Bold, South Indian Cuisine at Karaikudi Palace in Scottsdale

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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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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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Leo's Island BBQ: Peoria's Hawaiian Punch

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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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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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Welcome Diner: A Phoenix Roadside Stop by Way of New Orleans

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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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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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Healthy Highs and Lows at Scottsdale's Original ChopShop Co.

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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.

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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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Miu's Cuisine in Tempe: Sichuan-Sensational

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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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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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Making the French Connection at Amuse Bouche in Surprise

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Laura Hahnefeld
Parisian Baguette Sandwich
Do you enjoy a bit of culinary torment now and then?

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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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Ahwatukee's Wedge & Bottle: A Curd Nerd's Paradise

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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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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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Satisfying Street Eats and More at Taquitos Jalisco in Mesa

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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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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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Cuban Foods Bakery & Restaurant: Sandwich Cubanos and More on the City's West Side

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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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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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Lamp Wood Oven Pizzeria Shines in North Scottsdale

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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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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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