What do you recommend to eat in Flagstaff and Phoenix?

Question

I am going to visit Grand Canyon next week, and stay at Flagstaff and Phoenix for few days around that. If you know some good restaurants or foods I must eat, please tell me! I don’t use a car for moving inside the towns, so the location should be near downtown or good access with public transportation.

Answer 1

Flagstaff has some great places to eat and many of them are in the neat historic downtown area. Here are a few of my top suggestions:

Beaver Street Brewery (On Beaver Street south of railroad) - Excellent microbrew with very good food and reasonable prices. Very comfy setting with lots of wood panels and brass and big castiron stove at the entrance. This is usually my first eating destination when in town.

Macys Coffee Shop (across the street from Beaver St) - A classic bohemian college student type coffee shop with electic art and furniture, but great coffee and some pretty good snacks and sandwiches.

Alpine Pizza (On Beaver St, north of railroad) - One of the oldest surviving original restuarants in downtown Flagstaff and for a very good reason. Excellent pizza (especially calzones!).

Kathy's Cafe (On South San Francisco just north of railroad) - Another old time downtown classic for breakfast and lunch. Great omelettes. Reasonable prices.

Racha Thai and Dara Thai (2 different places both on San Francisco, one in the historic Monte Vista Hotel north of the tracks, the other south of the tracks). Dara is a bit more laid back.

Charley's (In the historic Weatherford Hotel on Beaver St) - General menu, often has live music. In fact, the Weatherford Bar is a prime live music spot on weekends - I've seen some great local bands there.

Some more good places that are along South Milton (the main road past NAU leading into town from I-17):

Oregano's Pizza - The Flagstaff wing of the excellent Phoenix chain. Some of the best pizza in the state.

Crystal Creek Sandwichs - Simple, non-frills sandwich shop, but very good.

Bun Huggers Hamburgers - Flame grilled burgers in a funky setting. Another long time Flag classic.


Phoenix:
Pheonix is one of the worst cities to be stuck without a car as it a city made for the car. Public transportation is very bad and limited (although they are working on light rail), things are spread out and rarely within walking distance of anything else and while it has been making a bit of a comeback over the last couple years, downtown Phoenix is still recovering from a long period of decline and does not have as many cultural or eating/drinking options as many other large cities.

If you are going to be staying in the old downtown Phoenix area (near the bus depot?) - than I would make the visit as short as possible and head up to Flag. You can see most everything of interest in a full day or two - anything else and you will need transportation.

That being said here are some of my pics for eating downtown:

Fate (in old house on N 4th street, just S of Roosevelt) - Trendy asian food, excellent food, good prices. Open very late hours - kinda in a weird rundown residential area.

My Florist (McDowell near 7th Ave) - Wine bar and cafe with bakery next door. A bit more expensive, but very good food (sandwiches, salad, pasta).

Pizzaria Bianco (in historic building on Heritage Sq next to Science Museum) - One of the city's top ranked gormet pizza places. Very good gormet pizza in a cool setting, but not cheap and very limited seating (ie: often long waits). The Science Center, by the way, is an excellent museum.

Coney Island Sandwich Shop (on Copper Sq) - Greasy spoon hole-in-the-wall joint that has been dodging the health dept since 1939. Actually good sandwichs and hot dogs and lots of character.

Arizona Center (biggest centralized shopping area in the old downtown) - An open air mall with a number of chain resturants (Hooters, Starbucks, Big Fat Greek Resturant, etc).

If you do find some transportation, you find a wider range of concentrated cheap eating options along Mill Avenue near ASU in Tempe and for trendy nightclub and fine dining, your best bet is Scottsdale.

Answer 2

You should take the drive north though Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff and then Interstate 40 to Williams. Turn right and go to the Grand Canyon. That is one place no American should ever miss. Sedona is beautiful. Don't know much about Tucson. Barstow is just a pit stop. Eat, gas up, and hit the road. Near Barstow there is Calico Ghost Town. It's pretty interesting and a lot of fun. You will probably start seeing signs for it before you get to Barstow.

Answer 3

Oregano's!

They're in both Flagstaff & Phoenix area


Flagstaff and Phoenix without a car, it's almost impossible.

Answer 4

www.chowhound.com