Best Bar Food 2024 | Bar Cena | Food & Drink | Phoenix
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Best Bar Food

Bar Cena

Look, nobody — least of all us — is taking shots at buffalo wings and fried cheese. But bar food can be an elegant affair, too, can't it? The latest offering from chef Dom Ruggiero of Hush Public House and Fire at Will is a swanky little number that's part bar, part restaurant, part lounge. But whichever style of seating suits you, the menu's the same, and it features the kind of bold, crisply executed Euro-American fare that has become Ruggiero's signature. A toasty popover is so flaky and hot that it instantly melts the cacio e pepe butter you slather all over it. Chilled poached mussels are joined by a perky pickled vegetable escabeche and smoky grilled Noble toast. The house pate en croute, set with port gelee and served with a swipe of mustard, is the pinnacle of the form. And if you really need to scratch the itch for fried cheese, the muffuletta croquettes — crispy, sesame-studded puffs of potato and provolone buried in a spicy fennel onion salad — is a mighty refined way to do it.

Best Date Night Spot

Progress

Lauren Cusimano

Whether you're going on a first date or looking for a romantic evening with your lifelong love, Progress is always a good idea. This elegant restaurant is made up of three parts: a small dining room, a cozy patio and a wine room. Pick a bottle off the shelf and settle into your table for a night of great conversation and delicious bites. The best way to sample the menu is to order multiple plates and share. The kitchen will expertly course out your meal to keep the evening flowing, along with the wine. If you really want to hand over the reins and let the pros chart the course of your evening, opt for the five-dish "Leave It to the Kitchen" menu for $75 per person.

Best Steakhouse

The Stockyards

Jacob Tyler Dunn

Few restaurants in Phoenix capture the vibe of old-school Valley of the Sun better than The Stockyards. Everybody who's anybody in Phoenix history has sat in The Stockyards' historic bar and spun a yarn while waiting for a table at the legendary eatery. With a storied history going back over 70 years, The Stockyards offers an amazing "Arizona cut" 24-ounce bone-in ribeye that will melt in your mouth, but its New York strip and filet mignon are equally fantastic. Daring diners may want to start with the Paloma Ranch Calf Fries (a.k.a. Rocky Mountain oysters, a.k.a. bull's testicles) which have been a treat for decades. If you want to get a taste of what time travel is like, visit The Stockyards and enjoy the best steakhouse in town.

Best Restaurant You Can Ride Your Horse To

T-Bone Steak House

Timur Guseynov

As the city has grown and evolved, vestiges of yesteryear are increasingly hard to find. Not so at T-Bone Steak House in South Phoenix, where there are hitching posts out back in case you show up on four hooves instead of four wheels. The building, which was built out of river rock and adobe in the 1920s, has housed a restaurant since the 1940s. (It's been T-Bone Steak House since 1972). T-Bone serves simple steakhouse fare excellently done — think a juicy, perfectly rare New York Strip, tender barbecue chicken and house-made apple pie smothered in cinnamon ice cream, whipped cream and caramel sauce. The prices are decidedly modern (read: not cheap), but you get what you pay for, and at T-Bone Steak House, you get delicious food and excellent service in a charming rustic setting. And here's a tip: Arrive just before sunset and sit near a window or on the patio to watch the sun set over the Valley and enjoy the lights of the city.

Best Haunted Restaurant

The Old Spaghetti Factory

We love a good ghost story almost as much as we love a good meal. The Old Spaghetti Factory on Central Avenue has plenty of both. Stories abound that the building, which was originally constructed as two private residences, was the site of two separate murders and that restaurant staff have reported cold spots, strange sounds, flickering lights, furniture moving and floating apparitions. We've never experienced anything spooky at The Old Spaghetti Factory, just good, solid Italian-American fare. The restaurant is famous for its spaghetti with mizithra cheese and browned butter, but we're also big fans of the crab and ricotta ravioli. If you can snag a table inside the restaurant's trolley car, do it — just keep your eyes peeled for ghosts.

Best Classic Diner

Joe's Diner

Lauren Cusimano

We're pretty sure that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was a marketing slogan intended to sell more cereal, but we can't deny that a solid morning repast always puts us on track for a great day. Which is why we're frequent customers at Joe's Diner, a no-frills joint in the Melrose District. Open since 2010, Joe's serves breakfast and lunch seven days a week. The lunch menu has a solid lineup mostly composed of salads, sandwiches and burgers, but the breakfast fare is usually what we opt for. Biscuits with sausage gravy are substantial without being too heavy, and the green chili pork bowl with scrambled eggs and seasoned potatoes is a great option with Southwestern flair. Our arrival at the diner's bright yellow building always means a great meal is about to begin.

Best Trendy Diner

Sidewinder

How many seats do you need to run a restaurant? Not very many, according to Sidewinder. This tiny diner has just eight. But outside, a sprawling patio has plenty of picnic tables at which customers can sit and chill. Sidewinder is the newest project from restaurant pros TJ Culp and Esther Noh and is the latest concept to occupy the vintage Valentine diner on Roosevelt Street, home of the original Welcome Diner. Sidewinder offers some of the same charms of the neighborhood favorite, with cheap beer, craft cocktails and indulgent eats. Prepare to get messy with Sidewinder's Sloppy Joe, loaded fries or one of the menu's sandwiches doused in barbecue sauce and mayo. Need a bite to eat after partying around the arts district? Sidewinder has you covered.

Best Southern Food

CC's on Central

Dominic Armato

"Southern" is an awfully big tent, and mother and son duo Sharon and Devan Cunningham don't feel compelled to restrict themselves to any particular subgenre. Is this Creole? Soul? Cajun? Southern? Short answer: The Cunninghams serve food that traces its familial roots back to all of the above. Most importantly, their food is delicious. Hidden in a midtown Phoenix office complex, CC's slings a breakfast and lunch menu on weekdays that features dishes such as creamy cheddar grits smothered with sausage-studded collard greens and a tangy potlikker; an atypically soupy shrimp étouffée built on a strong shellfish stock; and some of Devan's wilder breakfast concoctions, such as a Hong Kong-inspired French toast, fried to a deep golden brown and saturated with a praline condensed milk. Devan also is a mad wing scientist, coating them with killer dry rubs, such as dill pickle and his signature "Dankenstein." And the first Sunday of the month is when Sharon takes over with whatever soul food specialty suits her mood, along with a mountain of simple and perfect Southern-style cakes and sweets.

Best New Mexico Cuisine

Richardson's

Even though we're right next door, it's hard to know the true scope of "New Mexico cuisine." (For what it's worth, experts say it's a combination of cooking styles and ingredients from Mexico, Spain and various Indigenous groups.) But what if you thought less about the particulars and more about the delectable end results? Case in point: Richardson's. Opened in 1988, the restaurant — whose ownership group also oversee Rosie's and Rokerij — emphasizes a cozy setting (woven rugs, saltillo tile, etc.), but it's really about how said vibes translate and inform the food. Be it that delectable New Mexican Surf and Turf (with bacon-wrapped jumbo shrimp and chorizo enchiladas), the Chimayo Chicken or the Taos Tenderloin, it's ultimately about great food that blurs all concepts and boundaries for endless comfort, warmth and a down-home feel. Richardson's magic is that its appeal is more about connection and joy than any particular region or influence, and you can engage with this menu in a way that transcends all the buzzwords and gimmicks. Richardson's is truly great food, period.

Best Hawaiian Restaurant

Hapa Food Co.

Dominic Armato

Few things get Phoenicians riled up like a good plate lunch does, which is ironic because most of the plate lunches in Phoenix come from lousy Hawaiian barbecue chains. But that probably explains why Hapa Food Co. is a zoo — a tiny little restaurant that always seems to have a line of customers four or five deep, patiently waiting for crisp fried chicken smothered in a sweet garlic sauce and juicy, smoky kalua pig. The poke is exceptional, a welcome throwback to when poke was poke and not a fast food "concept." And the kalbi — saturated with a deep, sweet soy marinade — is seared on the grill to order, tender and succulent and charred around the edges. Recurring specials such as garlicky hoisin pork ribs or a whole pulehu ribeye are always great, but the biggest draw might be the malasadas — rich, eggy doughnuts fried fresh and filled to order with custard, coconut or neon purple ube. However many you think you're going to eat, double it.

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