This is a big city, and we as residents have many options for how to spend our weekends. Hiking, historic sites, friends and family, sure, but also, dining. Savory lunches, scenic dinners, and some ravioli that are out of this world? You got it.

So if you're looking for a new post-hike spot, or planning to dine out Saturday night, here are three places you can try right now — and what we thought of them.

Greater Phoenix has a surprising number of Vietnamese restaurants, and they aren’t evenly distributed. One lacuna runs from south Scottsdale to Cave Creek, where, for the size of this area, there could be far more options. This is one reason why 3 Regions Vietnamese Kitchen, opened in June 2018 in Cave Creek, has been packed. The other? The food.

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The incredible view from Talavera.

Jackie Mercandetti

The hard truth of dinner at Talavera Restaurant is that the middle and end have to live up to the beginning: when you walk out to the patio and take in the gorgeous view of Pinnacle Peak. Samantha Sanz is chef at Talavera, the “Spanish steakhouse” home to this patio within the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale. She is one of the few young talents in town who could, with food, give this view a run.

Fellow Osteria in Scottsdale comes from a duo known for black-bean pancakes, chicken-and-waffle “bao buns,” and pig-face dumplings. It comes from Joshua James and Nick Campisano, who, at their two locations of The Clever Koi, serve food cherry-picked from Asia and then YOLO-twisted. Fellow’s best dishes channel an Italian ethos: great ingredients, minimal technique to ease out the best of those ingredients in combination with one another, finito.

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