A restaurant scene that outperforms its resort-town expectations.
Old Town Scottsdale has undergone a quiet transformation over the past decade. The western-themed tourist shops and chain restaurants that defined the area for years have given way to a more interesting collection of independent restaurants, wine bars, and chef-driven concepts. The dining scene is not yet competing with the best food cities in the country, but it is considerably better than most golf destinations offer, and the concentration of quality within a walkable area makes it the clear choice for evenings during a Scottsdale trip.
The strongest category is modern Southwestern cuisine, which benefits from the regional produce, the proximity to the Mexican border, and a generation of chefs who trained in larger markets and returned to the desert. Dishes tend toward bold flavours with cleaner execution than the heavy Tex-Mex that dominated the area a generation ago. Several restaurants source directly from Arizona farms, and the quality of the ingredients is evident.
For steak, Scottsdale competes credibly with any city in the West. The old-school steakhouses survive alongside newer entries that treat the format with more creativity and less red leather. Both approaches have their merits after a day in the desert.
The walkable core runs along Stetson Drive, Marshall Way, and the surrounding blocks. A 15-minute walk covers the best of it. Reservations are necessary at the stronger restaurants during peak season, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings. The quality drops off sharply outside the core area, and the resort restaurants, with a few exceptions, do not match what is available in town.