Cocina Chiwas Fancies Up the Tacos Chiwas Magic
10 Yumpoints | Tied for #14 in Phoenix | #4 in the East Valley
Imagine a world where Tacos Chiwas had a baby with Bacanora and it went off to college and is now living near ASU, in that new car-free neighborhood, Culdesac Tempe. Sure, the car thing seems a little impractical in Phoenix metro (and the rent! Yowza!), but then you see that you can bike to H Mart in like 12 minutes, which is legitimately pretty cool. And it’s not like there’s no good food around—the baby’s name is Cocina Chiwas, and it’s churning out some of the best slightly upscale Mexican food in town (seriously, it’s getting national recognition… this place is special). Wait, I’m describing the world we’re living in! Madness!
Where: East Valley (Tempe)
Website: cocinachiwasaz.com
Reservations: Toast
Tip: Culdesac Tempe is a no-car neighborhood, but the restaurant does have parking. Whew.
Reviews, Articles, and Awards
+2 Yumpoints | FEB 16, 2024 / Felicia Campbell
USA Today: Restaurants of the Year 2024
At Cocina Chiwas, a wall of windows opens onto a patio nearly as large as the modern dining room. It is anchored by a sleek bar showcasing unusual agave spirits on one side and an open kitchen built around a mesquite-fed grill constructed by co-owner Armando Hernandez himself. He and Nadia Holguin co-own other Phoenix restaurants, including James Beard Award nominee Bacanora, but opening Cocina Chiwas in February 2023 was especially personal, a chance to play with the flavors of their childhoods.
+2 Yumpoints | JAN 24, 2024
James Beard Foundation: 2024 James Beard Awards
Outstanding Restauranteur: Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin - Semifinalist
+1 Yumpoint | FEB 1, 2024
Phoenix New Times: The Top 100 Restaurants
You can smell the mesquite and pecan wood that fuels the grill and oven in the open kitchen, which chars meats, the Anaheim pepper that’s stuffed with queso menonita for the chile relleno and crisp open-faced quesadillas. The space inside is comfortable and chic. The desserts are stunners.
+1 Yumpoint | JAN 16, 2024 / FELICIA CAMPBELL
AZ Central: 100 essential restaurants in metro Phoenix: The best places to dine in 2024
Tacos Chiwas co-owners Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin opened Cocina Chiwas in Feb. 2023 and it feels like the culmination of all their collaborations and restaurant projects to date. The space is modern and airy, the service is friendly and the food coming off the mesquite grill Hernandez built himself is as surprising as it is familiar.
+1 Yumpoint | JUL 6, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN
Phoenix Magazine: Dining Review: Cocina Chiwas
Seven years and multiple concepts removed from their humble taco shop beginnings, Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin score big-time with an ambitious Modern Mexican restaurant in Tempe.
+1 Yumpoint | JUN 22, 2023 / DOMINIC ARMATO
Phoenix New Times: True Mexican food? Tempe's Cocina Chiwas is true to itself
Cocina Chiwas sports the kind of modern, clean-cut look that fits right into the young suburban aesthetic of the Valley's premiere college town. But the menu doesn't fit neatly into any of Phoenix’s pre-established pigeonholes, in large part because Hernandez and Holguin don’t either.
+.5 Yumpoints | FEB 29, 2024 / TIRION BOAN AND SARA CROCKER
Phoenix New Times: The 10 best Mexican restaurants in metro Phoenix
Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin are behind some of the Valley’s most beloved and buzzy restaurants, starting with the Tacos Chiwas taquerias and as co-owners of Bacanora, Espiritu and the recently opened Santo. With Cocina Chiwas, the couple has carved out something that reflects where they are in their lives and as chefs, taking diners on a culinary journey from their Chihuahuan roots to a seat at their family table.
+.5 Yumpoints | DEC 28, 2023 / FELICIA CAMPBELL AND BAHAR ANOOSHAHR
AZ Central: The 10 best new restaurants and bars that opened in metro Phoenix in 2023
Cocina Chiwas is the passion-project of Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin, the powerhouses behind Tacos Chiwas and co-owners of Bacanora and Espiritu, and you can tell. The welcoming, modern restaurant is built around an open kitchen where the mesquite grill that Hernandez built takes center stage. A deceptively simple menu is filled with surprises.
+.5 Yumpoints | NOV 1, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN, MARILYN HAWKES, CRAIG OUTHIER
Phoenix Magazine: 2023 Best New Restaurants
Save a little undercooked rice and some flaccid tacos de papa, PHOENIX dining critic Nikki Buchanan was smitten with this Modern Mexican hot spot from Tacos Chiwas trailblazers Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin. “I could eat this all day,” she wrote of the restaurant’s already-iconic, pizza-like birria quesadilla.
+.5 Yumpoints | SEP 27, 2023
Phoenix New Times: These are the 10 best restaurants in Tempe
New Times’ food critic Dominic Armato praised their riffs on quesadillas and Caesar salad, as well as the restaurant’s asado de puerco, blue heirloom corn empanadas and the sweet salsa macha that shows up across dishes as “one of the menu’s secret weapons,” he writes. The desserts are equally impressive. It adds up to an experience that differs from a traditional Mexican restaurant but is true to Hernandez and Holguin.
