When Did Phoenix Emerge as a Premier American Food City?

What defines a top-tier modern food city in the U.S.? During my nearly five-year journey as Dinogo’s national food critic, this question frequently surfaced in my mind. Essential factors include a city’s dining scene with exceptional and diverse restaurants at every level, top-notch grocers, farmers markets, and specialized shops (like those for coffee, ice cream, wine, bread, and pastries). A thriving food culture should honor culinary traditions while also fostering innovation. Additionally, a city’s unique character should reflect a deep respect for both established and emerging communities.

During my travels, I began to think that greatness might be captured by the Long Weekend Theory. The idea is simple: In any major American city with a vibrant cultural scene, you should be able to enjoy excellent food and drinks consistently over a three-day weekend.

For instance, you might start your Friday at a quirky cocktail bar, enjoy the city’s top dining spots with a mix of trendy restaurants, high-end splurges, and hidden gems serving regional cuisines from Mexico, Thailand, or Syria. Indulge in creative sandwiches, savor desserts at a pie shop or an ice cream parlor with unique flavors, and end the weekend with a memorable breakfast at the best brunch spot in town.

So, the ultimate test of a great food city is whether you could keep enjoying its culinary delights even beyond the perfect Monday-morning breakfast.

In a city with average dining options, a noticeable decline in quality and appeal becomes apparent. Overhyped restaurants often fail to impress, and establishments offering similar cuisines tend to have redundant menus. A truly exceptional food city goes beyond the standard long-weekend experience. It boasts Mytouries that each present their own unique take on the special something that makes dining out a profound pleasure.

While it's unrealistic to expect every meal at every restaurant to be extraordinary, a remarkable dining city has enough distinctive restaurants with meticulous attention to detail that the selection goes beyond just a handful of standout places.

Our largest and most aesthetically impressive cities (New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, and New Orleans) easily pass this test, as do notable smaller urban centers with acclaimed food scenes, such as Austin, Charleston, and Portland, Maine.

But what about a city like Phoenix? As the fifth-largest city in the U.S. by population, and including neighboring cities like Scottsdale and Chandler, it ranks as the 11th-largest metropolitan area in the country. Despite its size, Phoenix’s dining scene often flies under the national radar. The city is sometimes perceived as an unremarkable expanse filled with average dining options, many of which are chain restaurants. Local publications recognize its reputation as a culinary desert.

National recognition for Phoenix does occasionally emerge. Esteemed local chefs like Kevin Binkley, known for his tasting menu at Binkley’s, and Silvana Salcido Esparza, celebrated for her Barrio Café and exquisite chiles en nogada, regularly earn James Beard semifinalist nods. Chris Bianco, the renowned pizzaiolo behind Pizzeria Bianco, stands as Phoenix’s most prominent culinary figure. On a national scale, however, that’s about all the recognition Phoenix receives.

I must confess to having mostly overlooked Phoenix during my tenure with Dinogo. I visited once in those five years, conducting a brief survey of the city—mainly to cover a story about Bianco and the expansion of his pizza empire since my first taste of it in the 1990s. When the Association of Food Journalists held its annual conference in Phoenix last September, I didn’t attend, but the few colleagues I informally interviewed about their dining experiences were not overly impressed.

Nevertheless, I wondered if there were hidden gems in Phoenix. With Latino residents making up 41 percent of the population, I suspected there might be exceptional dishes reflecting the culinary traditions of neighboring Sonora. Arizona's $23.3 billion ranching and agriculture industry and its unique climate suggest special growing cycles: I noted asparagus in peak season during my visit in February. What other chefs were aligning with Arizona’s seasonal rhythms, and how were they showcasing this? Dominic Armato of the Arizona Republic recently compiled a list of his 100 favorite metro-area restaurants. His diverse selection of curries, tacos, tasting menus, biscuit sandwiches, and inventive dishes hints at a vibrant local dining scene.

So, in October, I returned to Phoenix to see if the Valley (as the metro area is known) could meet—or exceed—the long-weekend test. I spent a week exploring the city’s dining scene as thoroughly and swiftly as possible. While a week is hardly sufficient to fully grasp a city’s food culture, I hoped it would be enough to determine if there were hidden culinary treasures we might have been missing—or not.

Dinner at Tratto, a stylish Mytoury with soothing white walls and oak accents in the Town & Country shopping center, started with chicken livers spread on exquisitely charred toast. The sweet-sour plum jam provided a perfect counterpoint to the livers, with chunks of fruit infused with lemon verbena. Next, wide-rigatoni pasta arrived, coated in a light guinea hen ragu that felt perfectly suited for a warm Arizona autumn evening.

Adjacent to my favorite Pizzeria Bianco branch, Tratto is the restaurant I most enthusiastically recommend to anyone visiting Phoenix currently. Its refined cuisine, emphasis on exceptional ingredients, and generous spirit place it among the top modern Italian restaurants in the country.

My colleague and I ended up sharing pork chops with apples and a side of garlicky oyster mushrooms with a nearby table of four; this was our sixth meal of the day. We were guided to a bottle of Klinec Medana Jakot, a distinctive Slovenian wine with an orange hue and citrus-blossom notes. This wine accompanied us through to the end, a simple yet perfect wedge of custardy lemon tart.

Since opening in 2016, Tratto has garnered rave reviews from local critics. Why hasn’t it received more national attention? As someone who curates best-new-restaurant lists, I’ll admit to my own bias: Chris Bianco owns Tratto, and I initially felt he didn’t need more recognition. Yet, Bianco is now as much a restaurateur and mentor as he is a chef. At Tratto, he shares the limelight with an energetic team led by chef Cassie Shortino, pastry chef Olivia Girard, and beverage director Blaise Faber, who handle the day-to-day operations.

Bianco transitions to a more advisory role at Roland’s Cafe Market Bar, a new all-day dining spot he co-founded last year with Armando Hernandez (a former Bianco colleague), Seth Sulka, and Nadia Holguin. In my long-weekend itinerary for Phoenix, Tratto sets the stage for Friday night, while Roland’s wraps up the experience on Monday morning. Hernandez and Holguin, a married couple, also own the three-year-old Tacos Chiwas on McDowell Road, a stalwart of classic Mexican fare northeast of downtown. The name “Chiwas” pays homage to their roots in the northern border state of Chihuahua. While the tacos and burritos at Chiwas are commendable, the gorditas — large wheat-flour pockets stuffed with deshebrada roja (shredded beef in red chile sauce) — truly capture the spotlight.

Roland’s presents an invigorating and unique blend of Mexican cuisine with Italian influences. An open-faced quesadilla adorned with mortadella and asadero cheese serves as a nod to Bianco, whose company supplies the organic Sonoran wheat flour for the tortillas. However, the real star here is Holguin, showcasing la cocina norteña (northern Mexican cooking influenced by its desert and Gulf of California surroundings), reflecting her heritage and culinary training.

Apart from the remarkable quesadillas, which rightly feature prominently on all menus, the entomatadas demonstrate Holguin’s skillful manipulation of textures: layered corn tortillas crisped and drenched in a chile-spiked tomato sauce, melded with melting asadero cheese, and topped with a fried egg. Alongside the meticulously crafted empanadas filled with cabeza (beef head meat), request a selection of vibrant salsas that aren’t automatically served. As the spiritual birthplace of the burrito, Chihuahua inspires Holguin’s compelling version, featuring pork bathed in rich, garlicky chile colorado.

Dining at Roland’s, whether for breakfast or lunch, provides a fitting end to a long-weekend adventure, perfectly representing la cocina norteña. This is a chef poised for national recognition. If, in a decade, Phoenix becomes renowned for chefs who creatively uphold and reinterpret northern Mexican cuisines, Roland’s will likely be seen as a key milestone in that journey.

Before dining at Roland’s, explore the Phoenix metro area for some authentic Sonoran and Chihuahuan cuisine to truly appreciate a lesser-known facet of the city's culinary scene. My Saturday began with the rich, wheat-flour gorditas at Tacos Chiwas. I then visited the original Carolina’s Mexican Food, not far from downtown, where sunlight filtered through narrow windows, casting a delicate snow-like glow on the flour-dusted interior. Carolina’s also operates as a tortilla factory. I enjoyed a straightforward yet fiery burrito filled with scrambled eggs and machaca—a Sonoran classic of dried, rehydrated beef, shredded and often mixed with other ingredients.

While Carolina’s offers a charming atmosphere, El Horseshoe Restaurant, located on an industrial stretch west of downtown, is the ideal spot for experiencing homemade machaca for breakfast. The Avitia family here sautés it with potatoes, eggs, and onions, infusing the dish with a deep beef flavor, complemented by sides of rice, beans, and a freshly made tortilla. From the Sonoran desert to the Gulf of California's eastern coast, Horseshoe also serves a revitalizing cahuamanta—a traditional brothy stew featuring shrimp and tender chunks of manta ray.

For a deeper dive into regional seafood, I visited El Rey de Los Ostiones, a seafood market situated in a low-rise strip mall northwest of downtown. The bilingual staff attentively inquired about my preferences, ultimately preparing custom aguachiles and ceviches brimming with shrimp and oysters, alongside various hot sauces and condiments to adjust the flavor. A short 10-minute drive from El Rey led me to Ta’Carbon, my favorite taco spot of the trip, renowned for its carne asada and other grilled meats like lengua and cabeza, all cooked over mesquite.

Before the afternoon wrapped up, I strayed from the Sonoran path to sample a different kind of ‘taco’: a warm, crispy flatbread brimming with green chile beef, refried beans, and cheese at Fry Bread House, a cherished Phoenix landmark established in 1992 by Cecelia Miller of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Across the country, and particularly in the Southwest, restaurants specializing in American Indian cuisine are disappointingly rare. Kai, located at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass, offers a sophisticated dining experience with dishes that nod to Native American ingredients like indigenous seeds and beans. However, it largely fits the mold of a contemporary American splurge restaurant.

Kai’s standout dish, the grilled buffalo tenderloin, is accompanied by nostalgic sides like smoked corn puree, cholla cactus buds, and a light chile made from scarlet runner beans and chorizo, finished with saguaro blossom syrup. Priced at $58, the meal’s picturesque setting with the sun setting behind the mountains is breathtaking. For a more consistently remarkable splurge, I’d recommend Binkley’s immersive tasting menu or Silvana Salcido Esparza’s Barrio Café Gran Reserva, known for its pan-seared corvina with rose pepper mole and smoky morita chile salsa, and her exceptional chiles en nogada.

On Sunday, I needed a pick-me-up after Saturday’s exhaustive itinerary. A finely crafted macchiato and pour-over at Giant Coffee revived me. My first stop was Little Miss BBQ, where pit master Scott Holmes has elevated Phoenix’s barbecue scene with his intensely blackened brisket, reminiscent of Austin’s renowned Franklin Barbecue. The smoked pecan pie was a delightful finishing touch.

The second lunch, suggested by local food-writer friends, turned out to be the highlight of the trip. Alzohour Market was just as I had been told. Owner Zhor Saad personally takes orders and crafts the Moroccan specialties. As I waited for the bastilla, a sweet-savory delicacy traditionally made with spiced pigeon and roasted almonds wrapped in phyllo, I explored the adjacent shop filled with clothing, candies, and curios. Saad’s bastilla, which featured shredded chicken instead of pigeon, was among the finest I’ve tasted in America. Her lamb tagine was nearly as impressive.

Charleen Badman, the chef and owner of FnB, frequently makes appearances on James Beard semifinalist lists. Her restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale offered me the most authentic glimpse into Arizona’s seasonal produce. Salads of persimmon and pistachio, little gem lettuce with pears, plums, and pecans, and rice-stuffed squash blossoms with a summer squash shakshuka were highlights. Badman’s cooking grounds you in the local landscape while incorporating global influences, such as the exceptional lamb manti (Turkish dumplings) with yogurt, pine nuts, and urfa chile. This dish paired beautifully with a remarkable syrah from Rune Wines, a standout in Arizona’s evolving wine scene.

As I finished the last morsels of huckleberry-lemon sponge cake with fig-leaf ice cream, I reflected that in a city with a more polished dining reputation, Badman and FnB would surely be showered with accolades. Had I headed straight to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport right after this meal, I would have left on a high note, completely satisfied.

For those who don’t eat their way through a city like a food critic on a research mission, I’ve covered enough to fill a long weekend in Phoenix. (And to add to the Long Weekend Theory itinerary: For a pre-dinner drink on Friday night, check out Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour, located in a building that once housed the Arizona Prohibition Headquarters. For a second breakfast, Matt’s Big Breakfast is a local favorite epitomizing American fare.)

As I continued exploring, the journey had its highs and lows. One standout was Pa’La, where Claudio Urciuoli’s chalkboard menu highlights an exceptional, customizable grain bowl. However, some newer spots didn’t live up to their buzz. At Cotton & Copper in Tempe, my experience was marred by oddly gritty corn dumplings in parmesan cream and carpaccio with citrus segments and chewy cheese. Similarly, Ghost Ranch in Chandler promised a “modern Southwest cuisine” that felt undefined, with a sampler platter and bland grilled chicken failing to impress.

Despite a few missteps, my impression of Phoenix was overwhelmingly positive. I knew there were still untried treasures, like dim sum at Mekong Palace Restaurant in Mesa, other pizzerias influenced by Bianco, and the esteemed Rancho Pinot. Even after a week of intensive dining, it’s clear that Phoenix deserves recognition beyond its reputation as a snowbird haven. It’s time for more national food writers to explore the city’s culinary scene. Is Phoenix’s food culture as robust as Houston’s? Not yet, but a few days of delicious exploration reveal it’s far more dynamic than many realize.

Where to Eat in Phoenix

Binkley’s 2320 E. Osborn Rd., Phoenix; 602-388-4874Barrio Café 2814 N. 16 St., Phoenix; 602-636-0240Pizzeria Bianco 4743 N. 20th St., Phoenix; 602-368-3273 (multiple locations)Tratto 4743 N. 20th St., Phoenix; 602-296-7761Roland’s Cafe Market Bar 1505 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix; 602-441-4749Tacos Chiwas 1923 E. McDowell Rd., Phoenix; 602-358-8830Carolina’s Mexican Food 1202 E. Mohave St., Phoenix; 602-252-1503 (multiple locations)El Horseshoe Restaurant 2140 W. Buckeye Rd., Phoenix; 602-251-3135; no websiteEl Rey de Los Ostiones 4141 N. 35th Ave., Phoenix; 602-628-1945; no websiteTa’Carbon 2929 N. 43rd Ave., Phoenix; 602-682-7701 (multiple locations)Fry Bread House 4545 N. 7th Ave., Phoenix; 602-351-2345; no websiteKai Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass, 5594 Wild Horse Pass Blvd., Phoenix; 602-385-5777Barrio Café Gran Reserva 1301 W. Grand Ave., Phoenix; 602-252-2777Giant Coffee 1437 N. 1st St., Phoenix; 602-396-7215Little Miss BBQ 4301 E. University Dr., Phoenix; 602-437-1177 (multiple locations)Alzohour Market 7814 N. 27th Ave., Phoenix; 602-433-5191; no websiteFnB 7125 E. 5th Ave. Suite 31, Scottsdale; 480-284-4777Bitter & Twisted Cocktail Parlour 1 W. Jefferson, Phoenix; 602-340-1924 Matt’s Big Breakfast 825 N. 1st St., Phoenix; 602-254-1074 (multiple locations)Pa’La 2107 N. 24th St., Phoenix; 602-795-9500Cotton & Copper 1006 E. Warner Rd. #113, Tempe; 480-629-4270Ghost Ranch 1006 E. Warner Rd., #102-103, Tempe; 480-474-4328Mekong Palace Restaurant Mekong Plaza, 66 S. Dobson Rd. Suite 120, Mesa; 480-962-0493Rancho Pinot 6208 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale; 480-367-8030

Bill Addison is a food critic for the Los Angeles Times; he was Dinogo’s roving national critic for nearly five years until November 2018.Fact checked by Pearly HuangCopy edited by Rachel P. Kreiter