Food of Southwest National Parks Trip 2025

Went on a National Parks Trip across the Southwest (Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Saguaro), and here are all the notable food places we went to.

Las Vegas

• Cafe Lola : It was decent food but hella expensive. $12 for a latte is next level of crazy to me.
• Momofuku : The Spicy Miso Ramen was good for sure. A definite 7/10. The cost-to-value ratio though for most items at this place did not seem worth. I do understand the Las Vegas scene encourages a certain type of menu, but I personally would have really preferred something more akin to the New York menu offering. I will also note that they partner with the Chase Sapphire Lounge and their food there in the airport lounge was a nice touch (even though I did prefer food in other Chase Sapphire Lounges in other airports).
• Sticky Toffee Pudding at Hell’s Kitchen : I had a massive urge to eat sticky toffee pudding. Gordon Ramsey’s sticky toffee pudding in Hell’s Kitchen is definitely iconic and this dessert did hit the spot. We also managed to just walk in and instantly get a spot in at the bar which is an additional plus point.
• Wynn Buffet : I wanted to experience a buffet in Vegas. I had too many dishes to go through them all but the final takeaway is that it was a cool experience and a lot of food but I likely won’t be doing something like that again unless there is truly something unique to the buffet.
• La Strega : We went here on the last night of our visit and it was a satisfying end foodwise. They had this unique focaccia with halves of grapes stuck into it that was really nice paired with some simple olive oil and salt. We also got a grilled artichoke appetizer that was spectacular. The mains were not exemplary by any means but still par for the course in total. Specifically, we got an orecchiette pasta that had a light umami mushroom sauce which had a nice al dente bite. Good, but not as wowing as the appetizers. The pizza (alla norma) that we got, however, I was a little disappointed with. It could have definitely used a bit more time in the oven to crisp up more which I am not sure if a conscious choice because they didn’t want to overcook the toppings or if that’s just what they tend to do with their pizzas but either way it could have done with a couple more minutes in the oven. The waitresses and general service staff were quite friendly.

Flagstaff

• Atria : Boy oh boy was this quite the surprise. We came here on a whim just because another restaurant called Fat Olive had a long wait time (also on a sidenote, Flagstaff, Arizona has a crazy food scene relative to what I was expecting). Before I dive into each dish specifically, to set expectations, this is by far my favorite Contemporary American restaurant of all time and I will undoubtedly be coming back here every time I visit the Grand Canyon. It beats out All Saints (which is a restaurant in Minneapolis that I love and will soon be writing about on the blog) and even my experience at Gramercy Tavern in NYC. I will definitely be fair and be explicit about the fact that Contemporary American is not a cuisine that I often frequent, but Atria is setting a high bar even across cuisines.

Starting with the bread . It was nothing too crazy flavor wise. Just wonderfully baked and paired with a nice berry butter.

Next for the beets . I’ve had a similar dish at “All Saints” in Minneapolis; both dishes try to accomplish the same thing with regards to highlighting beets but the flavor profile of everything else on the plate is different. At All Saints it is very acidic but here at Atria it is paired with some more umami coming from tahini and a firmer goat cheese instead of a more flimsy burrata at All Saints’. I don’t think I have a strict preference between the two but the dish at Atria was a nice change of pace.

There is not a single person I know who doesn’t like filled pasta. The squash agnolotti was also definitely up there in terms of a good filled pasta and all the components came together quite nicely.

I really enjoyed this Cacio e pepe . I’ve never seen people use tagliatellini (that’s what they call it) so it felt like more of an Asian-style noodle but cooked al dente. I feel, however, that actually contributed more to my enjoyment because I like experiencing the differences between simple pastas using different pasta types.

Finally, the least enjoyed dish out of everything was the roasted squash . It was certainly perfectly cooked/grilled, but my main gripe with cooking large vegetables in American restaurants is that it’s handled like a meat. I find, however, that meats need less seasoning to bring out flavor and a big chunk of squash necessarily requires that the eater compose every forkful perfectly with all the side accoutrements else the bite ends up lacking enough flavor. That being said, we did enjoy it as a whole but definitely would have chosen something else on the menu if given the choice again.

I will end this section about Atria with two caveats about my review. The first is that I didn’t have any meat dish which spans most of the menu. I’ll be sure to try more next time I go, but the meat dishes of people next to me looked good as well. Second, they reused a lot of the same components for the vegetarian dishes. There was a lot of Macha salsa and squash puree across everything that we ate and I felt it would have gotten a little tiring if we had a few more dishes with them. As a whole though, this was the best meal of the trip and my best meal at a restaurant in a while.

• High Country Motor Lodge : This was our hotel in Flagstaff but they also had a lobby cafe. The vibe of the hotel itself was “an old Route 66 motel taken over and refurbished by current day hip millennials” which is an aesthetic I did enjoy. The food matched that vibe as well. We got a breakfast sandwich and an avocado toast, neither of which I can complain about much. They were decent.

Tucson

• La Frida : We waited for two hours for a seat at this place. They have no reservation system so it’s all walk-in leading to a massive crowd of people sitting outside the restaurant. Was the two-hour wait worth it? Not at all. Not saying that the restaurant was bad, they had some really nice dishes such as the elote appetizer below, but I have historically had an issue with the dryness of the enchilada filling. Not sure if this is just me or if that’s just how enchiladas are, but I was expecting something different from this restaurant. The one thing that they seemed to be doing with most tables, however, that was quite cool was that they had a bowl of chips, queso, and salsa waiting for you before you got seated. A lot of restaurants do give a free dish such as bread or chips and salsa but very few actually have something waiting for you before you even get seated. There are of course issues regarding allergies, but I think this is such a powerful small detail that immediately sets the hospitality tone for the customer.

Phoenix

• Casa Corazon : Above, I talked about my gripe with the enchiladas. I got some enchiladas here as well but unlike all my past experiences, these were phenomenal. The filling had some cheese in it, along with the chicken, and this made all the difference. I’m not sure if this is traditional or not, but I sure as hell enjoyed my meal a lot more. Otherwise this restaurant had a self serve salsa station that was cool but we didn’t order much of anything else so not much more to report on.