Modern Southwestern cuisine, informed by classic dishes of Latin America, is the focus at this elegantly minimalist resort restaurant, named for celebrity chef Angelo Sosa’s Dominican aunt. Sosa buys from local farmers, ranchers, and food artisans, but adds global touches such as Thai basil and Sichuan peppercorns to create an exciting menu that eclipses the usual hotel restaurant fare. Don’t miss the clever tostadas (especially the “Taco Night,” enriched with bone marrow); the earthy lamb ragu, set over springy mesquite noodles; the mushroom menudo, meaty with cordyceps; or the fantastic ember-roasted purple yam, embellished with queso sauce and tepary bean mole negro. For dessert, there’s vanilla flan, generously dusted with Manchego cheese and nested in a puddle of tequila-spiked caramel. 

Created by Dom and Holly Ruggiero of Hush Public House, Fire at Will is the best thing to happen to the dining desert around Shea and Tatum Boulevards in North Phoenix. Like Hush, it specializes in sophisticated comfort food, but the menu here is broader and more eclectic, featuring inflection from Spain, Italy, and the Middle East. The clean-lined space is dimly lit and moody, while still maintaining a sense of irreverence. This is a neighborhood hangout, after all, offering good cocktails and the straightforward Hush burger as well as less conventional selections such as lamb tartare and anchovy toast. Really, there’s something for everyone, whether elegant côte de boeuf (standing rib roast) or a funky smoked bologna sandwich gussied up with Gruyere and sauerkraut. 

It’s impossible to go wrong at Martha Laurencin’s outpost for all things Caribbean, so the hard part is making decisions. Should you try the turmeric-tinted Jamaican patties? Emphatically, yes. The crunchy, deep-fried wings, bathed in garlicky, hot-sweet Calypso sauce? 100 percent. Nor should you miss beefy, gelatinous oxtail stew or curried goat — both probably the best versions you’ll find in this town. Mop everything up with johnnycakes or festivals and consider your outing a mini vacation to the islands, complete with live Caribbean music on the huge patio on designated weekends. There are even shelves full of Caribbean snacks, marinades, and sauces to take home.

In his 7th Avenue kitchen, chef Michael Babcock of Instrumental Hospitality channels his love for Southeast Asian cooking, building pizza on grilled rice paper, creating a torta-banh mi hybrid, and making sizzling jackfruit fried rice. Cocktails move well beyond the classics, braiding in Thai basil, lemongrass, turmeric, and other popular Southeast Asian ingredients. If you can, grab a table on the tiny rooftop patio overlooking Camelback Road.

Named for Puerto Rico’s noisy mascot, a whistling tree frog, this cramped but cheery restaurant got its start as a food truck in 2017, becoming so popular for its soulful Puerto Rican food that partners Juan Alberto Ayala and Alexis Carbajal moved to permanent space this past February. The menu features flaky empanadillas, garlic-laced mofongo, pastelon (a casserole layered with picadillo, plantains, and cheese), and jibarito — mini pork pernil sandwiches tucked between crispy tostones disks. Don’t miss the outstanding alcapurria, a crunchy fried yuca fritter stuffed with picadillo.

TJ Culp and Esther Noh of Restaurant Progress opened this French-style bistro and wine bar in a vintage bungalow in Roosevelt Row last fall, and it’s been packed ever since. One draw is the small, farmhouse-chic space equipped with an old-school stereo and plenty of vinyl, another is the global wine list, and a third is a French menu, which hews to bistro classics such as pate, escargot, steak tartare, and croque-madame. Get there early to snag a seat on the front porch overlooking a verdant lawn.

Rene Andrade, a native of Nogales, Mexico, prepares some of the most vibrant Sonoran food in greater Phoenix on a single Santa Maria-style grill fired with three kinds of wood. Most dishes see the hot grates — carne asada, octopus, finfish, half chickens, potatoes, elotes, even pots of plump pinto beans. Andrade is often seen greeting customers as they enter the tiny dining room on Grand Avenue, simultaneously tonging tome-thick steaks and squeezing lime over chiltepin-flecked aguachiles. He approaches caramelos and burritos with the technique and rigor of a veteran chef, yet they remain homestyle. And yes, a limited cocktail menu mixes in plenty of bacanora. 

When it comes to offbeat decor, this bougie new venue from Teddy and Katie Meyers (who also own Chico Malo in CityScape) corners the market. To some, the cavernous, dimly lit space is gorgeous, to others a bit bizarre, given that every nook and cranny is filled with taxidermied wolves, exotic stuffed birds, and otherworldly murals of those same creatures. It’s a cool downtown haven for whiling away the time over excellent cocktails (devised by consulting mixologists Libby Lingua and Mitch Lyons) and on-trend dishes such as beef carpaccio, ceviche, hiramasa crudo, and a three-pound hunk of bone marrow that brings dinosaurs to mind. For a splurge, try A5 wagyu, cooked on Japanese charcoal at a table-side hibachi, which ranges in price from $125 to $210, or a 16-ounce beef Wellington for two that requires 24-hour notice.

Feringhee, which means “foreigner” in Hindi, doesn’t look like a run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and, indeed, it isn’t. Not only are the environs prettier and more upscale (check out the blinged out bar), but the food, which celebrates India’s many regions and culinary traditions, is infinitely more beautiful and sophisticated. This is Indian fine dining, replete with tuiles, foams, flowers, and other haute-cuisine touches. It’s the delicious handiwork of chef Karan Mittal (named a rising star by Food & Wine in 2018), who makes the ordinary extraordinary. For proof, try the chaat — India’s favorite snack food — elevated by glistening yogurt mousse foam, dried raspberry powder, and crisp-fried shiso leaves.