Food & Drink

With half of 2017 already in the books, now seems like a good time to highlight some of our favorite spots that have opened in metro Phoenix so far this year. From a high-profile chef’s buzzy new osteria to a 37-seat neighborhood gem, here are 10 restaurants that are making the Valley a more delicious place to eat and drink.

Keep your friends close — and bring your enemies tiny packets of salt. Then decide you adore one another and toast with Champagne.

Lorenzo Santillan, who built a robot with a small team of high schoolers that beat MIT in an underwater robotics competition in 2004, over ten years later has opened his own taco truck.

This is a list for all you road warriors out there, beating a path down the sizzling hot asphalt, screaming at your kids to put their shoes on – not because you’re a tyrant, but because you don’t want to end up in the ER to treat their third degree burns this summer. Because even kids (and definitely us moms) need a “cheat day.”

You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a classic Tex-Mex puffy taco.

Did you wait until the last minute to plan something for dear old Dad? Fear not, these three restaurants have been signed-off on by our restaurant critic, thus increasing your odds of having a great meal, whether you take Daddy out for brunch, lunch, or dinner.

The James Beard Foundation is hosting a national contest that invites chefs from around the country to create a more sustainable burger, composed of at least 25 percent chopped mushroom in place of meat. This year there are four Arizona restaurants in the competition: Charro Steak and Lindy’s on 4th from Tuscon, and two Goodyear contestants, Eagle’s Nest and Toscana’s.

State laws indicates that Arthur Bachelier’s felony conviction for having sex with a minor in 2013 would prohibit the restaurant from receiving a liquor license. Last month, police took him back to jail.

This year an all-star lineup of 10 mixologists and nearly two dozen sweets makers will be participating and flexing their creative culinary muscles. Though you probably already known many of  them from their posts at top bars, restaurants, and sweet shops, but we wanted to get to the know these talented dudes a bit better before meeting them face to face at the event on June 17.

A little taqueria nearby the Phoenix Children’s Hospital takes al pastor very seriously.

Either through the food, the atmosphere, or the connection to local culture, these restaurants all say something about the surrounding landscape. Scattered all over the Grand Canyon State, these old school restaurants have become local Arizona icons.

Heng’s Kitchen is a small counter-service Chinese restaurant tucked into a corner of the food court at Mekong Plaza in Mesa. It might be the least flashy restaurant at Mekong, but it offers an extensive menu of traditional Chinese dishes (more than 100 at last count), including a pretty broad repertoire of Shanghainese and Sichuan specialties you’d be hard pressed to find elsewhere in the Valley.

This family-owned taqueria is run by perfectionists. The made-to-order dishes may take a little time, but the results, from killer buche tacos to fresh-made corn tortillas, are totally worth it.