CITY GUIDES | ARIZONA
The Best Phoenix Restaurants: A Curated Guide to Eating Well in the Desert
Tasting menus, taco counters, and one very good reason to cross town for Thai.
By Rebecca Thompson
Updated Oct. 13, 2026
Tratto
AUTHOR BIO: Rebecca Thompson has held many jobs, from newspaper writer to middle-school teacher. As a restaurant critic, she’s reviewed the Michelin-starred to gas station BBQ.
Work always seems to send me to Phoenix when the sidewalks shimmer and the rental car seat leaves a mark. On my most recent trip, even the air-conditioning in my hotel room gave up one afternoon, like it had finally read the forecast and decided it wasn’t worth the fight. I kept going out anyway, because the best restaurants in Phoenix are worth a triple-digit afternoon: mesquite-roasted meat pulled from a wood-fired oven, or aguachile so bright it does what the iced coffee couldn’t.
Phoenix is a restaurant destination with its own grammar of desert ingredients—chiltepins, mesquite, Sonoran wheat—and a generation of chefs fluent in it. What follows are the 15 restaurants that top my list these days in Phoenix. Wood-fired tasting menus, northern Thai family recipes, natural wine, and a pizza with a national reputation. Places worth sweating for.
Bacanora
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Bacanora hums with mesquite smoke and Sonoran soul, tucked inside the old Bragg’s Pie Factory like it was always meant to be there. Chef René Andrade turns out lime-bright aguachile and hulking bone-in ribeyes that feel more like a challenge than a suggestion. Scoring a reservation takes planning, but the bar’s a good bet—and just maybe where the Cardinals end up after practice.
Best for: A mesquite-fired Sonoran feast worth booking ahead
Bad Jimmy’s
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Bad Jimmy’s is the burger joint you hit after a few too many on Roosevelt Row—tattooed, a little rowdy, and exactly what you need at 10 p.m. The menu doesn’t waste your time: criss-cut fries, a sharp little side salad, and burgers like the L.A. Burg that show someone’s actually paying attention back there. Grab a swirl soft serve on your way out and try not to make eye contact with the bartender while you eat it.
Best for: A late-night smash burger and a swirl soft serve
Chilte
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Chilte is the rare place that actually lives up to the hype—wildly inventive, a little chaotic, and completely original. Chef-owner Lawrence “LT” Smith, a former football player, cooks with chiltepins and nerve: the green chorizo vampiros are a standing signature, and his bone marrow flan has a following of its own. It all unfolds inside the old Egyptian Motor Hotel, now a neon-lit mix of bold flavors and louder vibes.
Best for: Inventive Mexican cooking with a pulse
Christopher's at Wrigley Mansion
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This is where diners go when they’re looking for a certain level of sophistication: a glass-walled modernist space perched above the city, with French tasting menus that match the view. Chef Christopher Gross delivers quiet perfection, from Wagyu sukiyaki to prime steaks, each dish a study in precision rather than performance. Even the servers are chefs, guiding you through a meal that feels personal and deliberate. The mansion itself changed hands in October 2026; the restaurant carries on.
Best for: A special-occasion tasting menu above the city
Glai Baan
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Glai Baan is the kind of place that feels like a secret, even though half of Phoenix is already in on it. Chef Cat Bunnag channels the flavors of her native Isan into dishes like mackerel fried rice and lemongrass-laced mussels that somehow taste like they’ve been simmering in memory. The brick walls, string lights, and Thai-inspired cocktails seal the deal—this is where you go when you want dinner to feel like a discovery.
Best for: A Thai dinner that feels like a discovery
Huarachis Taqueria
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Huarachis is René Andrade's downtown taqueria, the bigger, louder sibling to Bacanora. The name is the order: handmade masa huaraches topped with bistec, served in a pink dining room on Central Avenue that fills up fast. Around them come the Sonoran plates built for a table—the bistec ranchero platter, a pescado taco, papas al disco—and a full bar pouring agave cocktails. It takes reservations and walk-ins both, and the room holds families, first dates, and tables ordering one more platter than they'd planned.
Best for: A downtown group dinner of huaraches and Sonoran platters
Kid Sister
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Kid Sister is the kind of wine bar that ditches the usual cheese board for whatever chef Isaac Mendoza is cooking that season. The menu turns over as the months do, so the playful, sharp small plates from your last visit may be gone by the next—that’s the point. The wine list stays short, smart, and full of chillable bottles that don’t demand a sommelier to decode. It’s the sort of place where you lose track of pours and conversations in equal measure.
Best for: Low-intervention wine and playful small plates
Latha
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Latha feels like the house party you always wished your cooler friend would throw—rum cocktails, live music, and zero pressure to rush, in a historic house at Heritage Square. Founder Evelia Davis and chef-partner Digby Stridiron keep the menu global but grounded: oxtail barbacoa, caipirinhas, and rum punch, with dishes that shift as the seasons do. Even if your friends show up fashionably late, the wait feels like part of the evening.
Best for: A slow night on the porch with rum cocktails and live music
Lom Wong
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Lom Wong feels less like a restaurant and more like you’ve been welcomed into someone’s home—if that someone cooked family recipes from across Thailand and kept a killer wine list. The menu is organized by region, from Chiang Rai in the north to Phang Nga in the south, and co-owner Yotaka Martin won the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest cooking it. The green mango salad is bright and punchy, and the patio’s rigged for year-round lingering. After dinner, slip around back to Mr. Baan’s Bar & Mookata for Thai cocktails and grilled meats—it’s reservation-only, and booked through Lom Wong.
Best for: Thai family cooking from across the country, and a serious wine list
Pa’La
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Pa’La has grown into Phoenix’s most thoughtful restaurant, now with two homes—downtown and on 24th Street—where nearly everything on the menu meets fire before it hits your plate. Chef Jason Alford draws on global coastal traditions, from Japan to the Med to South America, but grounds it all in Arizona produce. While there isn’t a miss on the à la carte menu, the eight-course omakase offers a grand tour of everything that’s great here.
Best for: Wood-fired everything, or the eight-course omakase
Pizzeria Bianco
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Chris Bianco didn’t just elevate pizza in Phoenix—he redefined it, one charred, chewy crust at a time. The original shop might be tiny, but the pies are monumental, with ingredients so obsessively sourced he basically coaxes wheat into becoming flour himself. At the newer Town & Country location, the pizza’s joined by perfect pastas, cacciatore, and a rice pudding that’s somehow nostalgic and grown-up at the same time.
Best for: Charred, chewy pies at a Phoenix original
Pretty Penny
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Pretty Penny is the Roosevelt Row dinner that starts with a complimentary glass of prosecco and gets better from there. The room is small and Art Deco-leaning, the plates are built to share—an octopus tostada, handmade cappelletti, gnocchi with lamb ragu, braised short ribs—and the menu turns over with the seasons, so the table next to yours is a preview of your next visit. The drinks carry half the room: close to 60 wines, and a cocktail list sorted by temperament, from fizzy to stiff. It’s the rare cocktail bar where the kitchen keeps up.
Best for: Date-night cocktails and small plates that keep up
Sottise
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Sottise pulls off something rare in Phoenix: a French restaurant that feels cozy instead of pretentious, like someone’s stylish townhouse got taken over by people who really love butter. That’s close to the actual setup—chef-owner TJ Culp cooks inside the historic 1901 Knipe House on Roosevelt Row, and the wine list runs to roughly 100 bottles focused on classic regions and small producers. It’s the kind of place that rewards lingering—ideally with another glass and zero plans.
Best for: A cozy French dinner that rewards lingering
Taco Chelo
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Taco Chelo nails that sweet spot between neighborhood hangout and tequila-fueled taco binge, with rolled tacos and barbacoa worth elbowing your way to the counter for. It came about from a collaboration between chef Suny Santana, artist Gennaro Garcia, and restaurateur Aaron Chamberlin, who conspired to bring their own flair to the food, the ambiance, and always-on-the-ball service. The original sits on Roosevelt Row, a second location has opened in Tempe, and the move is always to order way too much with a group.
Best for: Rolled tacos, barbacoa, and a group that orders too much
Tratto
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Tratto is Chris Bianco’s more grown-up sibling to his pizza joint—these days it sits right beside it at Town & Country, having moved from its Van Buren room in September 2025. Less sauce on your shirt, more soulful pasta on your plate: chefs de cuisine Jose Alberto Flores and Christa Chase run the kitchen day to day, turning out bucatini cacio e pepe, rigatoni with braised beef and king trumpet mushroom ragu, and delicate mezzelune. If you forgot to book a table, the bar’s your best bet—and honestly, it’s the best seat in the house anyway.
Best for: Soulful pastas and the best seat at the bar
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