Restaurants in Tempe

The Grind's guests get their food hot, and they get it quickly. That’s because the restaurant’s coal-fired oven heats up to 1000 degrees, preparing most items in approximately four minutes. And the food isn’t just fast, it's acclaimed—like the cheetah that won three gold medals at the Olympics. The restaurant was named one of the “Top Ten Best New Burger Spots” from Bon Appetit. Among their collection of burgers, the menu includes one topped with housemade barbecue sauce, mozzarella, and garlic aioli, one accompanied by candied jalapenos and fried ratatouille, and one made with turkey and charred sweet onion. The chefs don’t stop at burgers, though. They churn out other sandwiches, such as a roast chicken wrap, a grilled Portobello sandwich, and a selection of breakfast items that includes a cheeseburger topped with hash browns, fried egg, and bacon. The team also demonstrates a dedication to the environment and health by using locally grown organic vegetables and hormone-free beef and chicken.

Barney’s Boathouse imports the party atmosphere and culinary traditions of New Orleans and Key West into its three-story restaurant and bar. The menu merges traditional Cajun dishes such as fried alligator tail and crawfish with classic pub cuisine, including eight creative burgers and six shareable pizzas. Beyond tropical flavors, the bar cultivates a beach-party vibe every night with regular trivia contests, live DJs, and votes to cast dining partners off the island.

Tina says her restaurant is her second home, a feeling that grew during the days when she ran the entire kitchen alone and worked to make every guest feel like they "had been invited to her home for a dinner party," according to azcentral.com in 2007. For each platter of food set before her houseguests, Tina draws culinary inspiration from her childhood in Ethiopia, using sense memory to season simmering pots of lentils, grilled beef, and herb-crusted chicken. Instead of silverware or miniature loading cranes, Tina serves each meal with an accompanying basket of traditional injera, a tasty, spongy Ethiopian bread that allows diners to scoop out each sauce-laden bite without the need for silver-, gold-, or bronze-ware.

4th Floor Grille & Sports Bar serves lunch and dinner amid the warmly lit luxury of Chaparral Suites. Chefs fill the menu with burgers, pizzas, and southwestern specialties such as tacos and spicy sandwiches. For dessert, an in-house pastry chef invites diners to indulge in flourless chocolate peanut butter cake and frozen margarita pie. In the adjacent sports bar, watch the human body at its mightiest, and the ball at its most humiliated, as 10 HDTVs broadcast football, baseball, basketball, and hockey packages.

At Tumi Fine Peruvian Restaurant, head chef Oscar Graham enlists fresh Peruvian ingredients such as aji peppers and yucca to honor his grandmother’s traditional recipes and update them with his own creative twist. Influenced by African, Italian, and Asian culinary techniques, the menu encompasses a spectrum of flavors and dishes, from succulent beef-loin strips sautéed with cilantro and onions to hearty linguine bowls drowned in Peruvian-style pesto. A fiery rotisserie roasts whole chickens—seasoned with Oscar’s blend of 12 spices—right in the Tumi kitchen, ensuring perfectly crisp skin, tender, juicy meat, and a frostbite-free wait staff.

Stone-tiled floors lead guests into Conti’s Bar and Grill, where four 120-inch high-definition projection TVs glow with power drawn from the tiny sportsmen running in circles inside them. Sunlight streams in through slotted window shades, illuminating exposed-brick columns and warm wood paneling. Guests can snuggle into booths as they munch on burgers, salmon, or full racks of ribs. Eight beers on tap wash down bites of confetti nachos or wistful licks of chocolate cake.