Tempe, Arizona, rewards a little exploration beyond the busiest stretch of Mill Avenue. Along Apache Boulevard and University Drive, family restaurants offer Ethiopian platters, Punjabi curries, and Middle Eastern lunches; farther south, Southwestern cooking makes room for both chile-rich comfort food and composed dinner plates. The city also has room for a mesquite burger, a substantial Cornish pasty, and an entirely plant-based meal. These 15 picks stay within Tempe and cover different budgets and occasions, from breakfast before a day around campus to a slower dinner with several dishes on the table.
The countdown runs from #15 to #1. Dishes and wines illustrate each restaurant’s cooking and selection; menus change, so check availability when booking.
Price guide: Approximate meal cost per person, including mandatory charges but excluding drinks, tax, and voluntary tip. Shared-plate estimates reflect a full shared meal; Daily Jam reflects breakfast. Larger parties and premium dishes may cost more:
- $ – under $25
- $$ – $25–$49
- $$$ – $50–$99
- $$$$ – $100+
#15 Daily Jam
Cuisine: Breakfast, brunch, and lunch
Neighborhood: Downtown / Mill Avenue
Price: $
Best For: A downtown breakfast with both sweet and savory choices
Must Order: Red Velvet Waffles
Why It Made the List:
Daily Jam is a useful starting point for a day downtown because its menu accommodates a sweet breakfast, an egg-centered meal, or an early lunch without much negotiation. The waffles give it a clear indulgent option, while chilaquiles and breakfast tacos provide more savory routes; sandwiches extend the same stop into the middle of the day.
Known For:
- Red Velvet Waffles from the griddle menu
- Chilaquiles with ranchero salsa, melted cheese, fried eggs, and grilled potatoes
- Eddie’s Breakfast Tacos with scrambled eggs, black beans, red cabbage, and chipotle sauce
#14 Postino Annex
Cuisine: Bruschetta, panini, and shared plates
Neighborhood: ASU campus / College Avenue
Price: $$
Best For: A leisurely shared meal near campus
Must Order: Bruschetta board
Why It Made the List:
Postino Annex works best when the table orders across a few sections of the menu instead of treating a bruschetta board as the whole meal. The mix-and-match toppings provide a natural starting point, with a panini, salad, or warm plate adding substance; its campus setting makes that format especially useful for a long catch-up over lunch or dinner.
Known For:
- A four-selection bruschetta board with combinations such as brie, apple, and fig
- Lemon Butter Chicken Plate with toasted almonds and lemon-caper butter
- Italian Beef Dip with melted brie, caramelized onions, and au jus
#13 Perfect Pear Bistro
Cuisine: Contemporary American comfort food
Neighborhood: North Tempe / West University Drive
Price: $
Best For: A flexible lunch of sandwiches, salads, and bowls
Must Order: Perfectly Grilled Cheese
Why It Made the List:
Perfect Pear makes lunch easy to customize without reducing the choices to a plain sandwich or a side salad. Its grilled cheeses, vegetable bowls, and substantial salads share a playful approach to sweet and savory ingredients, so a group can order quite differently while staying within the same relaxed, everyday style of meal.
Known For:
- Perfectly Grilled Cheese with brie, a four-cheese blend, arugula, and bacon on pear bread
- Peanut Coconut Curry quinoa bowl with broccoli, cauliflower, and roasted peppers
- Perfect Pear Classic salad with pears, dried cranberries, gorgonzola, and toasted hazelnuts
#12 Four Peaks Brewing Co. — 8th Street Pub
Cuisine: American brewpub cooking
Neighborhood: East Eighth Street
Price: $
Best For: A casual group meal at the original brewery pub
Must Order: 8th Street Chicken Strips
Why It Made the List:
Four Peaks gives a casual meal a recognizable setting and a menu that carries the brewery into the kitchen. Beer-battered chicken, fish, and house beer bread provide a stronger reason to eat here than the tap list alone, while salads and Southwestern dishes help a group find something beyond the standard burger order.
Known For:
- 8th Street Chicken Strips with ale batter, fries, and chipotle ranch
- Pub Fish and Chips with Kilt Lifter-battered Atlantic cod
- Chicken Beer Bread with artichokes, mushrooms, mozzarella, and tzatziki
#11 The Chuckbox
Cuisine: Mesquite-grilled burgers
Neighborhood: University Drive / near ASU
Price: $
Best For: A straightforward burger cooked over an open fire
Must Order: The Great Big One
Why It Made the List:
The Chuckbox earns its place by keeping the meal focused: a burger from the open fire, a choice of size and toppings, and a simple side. The menu is easy to navigate, but its jalapeno-cheese and green-chile option gives anyone who wants more than a basic cheeseburger a distinct direction without burying the central appeal of the grill.
Known For:
- The Great Big One, a half-pound mesquite-broiled burger
- Tijuana Torpedo with jalapeno jack inside and green chile on top
- Beer-battered onion rings and Chuckbox potatoes
#10 Tampopo Ramen
Cuisine: Japanese ramen
Neighborhood: South McClintock Drive
Price: $
Best For: A focused ramen meal with optional small plates
Must Order: Tonkotsu Ramen
Why It Made the List:
Tampopo keeps the bowl at the center of the meal while offering enough variations to make a return visit feel different. Black garlic oil, white miso, and curry each take the menu in a distinct direction, and a bun or a shared plate of dumplings adds variety without turning dinner into a complicated sequence of courses.
Known For:
- Tonkotsu Ramen with pork chashu, black garlic oil, and a soy egg
- Miso Ramen with white miso, pork broth, and sweet corn
- Hirata Bun filled with pork chashu
#9 Green New American Vegetarian
Cuisine: Plant-based comfort food
Neighborhood: North Tempe / Scottsdale Road
Price: $
Best For: A fully vegan meal with familiar comfort-food formats
Must Order: Damn Dan Noodle
Why It Made the List:
Green makes plant-based dining feel like a broad choice of meals rather than a narrow set of substitutes. Noodle bowls, sandwiches, and loaded fries offer different ways into the menu, and dishes built around peanuts, tamari, curry, or citrus give diners room to choose a flavor direction before deciding on a particular mock meat or tofu.
Known For:
- Damn Dan Noodle with tamari, peanut sauce, beefy crumbles, mushrooms, and cabbage
- My Green Tangerine with crispy plant-based chick’n, broccoli, and citrus glaze
- Original G Spicy Po-Boy with buffalo mock chick’n on ciabatta
#8 Cornish Pasty Co.
Cuisine: Cornish pasties and pub cooking
Neighborhood: University Drive / Hardy Drive
Price: $
Best For: A filling pastry with plenty of alternatives
Must Order: The Oggie
Why It Made the List:
Cornish Pasty Co. turns a simple pastry format into a full menu of recognizable meals, from the traditional steak-and-root-vegetable filling to curry-inspired and plant-based versions. The Oggie is the clearest starting point, but the breadth of the menu makes this a practical group choice when everyone wants something hearty without ordering the same flavor profile.
Known For:
- The Oggie with steak, potato, onion, rutabaga, and red wine gravy
- Chicken Tikka Masala pasty with pepper, potato, and minted yogurt
- Vegan Oggie with portobello mushrooms, potatoes, rutabaga, and onions
#7 Haji-Baba
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Neighborhood: Apache Boulevard
Price: $
Best For: A substantial lunch with a grocery stop
Must Order: Chicken Shawarma Plate
Why It Made the List:
Haji-Baba makes a strong everyday choice because its sandwiches and plates cover different appetites without losing the focus on shawarma, kebabs, falafel, and dips. A full plate brings several components together, while the vegetarian combination offers a similarly varied meal; the attached grocery adds another reason to make the stop part of an afternoon.
Known For:
- Chicken Shawarma Plate with garlic sauce, rice, hummus, and salad
- Vegetarian Combination with falafel, grape leaves, tabouli, eggplant dip, and yogurt salad
- Kibbi Plate with bulgur, beef, pine nuts, hummus, and tabouli
#6 Caffe Boa
Cuisine: Italian and Mediterranean
Neighborhood: Downtown / Mill Avenue
Price: $$
Best For: House-made pasta and a relaxed downtown dinner
Must Order: Coniglio pasta
Why It Made the List:
Caffe Boa offers a useful change of pace on Mill Avenue, with a pasta list that goes beyond the usual handful of red-sauce standards. Rabbit, mushrooms, squash, and clams appear in different preparations, so a shared starter followed by individual pastas makes a coherent dinner without requiring one of the larger meat entrees.
Known For:
- Coniglio with handmade Istrian pasta, slow-roasted rabbit, and mushrooms
- Ravioli Zucca with butternut squash, hazelnuts, sage, and goat cheese
- Vongole e Salsiccia with Italian sausage, clams, and fettuccine
#5 Curry Corner
Cuisine: Pakistani and Indian
Neighborhood: Apache Boulevard / east of campus
Price: $
Best For: A generous curry or grill meal near campus
Must Order: Nehari
Why It Made the List:
Curry Corner gives diners a reason to look beyond the familiar tikka masala order. Slow-stewed beef, charcoal-grilled chicken, and several thali combinations make the menu useful for both a focused single-plate lunch and a group that wants to share, with rice or naan included alongside many of the main dishes.
Known For:
- Nehari with boneless beef slowly stewed in a spiced sauce
- Mix Grill Sizzler with chicken boti, chicken tikka, and seekh kabab
- Tikka Masala Fries with masala sauce, ranch, and feta
#4 The Dhaba
Cuisine: Punjabi Indian
Neighborhood: Apache Boulevard
Price: $$
Best For: A shared Punjabi meal with an extensive vegetable selection
Must Order: Narur Sarson Da Saag
Why It Made the List:
The Dhaba is worth considering for the depth of its vegetable cooking as much as its clay-oven and meat dishes. Mustard greens, lentils, paneer, and eggplant give a group several distinct choices, and the bread list makes it easy to turn two or three entrees into a shared meal with different textures and degrees of richness.
Known For:
- Narur Sarson Da Saag made with mustard greens, herbs, and spices
- Lahori Malai Kofta with paneer-and-vegetable dumplings in a creamy sauce
- Gosht Rogan Josh with aromatic lamb and spices
#3 Ghost Ranch
Cuisine: Modern Southwestern
Neighborhood: South Tempe / Warner Road
Price: $$
Best For: A Southwestern dinner with several routes through the menu
Must Order: Chimayo Chile Salmon
Why It Made the List:
Ghost Ranch builds its dinner around chile, corn, and the kind of comforting combinations that work equally well for a casual outing or a longer meal. The salmon and braised short rib offer composed entree options, while the layered Aztec Cake and vegetable dishes give the table alternatives beyond steak and a side.
Known For:
- Chimayo Chile Salmon with honey-chile glaze and mango-kiwi rice
- Chipotle-braised short rib with creamy polenta and green chile ragu
- Aztec Cake with layered tortillas, chipotle chicken, corn, and Oaxaca cheese
#2 Cafe Lalibela
Cuisine: Ethiopian
Neighborhood: West University Drive
Price: $
Best For: A shared platter with substantial vegetable choices
Must Order: Vegetable Combination
Why It Made the List:
Cafe Lalibela makes an excellent introduction to Ethiopian cooking because its combinations put contrasting stews and vegetables together in one meal. The vegetable platter is a substantial choice in its own right, while meat combinations and larger shared spreads let a mixed group explore more of the menu without having to commit everyone to the same dish.
Known For:
- Vegetable Combination with green beans, collard greens, red lentils, and cabbage
- Chef’s Favorite with doro wat, gomen, and ayeb
- Beef or lamb tibs with jalapenos, onion, and rosemary
#1 Cocina Chiwas
Cuisine: Contemporary Chihuahuan Mexican
Neighborhood: Apache Boulevard / Culdesac
Price: $$
Best For: A considered dinner built around wood-fired cooking
Must Order: Mole Chiwas
Why It Made the List:
Cocina Chiwas gives regional Mexican cooking the space of a full evening meal, with vegetables, wood-fired starters, tacos, and larger plates all carrying real weight. Start with something to share before moving to the chicken and mole, or build a more varied table from the mushroom and carnitas dishes; the menu rewards that kind of deliberate mixing.
Known For:
- Mole Chiwas with crispy chicken thigh, creamy polenta, and chile Colorado mole
- Wood-fired quesadilla filled with beef birria and two cheeses
- Hongos al horno with seasonal mushrooms and white bean puree
How we chose
We selected these restaurants for distinctive cooking, a clear sense of place, and a dining experience worth seeking out. Our editorial review considered current menus, official restaurant information, and local dining coverage, with attention to both special occasions and everyday meals. The ranking reflects editorial judgment rather than a numerical score.
Planning your next meal
Menus and seasonal preparations change; use the restaurant links to check the latest offerings and make reservations where available.
More dining advice
For help choosing a bottle with dinner, read our guide to ordering wine at a restaurant.
