Phoenix Food Guide: Best Places to Eat and Drink in Phoenix, Scottsdale & Mesa

This post may contain affiliate links wherein I earn a small commission if you purchase or subscribe to a product from one of my links (at no extra cost to you!). Read my full Privacy Policy here.

---

The Greater Phoenix Area is such a fun foodie destination! From hopping brunch spots and taco joints to restaurants with Southwest flare, Phoenix is a culinary mecca waiting to be explored. After multiple trips to Phoenix and surrounding cities, I’ve put together this Phoenix Food Guide with a list of recommended restaurants that I think are worth a visit in the area!

This Phoenix Food Guide also includes recommendations in the nearby cities of Scottsdale and Mesa, which we also frequent when we are in the area.

And because most of us love a good drink or two, I’ve listed out some great spots to grab a drink, including local breweries, a wine bar, and a cidery! Enjoy!

Best Brunch Spots in Phoenix

I love hunting for brunch in different cities, and Phoenix has no shortage of great brunch restaurants! I have a whole post with more details and photos from my favorite brunch spots here, but here’s a rundown on my top picks.

You cannot go wrong with their biscuit (yes, just one sadly) and gravy made with a Sonoran wheat biscuit, red chili sausage gravy, and a duck egg.

The churro waffle is also divine and nearly sinful, topped with dulce de leche, mesquite chai spice, and whipped cream. A truly unique menu exists here and foodies should definitely add this to their lists!

Their Smoked Brisket and Parmesan Polenta is another killer dish, which comes with a fried egg and crispy onions. Top it off with a Bloody Mary, and you’ve got yourself a satisfying brunch.

Octotillo is also open for lunch and dinner, and they have a lovely outdoor space/beer garden to enjoy your good eats!

I highly recommend both the chilaquiles with chorizo and the breakfast wrap (also with chorizo)! Their chai latte is also a winner, and they even have their own tasty house-made hot sauce.

Don’t be afraid of the line at Fàme Caffe. They move customers through rather quickly and the food comes out lightning fast once ordered!

Their Carnitas Hash and Huevos Rancheros Hash are both great brunch options and be forewarned – the portion sizes are gigantic! I recommend sharing a hash dish between two people, especially if you are filling up at the Bloody Mary Bar. They are also famous for their cannoli donuts, which we didn’t try but can’t wait to next time.

Start with a spicy Bloody Mary and then make your way through a plate of their shrimp & grits. This savory brunch dish is made with kalamata olives, capers, white wine, anchovies, Calabrian chili, and a sprinkle of greens. Direct words from my husband: “this is the best rendition of shrimp and grits I’ve ever had.”

Other dishes I’m personally eyeing: a French omelette with buttered king crab, their giant cinnamon roll with candied pistachios, and a lil caviar bump with a glass of bubbles!

Breakfast Club

Website | Multiple locations

With three locations in the greater Phoenix area, if you’re craving biscuits and gravy, Breakfast Club is where you’ll want to satisfy that!

Their creamy gravy is loaded with chunks of sage and fennel sausage and served over fluffy jalapeno cheddar biscuits with a side of house-made hot sauce, potatoes O’Brien, and eggs of your choice. This is a hearty and delicious meal to fuel you for an entire day!

Best Lunch/Dinner Spots in Phoenix

This list of lunch and dinner spots in the greater Phoenix area barely scratches the surface. There are just too many good options spread across multiple cities! Here are some of my favorites.

Starting with the best – Vecina’s short rib and white bean puree is a dish I could eat every single visit! This savory appetizer is packed with bold flavors and served with probably the best flour tortilla I have had in my life. Don’t skip this one.

Equally impressive is their papas verde with chorizo with green tomatillo sauce and the gambas al ajillo – a shrimp dish that comes in a very close second place to the short rib. The tlayuda is also very good, served tostada-style with well-seasoned beans and smoked green chile pork.

Everything here is incredibly flavorful and I can’t wait to try every item on the menu! Wash all the deliciousness down with a spicy marg or one of their refreshing seasonal cocktails!

Vecina is only open for happy hour and dinner and they will fill up fast. If you don’t have a reservation, try to pop in at opening to snag a seat!

The Steam Buns are a great appetizer to start off with – our favorites being the Korean Fried Chicken and Pork Belly. Clever Koi’s dumplings are also must in my opinion. Both the Pig Face and Braised Short Rib dumplings are amazing and complex in flavor. We did slightly favor the Pig Face dumplings which come with their insanely good kimchi (so much so that we made a double order!).

I also recommend getting the XO Noodles. It’s hard to go wrong with a good noodle dish, and these are on HH special!

Really what drew me here was their soft serve and prickly pear is a must-try flavor profile when you’re visiting the Sonoran desert. It’s thick, creamy, and absolutely refreshing on a warm spring or summer day! The prickly pear lemonade is also a good choice.

Burrito-wise, we had the pulled pork loco style, which comes with elote, Fritos, hot sauce (which actually has some good heat to it), cilantro, cheese, and tomatillo crema. It’s hearty, delicious, and the tortilla itself is pretty stellar. And if you’re extra into elote, the brisket bowl is pretty tasty too.

I’d suggest visiting Topo before or after a nearby spring training game in Mesa. It can get pretty busy here though, especially as the day goes on. People line up to get that cool soft serve in the heat and to get a peek of this iconic gopher-topped building!

For meat lovers, the Carne Adovada is an excellent choice, stuffed with New Mexican style pork red chili stew, Mexican rice, hatch chilis, and cheddar cheese. Nothing short of a flavor bomb here!

For veggie lovers, the Veggie Mexican is a savory winner – filled with vegetarian Quorn “beef” crumbles, eggs, cheddar cheese, potato, and hatch chilis. It was also super tasty with that flaky crust! Comfort at it’s finest.

Other great items here are their crispy fried chicken wings, lemonfish crudo, and lemongrass and hibiscus crème brulées (the last of which were complimentary since they were out of a few dishes when we visited).

A return visit in the near future is very necessary – I can’t wait to try their Naem Khao crispy rice salad (similar to Lao nam khao – one of my all-time favorite dishes) and their whole-fried branzino.

Fry Bread is a staple in Indigenous North American cuisine from the Navajo and other tribes (in the case of Fry Bread House, the Tohono O’odham people). It’s a simple flatbread that’s fried, fluffy and delicious, born out of necessity back in the 1800s for survival.

This restaurant is probably the most popular in the Phoenix area for fry bread – we got there right at opening at 11:00 a.m. on a Monday and the restaurant filled up quickly!

So far, we’ve had the “Indian” taco ultimate style, filled with beans, green chile beef, lettuce, sour cream, and cheese. The fry bread itself is excellent, but if I had a do-over, I’d opt for the meat taco without the beans to get more of the meat flavors.

Some Extra Notes:

• Because of their James Beard distinction, prices are a little higher than other fry bread spots you might find in the area.
• Indoor seating is limited, but they do have patio seating out front as well.
• Try their special drinks when available! We had a delicious blackberry orange lemonade.

Gadzooks also serves enchiladas, soups, and nachos, all built the way you want – sort of Chipotle style.

My introduction to Chompies came at one of the A’s spring training games where we had their famous sliders and a warm potato knish. Everything was so tasty, and I often dream about going back to Phoenix just to get a few orders of their fluffy and flavorful knishes!

Best Places to Grab a Drink

Their cozy taproom, built in a converted bungalow house, is just a nice chill spot to hang out and they have outdoor patio seating out back for when the weather is nice!

If you’re a fan of sours, I recommend getting a pour of their Imaginary Penguin Kettle Sour – it was our favorite beer on our last visit there!

---

I hope this Phoenix food guide gave you some good ideas and inspiration on where to eat in drink in the Greater Phoenix area! Do you have any recommendations on where we should chow down next? Drop me a note in the comments!