Restaurants in Sierra Vista Southeast

When diners order a burger at Opa, they’re liable to be confused. There’s the bun, the tomato, the lettuce—and no meat in sight. Right before befuddled diners can flag down their server, a grinning Chef Andreas emerges from the kitchen with their meat, sets it aflame souvlaki-style at the table, and drapes the sizzling disk atop the diner’s bare bun. “I like to make people happy. It’s what I do,” explains Andreas, who jumps at any opportunity to surprise and delight guests in his dining room. His commitment to creating a welcoming atmosphere has earned the chef praise from Tucson Weekly, as well a spot on Tucson Lifestyle ’s Best of 2011 restaurant list.

Though the prolific restaurateur has opened 74 eateries across the country, he eventually wearied of the anonymity in running more corporate establishments. Now, Chef Andreas shares his heritage instead—murals of the island of Santorini grace restaurant walls, Greek music flows through the dining room all day, and family recipes inspire the flame-kissed spiced meats that seem to pour out of the kitchen like a faucet with a water vendetta. Though Greek traditions are evident in his food, Chef Andreas also tunes in to customer requests, now preparing many gluten-free and low-carb platters to honor the wishes of his guests.

Since 2005, Steve and Renee Kreager have garnered abundant acclaim for their pies and pastas, which they concoct with locally sourced, organic ingredients. Along with nitrate-free meats and local grass-fed beef, diverse toppings such as red-curry sauce and vegan cheese adorn the organic dough of the eatery's specialty pizzas, which include vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free varieties. Free-range chicken adds protein to any vegetarian or gluten-free salad, and housemade sauces and meatballs top hearty pastas. Organic wines or brews from the sustainable New Belgium Brewery wash down each tasty dish. In addition to its environmentally conscious cooking, Renee's Organic Oven observes green-minded business practices such as its oil-recycling program, which converts unused olive oil into trees.

Hailed by Phoenix magazine, among others, for its "mix of whimsy, talent, kitchen smarts and great service," Jax Kitchen concocts upscale comfort fare that blends the familiar with the sophisticated. The eatery’s seasonal dishes, featuring favorite foods of the owners and head chef Virginia Wooters, dress up new york strip steak with sunny-side quail eggs and load sea-scallop chowder with poblano peppers and house-made cornbread croutons. Inside the dining area, soft lighting illuminates each bite, and brick archways form the entrance to an outdoor patio area where patrons can sip cocktails and wines and inhale uninhibited amounts of oxygen.

Charles Kendrick has been cooking since the 1960s, taking his fondness for traditional barbecue flavoring to the kitchen with his latest venture—Mr. K’s Barbeque. Mr. K’s serves a distinct style of patiently-smoked Tucson barbecue, in a market-style setting, that includes half-pound pork, beef, and chicken sandwiches in a tomato-based sauce and racks of ribs served simply in dry-rubbed tuxedos. The restaurant also offers catering packages that feature one, two, or three meats along with homemade sides and sweet tea.

Part corner market and part Mediterranean lunchery, Opa Café and Market bustles to the tune of funk music as waiters ferry platters of chicken shawarma and falafel anointed with tahini. The Jerusalem-born owner wrangles locally roasted espresso beans and Boar's Head deli meats to round out the menu's Mediterranean offerings