There aren’t many restaurants like Vecina in the Valley. It’s “Latin inspired,” but extremely approachable, which means you can get all the flavors you’re looking for while satisfying even the most meat-and-potato diner you know. While you’re munching on their famously complex elote, someone else could be eating a hearty pork chop (which is delicious enough to expand any comfort zone).

Highball’s one of those cocktail bars that doesn’t really have a theme, doesn’t really have a gimmick, and isn’t trying to be trendy in any way. If it had a tagline, it’d be “really good and fairly fancy,” and the world seems to agree, with an active Spirited Awards regional top-10 honoree run since 2022.

It’s always a struggle when you’re in downtown deciding between Little Rituals and Bitter & Twisted. Little Rituals is probably the one because it’s just a little more mysterious. Instead of being on the ground floor on the main road, it’s tucked into the 4th floor of the Residence Inn Hotel. One minute you’re in the most generic of places, and the next you’re in a cocktail wonderland.

At Testal, the burrito is a lovely thing, filled with only a few ingredients that are designed to tickle the palette in different ways. If you just eat one, you won’t feel like a disgusting mess at the end, sweating the excessive calories your body doesn’t instantly store as fat. If you eat two though, which is definitely something I do, you certainly will… so maybe don’t be like me.

In Phoenix we do have our fair share of ‘Bertos-style places, and I guess they’re fine, but what I want is a good-ass taco shop, right by my house. But no one seems ambitious enough to really take this place over. Taco Boys though… they’re on their 6th location and I hope they never stop. Every neighborhood needs a Taco Boys location. Mine needs two.

Pan-African food is something we don’t have a ton of in Phoenix (certainly not this exact fusion of African, Brazilian, Caribbean, and SE US), but a lot of what’s being served up at Latha won’t cause much of a culture shock. And whatever hesitation one may have will go away as soon as the food hits the tongue.

Taco Chelo is one of those magical taco places that’s more delicious than it has any right to be. They’re never the best places in town, but if it’s like 1:30pm on a Tuesday, that’s what you want. The menu is pretty tiny, but everything is awesome. The real move though is to just get whatever the special is—you’ll never go wrong (and maybe add a Costra and a Sonoran for good measure).

Quarts is very, uh, angular—especially the Cave, which is their bar-within-a-bar concept you should absolutely check out. It’s not rigid though, or especially gaudy, even though the menu will lead you to believe you’re going to a nightclub in Dubai. It’s more like a really good neighborhood bar with a lot of polish and a heavy glam aesthetic.