And so here we are:

12.  Pizza by George - they specialize in pizza, as the name tells you.  Very standard pizza.  But please, no canned mushrooms.

11.  Alpine Pizza - we’d love to rank this higher with their great location downtown, charming patio, old collegiate interior, but alas the pizza just doesn’t quite make the cut.  Standard.

10.  Pizza Guy - pizza and wings.  Sauce is a bit on the spicy side which makes it a little more special, but it’s pretty standard here.  Great deals for college students, though.

9.  Picazzo’s - really nice dining area and bar.  Great lunch special of a generous slice with salad.  But the salads are the way to go here.  Pizzas are creative, but not quite special enough.

8.  NiMarcos - very collegiate, good kid place or to come with a crowd.  Decent, simple pizza.  Some like the crust (more crackerlike) - very different from the rest - others aren’t sold on it.

7.  Scott’s Chicago Pizza - as we have reviewed before, pizza in a gas station is good.  Hefty, generous portions and loaded with toppings.

6.  Strombolli’s - classic pizza, always decent.  Kids get fun shapes.

5.  Oregano’s - always dependable, always huge portions.

4.  Pesto Bros. - Italian restaurant not always thought of for their pizza, but it is delish.  The pepperonis are the real kind and real good.

3.  Roma - always good, a solid call.  Patti’s Southwest Deluxe is a favorite.  Great lunch specials too.

2.  Fratelli - some rank Fratelli above our #1 pick.  Fratelli is always good, always fun to go to, with creative gourmet offerings, but for us the quality of the ingredients wins out, so:

1.  New Jersey Pizza - having grown up in Jersey myself for a time (the good part and there is such a thing - ahem), there’s nothing so NJ about it particularly, but their ingredients are the freshest.  They try to go local in AZ and organic as much as possible and you can taste the difference.  This is artisan, people, so it is pricey and it is slow.  But when I want a splurge, this is where to go.

http://flgnews.com/dates/103108/hatf.htm

It’s about time Flagstaff had a coffee shop like It’s About Coffee.  Not that Flagstaff doesn’t have its fair share of good coffee houses.  However, we’re pretty thrilled with It’s About Coffee (”Coffee” for short here) for many reasons (although they could use a little sprucing up in the design department) that sets them apart from the rest.

So you have your Late for the Train for your local yet accessible thing going on, your Macy’s for your bohemian vibe, your Campus Coffee Bean for your ultimate location for NAU students cramming for exams, and a handful of other local places such as Coffee Pedaler (my favorite for their superb green tea), White Dove, and so on.  (We won’t include Starbucks in this since it’s national.)  Each of those have their own charms.

The thing about “Coffee” is their coffee is perhaps the best in town and their food is amazing too.  “Coffee” can give you a long description about their coffee brewing process.  They roast their own beans and triple filter their water and do all kinds of voodoo to it to produce what has been agreed by my sources as the best coffee in town.  (It’s also less acidic from their processes.)  “Coffee” offers several different brews each day (around 5 per day) that you can sample before you decide on the right one for you.  You can also have the option of a single cup pour over - made right on the spot personally for you to ensure the finest.  They’ve got all the other standard drinks and teas, plus you can purchase coffee beans to take home - even Jamaican Blue Mountain.

As to food, it truly rivals some of our best restaurants in town!  They have tasty omelets and “the Stomper” breakfast sandwich, one of our favorites.  It’s a bagel sandwich with eggs, ham and cheese. If they made that sandwich on Phoenix’s La Grande Orange’s English muffins, it would be heaven. There are “genuine” Belgium waffles.  They have a daily soup special and the soups have been very good.  One of the best things served is the balsamic infused cheeseburger (until 2pm only though).  This rivals the best burgers in town.  Fatso thinks it may be the best burger in town besides Brix’s Kobe beef burger.

And lastly, the cinnamon rolls.  “Coffee” advertises they are “Flagstaff’s Best” - a lofty claim that we put to the test.  Fatso declares the confection to indeed be the best in Flagstaff.  I possess a raging sweet tooth and would prefer the frosting be a little sweeter, a little more glopped on, but this is an adult version of a cinnamon roll and the flavors and roll texture are well made and alas, are the best I have sampled in town.

It’s About Coffee recently moved locations and hopefully in a little more time will be able to dress up the dining area more (it’s very standard, the only real decorations are empty burlap coffee sacks from around the world).  This is our only complaint - please make the dining room more cozy and a place you’d want to hang out.  In fairness though, the tagline to their name is “The Factory”, and so maybe this is the look they are angling for.  But when you have food this good, it should be showcased.

So there you have it: It’s About Coffee has wonderful food, wonderful coffee and is an all around great place.

The karma’s good at Karma. More than just a sushi bar, Karma offers a range of tasty noodle dishes, fried rices and chicken or beef entrees plus a kids’ menu, which is rare to find in a restaurant such as this. Karma also offers a variety of tapas (small plates) to sample and has some lunch options and bento boxes.

A hip, well designed space sets Karma apart from many Flagstaff eateries. Karma is one of our favorite restaurant atmospheres in town. There’s always a fun vibe, it’s comfortable and well thought out. It’s great to go with a group of friends, but even if it’s a dinner out with the kids, you won’t feel misplaced.

That being said, there are a few different sushi restaurants in town. Karma is not our favorite on a strictly sushi basis as the rolls are on the smaller side and even though the quality is good, we have been there on off days where the fish just wasn’t quite up to par. If you are with a group for sushi, you will need to order several rolls to fill everyone up. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a group - you will get a large variety this way to satisfy everyone’s tastes - but just know you may need to order more than you think.

I should note on a separate note that I am a fan of their miso soup. It’s real miso soup and better than some others in town.

Service is adequate. Never amazing, but always just fine.

Karma does have a full bar with bar seating and a range of fun cocktails. They also possess some high quality sake to try if you are a fan.

Karma’s good atmosphere will keep you happy and satisfied.

Strombolli’s is housed in a former Pizza Hut - you can always tell by that distinctive architecture.  However, they have done a nice job of making the space cozy and inviting.  Strombolli’s is perfect for a family meal or for a group of friends wanting a low key night out.  The food is tasty, prices very reasonable, and there’s always a good vibe inside.  Many out of town visitors know to pick Strombolli’s for those attractive reasons.

Strombolli’s starts you off right with complimentary bread - always fresh, warm and with a delicious buttery garlic topping.  For those ordering entrees, a “bottomless” salad is included.  The salad is somewhat of a standard variety, but it’s everyone’s favorite kind with a well-made house dressing. (You can always ask for refills if you desire.)

Entrees are solid across the board.  I am a fan of the chicken piccatta.  The flavors work wonderfully together and it is really “piccatta” - with a bit of a bite compared to the way most restaurants focus only on the buttery lemon tinged sauce.  This sauce is not gloppy like most.  The pastas are entirely decent and toothsome.  There is always a dinner special and that has never failed in being a choice pick.

The calzones are huge, fresh and wonderful.  Most likely you will have the second half leftover for your next meal (or split one with your family or friends).  The pizza is tasty too.  Kids’ pizzas come in fun shapes that the staff will surprise you with.  I should note that the pizza is hand tossed, as it should be.

Strombolli’s does offer a lovely dessert tray to entice you.  The desserts though, like so many other restaurants, are just fine.  They are ok, but nothing fabulous.  It’s generally a truism that a restaurant with very good food does not have desserts to match.  You can either cook or you can bake, but they don’t seem to usually go hand in hand.  Just a comment in general and no indictment of Strombolli’s.

Strombolli’s does carry beer and wine.  The alcohol prices are such a good deal.  You can have a bottle of wine for your table for $20!  The choices aren’t the most extensive, but you will be able to find something entirely decent for a fantastic price.

Weekends can get busy at Strombolli’s, so prepare yourself for a bit of a wait.  There is a small lobby area inside, but the crowd often must spill outside, so be forwarned if the weather conditions are not optimal.

We give Strombolli’s 4 peaks mainly because of their great value, welcoming atmosphere, and solid food.  It’s not the finest Italian in town, but is a great place for anyone from grandpas to toddlers.  Strombolli’s is a family favorite and a long time crowd pleaser in Flagstaff.  Enjoy!

Horsemen Lodge - located out past the mall, Horsemen Lodge was started as a meeting place for the ranchers of the area - yes, the real cowboys.  Good steaks, old fashioned well-stocked salad bar, local taxidermy animals on the walls, and the real cattle brands from northern Arizona ranches.  (Trout is the best pick here!)

Black Bart’s - on Butler by Little America Hotel.  Singing waiters (usually NAU theater or music majors) in an old timey western setting.  Fun for all.  Known as a steak place, but get the shrimp scampi - seriously.  Best thing on the menu.

Mormon Lake Lodge - again, you’ve got the western cowboy atmosphere, tasty mesquite grilled steaks and such, and frequent sightings of elk.  Just plain fun.

Martanne’s - San Francisco Street.  For those that like kicked up unique Mexican (really more like New Mexican) food with a hip, urban edge.  Local artist showings of Dia de los Muertos style art.

Cafe Ole - Beautiful restaurant whether sitting out on the sublime patio or enjoying the warm indoors with traditional Mexican furniture.  Excellent place to go if your guests are not familiar with Mexican style interiors.  Your guests can order their food prepared in the normal fashion (nonspicy) or you can ask for it doctored up.

And for the historic home angle, try Josephine’s (Humphreys St.) or Cottage Place (on Cottage, south of the tracks by Beaver St.).  Both are lovely and offer exceptional fine dining.  I give Josephine’s the slight edge on being traditionally Flagstaff because of the former home’s example of local malpais stone.

El Capitan is a great place to go if you are missing Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco, Mexico for you non-Arizonans). With a laid-back beachy (and also pirate) theme going on, El Capitan is a fun place to go. It’s also a good place to watch a game or for college students wanting some filling, yet reasonably priced Mexican food. El Capitan always has a special going on, the most popular being their “…and beer” offerings, such as tacos & beer, burrito & beer. You get the picture.

Staying true to their beachy Rocky Point-like roots, their best offerings are the seafood dishes such as shrimp or fish tacos or grilled shrimp. Their standard Mexican dishes are good too, as are their more unusual dishes such as one of Fatso’s favorites, the Carne Adovodo.

A high point of El Capitan is their fresh salsa bar. There are several kinds to choose from and they are generally unique salsas. El Capitan’s competition on that end is Salsa Brava. While we think Brava’s salsas have the edge on Capitan, both are solid and are the two best salsa offerings in town. However, their chips are pretty standard. To make Capitan’s salsas shine more, they should upgrade the chips. (Try Ai Caramba’s chips and you’ll taste the gold standard here in town.)

El Capitan has a full bar with a daily margarita special. The Hottie is a margarita fan and while I find Capitan’s completely decent, they don’t blow me away. They do make for a nice addition to an entirely pleasant meal, though. (See below for a list of my favorites in Flagstaff.)

Service can be somewhat slow. Lunch or dinner here is usually at a leisurely pace but then again, you’re supposed to be at the beach! Service pace is probably due to the use of college students who may not have much prior waitstaff experience, but it is still acceptable. Just don’t think you’re going to be in and out like at La Fonda.

El Capitan has a decent kids menu and although it is near campus and has a bit of a campus vibe going on, it is still entirely welcoming to children. Plus you can’t miss the wonderful treasure chest at the end of the kids’ meals. The treasure chest is a small pirate-looking chest with dollar store type prizes inside like fake coins, pencils, stickers and such, but kids think it’s a genuine treat.

El Capitan will treat you right and sate your Rocky Point cravings. In a southwestern town with many Mexican food options, El Capitan is one of our best.

Lunch: M - Sat., 11:30 - 2 pm
Dinner: 7 days a week, 5 - 10 pm

Sakura is Flagstaff’s original Japanese restaurant and first sushi restaurant. While sushi has become a hot dining scene of late, Sakura was the one that started the trend here.  Sakura is still Flagstaff’s only teppanyaki dining experience.

Located in the Radisson Hotel on West Rt. 66, their space is a bit small but well decorated (and recently remodeled a bit to freshen up) so there is an intimate and cozy feeling in the dining room.  Sakura does offer sushi bar seating additionally.  The lobby area for waiting is pretty standard for a hotel and it is located to the side of the hotel’s casual dining restaurant.  Bathrooms require a walk through the hotel and over to the ballrooms.  Not that it’s so far to go, but a bit of a hassle.

Teppanyaki is Sakura’s highlight offering.  The sushi bar always seems to be decently crowded and the sushi is entirely acceptable, but there are better places to go in town if you want just sushi.

The teppanyaki tables are the way to go.  Go for a special occassion or with a group ready for fun.  The chefs put on a good show complete with raging fires on the tables and onion volcanoes.  If you get Ruben, you are in for a treat.  (He’s got great jokes and gags and practices his art about 4 hours a day outside of work!)  You really can’t loose with any of the teppanyaki dinner offerings.  Yes, it is a little pricey, but you get miso soup (much improved lately), salad, rice, plus your entree and veggies.  I can never finish mine and always have lunch for the next day; the Fatso does finish his but is always very full.  Sakura does have beer, wine and cocktails available.

Sakura is super fun, the ambiance is nice, and reservations are highly recommended for weekend dinners as they draw so much business from the hotel.  With the newer competiton in Flagstaff, Sakura has managed to keep their status in town and freshen things up.  A meal here will not disappoint.  Enjoy it!

Oh, Martanne’s I love you so, how do I count the ways? With chilaquiles, sour cream enchiladas, and green chile pork.

You are a jewel in this little town and I will keep you to myself (a bit - I am writing about you now after deciding to break my code of secrecy about you, aren’t I?!) so as to get a better table faster when I decide to visit!

I have faithfully stood and waited for you through rain, hail, the cruel winds of Spring in Flagstaff and yes, even snow and ice, to dine in your warm abode.

I so long to give you 5 peaks, but because you have to stand outside to wait for a table in the conditions described above, I reluctantly knocked of 1/2 a peak.

So, Martanne’s is fabulous. The Fatso and I love it love it love it. We crave it. We go away on a trip and we have to have it when we get back. It is a local’s place and hopefully it will stay that way. I said I would never review it because I don’t want the masses to know about it, but in fairness to Martanne’s and their business, I feel I must.

Martanne’s is their own special blend of Mexican. You just can’t describe it, you have to just try it. It’s closest to New Mexican Mexican if anything. And it is spicy. If you are not a spice lover, don’t go or order the kids’ Wuzzy Crisp (a plain cheese quesadilla). (Our kids love it when their Uncle Art comes to dine with us here and joyfully wait for the moment the sweat starts to bead on his forehead from the spice!) The salsa is served in big ketchup bottles and is freshly homemade. There are no chips and salsa served here first. You sit down and wait for your meal until it’s good and ready. But trust me, it’s a fine thing.  And when your meal comes, it’s plentiful.

Sometimes the wait can be long. As previously mentioned, you must wait outside for a table. This operates on local custom of the honor system. You wait until the group that was there before you is seated. First come, first serve (unless you require a 4 top table and the next in line only needs a 2 top and one comes open first). And you don’t go in to check with the staff.  There is no waiting list. You just wait your turn, got it? Once in awhile you get “the Phoenix people” who think they can just waltz in and get instantly seated without regard to the many bodies who are obviously waiting outside (oh so Phoenix-come-LA these days). I should mention the wait can be long, mostly on the weekends, because Martanne’s is so wee.

It’s colorfully decorated and features the art of the amazing Emma Gardner, a sometimes waitress there. Originally Emma was doing a Dia de los Muertos thing with tongue in cheek pin up girl skeletons. Now she is moving on to a bird theme. The art is for sale and has greatly increased in value lately. It is unique and entertaining to view while you are waiting at your table.  And we love the old fashioned, wacky salt and pepper shakers at each table.

This food is delectable. The chilaquiles are the best anywhere period. If you chose to find it, it will be well worth your time.

119 S. San Francisco St.
774-8272
Open for lunch & dinner Mon. - Sat.

Cafe Ole doesn’t look like much from the outside.  South of the tracks on San Francisco Street, its front door is a bit nondescript and runs into the same facade as its neighbors.  Upon entry, however, Cafe Ole’s world is completely different.  This is a beautiful place with lovely handcrafted Mexican furniture, cozy dining nooks and a glorious patio.  It is a great place for a date due to the dimmed lighting inside or the relaxing atmosphere of the flowery outside patio (weather permitting, of course).  Cafe Ole has recently acquired new owners but kept most of the same staff.  They also have expanded the patio to double the fun.

Cafe Ole bills itself as “Fresh Mexican Cooking from the Heart”.  This is a fitting description.  There are many Mexican restaurant choices in this southwestern town and Cafe Ole has carved out a niche for themselves in healthy Mexican cooking.  The food is definitely fresh - you can taste the difference and quality.  Cafe Ole does feature daily specials and the specials are really always the way to go.

On a recent visit, the special was calabacitas (a mixture of yellow squash, zucchini, chiles and onion) prepared in three different ways for you to choose.  This was a perfect illustration of their healthy cooking.  Options are abundant for vegetarians and those who require gluten free foods.  Don’t be worried though if that’s not your persuasion; there are meat options too of chicken or beef dishes.

Here is my dilemma: everything I’ve had at Cafe Ole is fine.  And that’s just it - it’s fine.  I know many people in Flagstaff who state this is their favorite Mexican restaurant, and I can see why with the unique atmosphere and the ability to dine out without feeling guilty about a big splurge in calories.  But the food is just a little too bland for the Fatso and me.  Even with salsa.  Maybe we are too much of spice addicts.  Maybe we both have been Arizonans for too long that we are addicted to the Sonoran-Arizonan style with cheesy enchiladas and the like. (And they do have enchiladas here and they are…fine.)  We so want to declare this is the best place, but we just can’t.  (Check our podcast in March when we conduct our Mexican March Madness contest!)  And I’m not a fan of the chips either.  Chips and salsa are standard at Mexican restaurants as an “amuse bouche” if you will, but chips still count here in AZ and these just aren’t quite it (try Ai Caramba’s - the best).

Among other issues, we heard through the grapevine that Cafe Ole had applied for a full liquor license.  In the past they have possessed only a beer and wine license and serve well crafted agave wine margaritas. It’s not the best place to go for a margarita, but for what they have to work with, they have done it well.  Upon Hottie & the Fatso’s recent visit, Cafe Ole was still serving the same.  We will have to investigate further as to if that full liquor license story is true or not as there is no application notice in the front window at present.

The service is fine.  Better than some in town, not as good as a handful of others.  Atmosphere is off the charts.  Food is fine.  Prices are entirely reasonable.  Drinks are decent.  Therefore, averaging everything out, we have to go with 3 peaks for Cafe Ole.

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