During the 10 days of Arizona Restaurant Week, diners can sample prix fixe menus from more than 230 restaurants around the Valley and beyond. Through these special menus, chefs showcase their flagship dishes or highlight the season, often at a discount for diners. Meals vary in price from $33, $44 or $55 per person, or, in some cases, per couple. Drink pairings may be available, too, for an additional charge.
“Season after season, we look forward to presenting this event with more restaurants, more deals and more fantastic ways to enjoy top-notch dining experiences,” Arizona Restaurant Association President and CEO Steve Chucri said in a press release.
With restaurants from every corner of the Valley participating, boasting a spectrum of cuisines and price points, there’s something for just about every palate and wallet. Here are six menus we can’t wait to taste.
Cafe Lalibela
849 W. University Drive, TempeCafe Lalibela has been a Tempe staple serving Ethiopian cuisine for nearly 20 years. Start off your three-course meal with Shorba, the cafe’s signature lentil soup. Or, try the beet and potato salad or an injera roll – collard greens and homemade cheese rolled in injera, a crepe-like sourdough bread made from teff. Couples will share their second course, a vegetarian or meat-and-veg platter. The vegetarian platter includes green beans with carrots, collard greens, yellow split peas, a spicy potato stew and more, with injera. The meat-and-vegetable platter includes a spicy beef stew, mild lamb stew, red lentils, green beans and more. Dessert options include tiramisu, chocolate mousse cake or tres leches cake.
Menu: $55 per couple. Add a bottle of wine for $15.
Try the hot chicken and beignets with bourbon pecan glaze at Copper & Sage in Phoenix.
Asonta Benetti
Copper & Sage
322 E. Camelback RoadCopper & Sage, the uptown Phoenix gastropub with Southern influence, is a new addition to this fall’s restaurant week. The meal begins with the choice of fried green tomato, shishito hush puppy or a bacon deviled egg with jalapeno jam. Entree options include jambalaya with confit duck leg, Cajun lobster mac and cheese, parmesan fried catfish or the restaurant’s hot chicken and beignets. The sweet and savory combo includes fried chicken served on Texas toast with pickles and spicy slaw along with Bourbon, peach and pecan-glazed beignets. Save room for dessert — a banana fritter with rum caramel and walnuts or a campfire brownie with marshmallows, graham crackers and vanilla ice cream. Copper & Sage is one of several restaurants partnering with Tito’s Handmade Vodka on featured cocktails, including a martini, mule or mojito.Menu: $44 per person. Featured cocktails for $9.
Fabio on Fire
8275 W. Lake Pleasant Parkway, #101, PeoriaFabio on Fire is helmed by Fabio Ceschetti, a chef born and raised in Italy who brings his family recipes to his West Valley trattoria. The restaurant is offering not one but two restaurant week menus are two different price points of $44 or $55 per person. Between the two menus, there are overlapping of appetizer options, including porchetta with hummus and focaccia, fried short rib ravioli or roasted shrimp with an arugula salad. The $55 menu includes pan-seared scallops with cannellini bean hummus and crispy pancetta as another starter option. Entree selections from the $44 menu are pasta or the Bianca Parma pizza, a white pizza with buffalo mozzarella, parma ham, arugula, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Mains on the $55 menu include halibut or pasta, including house-made gnocchi with prawns and fried zucchini. All restaurant week diners can choose a scoop of gelato for dessert.Menus: $44 or $55 per person.
Pa'La's Japanese sweet potatoes, topped with a dollop of housemade Aleppo chile crisp, are part of the downtown Phoenix spot's Arizona Restaurant Week menu.
Dominic Armato
Pa’La Downtown
132 E. Washington St.Splurge on a budget at Pa’La’s luxe downtown eatery. The wood-fired restaurant draws on global culinary influences. For the first course, diners can choose from a farm salad with green goddess dressing, wild shrimp or smoked burrata with prosciutto, arugula and a honey-curry vinaigrette. Main dishes include fresh orecchiette, an Argentine skirt steak or Iberico sticky pork ribs with Korean spices and lime. Mains come with Japanese sweet potatoes. For the dessert course, choose from a Basque-style cheesecake or Milk and Honey, a caramelized honey flan with burnt honey ice cream.Menu: $55 per person.
Santo Arcadia
4418 E. Osborn RoadAt Santo Arcadia, diners can try modern Mexican cuisine from the culinary powerhouse trio of Roberto Centeno, Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin. Among appetizer selections are a Caesar chop salad or the birria dumplings. Second-course selections include a fried shrimp taco, grilled chicken or a flat iron steak, which is served with beans, papas al disco, salsa and flour tortillas. End your meal on a sweet note with arroz con leche or Santo’s seasonal ice cream options.Menu: $55 per person.
While the restaurant week menus at Shimogamo's two locations vary, both give diners a taste of the sushi chefs' skills.
Tirion Boan
Shimogamo
2051 W. Warner Road, Chandler2320 S. SanTan Village Pkwy., #104, Gilbert The East Valley’s hottest sushi restaurant is another newcomer to this fall’s restaurant week. Although people flock to Shimogamo’s Chandler and Gilbert locations for stellar sushi, the restaurant serves a broad range of Japanese cuisine that’s on display for this prix fixe menu, which varies slightly by location. The Chandler menu starts with a salmon coronet, a sesame cone that holds salmon tartare, caviar and egg. A course of assorted nigiri follows. Next, select a main of seared scallops, strip steak or red wine and soy-glazed pork spareribs. The meal ends with a matcha tiramisu. Meanwhile, in Gilbert, begin with a hamachi crudo with citrus soy and serrano, followed by a course of assorted nigiri. Entree selections here also include spareribs, a smoked skirt steak or miso black cod. Dinner in Gilbert is capped off with a miso pudding.
Chandler or Gilbert Menu: $55 per person.
