers coffee, ice cream, something called a Rocket Shake, and vegan options. They deliver, too.

A Renaissance man of urban agriculture, Greg Peterson’s list of roles goes on for about as long as the morning cry of a backyard chicken. Peterson, a founder of GrowPHX and teacher of permaculture-focused farming methods through the Urban Farm, wants folks to “embrace their own greenness.” He instructs on subjects as varied as seed-saving, fruit trees, compost, and water-harvesting. Urban agriculture, he believes, is our future. His north Phoenix property, also called the Urban Farm, contains dozens of fruit trees festooned with juicy loquats, plums, elderberries, citrus, and just about every fruit that grows in Arizona.

This two-story former event venue in downtown Mesa is now 12 West Brewing Co.’s second location, which, unlike the first spot, offers cocktails and full meals in addition to craft beer. If a few beers make you exceptionally hungry, or if you’re looking to get dinner before a show at Mesa Arts Center, the menu at 12 West exceeds the usual bar food expectations. Food options start with shareables like smoked mac and cheese, Southwest avocado hummus, the Blap! Blap! Fries, and the Bretzel. That last one is a hefty-ass Bavarian pretzel paired with a generous portion of Belgian wheat beer cheese. There are flatbreads like ricotta-mushroom, bacon jam and fig, and caprese. And salads range from power greens to a poke bowl. But the best thing on the menu will be whatever sandwich you order. Maybe the katsu chicken sandwich — a spiced, extra-crispy fried chicken thigh topped with Thai chili aioli on a warm bun. Our pick is definitely the steak sandwich — grilled flank steak with beefsteak tomato, baby arugula, chimichurri, and pickled red onions, all piled on grilled flatbread. The smell alone should be a Yankee Candle.

You walk onto the patio through a wrought-iron door. The greenery, the string lights, and a cozy smattering of tables grab your attention. Red oilcloths with blue floral patterns cover the tables. The trees have colorful sashes tied around their trunks reminiscent of prayer flags. The intimate, beautiful patio at Glai Baan is just the first wonderful part of your experience at the popular eatery that specializes in Thai street food. We go back again and again for well-executed dishes like the juicy kanon jeeb (pork dumplings) and the fragrant, comforting panang curry. We don’t overlook the drinks menu, a hidden jewel of the local cocktail scene; choices like the spiked Nham King Hot Tea stand on their own merits, but pair well with the food. And of course, we always ask for patio seating.

Lunch is for sandwiches, and it is our belief that the quality of a sandwich is ultimately determined by the quality of its bread. Ergo, ipso facto, by the transitive property, etc.: The best lunch spot in Phoenix is Pane Bianco, because that’s where the best sandwich bread is served. Specifically, these are sandwiches served between round cuts of wood-fired focaccia that resemble a half-roasted marshmallow, or the surface of the moon. Between these doughy masterpieces are simple combinations of ingredients that pack explosive flavor. Mozzarella, basil, tomato. Provolone, sopressata, relish. And if, by some bizarre circumstance, sandwiches aren’t your thing, Pane Bianco has you covered: The house-made mozzarella salad is just as juicy and fragrant as the sandwich version; the albacore tuna salad is filling without being heavy; and the pizzettes are like the younger cousin of Bianco’s famous pies. Most things you eat that deliver this much joy tend to weigh you down, either with guilt or whichever combination of chemicals that causes food comas. Not so with the food at Pane Bianco. We’ve yet to detect any slumping in our work productivity after devouring them. And we would know: The Van Buren location, which will close soon to make way for the new location of Bianco’s other restaurant Tratto, is just a few blocks away from the New Times office, and we’re in there constantly.

When you and your breakfast club can’t decide between a solid, hearty meal or a trendy, Instagrammable feast, go to Hash Kitchen, which is the best of both worlds. We must first mention the bloody mary bar, which boasts over 50 toppings to mix and match. Then, there’s the DJ spinning tunes in the corner, starting the party early — a wakeup call, if you will. The menu has traditional items like corned beef hash and buttermilk pancakes, but we usually go for the stuff we can’t get at many other places, like Lucky Charms French toast or a lobster Benedict. Portions are large; at least two people can split the S’mores pancakes or the carnitas hash. You can also get a friend to share the cereal shooter flights (you read that right) or down them all yourself. We won’t judge.

When a restaurant’s menu has two pages of happy hour deals, good times lie ahead. So much the better if your happy hour setting makes you feel like you’re on vacation, as you will while imbibing at Hula’s Modern Tiki. Happy hour means several bucks are knocked off the price of tropical-themed cocktails and pan-Asian appetizers. You-won’t-know-it’s actually-alcohol concoctions like the Dr. Funk and the Painkiller come in tiki man and coconut glasses, and appetizers like spicy edamame and crispy fish bites are great for sharing. We particularly love the crispy coconut shrimp rolls and the Hula’s chicken wings, which we usually pair with the blood orange martini or the Tropical Itch (it comes with a backscratcher). Another thing about that happy hour? It’s offered every single weekday from 3:30 to 6 p.m., all night on Wednesdays, and from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends. Plenty of time to pretend you’re in paradise.

Alter Ego, located on the ground floor of the also-new Canopy by Hilton Tempe Downtown, impressed us soon after opening in early summer 2020. But it’s not just the student bustle of downtown Tempe or the luxurious dining area that will have us returning again and again to this restaurant. It’s the food. Veteran Valley Chef Ken Arneson oversees the kitchen here, ensuring guests and those picking up takeout are treated to well-executed specialties like the skirt steak chimichurri, the katsu chicken sandwich, and sweet Thai shishito peppers. Don’t even get us started on the goat cheese gelato, mixed with fresh berries and served with the In “The Pot” Cobbler. Part of Alter Ego’s menu is seasonal, so you may not get to try everything mentioned above. But we’re confident most any order here will leave you satisfied. Some of Alter Ego’s food also can be ordered up to the hotel’s rooftop bar counterpart, meaning you can enjoy dishes like the Filipino-style empanadas while sipping the signature cocktails they serve there. But if you’d rather stick to the patio outside of Alter Ego, right on University Drive across from ASU’s main campus, we feel that, too.

For nearly three decades, Chrysa Robertson of Rancho Pinot has married the bounty of Arizona with Italian-leaning techniques and flavor palettes in singular ways. Still, the skill and flavors of Rancho Pinot seem, at times, not wholly understood by the younger generations of Phoenix eaters. There’s no Instagram wall. No neon signs. But there’s damn good food and drink, cooking from the heart and the heart of the arid world we inhabit. Robertson plates panna cotta with local white peaches, a classic caprese-like salad hinging on the quality of top Arizona tomatoes, and a dainty-yet-vigorous roast quail accented with mostarda of fruit in season. Roberston was a 2020 James Beard Award finalist for a reason: Like a cactus wren or Gila woodpecker, her cooking sings a brilliant local song.

You needn’t travel to New York or Chicago for the ultimate foodie experience. Just bring a generous appetite to Binkley’s, where you can marvel at Kevin Binkley’s creations — from his tamarind barbecue octopus to smoked Copper River salmon to sweet corn. When you dine here, you can’t help but feel you are part of something special and, yes, exclusive. There are only 20 spots available for dinner (reservations should be made well ahead of time), the menu is seasonally driven and never stagnant, and patrons get to watch as Binkley and his staff prepare and unveil each small plate. Whether you’re a tourist or a native Phoenician, you’re missing out on magic (and that isn’t an exaggeration) if you don’t have Binkley’s on your bucket list.

Thanks to Harold and Kumar, White Castle hamburgers are now better known as a feast for stoners than comfort food for Midwesterners. But both camps — transplants from the middle of the country and native Arizonans curious about what would make the cinematic duo ride a cheetah in the middle of the night in New Jersey — stood in line together for hours on a warm October morning last year, eager to sample sliders from the first White Castle to open in Arizona. Those who camped out for days to storm the castle ordered hundreds of the tiny burgers at once, causing the 24-hour restaurant to close early on its opening day in order to restock. Some sad latecomers left tired, frustrated, and empty-handed. It would be weeks before the rush of cravers ticked down to something like normal fast-food restaurant levels, but for many, it was worth all the wait.

It’s a scientific fact: Like every carbon-based life form, geeks need to eat, too. Good thing Sarah and Matthew Stubbs are here to help satisfy the hunger pangs of nerds seeking sustenance. Over the past few years, the Scottsdale couple have served up food and drink recipes with a pop culture bent on their website, Geeks Who Eat. Several times monthly, the Stubbses post fantastic creations based off of movies, gaming, comics, and other subject matter. One day, it’s directions on how to whip up a cocktail in the spirit of cult slasher flick Pumpkinhead. The next, it’s a recipe for Hårgan Meat Pies inspired by Midsommar. Scroll through the archives and discover fare like Eleven’s Eggo Sliders, Hulk Smash Potatoes, or the Frozen-themed Arendelle Spice Cake. They also offer culinary tips and tricks for those who aren’t as adept in the kitchen as Remy the Rat and dining guides for events like Phoenix Fan Fusion. Now, if they could only conjure up a decent Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

The food’s great, but the hang may be even better at Welcome Diner — and the later, the better. With its eclectic tables and chairs, Welcome’s front patio is perfect for kicking back with friends and a beverage in hand, and there’s quite a selection of comforting late-night eats on the menu for soaking up a night of drinking and debauchery. The jackfruit po’boy is a showstopper, as are the peanut butter bacon burger, fried chicken biscuit sandwiches, and mac and cheese topped with torched breadcrumbs. Or keep the party going and order an Old Fashioned or Welcome’s own French Lady at the retro-diner counter. The fun times here don’t have to stop until 2 a.m.

The duo behind The Breadfruit & Rum Bar, Danielle Leoni and Dwayne Allen, released their first carbonated beverage under the brand Big Marble Organics earlier this year. That first entry? A ginger beer that took many, many, many batches to get right. The final product is about as right as right can be, sizzling with an intense ginger flavor that takes off across the palate like a jet. Though long on ginger flavor, this ginger beer isn’t unevenly spicy or jagged. Rather, it’s beautifully round. The best part is that this is just the first product from Big Marble. Already, Leoni and Allen are dreaming up more to come. You can find Big Marble at select locations around metro Phoenix like The Gladly and Changing Hands’ First Draft Book Bar; the full list is on the Big Marble website.

Like a superhero, the chef of Ghost Ranch in south Tempe has another identity: distributor of phenomenal peppers to lucky Phoenix chefs and customers. These aren’t your workaday jalapenos or habaneros — the chiltepin is a tiny, round chile native to the Sonoran Desert that, when picked wild, bursts with a fruity heat. Andrade, who goes by “Chito,” gets the peppers from his family’s ranch in Sonora, Mexico. They bring a measured fire to everything from aguachiles to eggs to cookies. One day, if there is any justice in our chile-loving corner of the world, chiltepins will supplant the comparatively insipid alternatives as local king of all peppers. If Andrade keeps on, this might just happen.

In the back of their Middle Eastern grocery in a Mesa strip mall, the Alimam family, two generations of refugees from Damascus, run a lunch counter. Breads are central. Their flavors lean Syrian, and they are peeled out of a gas-fired oven. You tear into them when they’re just seconds old. Consider safia, canoe-shaped loaves scattered with ground meat in the hollowed middle. Or try manakeesh stretched into an oval and rained with za’atar and salty halloumi cheese. Even the simple pita is pillowy and divine, doubly so when dragged through a side of hummus or baba ghanoush. The secret charms of Shamy extend to everything from sujuk sandwiches to simple sides of fava beans.

In deep food-geek circles, Lom Wong carries cachet. The pop-up, which before the pandemic met periodically in a south Scottsdale living room, features regional Thai cuisine, most notably that of the coastal Moklen tribes. The culinary talents behind the intimate dinners are Yotaka Martin, a Chiang Rai native who has cooked at Glai Baan, and Alex Martin, a Chicago native, graduate of Chulalongkorn University, and fluent Thai speaker. The meals and beverage pairings are ethereal. Dishes like pla neung Moklen, whole fish steamed with chili and lime, braid startlingly fresh flavors. You get deeply thoughtful lessons in history and culture as you go. Often, meals end with a surprisingly nice ice cream sandwich bunned, against the odds, on simple white bread.

The brainchild of Matt Cooley and Olivia Laux, Cloth & Flame hosts farm-to-table community dinners in scenic spots like the Sonoran Desert and the Superstitions. Attending one of its events is a true multi-sensory experience. There’s the unique flavors; aromas of food mingling with those of the desert air; the sound of new friends’ voices as they tell their stories; the occasional touch as someone asks you to pass the plate; and, of course, the beauty of the table and the great outdoors. “We live at a time where you get rid of fun friends for political views,” Cooley says. “But we believe that if you sit across someone and share a meal with them, you forget your differences.” We tend to agree, which is why we’re so glad Cloth & Flame is helping bridge new connections all across the Valley.

The drive-thru experience is often a trade-off: You get convenience, and you don’t have to leave your car’s air-conditioned interior, but most of the food that’s available through a window isn’t particularly healthy or tasty. Not so at 32 Shea. The tiny north-central Phoenix eatery began life as a photo mat, and the building retained its drive-thru window even when it transitioned into a cafe. Before the pandemic hit, the window was only open for breakfast and lunch, which was fine with us: We could get our Nutella mocha, avocado toast, or caprese sandwich without leaving our car. Now, the drive-thru stays open until the restaurant closes, meaning that 32 Shea’s fabulous dinner entrees like braised short ribs and the salmon superfood salad also can be ordered from your vehicle. If our drive-thru options are a Big Mac or lobster mac and cheese, we know which we’re choosing.

Roxanne Wilson and Loren Emerson’s mobile purveyor of frybread has long been one of the best meals-on-wheels situations in town. Standing before its pink facade painted with cactuses, you can get a hot, chewy, simple, elegant frybread for $3. The Jazzy, an Indian taco made with little more than carne asada on frybread, has been a satisfying choice for years. This year, though, a new favorite entered the ring: a Navajo-style mutton sandwich. Tucked into fry bread with shreds of lamb leg and shards of Hatch chile, this sandwich has brought a new wave of customers to Emerson. Wash one down with a 32-ounce jar of iced prickly pear lemonade.

A year ago, when Subash Yadav was selling momos out of a food truck, those lucky enough to snag these thick-doughed dumplings fragrant with curry sauce glimpsed something special — a doorway into a fresh, beautiful cooking style. At Sherpa Kitchen, Yadav’s intimate new restaurant in Gilbert, you get a fuller sense of his singular cooking. Though he prepares Nepalese food, this isn’t what makes Yadav unique — it’s his approach, his flavors, and the feelings they create. Yadav uses the bounty of local farms, like Rhibafarms in Queen Creek. He goes to extravagant lengths to realize the freshest, most artful version of dishes. He spends 10 days making a $6 soup. He fries lalmohan, a syrupy Nepali doughnut, to sidekick a basic order of chai. Plates are brilliant. So is the restaurant — a place that never fully leaves your hungry mind, a place you could visit three times and still find new things to try.

Last year’s Best Vegetable Wizard has graduated to this year’s Best Chef. Sacha Levine was born in Chicago but raised in Bullhead City, eventually relocating to the Phoenix area to cook for spots like FnB, Rancho Pinot, Ocotillo, and Singh Meadows. At Singh, Levine plated a colorful falafel sandwich, a Moroccan carrot and sweet potato pita, and an heirloom bean and ham bowl. Most recently, at the cocktail haven Century Grand, she gave the food range and history, especially with her reimagined beef Wellington, the radicchio-heavy Treviso dish, and ultra-creative dim sum options. Before Century Grand shifted to a cocktails-only operation, Levine had been focusing on creating pickup-able meal kits for the COVID era. Now that its kitchen program has been nixed, we wait for our garnish empress to reveal her next project.

This young, Latin-inspired Arcadia eatery already has numerous dishes that feel like Phoenix classics. There’s the hiramasa ceviche, lush and creamy. There’s an elote with about as many ingredients as a corn cob has kernels. There’s a fried ice cream sandwiched on halved concha and impaled with a steak knife. Perhaps most of all, there’s one of the most sneakily excellent chips-and-salsa plates you can find, anchored by an incendiary-but-somehow-subtle salsa loaded with butter. Chefs James Fox and Eric Stone don’t take a single dish off. Cocktails, beer, and wine are just as on point. You could order at random and enjoy a stellar meal.

The menu at Puerto Rico Latin Grill bursts with the flavors of the Caribbean — especially the carnivorous ones. Owner Wesley Andujar’s kitchen staff works magic with meat, and pork in particular. To wit: the pernil, slow-roasted shredded pork that melts like manna on the tongue, and chuletas fritas (fried pork chops) crisped to perfection in piquant adobo seasoning. Chicken dishes like pechuga del pollo with sauteed onions linger pleasantly on the palate. Fish get a Puerto Rican twist with bacalaitos (salt cod pancake-like fritters) and whole red snapper. Plantains, a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine, shine in the mofongo (fried plantains mashed with spices) and jibarito de pernil (a sandwich combining savory pulled pork with mashed green plantains). Another prominent Puerto Rican dietary staple, rice, is available in both white and traditional yellow (arroz con gondules) versions.

Our greatest kosher restaurant happens to be a north Phoenix establishment you could eat in without even knowing it’s kosher. But young Bukharian stalwart Café Chenar obeys the laws of kashrut through and through. Tashkent native and chef Mazel Uvaydov makes tweaks to keep kosher, some so deft they slide under the radar. For one, manti, a kind of dumpling, are often dipped in sour cream. At Café Chenar, they come with tomato sauce. The restaurant’s wide-ranging menu contains plenty of treasures to discover, including the Uzbek plov (a meat and rice dish), kebabs, hanum (a steamed pasta roll filled with potato and onion), and roasted Cornish hen. They even unveil specials for Jewish holidays, like sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) for Hanukkah.

Officially a Somali restaurant, WaaMo also exhibits strong influences from other east African countries, like Ethiopia and Eritrea, not to mention Mediterranean flavors. Braised goat is one of its core Somali specialties. Owner and dining room fixture Basheir Elmi heartily recommends this to diners who aren’t regulars. Sambusas, deep-fried pastries, are another Somali favorite. But you can also grab Greek salad and kebab sandwiches here if you want. The vibe in WaaMo is unlike anywhere else in town, generated by the warmth of spiced coffee and that of Elmi meeting and greeting the diners, of watermelon juice and deep-fried chicken leg. WaaMo is a true unsung gem.

Set in a nondescript strip mall just east of the Arizona State University campus, Haji-Baba doesn’t look like much from the outside. But the restaurant-market has been feeding students — and everyone else who likes great Middle Eastern food at a ridiculously low price point — for decades. The chicken shawarma platter, crammed with spiced meat, basmati rice, hummus, tabbouleh, and a pungent, addictive garlic sauce, is one of our favorite dishes in the entire city. But anything on the menu is a good pick, from the gyro sandwich to the creamy baba ghanoush to the Greek salad studded with huge chunks of tangy feta cheese. Leave enough time to roam the market half of the space, where you can pick up fragrant spices, exotic coffee, and other Middle Eastern groceries.

A hallmark of a great Indian restaurant is great naan, and at Chennai Chettinaad Palace, it’s warm, fluffy, and buttery soft — a perfect companion to the chicken tikka masala or daal makhani. Entrees carry the richness of traditional spices like cumin, garam masala, and coriander, without overpowering with a pants-on-fire spiciness. Don’t leave without tasting the biryani; the rice is loose and tender, with a blend of vegetables or a meat of your choosing. It rivals biryani you might find in a restaurant in India. The menu is vast, with almost 200 items to choose from. Start your meal with a cold glass of mango lassi, sample some of the hot pakoras as an appetizer, and move on to entrees from virtually every region of India. Finish off with desserts like gulab jamun or milky rice kheer.

The second most interesting part about Old Town Taste is that it’s not actually in Old Town Scottsdale. It’s in a strip mall in Tempe, easily spotted by its bright-red sign. The most interesting part, obviously, is the food. The family-owned Chinese restaurant has a lengthy menu with a Sichuan bent, promising dishes like braised eggplant, mapo tofu, and Szechuan-style blood curd. But what brings us back again and again is the Chongqing-style platter. This house special is offered as chicken or fish, and both options are fantastic, thanks to chunks of meat coated in that thin, crunchy batter and topped with string beans and chile. It’s never a bad time to slide into one of Old Town Taste’s bright turquoise booths and dig into a meal of authentic Chinese cuisine.

So much stands out about this tried-and-true Japanese restaurant, where Lori Hashimoto has earned and maintained the respect of Valley eaters. The key to it all might be range. She’s a master of simple Japanese preparations expertly done. We recommend delicate fried oysters breaded in panko, or osuimono, a lightly flavored soup that’s pretty much all consomme, both satisfying with quiet flavors. The massive, complex dishes shine as well, like a tempura sampler of seasonal fish and vegetables, or the Hana Pride Roll, which, with touches like pickled burdock and togarashi, feels like a completely new sushi creation.

A bevy of Korean barbecue options have cropped up in the Valley in the past few years. Some are sleek and fancy. Others are low-key. Manna, which has another location in San Diego, falls more in the latter camp. Its food comes all-you-can-eat for $25 at dinner and $18 at lunch. Meals begin with an armada of banchan and then shift to the gas grill plate, where you cook galbi and diaphanous brisket slices yourself. You can go as hard as you want: veal intestine, baby octopus, or pork chops. Your tong and scissor hands will get a workout. At meal’s end — after somehow making space for a mochi — you’ll see that Manna can hang with any Korean barbecue joint in town.

The two locations of Chanpen Thai Cuisine aren’t too far apart geographically, but they look quite different. The Broadway location is a cozy building that has seen better days; the Baseline restaurant is fancier, with yellow walls, Buddhist art, and a kind of set-apart area reminiscent of a temple. What’s exactly the same at both outposts is the food: well-crafted versions of Thai classics like pad see ew and panang curry. Our favorites are the spicy, savory drunken noodles with peppers and broccoli, and the creamy, slightly sweet massamun curry with potatoes, carrots, and peanuts. The other commonality between the two Chanpen locations? Service that goes above and beyond. The welcoming staff members often offer us water or soup or ice cream while we wait for our takeout. That’s the type of thing you don’t forget, and it’s part of what makes Chanpen the first place we think of when we’re in the mood for Thai.

Historic Downtown Glendale and the Catlin Court Historic District are known for cozy house eateries. And while they’re all delightful, a favorite is Little Saigon Restaurant. This cozy cottage restaurant surrounded by antique stores and small businesses seems fitting for its offerings of Vietnamese comfort food. The family-owned Little Saigon first opened in Christown Mall in 1998 before relocating to downtown Glendale in 2005. Here, power lunchers feast on more than seven choices of pho, including the classic pho tai (aromatic broth with sliced pieces of tender beef). Regulars also go for the crispy rice-flour crepes packed with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts, and combo plates like the grilled shrimp and pork with steamed white rice under a sunny-side-up egg. Little Saigon is also vegetarian-friendly, thanks to dishes like bun chay tofu (tofu rice vermicelli salad bowl), dau hu sot ca chua (stir-fried tofu with tomato and onions), and canh cai xanh (bok-choy soup with ginger and onions).

Great Cuban food? About as scarce in these parts as deep-sea marlin. But the food at Glendale’s Fe La Cubana fits the bill. The restaurant is a classic cafeteria-style cafe with old-school versions of Cuban favorites. In a small, stark dining room with not much more than a TV that magnetizes the eyes of the regulars who fork at full plates, customers pick what they want from hot metal tins. Stewed oxtails. Yuca with a perfect balance of tenderness and glide. Rich red bean soup. One of the pinnacles of Cuban gastronomy is also a standout here: ropa vieja, a dish of pork stewed until supernally tender. Fill your plate, melt into your firm chair, and when you’re done, nab a guava-stuffed pastele for the road.

Almost two decades into its genre-bending, white-tablecloth gastronomic journey through the desert we call home, Kai remains a pillar of Arizona dining. Chef Ryan Swanson, who scored a James Beard Award nomination this year, has the restaurant humming like a sleek vintage car. Still, he keeps driving Kai to new places. Swanson can nimbly hit notes across the gastronomic map, often using hyperlocal ingredients in uncommon ways, such as many kinds of cactus in a “key lime” pie, or Ramona Farms corn in an earthy amuse bouche. Though classics remain (including a “sensory course” that rewires your mind late in the arc of the tasting menu), Swanson routinely decks out the menu with new dishes like bison creme brulee, octopus, smoked squash soup, and compressed lamb on ceme’t. Eating at Kai gives you a powerful sense of what eating in Arizona could be: imaginative, born from the cracks, valleys, and washes of our unique land — and like nowhere else in the world.

With Cassie Shortino as chef and Blaise Faber as beverage director and GM, Chris Bianco’s trattoria remains the best Italian restaurant in town by a wide margin. You can count Tratto’s superiority in so many ways: drinks, including obscure amari, cocktails made with house-steeped liqueurs, and hard-to-find deeply regional wine vintages from the boot. Pasta, from wheaty tagliatelle shaped from freshly ground grains to a simple off-menu cacio e pepe that is hands-down the best pasta in town. Or even a simple starter: the bread, olive oil, and olive plate that opens your meal is nirvana, a harbinger of all the nirvana to come. And yet, there are still so many other facets to this jewel of a restaurant. Eating here is an escape to a better world. (Note: The address for Tratto will change soon; it’s moving to what is currently the Pane Bianco space at 1505 East Van Buren Street later this autumn.)

Most large cities have a great French restaurant. What makes Vincent on Camelback particularly special is the eatery’s Southwestern twist — a distinctly Phoenix touch. A dining institution in the Valley, this no-jacket-required restaurant, operated by Chef Vincent Guerithault since its establishment in 1986, has an ever-changing menu. But you can usually rely on soups and salads, starters like the duck tamale, and mains like rack of lamb with spicy bell pepper jelly and beef tenderloin with green peppercorn sauce. Like the true white-tablecloth joint it is, Vincent on Camelback boasts a wine list with more than 500 individual selections. There’s a few other branches of this operation, too, including the more casual Vincent Market Bistro — our favorites there include a smoked salmon quesadilla, duck confit, and steak frites with a bit of wine — as well as Catering by Vincent and the Camelback Market. À ta santé, Vincent!

Despite its mixed moniker, Haus Murphy’s restaurant in downtown Glendale is pure, authentic German. Dirndls and lederhosen are part of the aesthetic, and not just during Oktoberfest. Chef Brett Hoffmann’s traditional Bavarian dishes have been praised by Guy Fieri on the TV show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and include seven kinds of sausage, from German bratwurst to Hungarian sausages, five variations of schnitzel, and house specialties like beef roulade, stuffed cabbage roll, and Eisbein (beechwood-smoked pork shank). Yes, giant Bavarian pretzels are available, too, along with a selection of authentic Deutsch beers on draft and in bottles. Bonus: On Friday and Saturday nights, the Haus Oompah Band performs in the biergarten on the outside patio.

We were psyched to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at Rosie McCaffrey’s this year, as we do every year. Then, the pandemic hit, and — cruelly — March 17 happened to be the day Governor Doug Ducey told the bars they had to shut down by 8 p.m. Since then, there haven’t been many days we’ve been able to visit the best Irish pub in town. We miss the quaint interior of Rosie’s, with its dark wood and Ireland-themed decor. We miss the beer lineup, which includes local favorites, European classics, and more. And we miss the food, both the Irish-leaning items like the potato boxty and Harp-battered fish and chips, and the more standard bar fare like chicken wings and hamburgers. We’re crossing our fingers that next St. Paddy’s Day, we’ll be back celebrating at Rosie’s.

Cornish Pasty, the beloved local chain, has everything we want in an English pub: a cozy atmosphere, a great selection of booze, and hearty food options. The interiors are warm and welcoming; the downtown Phoenix location in particular has a vintage public house vibe. The beer list is full of local, national, and international options, and if beer isn’t your thing, wine and cocktails are also represented on the menu. The cornerstone of the food lineup is of course the pasties (we think of them as British calzones) stuffed with a variety of fillings ranging from the traditional Oggie with steak, potato, onion, and rutabaga, to vegan Guinness stew and veggie tikka masala. Also on the menu are English favorites like the Scotch egg and the Ploughman’s Plate (kind of a British charcuterie board). Cornish Pasty has expanded to five metro Phoenix locations, plus outposts in Flagstaff and Las Vegas, so we’re clearly not the only ones who love to grab a pint here.

It’s almost like time doesn’t exist outside Mrs. White’s Golden Rule Café, which has changed very little since Elizabeth White opened the place in 1964. Over the last half-century, this family-owned eatery has served Southern comfort and soul food to notable people like the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Phoenix Suns legend Charles Barkley, former heavyweight boxer Earnie Shavers, and the Godfather of Soul himself, the late James Brown. Substantial portions of meals like meatloaf, pork chops, and fried chicken with steaming sides of collard greens, buttery corn on the cob, and rich mac and cheese are filling crowd-pleasers, and the cornbread is so deliciously sticky and studded with whole kernels of sweet corn that the cafe sometimes runs out. Desserts like peach cobbler, sweet potato pies, and banana pudding can push people over the gastric edge — but are well worth feeling stuffed.

Greasy spoon. Hash joint. Whatever you want to call it, Roosevelt Diner in the Garfield District is a gem. This petite eatery has gone by several names over the years, starting with the Hi-Way Diner, which is what it was called back in 1982, when a man named Robert Young had the building moved from Winslow and plopped onto a corner lot in Phoenix. (It’s been under new management since earlier this year.) On the menu are the usual diner items — hot coffee, breakfast dishes — but also eight styles of gourmet hot dogs. Arturo’s wasn’t built for pandemic times — it’s a nine-seater inside, and quarters are close — but there’s an airy, lawn-like patio out front with picnic tables where you can spread out a bit and enjoy this tiny slice of Arizona history.

What makes a steakhouse? One, good steak. Old Town Scottsdale’s Maple & Ash has just that. You can polish off an affordable steak frites at the opulent bar, or steadily demolish an exorbitantly priced dry-aged tomahawk ribeye, which meets your teeth as a near-cloud of funk and umami. Two, the sides. Here, they are thoughtful, from silky egg agnolotti in decadent truffle butter sauce to a coal-oven crisped octopus. Three, drinks. You get a complimentary tipple when you sit down here. Cocktails are thoughtful for a steakhouse, and Japanese whisky bottles flash hiragana from behind the bar. Finally, the vibe. The juju here is all swank and chandeliers and high ceilings and mirrors. Having satisfied all the criteria, we declare Maple & Ash a complete, notable addition to our steakhouse scene.

There are plenty of brunch spots around the Valley where you can take your youngsters, but how many of them have a splash pad? Luci’s at The Orchard can make that boast. Here, you can grab a protein-packed power bowl or catch up with friends over mimosas without worrying about where to stick your kids. If you want to lean into family time, swing by the gourmet market, pick up a book from the Little Free Library, or grab some tasty gelato over at Splurge, the restaurant’s in-house sweet shop. By then, though, your kiddos might be tuckered out from all the outdoor water play (you’re welcome). 

Quaint and intimate, Café Monarch is the perfect setting for flirting, romance, and the intimate exchange of inside jokes between lovebirds. (Others have noticed: TripAdvisor voted Café Monarch the second-most romantic restaurant in the entire country.) The charming courtyard, modeled after a European landscape, has fountains and whimsy, and the staff pays close attention to the details. Gluten, vegetarian, and vegan requests are warmly accommodated here, and if it’s your birthday, anniversary, or some other special occasion, your dessert will likely arrive with a sparkler stuck in it. The four-course menu highlights farm-to-table ingredients and includes some sumptuous entrees, including Chilean sea bass, New Zealand lamb rack, and duck breast. With everything so well taken care of for you, it’s easy to sit back, relax, and focus on your darling companion.