ARIZONA | THE WEST

The Best Tempe Restaurants: From Wood-Fired Steaks to Late-Night Tacos

By Rebecca Thompson | Nov. 3, 2025

Filthy Animal

AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs over the years, from daily newspaper writer to middle-school math teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s eaten at everything from the Michelin starred to the stand-up counters in the back of gas stations.

The first time I went to Tempe, I was the villain in the stands — in town for a football game, cheering for the away team (don’t hate me, ASU fans), fully planning to fly in, yell, and leave.

Now I come here for work so often that Tempe’s basically my second home. I generally stay here over Scottsdale, which my expense account won’t allow, or downtown Phoenix, even if Pizzeria Bianco is always pulling me back. The thing is, Tempe feels looser, louder, more fun — part college town chaos, part “we actually live here,” and I like that balance.

Somewhere along the way I started keeping a private list of where I actually want to eat: the mesquite-grilled northern Mexican spot, the late-night pasta-and-cocktails lounge, the taco stand I will defend like family. I wasn’t planning to share it. I’m sharing it.

Here are the Tempe restaurants I’d send you to right now.

Alter Ego

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Alter Ego sits on the ground floor of the Canopy by Hilton Tempe Downtown, and it behaves like the hotel restaurant that refused to act like a hotel restaurant. Chef Ken Arneson’s an Asian-meets-Southwest menu swings from a katsu chicken sandwich to chilaquiles to an Ego Burger with serious heft. The kitchen leans into punchy, crowd-pleaser flavors instead of something polite, which is why you see things like Japanese-style fried chicken next to pear salad and cocktails that drink like they belong in a bar program, not a lobby. Brunch runs on weekends, but the place stays useful all day and into dinner, which makes it an easy call when you have mixed tastes at one table.

Best for: A downtown Tempe meal that actually feels like downtown Tempe

Bar Capri

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From Paul Gillingwater, the owner of Freely Taproom & Kitchen next door, Bar Capri turns the northwest corner of McClintock and Warner into a proper neighborhood Italian, with handmade pastas (Nonna’s lasagna, beef ravioli with mushroom cream and truffle zest) and Noble Bread that hits the table with a trio of butters. Cocktails aren’t an afterthought—think an Oaxacan Negroni, a Gin Sonic, and the showy Jungle Buzz that arrives crowned with salted coconut cream foam. Weekly rituals ($35 Pasta & Wine Tuesdays and Wednesdays; happy hour till 6 p.m.; weekend brunch from 10 to 2) make it as much a habit as a destination.

Best for: A neighborhood Italian cocktails and pasta spot

Cafe Lalibela

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Cafe Lalibela has been serving Ethiopian food in Tempe since the 1990s, long before injera and vegetarian platters showed up on every “must try global eats” list, and it is still the place locals bring out-of-town friends when they want to prove Tempe has depth beyond burgers and burritos. You eat with your hands, tearing off the soft, tangy injera and scooping slow-cooked stews and long-simmered lentils, and the table ends up looking like a geography lesson in comfort. It is the rare veteran restaurant that still feels personal, not automated.

Best for: A shared platter that actually is meant for sharing

Caffe Boa

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Caffe Boa has been on Mill Avenue since 1994, through more ownership changes and concept fads than most restaurants survive, and its thing is still handmade pasta, wild-caught seafood, and a wine list that leans into natural bottles you do not usually see around a college campus. The current owners run it like a neighborhood trattoria with opinions: housemade agnolotti, squid ink linguine stacked with seafood, lasagna that tastes slow-built instead of microwaved, and live jazz on Monday nights. If you are trying to convince someone Mill Ave is not only Fireball shots and chain wings, this is your evidence.

Best for: A pasta-and-wine night on Mill

The Chuckbox

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The Chuckbox is the old-school counter shack on Mill with mesquite-smoked burgers that drip straight through the paper boat, and you do not complain because this is part of the deal. You order at the grill, you watch the patties hit open flame, and you sit at picnic tables like it is still 1972 and Tempe is a college town with dirt parking lots. There is no pretending this is health food; that is not why you are here.

Best for: When all you need is an old-school burger

Cocina Chiwas

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Cocina Chiwas is the flagship from James Beard semifinalists Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin, the couple behind Tacos Chiwas and other Phoenix hits. Here they are plating dishes inspired by their Chihuahuan roots on a mesquite and Santa Maria-style grill Hernandez built himself. The dining room and patio sit inside Culdesac Tempe, the car-free neighborhood, and the menu reads like a greatest-hits playlist of northern Mexican dishes upgraded for now: wood-fired meats, rich stews, and tortillas that taste like someone actually cared. It gets busy on weekend nights, so people treat early reservations here the way they would treat concert tickets.

Best for: Eating serious northern Mexican cooking without leaving Tempe

Crêpe Bar

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Crêpe Bar is chef Jeff Kraus’ daytime spot, born from his food truck and now famous for breakfast and brunch plates that start with French street crêpes and then go desert produce, coffee obsession, and slightly unhinged in the best way. You will see savory crêpes with paprika chicken or soft eggs and sweet ones layered with brûléed banana and Nutella, plus good espresso and the kind of chill, sunlit room where people “meet for coffee” and accidentally stay through lunch. It is very Tempe in that nobody rushes you unless there is a line out the door, which can absolutely happen on weekends.

Best for: Brunch that does not feel like the same old Benedict

The Dhaba

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The Dhaba cooks Punjabi comfort food that tastes like somebody’s auntie is in the back watching over things. You get metal trays loaded with buttery chicken, smoky tandoori, dal that tastes like it has been burbling all day, and naan that lands on the table still hot from the oven. It is an institution for a reason, and it is where Tempe goes when curry is needed.

Best for: A full Punjabi-style spread for not a lot of money

Filthy Animal

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From the Pretty Decent Concepts team, Filthy Animal brings a jungle-toned dining room built around an open wood-fire kitchen on Tempe’s Mill Ave, the kind of space where flames and smoke set the mood before the first plate lands. Chef Rene Vargas’ menu leans shareable and maximal: clover-soft milk bread with miso-tomato butter, wood-fired Napa cabbage with chili-soy plant butter, cheddar-and-kimchi croquettes, pibil beef short-rib dumplings, and big-format steaks coming off the pit. It’s a choose-your-own feast, from seafood and bomba rice to serious meat, with the spectacle of the fire doing half the talking.

Best for: A wood-fire dinner that feels like an event

Ghost Ranch

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Husband and wife team David Mora, the chef, and pastry chef Lisa Graf call their restaurant modern southwestern. The menu reads like a greatest hits playlist of the Sonoran borderlands: cowboy steaks, chicken enchiladas, a red chile pozole, and rancho papas on the side. The margaritas are dialed to match the chile heat, not mute it. There’s no reservations, but consider the wait on weekends paid back with pozole.

Best for: Comfort food with chiles and tequila

Hundred Mile Brewing Co.

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Sue Rigler’s Tempe-born brewery and restaurant pours its own beers steps from the tanks and serves brewpub food that is way beyond pretzel-and-wings territory. The kitchen puts out plates like slow-cooked short rib and proper burgers in a big indoor-outdoor space that works for everything from watching a game to meeting someone’s parents. It feels like the rare production brewery where you would go even if you are not the beer person in the group.

Best for: A beer-and-dinner plan where both parts actually matter

Society

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Society runs like Tempe’s late-night Italian and Mediterranean lounge, with chef Dylan Shortridge sending out whipped feta, hamachi crudo, lobster pappardelle, and filet with smoked blue cheese until well past midnight. The bar is a long slab of glowing stone, the booths are plush, and they are still serving a full dinner menu at one-thirty in the morning while most of the city is arguing over drive-thru. If you want an upscale plate and an actual cocktail after 10 p.m., this is where you land.

Best for: A proper late-night dinner that is not fries in a paper bag