Cafe Monarch is a fine-dining restaurant in Phoenix.
Cafe Monarch in Old Town Scottsdale is a family-run tasting-menu room on a string-lit alley, serving a changing eight-course menu of small, refined plates.
Must order: The chef's eight-course tasting, the deepest version of the kitchen's seasonal cooking.
Tip: The candlelit back alley is the seat to book; the menu is prix fixe only.
Address: 6939 E 1st Ave, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, Phoenix
Quiessence at The Farm at South Mountain is Dustin Christofolo's seasonal tasting room, plating produce picked hours earlier from the on-site garden.
Order: The weekly tasting menu, built around whatever the garden cut that morning.
Tip: Set on a working farm off 32nd Street; book the patio in the cool months.
Different Pointe of View sits 1,800 feet up at the Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort, a AAA Four Diamond room pairing American cooking with a wide skyline view.
Order: The multi-course tasting with wine pairings, timed for sunset over the city.
Tip: Request a window or terrace table at dusk; it is well north of downtown on 7th Street.
Kai at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass is Arizona's only AAA Five Diamond restaurant, cooking Pima and Maricopa ingredients on Gila River land.
Order: The grilled tribal buffalo tenderloin with cholla buds and scarlet runner bean chile.
Tip: Open Wednesday to Saturday only; the drive to Wild Horse Pass is about 30 minutes south of downtown.
FnB in Scottsdale is Charleen Badman's vegetable-forward room in Craftsman Court, where the chef won the 2019 James Beard Best Chef Southwest award.
Order: The braised leeks with mozzarella, mustard and a sunny-side egg, a Food and Wine top-ten dish.
Tip: The menu turns with the farms; Pavle Milic's all-Arizona wine list is the second reason to book.
