Tucson's 10 best new dishes of 2015
- Updated
Digital food writer Andi Berlin rounds up her favorite bites from new restaurants.Β
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
East-coast native Michael RudnerΒ filled a hole in Tucson's empty bagel scene when he opened The Bagel Joint over the summer. From his little shop on Oracle and Ina roads, he sells several varieties of fresh-baked bagels, bagged up 14-strong in a "Boston dozen" and in some solid breakfast sandwiches with eggs and sausage. Since I've got my bagel routine perfectly boiled down, this is what I suggest: an everything bagel with sliced tomatoes and a fistful of fatty lox, plus veggie cream cheese on both sides so you can take it apart and eat it piece by piece. The bagels are classic New York: Rough around the edges, but soft and doughy on the inside. Just like momma used to buy! 7315 N. Oracle Road, 520-329-8630
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
You won't find any ramen burgers or Vietnamese burritos at this campus-area food truck. But there is one culinary mashup thatΒ Nghia TranΒ does do, and boy does he do it well ... Tran is fromΒ Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and he makes a banh mi sandwich like nobody's business. Since he opened his Nhu Lan Vietnamese Food Truck in February, he's drawn a devoted following for his legendary Banh Mi Dac Biet, a soft baguette from La Baguette Parisienne bakery stuffed with three types of pork plus the quintessential Vietnamese garnish of cucumber, cilantro and jalapeΓ±o. Unfussy, yet incredibly fresh .. Did we mention it's $3.50? Check Facebook for truck's location, 520-342-8611
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
The downtown business crowd gained a fast-casual lunch spot when Street Taco & Beer Co. opened its doors in January. I gained a new vice: glistening plumps of juicy pork scooped straight from the tub and onto your taco. After four hours of roasting, these aren't exactly your crispy carnitas. They are so soft and fatty that you need a drip of zesty tomatillo to cut through it all. And while you're at it, get some of those neon pink pickled onions from the salsa bar, which is full of fresh and vibrant treats. 58 W. Congress St., 520-269-6266
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
Up north at Ventana Canyon, a hip new restaurant is pumping out plates of reimagined Southern specialties. The masterminds behind Prep & Pastry opened Commoner & Co. in the former Abbey building in June, bringing gourmet grits and obscurities like bone marrow bread pudding to Foothills diners. But I'm partial to Chef Virginia Wooters' Mediterranean take on fried green tomatoes. (Will be back on the menu this summer.) Instead of cornmeal, she batters the thick rounds in semolina flour, which flakes off the sides exposing patches of golden tomato skin. The disks are topped with housemade Ricotta cheese and heavy raindrops of prosciutto ham, then drizzled with a sweet white balsamic vinegar. 6960 E. Sunrise Drive, 520-257-1177
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
Two words: Choco Taco. But not the packaged kind you pawned off the ice cream man. This one is fresh from the back of HubΒ Ice Cream Factory, where the employeesΒ dutifully make their own waffle cones and pipe in a thick vanilla bean ice cream, covering the top withΒ Callebaut dark chocolate and salted roasted peanuts. The shop, which opened downtown in May, specializes in gourmet versions of childhood favorites. But there's something about this dessert that rockets it to the top of the list, above the soda float and ice cream cookie. Is it the addicting contrast between the smooth ice cream and crunchy chocolate? The fact that you don't need a spoon? Oh I don't know, maybe I just like tacos! 245 E. Congress St., 520-622-0255
Β Β
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
Ismael Lawani may speak French, but his cuisine is a far cry from foie gras or beef bourguignon. A native of Benin, the Tucson resident opened Alafia West-African Cuisine this March in a small room off of Speedway and Swan Road. Most days you can find him behind the counter cooking up couscous with cassava root and pots of velvety peanut soup. But I opt for the "Afri-cue." He marinates a whole tilapia fish in mustard and African spices and then grills up the entire thing on a charcoal grill behind the restaurant. The belly is the butteriest part, but Lawani insists you have to eat the head, which is obscured by a sliced cucumber sitting delicately over the oily black eyeball. Avoid the bones, and you're in for a swimming great time! 1070 N. Swan Road, 520-331-7161
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
Yes, you can slurp it! But if you eat this ramen too fast, you'll miss the finer details, like the delicate pork broth, the thin strings of dried red chiles and the spiral-swiped narutomaki cut into pinwheels of fishy flavor. Obon's chef Paulo Im is painstakingly precise in his contemporary Japanese and Korean dishes, but the signature Obon ramen takes the cake. Maybe it's just cold outside, but I'm super pumped you can get a bowl this good downtown. 350 E. Congress St., 520-485-3590
Β
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
In June, former Aladdin ownerΒ Ari BabanΒ opened up a full-scale Mediterranean bakery inside of a taco shop, fashioning the windows into temple silhouettes andΒ building a traditional hajariΒ stone oven in the back. Out of the oven comes all manner of breads: round pitas, doughy "middle Eastern donut" hands packed with date paste and football-shaped samoons popular in Iraq. The best way to utilize all these yeasts is to get the vegetarian platter, which comes with several dips including a tahini-rich hummus and a caroway spiced mashui dip that tastes like tomatoes and fresh earth.Β 2825 N. Country Club Road, 520-323-4074
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
Okay, this upscale Mexican restaurant atΒ St. Philip's PlazaΒ technically opened in December of 2014. But it felt wrong to leave this black beauty off any list of best dishes in Tucson. Reforma's mole de pato is a tour de force of meats, potatoes and plantains steeped in a nutty mole sprinkled with white sesame seeds and lush green onions. Spear the whole duck leg with your fork and rip off its moist meat, stuffing the chunks into one of Reforma's housemade flour tortillas. The chorizo, you want to eat by itself. When you puncture the taught skin, little crumbles of spiced pork fall away into the molten brew below. Scandalous. 4310 N. Campbell Ave., 520-867-4134
Β Β
- Andi Berlin | This Is Tucson
- Updated
Wanna go get "smashed" outside the grocery store? You can do that in downtown Tucson, now that The Independent Distillery is open next to theΒ Johnny Gibson's Market. The fledgling bar and distillery opened off Congress Street in September, bringing with it a healthy list of classic cocktails. (Housemade spirits coming soon!) But for now you can make your own Smash, choosing from a list of spirits and fresh fruits. I like mine with Evan Williams White Label Bourbon and fresh peaches and strawberries, poured into a healthy-sized mason jar at the small cost of $8. 30 S. Arizona Ave., 520-284-7334
East-coast native Michael RudnerΒ filled a hole in Tucson's empty bagel scene when he opened The Bagel Joint over the summer. From his little shop on Oracle and Ina roads, he sells several varieties of fresh-baked bagels, bagged up 14-strong in a "Boston dozen" and in some solid breakfast sandwiches with eggs and sausage. Since I've got my bagel routine perfectly boiled down, this is what I suggest: an everything bagel with sliced tomatoes and a fistful of fatty lox, plus veggie cream cheese on both sides so you can take it apart and eat it piece by piece. The bagels are classic New York: Rough around the edges, but soft and doughy on the inside. Just like momma used to buy! 7315 N. Oracle Road, 520-329-8630
You won't find any ramen burgers or Vietnamese burritos at this campus-area food truck. But there is one culinary mashup thatΒ Nghia TranΒ does do, and boy does he do it well ... Tran is fromΒ Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and he makes a banh mi sandwich like nobody's business. Since he opened his Nhu Lan Vietnamese Food Truck in February, he's drawn a devoted following for his legendary Banh Mi Dac Biet, a soft baguette from La Baguette Parisienne bakery stuffed with three types of pork plus the quintessential Vietnamese garnish of cucumber, cilantro and jalapeΓ±o. Unfussy, yet incredibly fresh .. Did we mention it's $3.50? Check Facebook for truck's location, 520-342-8611
The downtown business crowd gained a fast-casual lunch spot when Street Taco & Beer Co. opened its doors in January. I gained a new vice: glistening plumps of juicy pork scooped straight from the tub and onto your taco. After four hours of roasting, these aren't exactly your crispy carnitas. They are so soft and fatty that you need a drip of zesty tomatillo to cut through it all. And while you're at it, get some of those neon pink pickled onions from the salsa bar, which is full of fresh and vibrant treats. 58 W. Congress St., 520-269-6266
Up north at Ventana Canyon, a hip new restaurant is pumping out plates of reimagined Southern specialties. The masterminds behind Prep & Pastry opened Commoner & Co. in the former Abbey building in June, bringing gourmet grits and obscurities like bone marrow bread pudding to Foothills diners. But I'm partial to Chef Virginia Wooters' Mediterranean take on fried green tomatoes. (Will be back on the menu this summer.) Instead of cornmeal, she batters the thick rounds in semolina flour, which flakes off the sides exposing patches of golden tomato skin. The disks are topped with housemade Ricotta cheese and heavy raindrops of prosciutto ham, then drizzled with a sweet white balsamic vinegar. 6960 E. Sunrise Drive, 520-257-1177
Two words: Choco Taco. But not the packaged kind you pawned off the ice cream man. This one is fresh from the back of HubΒ Ice Cream Factory, where the employeesΒ dutifully make their own waffle cones and pipe in a thick vanilla bean ice cream, covering the top withΒ Callebaut dark chocolate and salted roasted peanuts. The shop, which opened downtown in May, specializes in gourmet versions of childhood favorites. But there's something about this dessert that rockets it to the top of the list, above the soda float and ice cream cookie. Is it the addicting contrast between the smooth ice cream and crunchy chocolate? The fact that you don't need a spoon? Oh I don't know, maybe I just like tacos! 245 E. Congress St., 520-622-0255
Β Β
Ismael Lawani may speak French, but his cuisine is a far cry from foie gras or beef bourguignon. A native of Benin, the Tucson resident opened Alafia West-African Cuisine this March in a small room off of Speedway and Swan Road. Most days you can find him behind the counter cooking up couscous with cassava root and pots of velvety peanut soup. But I opt for the "Afri-cue." He marinates a whole tilapia fish in mustard and African spices and then grills up the entire thing on a charcoal grill behind the restaurant. The belly is the butteriest part, but Lawani insists you have to eat the head, which is obscured by a sliced cucumber sitting delicately over the oily black eyeball. Avoid the bones, and you're in for a swimming great time! 1070 N. Swan Road, 520-331-7161
Yes, you can slurp it! But if you eat this ramen too fast, you'll miss the finer details, like the delicate pork broth, the thin strings of dried red chiles and the spiral-swiped narutomaki cut into pinwheels of fishy flavor. Obon's chef Paulo Im is painstakingly precise in his contemporary Japanese and Korean dishes, but the signature Obon ramen takes the cake. Maybe it's just cold outside, but I'm super pumped you can get a bowl this good downtown. 350 E. Congress St., 520-485-3590
Β
In June, former Aladdin ownerΒ Ari BabanΒ opened up a full-scale Mediterranean bakery inside of a taco shop, fashioning the windows into temple silhouettes andΒ building a traditional hajariΒ stone oven in the back. Out of the oven comes all manner of breads: round pitas, doughy "middle Eastern donut" hands packed with date paste and football-shaped samoons popular in Iraq. The best way to utilize all these yeasts is to get the vegetarian platter, which comes with several dips including a tahini-rich hummus and a caroway spiced mashui dip that tastes like tomatoes and fresh earth.Β 2825 N. Country Club Road, 520-323-4074
Okay, this upscale Mexican restaurant atΒ St. Philip's PlazaΒ technically opened in December of 2014. But it felt wrong to leave this black beauty off any list of best dishes in Tucson. Reforma's mole de pato is a tour de force of meats, potatoes and plantains steeped in a nutty mole sprinkled with white sesame seeds and lush green onions. Spear the whole duck leg with your fork and rip off its moist meat, stuffing the chunks into one of Reforma's housemade flour tortillas. The chorizo, you want to eat by itself. When you puncture the taught skin, little crumbles of spiced pork fall away into the molten brew below. Scandalous. 4310 N. Campbell Ave., 520-867-4134
Β Β
Wanna go get "smashed" outside the grocery store? You can do that in downtown Tucson, now that The Independent Distillery is open next to theΒ Johnny Gibson's Market. The fledgling bar and distillery opened off Congress Street in September, bringing with it a healthy list of classic cocktails. (Housemade spirits coming soon!) But for now you can make your own Smash, choosing from a list of spirits and fresh fruits. I like mine with Evan Williams White Label Bourbon and fresh peaches and strawberries, poured into a healthy-sized mason jar at the small cost of $8. 30 S. Arizona Ave., 520-284-7334
Tags
- Sweeps
- Food
- Tucson Dining
- 2015 Food
- Tucson Foods
- Best Food Tucson
- Must-eat Tucson
- The Bagel Joint
- Banh Mi Tucson
- Street Taco & Beer
- Tacos Tucson
- Hub Ice Cream Factory
- Alafia West African Cuisine
- Obon Sushi
- Ramen Tucson
- Za'atar
- Reforma
- Cocktails Downtown Tucson
- Independent Distillery
- Downtown Tucson Dining
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