While Food & Wine just recognized Yotaka Martin , who won the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef — Southwest , among its 2025 list of Best New Chefs, The New York Times gave Arizona no love at all on its list of the 50 best restaurants .

Since NYT debuted its best restaurant list in 2021, this is the second year Arizona has been snubbed, the first time was 2023. Arizona restaurants got shouted out every other year.

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