Best Phoenix restaurant dishes of 2018
What can I say? It was an off year. No, not for Phoenix restaurants. For me.
Last year’s total of 2,613 Arizona dishes is still my single season record. I managed a mere 2,576 in 2018.
Setting aside time to revisit the best dishes is one of my favorite year-end projects.
Meaty and vegetal, savory and sweet, edgy and familiar, they run the gamut as usual. Together, they give a little glance at another year’s worth of exciting eating in the Valley.
Here are my 10 favorite Arizona dishes of 2018, in alphabetical order, along with 10 honorable mentions. Drop me a line. I’d love to hear about yours.
Cabeza Empanadas — Roland’s Cafe Market Bar
What’s so refreshing about this dish is what it isn’t. It isn’t gussied up, it isn’t a mess of contrasts, and it doesn’t feel compelled to throw acid, sugar or searing spice at the wall. It’s simple, almost creamy cabeza in a light pastry shell
spiked with just a bit of chile and served with a simple garbanzo bean dip. It’s pointedly uncomplicated, an almost painfully modest dish that doesn’t reach out and grab you, but instead provides a gentle, earthy hum that you can quietly fall into.
Details: 1505 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix. 602-4414749, rolandsphx.com.
Gramigna alla Salsiccia — Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana
It’s probably just as well that this is an on-again, off-again special or I’d never order anything else at Pomo. In keeping with its Bolognese roots, this is a gloriously rich dish. But where too many joints would leave the noodles swimming in cream, Pomo preaches restraint. It’s more silky than soupy, and it’s a textural marvel, pairing pasta that practically dances with a finely textured blend of crumbled sausage, minced pancetta and mushrooms. It’s tough to pass on the restaurant’s namesake, but the pizza will still be here when I come back. The gramigna might not.
Details: 8977 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. 480998-1366. Other locations at pomopizzeria.com.
Grilled Pheasant — Mowry & Cotton
Technically speaking, I first tasted this last year, right after I filed the best restaurant dishes of 2017. It’s been a long time, but there was no way I’d forget to include it. Tandy Peterson’s pheasant is remarkable, not only because it has managed to stay on the menu for more than a year in a town that often treats game birds with suspicion, but because it’s just stupid good. The skin is a marvel, made taut and lacquered after receiving more treatments than a spa patron, and set atop a chaotic pile of onions, citrus, cherries, broccolini and almonds, it holds tight to Peterson’s rustic sensibilities.
Details: The Phoenician, 6000 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix. 480-423-2530, mowryandcotton.com.
Kapro Gai Kao Dao — Glai Baan
What a sweet, merciful relief. Do you have any idea how many Thai restaurants make a mess of this dish? It shouldn’t be rocket science. Minced chicken, garlic and chiles, a handful of basil, a little sauce and a lacy fried egg. But there are enough cloying, stewed, bell pepper-riddled versions out there to push you to the edge. Then a bright, fiery, sharply focused dish like the one Cat Bunnag serves at Glai Baan grabs you by the wrist and firmly pulls you back. Crisis averted.
Details: 2333 E. Osborn Road, Phoenix. 602-5955881, facebook.com/glaibaanaz.
Lychee 'Scallops' — Bri
This one is just bonkers, and I mean that in the best possible sense of the term. Bri’s fire-roasted meats are excellent, true, but the dish I can’t get out of my head is Vince Mellody’s lychee “scallops.” The quotes aren’t ornamental. He’d originally conceived it as a seafood dish, but in an attempt to offer more vegan options, he may have backed into an even better one. Sweet, juicy lychees are brined and seared, then doused in a spicy cool carrot juice broth spiked with turmeric and chile oil. Tiny dish, giant flavor.
Details: 2221 N. Seventh St., Phoenix. 602-5958635, brion7th.com.
Roasted Peach — Confluence
Served as a starter, I’d have happily ordered this for dessert. Here’s a juicy roasted peach, hanging out with his pals mint, pecans and honey, and they’re just chilling, minding their own business. Then a funky Epoisses fondue comes flooding in and turns the entire dish on its ear, making it the poster child for composed
cheese plates. Why putz around with a hunk of cheese and a piece of fruit and a few nuts sitting on a wooden board when you can have something like this?
Details: 36889 N. Tom Darlington Drive, Carefree. 480-488-9796, restaurantconfluence.com.
Salmon Nigiri — Sushi Nakano
Minimalism. That’s the operative word when it comes to great sushi, and while there were a few pieces of Leo Nakano’s signature nigiri that I could have chosen, the one that sticks with me most is this salmon. Perfect rice and a luscious slab of fish, yes. But the hook is a sliver of battera kombu — marinated seaweed — like a green-hued slip of isinglass that lends just a faint hint of sweet, sour and saline all in one.
Details: 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Phoenix. 602-603-2129, facebook.com/sushinakanoaz.
Secreto Iberico de Bellota — Talavera
I’m not sure what it says that there are two pork bombs among the 2018 favorites, but I’m embracing both. The first comes courtesy of Samantha Sanz at Talavera, from a pig with a pedigree as prestigious as they come. Cut from the shoulder of Spain’s famed Iberico pigs, this secreto was shockingly good. Seared, slivered and simply tossed with fresh fruit and herbs, it was as pure an expression of porcine bliss I’ve had all year.
Details: Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale, 10600 E. Crescent Moon Drive. 480-513-5085, talaverarestaurant.com.
Starlite Can Can Pork Steak — Starlite BBQ
Of course, lightning can strike twice. Starlite has created a pork dish of embarrassing decadence, and I love them for it. A smoked loin wrapped in a juicy slab of belly, the can can pork steak has you drowning in sweet, smoky pork fat. But what I love — apart from its juicy bite and perfect sizzle — is its unflinching clarity, paired with nothing more than slivers of pickled serrano chile. Less is more, and this is almost more pork than I can handle. Almost.
Details: 7620 E. Indian School Road, Scottsdale. 480-553-9330, starlitebbq.com.
The Original Muffaletta Burger — Southern Rail
I tried an obscene number of burgers this year, Although I sampled a lot of awfully tasty specimens, there’s only one I’ve been back for since I selected the 25 best burgers in Phoenix. The sesame bun, the griddled charcuterie, the tangy olive salad, the smear of creole aioli — I could try to analyze it, but I’d rather just get lost in it. This was a beautiful, beautiful burger.
Details: 300 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix. 602-200-0085, southernrailaz.com.
HONORABLE MENTIONS