Iโm a die-hard Tucsonan. While I would never live in Phoenix, I acknowledge that Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country. More people means more of everything: traffic, sprawl, chain restaurants, yes, but also a bigger airport and concert venues, and more food options. As Tucsonans, we have the option to take advantage of these resources on a weekend trip โ and then we get to come home.
So I teamed up with Andi Berlin, the dining critic at the Arizona Republic โ and the former food writer for #ThisIsTucson โ to get her best, most helpful food recommendations for Tucsonans visiting Phoenix.
So youโre going to Phoenixโฆ
Andi has spent half her life in Phoenix, and half in Tucson (with a brief stint in California). She knows Phoenix on an intimate level, and gave me the most general of generalizations to help me understand the layout of the cityโs food scene.
East Valley: โChandler, Mesa, not as much Gilbert โฆ are great. They have an incredible Asian food scene,โ Andi said. โThey have a lot of big Asian markets, Korean markets, Chinese markets, Vietnamese markets. Theyโve got Lee Leeโs. Theyโve got Mekong Plaza, which is an entire mall of Asian stuff, right?
โSo if you want Asian food, thatโs the place to go, I would say โฆ You have any kind of Chinese food represented. Youโve got northern Chinese, youโve got Shanxi. Youโve got Szechuan food, youโve got all kinds of noodles,โ she said.
Andi loves dim sum and is aware we are short of options in Tucson.
โIโd say go to Phoenix Palace over by Lee Leeโs in Chandler. Then thereโs Leeโs Sandwiches. Itโs a chain, itโs bรกnh mรฌ, I love it. I love going there. Thatโs the first place Iโd go if I was coming from Tucson,โ Andi said.
Tempe: โI would say if you're looking for Middle Eastern food and Indian food, [itโs] in Tempe, closer to ASU,โ she said. A favorite of hers, Golden Bakery, makes their own breads, different dips and spreads. You can get flatbread with zaโatar, mint lemonade, and pide โ a flatbread shaped like a boat and filled with cheese and egg or honey.
North Phoenix: โThatโs actually a really good area for Eastern European food. Bosnian, Polish, Eastern European, Balkan cuisine. Cafe Balkan, oh my gosh that was incredible. Itโs similar to Alisahโs (in Tucson),โ Andi said.
โIโd definitely recommend seeking out a Balkan restaurant. It kind of tastes like Eastern European, but itโs in between Turkey and the Middle East and was colonized by the Ottoman Empire. They have stuffed cabbage thatโs different than a New York deli stuffed cabbage and a bean soup called pasulj,โ she said. Cafe Balkan also has borek, which is like a more refined spanakopita.
West Valley: โGlendale is really good for Mexican food. And also Cuban food is out in Maryvale โฆ Thatโs a big generalization but thatโs a great place to go,โ Andi said.
She explained that what makes Phoenixโs Mexican scene different is that they represent regions from across the country, rather than specializing in Sonoran food like we do in Tucson.
If you want Mexico City food, she recommends Los Reyes de la Torta, a CDMX-style sandwich shop.
โI found a strip mall in Glendale thatโs a tour of Mexican food, in downtown Glendale. Inside this one strip mall youโve got food from Jalisco, from Mexico City, Michoacan, a Sinaloan mariscos spot. You could do a tour in just that little strip,โ she said.
โPhoenix has kept me busy, and really excited. Iโm writing about an Ethiopian restaurant right now thatโs really incredible. Thereโs so much to explore,โ she said.
Here are her quick picks sorted by occasion:
โฆ youโre going for a concert
โDragon Flame Chinese Grill,โ Andi said. โI did this when I was living in Tucson. The concert got out at 11, and I went there because itโs open really late. It closes at 2 a.m. and has northern Chinese skewers and kabobs. Wow! It has weird balloons, stuffed animal things all over. A funky, weird restaurant. Itโs really delicious and fun for late-night eating before you go back home. Thatโs my No. 1 pick.โ
But if youโre looking to keep the party going, Andi recommends you check out a Korean pub called Drunken Tiger.
โThat place is really good,โ she said. โThey have this egg โ Korean fried chicken, Korean egg souffle that puffs up. Itโs open late. Theyโve got soju and soju cocktails. That place is awesome. Syrupy fried chicken, popcorn chicken, cheese corn (she laughs), itโs pretty good.โ
โฆ youโre going to the airport
โOver by the airport is Little Miss BBQ, which is a famous Phoenix place โฆ itโs one of the most popular Phoenix places, so Iโd recommend that,โ Andi said.
โฆ youโre going to the Musical Instrument Museum
โCafe Balkan is a 10-minute drive down the highway. Itโs also right by Desert Ridge, which is kind of an outdoor mall. Thereโs an incredible fancy Korean BBQ place called Sizzle. Thatโs a little bit nicer, they have better cuts of meat,โ Andi said.
โฆ youโre going to water parks
Since we figured you might be going to water parks with family, Andi racked her brain for kid-friendly eats that are easy to get to from water parks like Great Wolf Lodge.
โIโd just go to White Castle, โcause you canโt go to White Castle in Tucson,โ she said. โIt probably tastes like trash but itโs kinda fun and nostalgic. I donโt want to get too into the chains, but we also have a Shake Shack, which is really good. Jollibee, which is a Filipino fast-food chain way out in South Chandler, but thatโs really good.โ
โIf youโre going to Golfland Sunsplash,โ Andi said, โpeople love to go to Joeโs Farm Grill. The food is pretty good. They have pretty good burgers. Itโs in this weird master planned community โฆ The restaurant is in the center of this subdivision they made to look like a farm.โ
โ[Gilbertโs] got a lot of second locations of popular restaurants downtown,โ Andi said. โTheyโve got a second location of Belly, by the Welcome Diner guy โฆ [it has] Vietnamese, Asian food, trendy, lotta cocktails. Iโd say that. Peixoto, thatโs my favorite coffee place in downtown Chandler, but they have one in Gilbert too. Itโs like the hit list of Phoenix is there.โ
โฆ youโre going for a romantic weekend
โOne place I think would be interesting to Tucsonans is this restaurant called Sottise,โ Andi said. โThat is a date night kind of French restaurant, in an old bungalow that was restored. French small bites food, from a Phoenix chef. Thatโs like if youโre having a fancier night out with cocktails and such, it has a lot of charm to it. You can pop in and have an appetizer or go all out.
โItโs a sleek atmosphere like Penca (in Tucson), but itโs French. Beautiful old building โ everything is perfect. The food is incredible. Itโs classy. Theyโve got snails,โ she said.
When Andi visited, she liked their French onion soup. The showstopper of the evening, though, was their seafood tower, which you can order by the tier.
โYou can order a little shrimp, a little mussel conserva, then they bring it out in a big seafood tower on ice,โ Andi said. โThatโs really fun.โ
Another date night spot is an extremely buzzy, extremely good Sonoran restaurant.
โThereโs a restaurant that makes it on all the โbest ofโ lists. Itโs hard to get into but Iโd consider it one of the best restaurants in the whole state,โ Andi said. โBacanora. Iโm sure youโve heard about it in all the lists.* Itโs hard to get into but itโs earned its place on these lists. The chef is from Nogales. He has this huge mesquite grill that takes up so much space. You have to have a reservation for (it) at night. Itโs an incredible meal.โ
*Bacanora was one of five finalists for Best New Restaurant in this yearโs James Beard Awards and made Bon Appetitโs best 50 restaurants of the year.
โฆ youโre going for a staycation
If youโre looking for an area to explore over the weekend, Andi would point you in the direction of Grand Avenue.
โGrand Avenue is the emerging hipster neighborhood that runs at a right angle to downtown Phoenix,โ she said. Itโs a big street that eventually turns into the AZ-60 to Wickenburg. โYou can walk around Grand Avenue and stuff, with a different scene than Tucson,โ she said.
The part Andiโs talking about is the section closest to downtown, where Bacanora is โ and another one of Andiโs favorite spots, Testal. Testal is a burrito spot in the style of Chihuahua.
โThe owner is from Chihuahua, Mexico, so the burritos are different than what you get in Tucson. Itโs a thinner burrito, puffier, and open on the ends. Instead of carne asada, itโs more stews.
โThe rajas stew is my favorite, but you can get just refried beans, chicharron. Itโs a cute little spot that focuses on the culture of Chihuahua, and their burritos are on the level of the Yuma place. I would travel hundreds of miles for this burrito,โ Andi said.
Andi Berlin is the dining critic at the Arizona Republic. She used to be the food writer for #ThisIsTucson and has been published in the San Francisco Guardian and The New York Times.
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