Quality restaurant in Phoenix or Mesa AZ?

Someone wrote:
>There is a new 50's Diner in East Mesa called the 5 & Diner.  It just

This is actually a chain.  Never been.  Hear it's pretty good for what it is.

                        --Blair
                          "Ed Debevic's is getting old..."

Someone wrote:
>Blair H. wrote:
>>Someone wrote:
>>>There is a new 50's Diner in East Mesa called the 5 & Diner.  It just
>>[...nothing special deleted...]
>I just started a new Personal Web Page:"Restaurant Resources on the Web".  It
>is located at:
>http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/7199/rest.html
>Click on "Zagat Restaurant Survey"
>Then click on "Phoenix-Scottsdale".
>You may find what you need there.
>Hope this helps.

You'll more likely find yourself undercooked.

The Zagat's entries for Phoenix-Scottsdale are slim.  Maybe five years ago I'd have been impressed by seeing 40 places from here listed in it, but now there are over 4,000 restaurants and bars in the Phoenix metro area, and probably a couple of hundred that deserve to be recommended for particular reasons.

Rough Guide's listings are even worse; somehow the RG editor got a bug up his ass about Phoenix and decided to make the place seem unattractive.  Total hatchet job (unless the constant complaints have turned them around recently). Phoenix is one of the nicest places in the world (not just the US), and has some cuisine you can't get anywhere else (My Mexican can beat your Mexican!).  Of course, it's got its demi-ghetto and plenty of crappy restaurants, too, but that's life in the big city.

Want to have your culinary life upended? Go to the Biltmore Fashion Park and try to decide where to eat.  Within an eighth of a mile of the corner of 24th Street and Camelback
Road are:

        Christopher's
        Christopher's Bistro
        Kyoto (in the Empire)
        Bistro 24
        Houston's
        Morton's of Chicago
        Ruth's Chris (may be a quarter of a mile away)
        Steamers'
        Sam's Cafe
        Roxsand
        The Bamboo Club
        Ayako
        Hops!
        and this really nice Italian place that lists a two-hour wait in Saturday nights and I forget its name damn damn damn...

Plus the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Houlihan's, and two or three more that I apologize for forgetting...

Over in Scottsdale, I recommend Baby Kay's (creole/cajun; crayfish etoufee' to secede for), Z-Tejas Grill, the *other* location of Ruth's Chris (the two are like seven miles apart).  I don't recommend Malee's (thai), but if you do go, ignore the menu and ask the waiter for what's good; choosing randomly has always disappointed us.  I used to recommend the Famous Pacific Fish Co., but now that it's been taken over by Landry's I can't (Landry's is the Denny's of fish).

If you have to do seafood (I'm from Boston; I haven't had a lobster in seven years; I feel your pain), go to the Fish Market.  I haven't been to Steamed Blues (a funky ersatz crab shack in the middle of Phoenix), yet, but I hear it's really impressive only to people who've never been to Maryland (I'm from Maryland, too, BTW).

Mesa's a little slimmer pickings, but I hear the Landmark is interesting.

Phoenician Mexican restaurants are a reason to start a new newsgroup.  Here are places I've been and would recommend to match a particular purpose.  There are scores of Mexican places I haven't been in this town, and dozens I'm not naming here.  Elan and price are not important, food is. As it turns out, I'm partial to real Mexican food (but, unlike asian restaurants, you can't judge by the number of Mexicans in the place; Taco Bell is making a killing in Mexico City...).  Some of you may require pasty beans and Old El Paso taco shells, though, so I've included a gringo category just for you.

    Superauthentic: Tacos Mexico, Priest and Southern in Tempe (next
                    to the REI).

    Semi-authentic: Filiberto's, various locations;
                    La Carreta, in El Tianguis at 56th and Guadalupe in
                    Guadalupe;
                    La Casa Serrano, various locations;
                    Guedo's Taco Shop, Chandler and Arizona in Chandler.

    Gringo:         Macayo, in various states (Macayo is owned by Garcia's).

Because there are people who for some reason treat dining as an extreme sport, I have to add:

    Burn-your-lips-off stuff:  Los Dos Molinos, in various locations,
                         including Alma School Road south of
                         Apache, in Mesa.

The food there is very, very good, but it's also made very spicy.  This reviewer bears no liability for any damage to your alimentary canal.

                                --Blair
                                  "*Now* I'm hungry."