Welcome to the 100 essential metro Phoenix restaurants of 2024. Here's your guide

The Arizona Republic's 100 essential Phoenix restaurants: Inspiration to get out and explore the dining and drinking experiences that shape the Valley.

Something supernatural happens when sharing a meal. Guards come down, laughter comes more easily and memories are made as we enjoy flavors that shape our perceptions of the world. What we're looking for on a given night varies. Sometimes we crave the familiar. Sometimes we set out in search of a new experience. When a restaurant delivers on either front, it becomes more than a place to satiate hunger, it becomes a portal to another place or time.

Nearly four years after the pandemic upended the restaurant industry, it's an especially exciting time to eat in metro Phoenix. Hundreds of restaurants opened across the Valley in 2023, places new and old garnered national attention and a lineup of historic haunts are still going strong. But the absolute most enticing thing about eating in the Valley right is our incredible Mexican food scene, which continues to blossom and evolve.

A group of young chefs are leading the borderland food renaissance at restaurants like Bacanora, Chilte and Cocina Chiwas, where classic dishes are presented in refined and inventive ways, while longtime grill masters offer a steady supply of tried-and-true and utterly delicious classics like carne asada, Sonoran hot dogs and Baja fish tacos.

And these aren't the only restaurants making the Valley an incredible place to eat. We are blessed with a menagerie of flavors from around the world — outstanding homestyle Thai cooking, whimsical multi-course fine dining, burger joints and Italian delis.

One thing the restaurants in our 100 essentials guide have in common is consistency. These are places we can rely on, whether to impress in-laws, or a first date or to satisfy a longing.

For the contributors to our list, who reside in all corners of the Valley and cover everything from its restaurants and bars to its music scene, media and culture, these are restaurants they return to over and over, places that comfort and excite, that taste like home or transport to new worlds. They're the places that metro Phoenix wouldn't be the same without.

Rather than presenting them all buffet-style, this year we're rolling out our list in courses. Each week, 25 restaurants will be revealed. At the end of January, the list will be published in its entirety. In the meantime, we hope these recommendations from communities across the metropolitan area will inspire you to explore dining options beyond your neighborhood and beyond the cuisines you usually gravitate toward so you can discover new places that may become essential to you, too.

We want to hear from you! Let the dining editor know which restaurants you can't live without. Use the subject line "My essential restaurants" and tell her what those places mean to you. Reach the food, dining and nightlife editor at [email protected]. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Top Phoenix restaurants of 2024: Your guide to 100 essentials