Activities & Restaurants

Camelback Mountain

The signature hike in Phoenix / Scottsdale. The Camelback Mountain trails offer a challenging hike along with great views. Bring comfortable hiking shoes and water!

Desert Botanical Garden

A gorgeous highlight of our beloved desert environment. DBG offers a great place to walk, be outside, and enjoy the Arizona desert!

Taliesin West

A special tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright in our own backyard. If you want a fun and unique tour our beautiful architecture in a desert environment, we highly recommend Taliesin West!

Heard Museum

Renata's Hearth

The Arizona Biltmore’s new main restaurant post-renovation. It is definitely worth going. We highly recommend enjoying the creations of the Mezcal Maven. In terms of food, the Basque Sandwich Bites are not to be missed. We also highly recommend the Caledonian Blue Shrimp a la Plancha.

Hillstone Restaurant / Houston's

While they may not be new, they also remain undefeated. Two related restaurants with slightly different menus. They are equally great for lunch and dinner. The French Dip has an argument for the best sandwich anywhere. The burger is the best in town. The pork ribs are both Molly’s and her mom’s favorite (Cameron loves them too). The Hawaiian ribeye cannot be beat. And if you want to go lighter, the dover sole and the Osaka pressed sushi (Hillstone only) are delightful. If in season, the grilled artichokes are the best anywhere, and the spinach artichoke dip is a great backup. They also fresh squeeze their grapefruit juice, which makes for refreshing greyhounds. In short, no one leaves Hillstone unsatisfied.

Steak 44 / Ocean 44

Steak 44 and Ocean 44 are two of Cameron and Molly’s favorite places and where Molly learned what it means to “go have dinner at the bar” with Cameron. These are sister restaurants, Ocean 44 has more of a focus on seafood. For more history about the restaurants, ask Cameron about the Mastro brothers. Everything is good, but we recommend a few things. The steaks are as good as anywhere and the veal chop (Steak 44 only) is excellent. If you like cooked fish, Molly loves the seabass, the tuna at both is great, and the crab cakes are the best in town. For raw bar, the oyster selection is excellent (Steak 44 normally has two and Ocean 44 will have four), the king crab claws (Ocean 44 only) and king crab legs are fantastic, especially with the creamy mustard sauce, and Molly recommends the Shrimp cocktail with the cocktail sauce and atomic horseradish. For appetizers, we recommend the crispy shrimp, the chicken fried lobster tails, and the wood roasted clams (Ocean 44 only).

Christopher’s at the Wrigley Mansion

If you are looking for a fine dining tasting menu dinner spot, this is the place. Christopher has been a James Beard winner and leading French chef in Phoenix for three decades. His sauces (and bread) are probably the best in town. This is the third iteration of his restaurant and certainly the most visually impressive. They did a very modern buildout of a small space attached to Wrigley Mansion that hangs out over a hilltop edge. The architecture and the view are spectacular. The food leans modern French and is served as a tasting menu only. Cameron eats here with his Burgundy wine collectors’ group quite often.

Tarbell's

Cameron’s “local” spot that he has been going to since he moved here with his parents. Molly loves the crispy rock shrimp tempura as they use a rice flour so it is gluten free, one of the few places she gets to have some crispy fried seafood. Cameron thinks the meatballs are the best around (you can get them on their own, on pizza, or with spaghetti) and he also loves the ribbon pasta with chicken sausage. For those that like fish, the white fish dish is always great as they get a nice sear and crust in their preparation.

Barrio Cafe

You are in Phoenix, so you should have some Mexican food. The king of the more gourmet Mexican restaurants in town. Everything is good here, but we particularly recommend their cochinita pibil, the chile relleno, the mole, and the tableside guacamole with pomegranate seeds. A Phoenix legend that put our Mexican restaurants on the national map and with good reason. It has become an institution at this point.

Otro Cafe

This is a casual Mexican spot for breakfast or lunch. All the tacos are great. The queso fundido is the best in town and a must order. We highly recommend La Parrillada with barbacoa, in which they bring the barbacoa to the table on a sizzling platter to make tacos family style.

CRUjiente Tacos

A unique Mexican spot even in the Phoenix area as no other place makes tacos in the style they do. They specialize in CRUjiente style tacos, which are freshly made crispy shell tacos. While all the tacos are delicious here (especially the lamb CRUjiente taco), we believe the pork CRUjiente taco may well be the best taco in town and would be hard to beat anywhere. The chips and salsa and guac are a must, Molly usually eats a bag of chips on her own! This is one of Molly and Cameron’s favorite mid-week dinner spots to sit at the bar, have margaritas and tacos, and watch a game.

Tacos Chiwas

One of the top taco shops in town for some quick tacos. All the tacos are excellent. They also have “gorditas”, which are not something you find everywhere and can be delicious.

Tacos Calafia Downtown

It is downtown, but one of our favorite quick taco shops in town. We always seem to stop for a “snack” when downtown. The best al pastor in town.

Pizzeria Bianco

There is no more influential or famous person in food from Phoenix than Chris Bianco, who put Phoenix on the map as a pizza capital when Ed Levine and others declared his pizza the best in America (check out the recent Chef’s Table Pizza on Chris). We do not think it is the best pizza in America (Cameron went to school in New Haven after all), but it is really good. Tratto, his Italian restaurant is also great, though it is downtown. If you like this style of pizza, which we would describe as a crispier version of Neapolitan in a wood burning oven, you should like this pizza. This pizza is about crust, do not put too many toppings on it. There is nowhere to hide with his pastas or pizzas. And nothing shows this better than Cameron’s surprise favorite of his pizzas, the Marinara. It has no cheese, so the crust, the Marinara sauce, and the garlic must be excellent, which they are. Cameron also loves the Sonny Boy and the Rosa is a very unique, local, and interesting pie.

AZ/88

A great spot if you end up in Old Town Scottsdale one night. Over 30 years it has become a Scottsdale institution. The menu never changes even as the space constantly evolves with the art installations always changing. It is very much a hip and happening scene famous for its martinis and elevated bar food. The AZ88 buffalo chicken sandwich is superb as are the waffle fries and hell’s fire chips. And did we mention the Martinis?