Where to Eat in Phoenix

Few cities are as misunderstood as Phoenix: It’s hot and dry, but the Sonoran Desert, with its monsoon rains and 3,000 plant species, teems with life and natural wonders. It’s true that people retire and golf here, but others sip barrel-aged Gose and dip out of work for buzzy burger pop-ups and scallop aguachile. Because of these contradictions and the many talented people this place attracts, Phoenix is an eye-opening city to eat in right now.

Phoenix has changed rapidly over the years. In 1950, the city’s 17 square miles supported 107,000 people. Today, Phoenix’s 517 square miles support 1.6 million. Lately, this spirit of evolution has manifested downtown, which has seen wild growth in the past five years. Anchored by the crane-flecked strip of Roosevelt Row and its Sonoran taqueria (Taco Boys), foraging-focused brewery (Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company), and outdoor food hall (The Churchill), the downtown scene gets bigger and better each month. 

Some of this fast change has brought challenges. Longtime locals have been priced out of their neighborhoods. Public transportation hasn’t kept up. The water grid continues to be stressed. Despite its imperfections and challenges, Phoenix is a great place. Art is all over. Cool shops and music venues are the norm. Hikes are always close. At night, the desert stars are sharp. Recently, Phoenix restaurants have turned heads, beginning with the city’s 17 James Beard Award nominations in 2020. These days, Phoenix chefs are cooking Indigenous Thai food, reimagining Sonoran Mexican dishes, getting creative with wild desert ingredients, and making a name for their city. Here’s how to get a taste for Phoenix, in one tortilla-packed day.

The Essentials

• Don’t forget to pack…a reusable water bottle. The desert is no joke. 
• Don’t leave town without…a sleeve or two of flour tortillas from an old-school standout, like La Purisima Bakery 2.
• The best place to stay is…RISE Uptown Hotel. This small Central Phoenix hotel is all about its swank pool and wood-paneled, ’70s-conjuring rooftop. Both the pool and the rooftop serve unique cocktails, and both are great spots to linger. 

For breakfast, a timeless burrito or New Southwestern feast

Many Phoenicians kick-start the day with a breakfast burrito. Though options and styles abound, I always return to the original South Phoenix location of Carolina’s Mexican Food, where hot, pliant flour tortillas are griddled to life before your eyes. These enrobe eggs, cheese, potatoes, chorizo, machaca, and other fillings. You can choose to drown your football-size meal in fiery enchilada sauce (easy call here). Regulars fill the timeworn, white-brick building starting from 7 a.m., when this institution, long operated by the Valenzuela family, opens. 

For pastries, daily breakfast and brunch, or posting up with a laptop on a workday, there’s no place better than Valentine, an all-day restaurant in the Melrose neighborhood. Co-owner Blaise Faber calls Valentine a New Southwestern restaurant. Indeed, arcane desert plants find a creative role in just about every dish (and drink): white Sonora wheat in croissants, chiltepin peppers in lattes, O’odham squash in the bread used for breakfast sandwiches. Chef Donald Hawk has fearsome range. Early in the day, try his churro waffle, aromatic with mesquite and chai, or steak and eggs with huitlacoche butter and pork-spiked tepary beans.

Haircut? Tamale? Choose your adventure in this mixed-use creative space

After breakfast, head downtown. Just past Roosevelt street and its walkable bustle lies a low, right-angled concrete structure. This is Palabra, a disorienting and wonderful space that acts as a Mexican coffee shop, kitchen, art gallery, and hair salon all in one. Palabra refers to the overarching collective. The kitchen is Pasado, the coffee arm is Futuro. The unique hangout is a magnet for Phoenix’s robust downtown creative scene.

Grab a latte jolted with cajeta (ultra-rich caramel) or mole bitters and citrus, and check out the pieces on display. The art that’s mounted on the paper-white walls rotates but tends to keep things pleasantly inscrutable and contemporary. The hair salon is in the back. And yes, food (like posole and heirloom corn tamales) does come out of the tiny glass-walled kitchen, but only for a few brief varying hours per week. 

For lunch, a pizza legend’s quiet B-side, or impossibly fresh seafood 

When in Phoenix, you should eat something bready from Chris Bianco. The legendary pizzaiolo’s flagship pizzerias in downtown and central Phoenix are, of course, great. But if you want something more under the radar yet just as masterful (and without a line!), I recommend checking out Pane Bianco in Central Phoenix, where the focus is split between pizza and bread. Here, market sandwiches feature freshly blazed focaccia and rotate each day. Pizza options change over time and have included New York–style pies. The Pane staple is al taglio—perhaps Bianco’s best but least-known pizza, whose crust combines giant shatter and impressive lightness. Pane now serves these Roman-reminiscent squares daily, paved with Bianco’s best farm finds like artichokes or ribbon-thin lemon rounds. 

Another cult favorite is Nelson’s Meat + Fish. A former fish importer, Chris Nelson now taps his far-flung fishing connections to hook up his own seafood shop with impossibly fresh finds. Here, the oyster stews, salmon banh mi, and crudos are life-giving. Nelson also builds omakase-style seafood towers. Stand and eat at the small communal table within sight of the iced display case, or at The Wandering Tortoise, the beer bar next door. 

Glimpse into a vibrant art scene

On the west end of Roosevelt Street, 10 minutes from Nelson’s, Xico Gallery showcases a wide range of pieces by mostly local and contemporary Latino and Indigenous artists. Work is displayed simply, in an old, high-ceilinged building. It’s free, unstuffy, and usually uncrowded. 

Check out the gallery’s schedule. There are some cool opportunities to meet the artists. And if you want to learn something new, take a class in a subject like lithography or printmaking. Know, too, that Xico neighbors Barcoa—a multistory bar with a drink menu that goes well beyond agave, orbiting around a vast range of Mexican spirits. 

For dinner, electric Sonoran or soulful Thai cooking

If there’s one absolute must-visit restaurant in Phoenix, it’s Bacanora on Grand Avenue. Rene Andrade’s tight 36-seat restaurant, one of Bon Appétit’s 50 Best New Restaurants of 2022, is housed in a former pie factory. It’s pure Sonoran-style magic. Smoke pours from the corner grill, where just about everything on the cooked portion of the menu spends time—fish collars, tomahawk rib eyes, pinto beans, beautifully chewy and fragrant flour tortillas. Andrade’s dishes channel the soul of his native Sonora, all while getting creative and completely turning away from expectations. Ridiculously charred cauliflower cuts the ash with crema and heat. Bone marrow boosts elote. Plump mussels soak up birria broth. Piñatas dangle above tables, everything tinged with the heat of wild chiltepin peppers. 

On downtown’s other side, a five minute drive from Bacanora, Lom Wong operates with a similar soulfulness. Alex and Yotaka Martin cook regional Thai food, most notably dishes from the Indigenous Moklen people of the coasts and islands. They pound nam prik, make their own coconut milk, roll their own noodles, and shape sai ua sausage which is sizzled to smoky glory over charcoal. Lom Wong has a thoughtful natural wine list and a deep, surprising cocktail program inspired by the bars of Thailand. Start your meal with a pina colada with tom yum syrup and finish with a Mr. Baan’s Medicine, the Scotch base expertly balanced with galangal honey and house-made bitters.

Seize the night with an immersive cocktail journey

To cap off your night, take a “ride” on Century Grand Platform 18. With the consultation of Disney Imagineers, this narrow bar has been designed to look and feel like a presidential train car from the 1920s. “Windows” (actually TVs) even show seated “riders” a passing mountainous landscape. You need a reservation at least a few days ahead to get a seat, but it’s worth it. Owners Jason Asher and Rich Furnari match style with substance. Their forward-looking cocktails often use unlikely ingredients (kefir, lapsang souchong), savvy methods (split-spirit bases), and deep cocktail history (1800s-style milk punches). Much like this slice of the desert, your 90-minute ride will feel like a dream.