Restaurants

A new food truck is here to comfort the masses of Phoenix — with comfort food…

About a month ago, one of our favorite growing Instagrammers, Tony Kasowski, (@TonyGrowsFood) posted this update along with photos: “Spent the morning at St. Vincent De Paul Watkins campus, building garden beds, and harvesting chard with some amazing people! Also got an opportunity to tour the facility which provides over…

Nick LaRosa Nook 602-651-1390 www.nookkitchen.com One of Arcadia’s newest dining spots is appropriately named — Nook is the kind of cozy local joint where families can come for an easy dinner and dates can slide into cozy booths for a nice glass of wine. Chef Nick LaRosa, a Connecticut-born guy…

The first month of 2014 was full of new beginnings for restaurant owners around the Valley. Last month, we saw the opening of Payton Curry and Dave Andrea’s highly anticipated Taco Haus and welcomed several new restaurants to the booming dining scene in the Arcadia neighborhood…

Those of us curious about what was going on at the northwest corner of Campbell and 40th Street now have our answer: Ingo’s Tasty Food, the newest restaurant concept from LGO Hospitality, has opened there. The folks behind popular Arcadia staples including La Grande Orange Grocery, Chelsea’s Kitchen, and Grateful…

That’s right. Even Gordan Ramsay couldn’t resist going back for more crazy in the upcoming season of Kitchen Nightmares. According to Fox, the notoriously hard-ass chef will return to Crazy Amy’s for the premiere of the sixth season of the show. The episode, “Amy’s Baking Company, Part Two,” will be…

Gordas Baja Taco meets the most important criteria of Baja-style Mexican food: Seafood is heavily present on their menu, and it’s fresh without being overcooked…

Chandler has a new Asian fusion spot with a lot of Thai-influenced dishes and some great-sounding happy hour deals. Chao Urban Asian Eatery, which opened last weekend off Dobson and Germann roads, boasts a large, casual patio with fire pits for chilly winter dining and a full bar inside. We…

We’ve been excited about The Clever Koi since as soon as we heard that chefs Jared Porter and Joe Absolor, both formerly of The Parlor, were opening a modern Asian eatery in Central Phoenix. The restaurant was one of the most-anticipated in recent memory for many a food lover, but…

Yatai Ramen Saturday, February 1 This weekend the Valley’s first ramen food truck will hit the streets, making its offical debut at Scottsdale Food Truck Caravan on Saturday night. Yatai will join the Grilled Cheese Truck, Queso Good, 180Q, Torched Goodness and Udder Delights at the northwest corner of Fifth…

Last week, we brought you tips on how to grow your own citrus, and this week, we’re giving you the easy way out. After consulting our favorite places to enjoy local citrus freshness, we now have three recipes to share with you. If you don’t have a citrus tree available…

When you’re gluten-free, your friends and family are always looking out for new places to go out for a meal together. It’s a great gift to get a phone call or e-mail suggesting a new place to eat, sit, and share the day’s events. Recently, as I switched jobs, many…

If you’re like us, then you eagerly look forward to the time of year when young girls hawk boxes of Girl Scout cookies. The scouts get to learn about money management and business ethics, and we get to eat loads of Samoas. What’s not to love? And this year, the…

Chef Charleen Badman of FnB is kind of a big deal. We named her Best Chef in Phoenix in the 2013 Best of Phoenix issue, and her leeks have been praised by Food & Wine as one of the best dishes in the country. In other words, you could say…

With the massive popularity of tequila, the increasing profile of Oaxacan mezcal, and the omnipresence of Mexican beer, it’s easy to forget that Mexico produces other varieties of liquors. It’s time to learn more about one of these beverages (and a taste of northern Mexico), the regional mezcal of the…

The Street Eats Food Truck Festival, held annually at Salt River Fields, has become a proving ground of sorts for Valley food trucks. The longer your line, the better you’re doing tapping in to the local scene. The shorter your line, well . . . On Saturday, January 25, and…

The Guilty Pleasure: Southwestern Chicken Fried Steak Where to Get It: Ranch House Grille, 56th Street and Thomas in Phoenix (or if you’re heading to Lake Powell, there’s another location just off Lake Powell Drive in Page) Price: Ten bucks, give or take What It Really Costs: After one of…

The last time we checked in with Jordan Keane, the food truck owner and chef was splitting with her business partner and getting ready to relaunch their T-Licious Taco food truck. That was in 2012, and since then, Keane has not only succeeded in launching her own J-Licious Taco food…

Just weeks after Craig DeMarco and Lauren Bailey opened Joyride Taco House in Central Phoenix, the restaurateurs announced they have their sights set on a whole new neighborhood. This fall, Upward Projects will open a fourth location of Postino Winecafe just steps off Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. The restaurant…

On Thursday, January 23, 150 guests, five chefs, and their kitchen teams gathered at Phoenix Art Museum for the Ripe Awards, hosted by the museum’s Men’s Art Council…

If you’re looking for homemade sauces, pizza dough, and bread in North Phoenix, you’ll be happy to know about Villa Italia Ristorante. The new restaurant, located at 1219 East Glendale Avenue, comes courtesy of owner and chef Peter Pizzurro, a native of Palermo, Sicily. The restaurant, which opened in December,…

A wise person once said to me that “expectations are prepaid resentments.” The remedy, of course, is to set one’s expectations so low that resentment — and disappointment — are unlikely. But low expectations do not factor into the opening of The Clever Koi, one of the most anticipated and…