An Arizona-Mexican snack: a large flour tortilla baked or griddled flat with melted cheese on top, open-faced and crisp, cut into wedges like a pizza.
Where to eat it: 2 restaurants across 1 city.
The cheese crisp is pure Arizona, a bar-and-table snack that grew out of the region's oversized flour tortillas. Unlike a quesadilla, it is open-faced: the tortilla is laid flat, topped with cheese and crisped until the edges curl. Valley Mexican rooms have served it for generations, sometimes plain, sometimes finished with green chile or chopped jalapeno.
Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy
Tip from the editors. Take it to the edge of burnt; a cheese crisp should be genuinely crisp and lacy, not soft like a quesadilla.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Los Sombreros on Scottsdale Road is a long-running regional Mexican cantina set in a converted house, known for its mole and one of the best patios in town.
Signature: Mole poblano, Cochinita pibil, House margaritas
Order: The mole poblano and a house margarita on the patio.
Tip: The casita patio is the seat to book; weekends and snowbird season fill the small rooms fast.
Why locals love it: A 1964 Sonoran family room on McDowell that locals guard while visitors chase the newer downtown Mexican names.
Tip: It has served Sonoran-style Mexican since 1964; the green-chile plates and the chimichanga are the long-time orders.
More cities are in research. Want cheese crisp covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.