The 9 best fancy restaurants with tasting menus in metro Phoenix

Dining at a coursed restaurant is a unique delight, offering the opportunity to witness a chef using a plate as a blank canvas with course after course of dishes meant to stimulate the eyes, nose and palate. For many, the ambience is also part of the experience and prix fixe, multicourse menus are considered one of the most classic fine dining formats.

Phoenix and Scottsdale are home to a number of restaurants with tasting menus, ranging from three to 10 courses. Some menus tell stories from the chef's life or offer a distinctive sense of place. One restaurant uses childhood nostalgia as the inspiration for his six-course brunch.

Whether looking for a place to enjoy a food-centric date or to celebrate a special occasion with friends and family, here's a guide to multicourse tasting menu restaurants in metro Phoenix.

Anhelo

Created by chef and owner Ivan Jacobo, Anhelo is a fine dining restaurant located in the Orpheum Lofts in downtown Phoenix. The menu offers a choice of cold first course, hot second course and an entrée and dessert. A 38-page wine book, curated by Jacobo and sommelier Ryan Ansell, provides plenty of options. Ansell's selection won the restaurant Wine Spectators Best of Award of Excellence in 2022 and 2023.

Anhelo holds seven-course wine dinners listed under events on the website. Some of the upcoming wines Anhelo plans to showcase are Chateau Léoville Poyferré, Memento Mori and Chateau Margaux. Still in the planning phase, Anhelo has a bubbles and caviar flight on the horizon.

The restaurant requires a $25 deposit for booking, which guests who do not cancel 24 hours in advance will forfeit.

Price: Price depends on the third course selection and ranges between $45 and $100. Wine pairings are an additional $70.

Dress code: Business casual.

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Details: 114 W. Adams St., Suite 103C, Phoenix. 602-596-7745, anhelorestaurant.com.

Atlas Bistro

Atlas Bistro is tricky to find as it's located inside a wine shop. Patrons can purchase bottles from the shop to pair with chef Jabari Corbin's seasonal five-course prix fixe menu at the BYOB restaurant. One recent menu featured a cast iron seared Hudson Valley foie gras as a supplemental course. The dish was presented with grilled brown butter pound cake, sea salt yogurt, lemon curd, goji berry brittle and blackberry sauce.

Pricing: $110 per person.

Dress code: Business casual.

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday.

Details: 2515 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. 480-990-2433, atlasbistro.wpcomstaging.com.

Binkley’s

Chef Kevin Binkley's 22-seat, intimate fine dining restaurant is a one-of-a-kind experience. Over two to three hours, guests can move around the house turned restaurant while enjoying 12 courses of molecular gastronomy. Some menu items have included smoked ocean trout dip, carpaccio, poke and black truffle halibut with black truffle ponzu. A wine pairing option is also available.

Pricing: At the time of reservation, guests are charged $265 per person. Wine pairing is an additional $200. Other upgrades such as wagyu and foie gras are available as well.

Dress code: Business casual.

Hours: 6:15-6:30 p.m. arrival time Thursday-Saturday; 4:45-5 p.m. arrival time on Sunday.

Details: 2320 E. Osborn Road, Phoenix. 602-388-4874, binkleysrestaurant.com.

Café Monarch

If it's a memorable ambience you're looking for, Cafe Monarch is the place to go. Tufted white King Louis chairs, ornate gold-framed mirrors, candelabras and glittering chandeliers set a romantic mood. Owned and operated by Gustavo Lewkowicz, the restaurant features a four-course menu with the option to expand it to an eight-course tasting menu. Japanese A5 wagyu striploin with matsutake mushroom, cabbage, Thumbelina carrots and anise demi is one example of a course. At the restaurant's extension, Reserve, six-course wine dinners are available.

Price: Price for four-course menu depends on the fourth course. Eight-course menu is $285. Six-course wine dinners cost $425.

Dress code: Formal wear and business casual.

Hours: 5-10:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 5 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday.

Details: 6939 E. First Ave., Scottsdale. 480-970-7682, cafemonarch.com.

A rising star: He grew up obsessed with 'Iron Chef.' Now this 26-year-old leads a top Phoenix restaurant

Christopher’s

James Beard Award winner Christopher Gross heads the kitchen at his namesake restaurant at the Wrigley Mansion. His drawings adorn the chargers and he presents one course in dish modeled to look like his partner's hand. On the plate, expect classic French with a modern twist. The attention to details at this restaurant has earned Gross multiple accolades. Examples of Christopher's eight-course tasting menu includes a seven day dry-aged Liberty duck with confit pearl onion, celery root and sherry gastrique.

Pricing: $125 per person for the classic menu on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; $275 per person for chef's tasting menu on Thursday-Saturday.

Dress code: Smart casual.

Hours: 5-9 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday for classic menu and 5-9 p.m., Thursday-Saturday for tasting menu.

Details: 2501 E. Telawa Trail, Phoenix. 602-522-2344, wrigleymansion.com/christophers.

Course

At Course, "Chopped" champion Chef Cory Oppold has designed three tasting menus: five- and 10-course dinner menus along with a six-course brunch menu. Together with his team and pastry chef Antonia Lee Kane, they change the menus seasonally with creative and artful plates. Some of the current menu items include “Charcuterie," made with pheasant, gribiche, preserved apricot, pistachio and toast or Moons Over my Hammie, prepared with scrambled duck egg, brioche and duck “ham.”

Price: $190 for 10-course prix fixe served Thursday-Saturday; $135 for five-course prix fixe served on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; $75 for six-course brunch.

Dress code: Business casual.

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sunday.

Details: 7366 E. Shea Blvd., Suite 106, Scottsdale. 480-687-0491, courserestaurantaz.com.

Kai

Chef Drew Anderson uses Sonoran desert ingredients for his menu. Kai's four-course menu includes dishes such as Celebration of Arizona Mushrooms, made with wheat berry and black garlic risotto, parsnip and apple puree, fungi and herb tea.

Price: $185 per person. Wine pairing is an additional $145.

Dress code: Formal and smart casual.

Hours: 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Details: Kai. Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa, 5594 W. Wild Horse Pass Blvd., Gila River Reservation. 602-385-5777, wildhorsepassresort.com.

Sel

This husband-and-wife-owned restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale offers regular and vegetarian three- and five-course tasting menus. Chef Branden Levine presides over the kitchen, while his wife, May, handles the front of house. Find grilled Iberico pork collar with fermented cape gooseberry, charred carrot, Marcona almonds, harissa potato puree and chermoula sauce among the mains and a blackberry sake cobbler served with chili crème anglaise and vanilla bean gelato for dessert.

Order a regular and a vegetarian tasting menu to double the variety.

Price: $140 per person for five-course tasting menu. $100 per person for three-course menu.

Dress code:  Formal wear and business casual

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Details: 7044 E. Main St., Scottsdale. 480-949-6296, selrestaurant.com.

Quiessence at the Farm

Chef Dustin Christopholo is the force behind Quiessence at the Farm at South Mountain, where guests dine outdoors surrounded by lush greenery. His seasonal three-, four- and five-course menus incorporate ingredients from the farm. Find fairytale pumpkin soup, bread spoon, goat cheese mousse, mushrooms, carrot chips and pickled red onions as well as foie gras macarons.

Quiessence was featured in Wine Spectator's Great Travel Destinations in November 2023.

Price: $109 for three-course, $119 for four-course and $129 for five-course dinners. Wine pairing and desserts are additional.

Dress code: Business casual.

Hours: 5 p.m.-close, Tuesday and Thursday-Saturday.

Details: The Farm at South Mountain, 6106 S. 32nd St., Phoenix. 602-276-0601, qatthefarm.com.

The best places to dine in 2024: 100 essential restaurants in metro Phoenix

Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow @banooshahr on Twitter.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Best restaurants in Scottsdale, Phoenix for fine dining tasting menus