Our Top 10 Favorite Flagstaff Restaurants
Josh has lived in Flagstaff for over 25 years, so has seen many restaurants come and go, but luckily, many of his favorites are still here. I have lived in Flagstaff for 11 years, and has enjoyed exploring the local restaurant scene with Josh pretty much those full 11 years. It has generally been our goal to eat out at the local Flagstaff restaurants as often as possible, mostly because they’re way better, in our opinion, but also because we like to support our local Flagstaff businesses. We certainly have our favorite Flagstaff restaurants, and would love to share them with you (in really no particular order)!
Now a little more about each one:
The Toasted Owl is one of the newer restaurants in Flagstaff, but definitely does top our list! They have breakfast and lunch (closed for dinner), and two locations in Flagstaff. Their downtown location has a lovely outside patio, perfect for the dog lover as it’s dog friendly. Their east side location is close to us, which we love! There aren’t that many local restaurants near us, so we were excited about this one. They have a unique menu with items like “The Owl’s Nest of Goodness” (Josh’s favorite), as well as lots of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free items. They also have a liquor license with delicious breakfast beverages if that suits your fancy.
Miz Zip’s has probably been around Flagstaff the longest on the list, though we didn’t actually research the validity of that statement. It’s one of those local, hole in the wall type restaurants that the locals flock to. They have a couple pies a day that you can get by the slice, and we pretty much always get their Zipburgers with fries. Josh usually gets the Zipburger chili style. There really isn’t anything super special about Miz Zip’s, it just feels special, and is consistently delicious. It’s a great place for the whole family. Don’t expect an exciting salad though. 😉
Galaxy Diner is similar to Miz Zip’s in that it’s a greasy spoon. For a while, Galaxy Diner kinda went down in the dumps, but management has since brought it back to its glory days. It is a diner on Old Route 66, with all the old movie posters hanging up everywhere. You’ll get the typical diner food there, but their milkshakes and malts are TO DIE FOR. This is another great place for the family, but again, don’t get too excited about their salads.
Tiki Grill is the newest Flagstaff restaurant on our list, and it was a smash hit with the whole family (if you haven’t read about us yet, we have a 6 year old son, and a 3 year old daughter–they’re not super picky, but they are kids…). I got the grilled shrimp tacos, and they were perfection with the sauce, the flavors, and the texture. Josh had a breaded cod sandwich that was delightful and very fresh. Our son had their wings because he LOVES wings. I wouldn’t say the wings had a ton of flavor, but they were perfect for my son, and they were super crispy, which is always super important to us. My daughter had the kids meal chicken tenders, and they were tasty as well. They just got their liquor license, so had plenty of options of alcohol, and they have daily specials and Taco Tuesday. The atmosphere was really comfortable and very on point with the tiki theme. A fun place for sure!
NiMarco’s Pizza has three locations, one on the west side, downtown, and one on the east side (yay east side restaurants!!). It’s a super kid and family-friendly restaurant, where you can order whole pizzas or pizzas by the slice. The slices are huge! Their wings win best of Flagstaff year after year, and I can see why. They’re never fatty, and always cooked to crunchy perfection. Their pizzas are super delicious, of course, and they have yummy salads too.
Satchmo’s wasn’t always our favorite BBQ joint in town, but sadly, Bigfoot BBQ, where Josh and I had our first date has gone downhill. It’s still a decent BBQ restaurant, but I mostly save it for the tourists now as it’s downtown. Satchmo’s though is on the east side, and is actually quite different from Bigfoot anyway. It’s more of a southern creole style BBQ joint, and is always a super fun place to go. They have an outside patio, and the inside restaurant has instruments on the walls, and paper on the tables so you can color on them while you wait. Their BBQ sauces are so delicious, as is everything we’ve had there. We LOVE their cole slaw as they make it with jalapenos so has quite the kick. We’ve never had anything there we didn’t like.
Mama Burger will always carry a special place in our hearts as we ate it in the hospital the night our daughter was induced. Now every year on her birthday, we eat at Mama Burger. Every one of their burgers are absolutely amazing, even just their simple cheeseburger. I love their burger with the BBQ sauce and pineapples, and Josh loves their giant double cheeseburger. Their fries, tots and sweet potato tots are so stinkin good, and their milkshakes are also phenomenal. It’s a treat whenever we get their burgers.
Fat Olives wouldn’t necessarily top Josh’s list, but it’s one of my favorites for sure. Their Fat Olives Salad is soooo good with goat cheese and dried fig pieces. I often get their roasted vegetable platter with chicken too, and it is so simple, but oh so good! Their pizzas are made in the fire pizza oven, and are unique and delicious all in one. We haven’t had too many of their pastas, but when they have, they’ve been quite yummy. They also have a really nice side room for hosting parties if you’re in need of a good location for that. I’ve had a few work parties there before, and our baby shower for our daughter was there too. This restaurant has been on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives too if that’s your thing.
Flagstaff has a few high-end, fancy restaurants, and of the ones we’ve tried, we like Josephine’s the best. Their menu doesn’t change much, but what they offer is always solidly good. We enjoy their desserts the most. Their creme brule is our personal favorite, but every single dessert we’ve had there is mouth-watering. It’s also a super cool building downtown that was once a house, so the tables are all organized in different rooms of the house. It is quite homey, and the service has always been excellent.
Last, but not least, is Little Thai Kitchen, and little it is! I think they have all of 6 or 8 tables, maybe, and it’s definitely a hole in the wall. It’s on the west side of town, in a very small strip mall, so really easy to overlook. We don’t eat Thai food too often, but when we do, we like to go there. Their food is just so stinkin good, and has always been really consistent. They also have a ridiculously good coconut ice cream that you get for dessert! Mmmm mmmm.
There you have it! Our list of our favorite Flagstaff restaurants…looking back at it, we eat a lot more diner-type foods when we eat out than I realized, and clearly love dessert. We don’t eat out too often, as we have a pretty low eating out budget, so when we do, we like to make it count.
About Megan Collier
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