Restaurants in Goodyear

Calico Jack's Cantina blends Tex-Mex cuisine with an atmosphere of all-night dance parties and music-fueled celebrations. Murals of Mexican calaveras dot the yellow walls as diners sup on hearty meals of carnitas, burgers, tacos, and salsas and dips. Revelers crowd the floor to rhythmically move to tracks from a live DJ or step up on one of the two full-service bars for delivering raucous toasts or taking first place in a height contest.

In the interest of sharing their hearth-bound heritage with the wider culinary world, the two families behind Arizona Frybread combined their traditional Yaqui fry-bread with recipes plucked from the worn pages of treasured cookbooks. This dedication to homestyle kitchen craft is also instilled in their restaurant’s cooks, who hand-sizzle each flat of crunchy fry bread before topping it with mojito chicken, steak, or beans and cheese. The shop pays equal attention to its toppings: red chili teases tongues with an heirloom kick calibrated in the course of three generations, and tender bites of cactus unlock the desert’s surprisingly verdant flavors.

At Brothers Pizza Express, hand-tossed New York–style dough serves as the fresh foundation for pizzas and oven-baked calzones. Toppings such as pepperoni, jalapeños, black olives, and meatballs await to be peppered across each cheesy slice to create custom pies, and specialty pies eliminate tricky decision making with pretested combinations such as a margherita pizza loaded with tomatoes, basil, and parmesan cheese, and served in a salt-rimmed glass. Hot, hearty sandwiches pack savory slices of pastrami, steak, genoa salami, or ham and cheese between slices of baked focaccia or ciabatta bread, and hot wings can be procured in packs of 6–50 to cater to varying appetites and bib sizes.

All eyes gaze expectantly toward the center of M Sushi Bar's low-lit dining room, where a chef assembles his 32 specialty rolls at a glowing counter. A string of paper lanterns hover above tables on the room's far side, framing the open kitchen. Rolls sprinkled with candied macadamia nuts and striped in spicy wasabi or sweet unagi sauce pour forth, accompanied occasionally by a bowl of udon noodles. Other Japanese favorites, such as beef teriyaki, appear in lunch bento boxes and dinner specials, both of which are served as multi-course meals with miso soup, rice, and salad. The menu is primarily concerned with sushi, however, and favors fresh tuna and shrimp tempura over more unusual marine life and leftovers exhumed from Davy Jones' locker. A full bar taps Japanese beer on draft and uncorks cold sake to be enjoyed outside on the patio.

The meats of Mexican cuisine are as diverse as the colors of the rainbow, and Ta’Carbon strives to serve every one. Chefs load up the charcoal grill with familiar morsels of certified-Angus carne asada and barbacoa and pair them with specialty cuts such as lengua, cabeza, and tripa. These sizzling cuts then find their way into burritos, tacos, and dinner platters, which guests then customize at the salsa bar with a choice of red and green salsas, pico de gallo, and spicy vegetables according to their own tastes and the rules of upcoming fire-breathing contests.

To crown meals, the chefs sling traditional desserts such as flan and stock a range of Mexican sodas. Guests can grab food to go at the walk-up counter, enjoy their meals outside on the patio, or stay for an imported beer and watch the HDTV plasma screen showing soccer matches or telenovelas about people watching soccer matches.

Johnny of Johnny Fox's Public House sought to re-create the comforting pub ambiance he experienced during his time in Ireland with his father. He has accomplished this by building an old-world cottage exterior and large water wheel and filling his pub's interior with Gaelic "craig agus ceol." Following the tradition of Irish pubs, he divided the rooms into quaint sections. Low wood tables and stools sit near a brick fireplace, while one ornate booth stands semienclosed near the back. An old pipe organ sits next to a long table occupied by wayward lawn gnomes, and plenty of natural light floods in from all directions. Bartenders fill pints with Guinness, Harp, and Smithwick's at a bar inscribed with Gaelic sayings. In the kitchen, chefs labor over classic dishes such as shepherd's pie prepared with fresh ground lamb and beef, Guinness-braised short ribs, and pan-seared sea bass. Brunch buffets are available on Sundays, and a good whiskey is easy to find at Johnny Fox's, including an 18-year Jameson, while a carefully selected list of white and red wines can be paired to match all dishes on the menu. The restaurant's 15,000 square foot space is also available for meetings, weddings, or meetings held during weddings.