One of our favorite parts of any vacation is being able to enjoy a taste of the town we are visiting, especially the meals that represent the region. Nutella crepes in Paris, barbecue in Texas, and in Arizona, the flavorful heat of a Mexican meal may be on your bucket list, but to be sure that you experience a well-rounded epicurean adventure in Sedona, we at I Love Sedona have compiled this comprehensive Sedona dining guide to the best restaurants in town. Offering a peek into a variety of cuisines, these restaurants promise to be an integral part of your vacation experience, the only thing better than the food you will be eating is being able to come home and relax in the comfort of our Sedona sanctuaries!
During your Sedona adventures there will be lots of hiking, lots of shopping, and lots of oohs and ahhs but if you skip the morning meal, you may not have the energy for any of the above. Doctors have been telling us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and in Sedona, these fabulous breakfast spots will make you want to eat breakfast at every meal.
It’s only fitting that we start our day with a spicy Mexican meal from Café Jose, a casual spot that everyone feels at home in from their first steps inside. Open every day of the week at 7 AM (closing at different times on different days), this family restaurant promises to bring joy to your taste buds. Serving American and Mexican favorites, guests unsure about new cuisines can safely enjoy dishes such as chicken fried steak or pancakes, but we encourage travelers to step outside their boxes and try some Mexican favorites including chilaquiles, an egg dish that combines farm fresh eggs, spicy chorizo, and homemade tortillas.
The Coffee Pot actually fits into a variety of categories and will probably be mentioned again later in our “where the locals eat” segment, but we honestly feel you can never get enough of the Coffee Pot. Resting in the shadows of Coffee Pot Rock, its menu is most notorious for the 100 plus omelets that they serve up every day! Open every day 6 AM until 2 PM, visitors could eat here every day for a year and never order the same meal twice and is also a great spot for the midday meal.
We love finding the off the beaten path restaurants, often located in non-descript strip malls and discovering that the food served inside should be considered a national treasure and the Red Rock Café hits all the marks. Offering a blended menu of American breakfast classics and Mexican favorites, it is closed on Tuesdays and open from 7 AM until 2 PM every other day. Pro tip for dining #1: Their Southwest Chicken Fried Steak pleases on all levels.
Featuring a combination of sweet and savory, Sedona Crepes Bistro provides a taste of France in the heart of the Southwest and if sometimes the lines blur, even better! Chorizo crepes, for example will make you wonder how you ever thought crepes should only be sweet and if you are looking for a little bit of dessert for breakfast you can’t go wrong with their dulce de leche crepes, made with cream cheese, cinnamon, sugar, and a sweet drizzle of dulce de leche.
No matter how hearty your morning meal was when the lunch bell chimes travelers will be more than ready to sample the midday cuisine served at the best Sedona restaurants listed below.
There’s a saying amongst frequent Sedona visitors and the residents who live here full time, and it goes a little like this: Can you really say you have visited Sedona if you haven’t visited the Cowboy Club? This Sedona favorite is known for its hearty meals, its wild game dishes, and its distinctly Western appeal and if it isn’t on your vacation itinerary yet, it should be after reading this! A restaurant/and or tavern has stood in this same spot since 1946 and during the Cowboy Club’s original incarnation as the Oak Creek Tavern, it was a hot spot for some of the biggest celebrities of the 50s and 60s, including John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Joan Crawford.
Open at 11 AM every day of the week and proud recipient of many accolades, the Golden Goose American Grill offers a white table experience at a family friendly price. The lunch menu offers sandwiches, subs, and burgers, and their wine and beer menus will add to your dining experience. If you have the room, their triple chocolate cake tastes like what heaven must feel like.
Continuing with the cowboy theme, the Outlaw Grille promises to delight the tiny travelers in your group. Offering a menu of burgers and sandwiches its Western themed décor will convince your littles that they really are in the land of cowboys and bad guys, perhaps convincing them to stay quiet and well behaved while eating, something that every parent strives to achieve.
Sometimes even the most well-behaved kiddos can appear feral and untrained, but all parents understand this is just the nature of the beast. Especially as the day grows closer to its end, kids are tired and cranky and whatever social skills they may have learned are tossed out the window. This doesn’t mean, however, that you need to give up the thought of dining out for the evening meal, it just means that you need to find yourself a family friendly restaurant like the ones listed below and feel comfortable in surroundings where people know kids will be kids.
Pizza is the universal language of children, and the Sedona Pizza and Pasta Company speaks that language fluently. Open every day of the week from 11 AM until 8 PM and serving your favorite pies and pasta in a colorful restaurant that appeals to diners of all ages, their pizzas are wood-fired, and their pastas are sophisticated and tasty and will allow parents to enjoy a more adult meal during their Sedona lunch adventures.
Offering an authentic taste of the Southwest and stunning views from its patio under the red rocks, Oaxaca (pronounced waa·haa·kuh) has been a Sedona tradition for over 40 years. Its menu is Sonoran in nature with everything made from scratch and although it does offer a super spicy habanero salsa, many of the menu items are gringo-fied for your dining pleasure, meaning they aren’t as spicy or hot as more traditional items. Want a taste of something uniquely Arizona? Your children will be thrilled to taste their Grilled Arizona Cactus with Romesco Sauce (often known as nopales!)
Once the children get past giggling over the name and looking for the black cows in the parking lot, parents are going to discover that they are all in for a treat of a meal! Offering a very limited menu of just hot dogs for dinner, a meal that no child will ever say no to, especially when they discover there will be pie, pastries, or ice cream for dessert, Black Cow Café is NOT fancy by any stretch of the imagination. But the hot dogs are amazing and the sweet treats will be your favorite part of your Sedona escape, making it a spot that we can almost guarantee your children will beg to return to soon.
Not every vacation is a family one, especially vacations in Sedona. The magic of our red rock town entices honeymooners to make it the place where they start their lives together, where mature couples come back to relive their own honeymoon days, and friends come to celebrate long friendships. If your getaway is one without children, the opportunity to get out and enjoy a special meal at a special occasion restaurant is a treat that should not be passed on and these restaurants promise to offer a fine dining experience to all who step inside their doors.
For those that don’t know, elote is a Mexican street food that has found favor at American dinner tables for years and Elote Café is a fine dining restaurant created by local celeb chef, Jeff Smedstad. Hailing from central Phoenix originally, his restaurant represents the magic of Sedona and the history of our epicurean styles, while lying in the shadows of the red rocks. Closed on Sundays and Mondays, inspirational chefs deserve their days off as well, you know, and only open for dinner, reservations are required, and the popularity of this restaurant means that you should probably make your reservations well in advance. And if you are wondering, elote is on the menu at Elote Café and we highly recommend everyone try it at least once.
Anytime you get the chance to visit Oak Creek should be taken, and Cress on Oak Creek provides a romantic dining experience with the babbling waters of the creek adding a musical accompaniment to your meal. Even better, Cress offers private dining experiences that will make you feel as if you and your favorite traveling partner are the only two people in the world. Their Chef’s Tasting Menu is a three-course meal that changes regularly and although it is a little more expensive than most meals, we can assure you that you will understand the extra expense more with each bite you take. Add the wine pairings to your meal and discover how wonderful perfection tastes.
At the time of writing this, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill is very proud to be voted one of the top 100 Romantic restaurants in the nation and when you step inside for the first time, you will understand completely. Run by one of our country’s most celebrated female chefs, the dining room is more windows than walls allowing guests the opportunity to stare out on panoramic views as they devour meticulously prepared dishes. And although everything is absolutely fantastic, we can’t help but love their sides menu, appropriately titled “exotic additions” and offering items such as “Lisa’s Lovely Lemon Mashed Potatoes with luscious Lobster Scampi.”
This last restaurant is actually located in Cottonwood and falls into the family friendly category, The Blazin’ M Ranch. Offering a truly western experience that includes a chuckwagon dinner of meaty favorites and a stage show that takes diners back to the days of cowboys, watering holes, and trail rides, your children will love you forever if you include the Blazin’ M on your itinerary. Located at 1875 Mabery Ranch Wood Western style shops line the dirt streets of its Frontier Town, offering a touristy experience as well as a meal.
Although not a restaurant, our fully equipped kitchens will encourage guests to take at least one day to explore the amenities offered within. Name-brand ranges, refrigerators with ice makers, dishwashers; we have spared no expense to give you a luxury cooking experience. For those who have rented a standalone home, back patios will often include barbecue grills and patio furniture, enticing guests to enjoy a family barbecue on another beautiful day in Sedona and if you went all out, a crystal-clear swimming point will add excitement and fun to your Arizona adventures. Contact us and reserve your favorite Sedona sanctuary today after visiting the restaurants on this Sedona dining guide, and discover the flavor of Arizona during your culinary tour of red rock country!
