Six Tucson restaurants including one that has been open just over a year landed on Yelp’s 2025 Top 100 Places to Eat in America, a list that Tucson vegan Mexican restaurant Tumerico topped last year.
Tumerico did not make this year’s list, which named Los Angeles seafood restaurant Holbox the No. 1. spot. Scottsdale’s Middle Eastern restaurant De Babel was the highest ranking Arizona restaurant, coming in at No. 3, and was the only Phoenix-area restaurant to make the cut.
Gerard Meurer puts the finishing touch on an order at Baja Cafe in December. His restaurant came in at No. 34 on Yelp's Top 100 Places to Eat in 2025.
Tucson’s Baja Cafe at 7002 E. Broadway and 2970 N. Campbell Ave. was the first Tucson restaurant on the 2025 list, coming in at No. 34. Buendia Breakfast & Lunch Cafe, 2530 N. First Ave., landed at No. 38, followed by Tito & Pep, 4122 E. Speedway, at 56; Penelope Pizza, 800 N. Kolb Road, at 65; and The Parish, 6453 N. Oracle Road, at 69.
The big surprise on the list was Tucson’s innovative, upscale La Frida Mexican Grill & Seafood, which has only been open since December 2023, located at 7230 E. 22nd St.
La Frida broke the Top 50 at No. 41, likely driven by Yelp reviews that praised its unique twists on classic Mexican specialties including Aguachile de Ribeye, a dish normally centered on shrimp.
“A lot of the things we come up with is from our chef Saul Diaz, who’s from Mexico,” General Manager Jesus Arana said, describing a recent Diaz creation — cheese ceviche with cucumber, green tomato and onions — that was hit with diners.
Arana’s mother, Claudia Vindiola, opened La Frida, which draws inspiration from her family’s restaurant in her native Magdalena, Mexico, and from dishes she has experienced throughout Mexico. The molé Magdelena, a complex sauce that employs 37 ingredients, takes its cues from Oaxaca while seafood dishes are inspired by meals Vindiola had in Baja California.
Diaz plates every dish with precision and an emphasis on beauty, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by diners posting Yelp reviews.
“We try to put a lot of new innovative twists in our food as far as presentation and stepping out of the box,” said Arana, giving a lot of the menu’s credit to Chef Diaz, who he said “is the hands and my mom is the brains.”
A mural of Frida Kahlo looks over the dining room of La Frida Mexican Grill & Seafood, 7230 E. 22nd St.
La Frida’s marked its one-year anniversary by recently expanding, growing from 48 seats to 84 after knocking down a wall in the dining room. But Arana said there are still wait times.
“Sometimes people wait 45 minutes to three hours, and they don’t leave,” he said.
The six Tucson restaurants on this year’s Yelp list is two more than we had last year. Baja Cafe was No. 50 last year and Buendia was 39.
De Babel’s ascent to the Top 5 comes a year after landing at No. 12, leading two other Phoenix-area eateries that made the 2024 cut: Worth Takeaway in Mesa at No. 36 and Cocina Madrigal in Phoenix — the 2022 No. 1 pick — at No. 36.
Yelp compiles its annual list from reviews and overall ratings, including the volume of reviews and how many times users suggest a restaurant to other users, according to Yelp’s posted methodology.
The 2025 Yelp list was initially set to be released in January, but the crowd-sourced site delayed it a month due to the devastating Los Angeles-area wildfires. Holbox, a Michelin-starred restaurant in LA’s Mercado La Paloma food hall and retail center, provided meals to first responders and evacuees of the wildfires.
Chef Jael Garcia pours a fragrant green sauce over the breakfast stuffed poblano at Buendia restaurant, which landed at No. 38 on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in 2025.
