Jackie Mercandetti

Featuring the cuisine of South India, Karaikudi's dishes are bold, expertly prepared, and packed with flavor.

Karaikudi Palace in Scottsdale boasts not one chef well-versed in the Indian foods of his homeland, but three of them.

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- Leo's Island BBQ Brings Peoria a Taste of Hawaii
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And thanks to this trio of friends and fellow chefs, Karaikudi Palace just might be responsible for serving up some of the best examples of South Indian cooking the Valley has to offer: bold curries nearly falling over themselves with flavor; thin and crispy stuffed dosas; and a parade of richly layered selections from the sea.

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Jackie Mercandetti

It's a good idea to arrive at Leo's on an empty stomach.

For those who prefer their carb and protein loads delivered via a plastic foam container, there may not be a more perfect meal than the Hawaiian plate lunch.

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- Chasing Amy: Overcooked Reality and the Decline of Western Civility
- The Original ChopShop in Scottsdale Caters to the Healthy Crowd
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Featuring a steaming mass of rice, a scoop of mayonnaise-heavy macaroni salad, and mountains of meat piled into a white Styrofoam takeout box, the plate lunch is to Hawaiians what the meat-and-three plate is to Southerners: comfort food served up fast, without a fuss, and on the cheap.

Leo's Island BBQ in Peoria makes a very good plate lunch.

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Laura Hahnefeld

Fried chicken biscuit sandwich with cheddar, bacon, and gravy.

The Welcome Diner, the tiny, hip 200-square-foot eatery at 10th and Roosevelt streets in Phoenix, has returned.

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- The Original ChopShop in Scottsdale Caters to the Healthy Crowd
- Miu's Cuisine: Sichuan Food That's Anything but Familiar

And thanks to former Old Dixie's food truck owners Michael Babcock and Jenn Robinson, the place is packing some serious Southern eats along with the burgers and fries.

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Jackie Mercandetti

Think of the Original ChopShop Co., located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Scottsdale Road in Old Town Scottsdale, as a kind of casual convenience mart for the health-conscious.

See also:
- Miu's Cuisine: Sichuan Food That's Anything but Familiar
- Surprise's Amuse Bouche: Excellent French Cuisine, With a Few Downsides

It's an easy-to-find quick-service spot where salads, wraps, and protein shakes (thankfully) take the place of microwave hot dogs, day-old doughnuts, and Big Gulps.

And the good-for-you dishes -- served from sunrise to sundown and late into the evening -- are affordable enough that you can pitch a few extra coins into the jar next to the cash register.

But I don't want to oversell the place.

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Jackie Mercandetti

At Miu's Cuisine in Tempe, you'll find familiar and not-so-familiar dishes from the Sichuan province in southwestern China, in abundance -- but not in the often goopy, generic way you may have had them in the past.

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- Surprise's Amuse Bouche: Excellent French Cuisine, With a Few Downsides
- The Best of the Cheese and Wine Worlds Converge at Ahwatukee's Wedge & Bottle

These are dishes of a decidedly different nature: unabashedly bold and fresh in flavor, expertly prepared, and liberal enough in their use of ingredients such as garlic, chile and Sichuan peppers, peanuts, ginger, and sesame paste to regularly deplete the stock of the nearest Asian market.

"I've seen how they do things in American Chinese restaurants," principal owner Bo Song says. "Basically, it's just corn starch and sugar. It's not good. It's not healthy. And it's prepared too fast. For real Chinese food, everything has to be prepared one or two days before."

You could say Miu's is Sichuan-sensational.

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Laura Hahnefeld

Parisian Baguette Sandwich

Do you enjoy a bit of culinary torment now and then?

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- The Best of the Cheese and Wine Worlds Converge at Ahwatukee's Wedge & Bottle
- Taquitos Jalisco: Easy Familiarity and Robust Flavor in Mesa

If so, you should pay a visit some evening to Amuse Bouche in Surprise. Depending where you live, you will drive 45 minutes or more for some of the best French bistro food in the Valley.

But be warned, the journey is not without its speed bumps.

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Jackie Mercandetti

Wedge & Bottle features a rotating selection of top-notch meats and cheese on plates, in sandwiches, or to go.

To form an opinion of Ahwatukee's Wedge & Bottle, you may want to first consider its heady melted cheese sandwiches.

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- Taquitos Jalisco: Easy Familiarity and Robust Flavor in Mesa
- A Formidable Cuban Sandwich and More on Phoenix's West Side

Densely packed with gourmet cheeses, meats, and condiments on toasted bread, they're the grown-up version of the grilled cheese sandwich, and they feature the same satisfying crunch and gooey perfection you enjoyed as a kid.

But don't stop there. This unpretentious, easygoing little shop, courtesy of owners Krista and Troy Daily, also serves up a thoughtful rotating selection of top-notch cheeses and meats (what Wedge & Bottle does best) as well as wine, craft beer, and boutique grocery items.

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Jackie Mercandetti

Not needing any help with the heat is the aptly named Shrimp in a Very Hot Sauce, or camarones a la diabla.

Looking for your next favorite spot of quick-service Mexican food in Mesa? Taquitos Jalisco might just be a place to pull over.

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- A Formidable Cuban Sandwich and More on Phoenix's West Side
- Lamp's Wood-Fired Pizzas Shine in North Scottsdale

The small eatery has been quietly serving locals for nearly 15 years, starting when owner Benito Juarez decided to stop working in Mexican restaurants across the Valley to open a place of his own. Not everything hits the mark, but there are enough good, standard eats here for a quick, satisfying, and wallet-friendly meal that pretty much sums up what Taquitos Jalisco is all about.

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Jackie Mercandetti

Sandwich Cubano

Cuban Foods Bakery & Restaurant on the city's west side makes a formidable Cuban sandwich.

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- Lamp's Wood-Fired Pizzas Shine in North Scottsdale
- Pig & Pickle in Scottsdale: Gourmet Food Without the Price Tag

Larger than those you may have had elsewhere, the plate-size sandwich is juicy and a little garlicky, and the golden brown bread maintains its crispiness even as it soaks up the well-balanced mix of ingredients within. I maintain it's best consumed (like its relative, the Media Noche sandwich) with a cold, bracing glass of Malta, preferably mixed with condensed milk to gives the molasses-tasting soft drink a creamy texture and an aroma of corn flakes.

The Cuban sandwich is almost a rite of passage here, but there are several other satisfying dishes, too.

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Jackie Mercandetti

Lamp churns out red and white artisan pies that are delicate yet able to be laden with top-notch ingredients.

The most primitive attraction in North Scottsdale may be Lamp's pizza oven.

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- Pig & Pickle in Scottsdale: Gourmet Food Without the Price Tag
- Six Phoenix Food Trucks, Rated

Covered in an armor of shiny red tiles, it transforms bolts of wood into flickering flames and blistering heat, fervently churning out rustic pies with bready crusts charred and crisp at the rim, thin and soft in the center.

The result is nearly 20 varieties of red and white artisan 12-inch pies, delicate yet able to be laden with top-notch ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, hand-stretched mozzarella, and sausages prepared by DeFalco's Italian Deli & Grocery in Scottsdale.

The pizzas probably won't be causing Chris Bianco any sleepless nights, but they are some of the Valley's best.

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