If a perfectly done steak is what you're craving, then McMahon's is the place. This place serves the best steaks in Tucson, and with a decidedly modern opulence that's a far cry from steakhouses of yore, McMahon's boasts an atmosphere that's calculated to impress. A large glass-walled wine room dominates the main dining room, which is ringed with plush booths. You can drop a bundle on dinner here, but no more than you'd spend at such high-end restaurants as Janos or the Ventana Room. The main difference is that your choices at McMahon's are simpler: steak, seafood, or steak and seafood. You'd be wasting a night out, though, if you didn't order a steak (the aged prime beef is superb). There's a separate piano lounge and cigar bar.

If your family vacation to the Grand Canyon includes a night or two in Flagstaff, you owe it to the kids (and yourself) to spend an evening at Black Bart's. It's not that the steaks at this kitschy place are so good, it's the entertainment. Singing waiters and waitresses frequently burst into song, and every evening there's a full-blown musical revue for the main event. Then there's the player piano. Sure it's hokey, but it all adds up to loads of fun. By the way, the restaurant is named for the infamous gentleman-poet stagecoach robber of the 1870s and 1880s. The restaurant is right across the street from the Little America Hotel (see the review, above).

Cottage Place is just what its name implies -- an unpretentious little cottage. But despite the casual appearance, dining here is a formal affair. The menu, which tends toward the rich side, is primarily Continental, with Southwestern and Middle Eastern influences as well. The house specialties are chateaubriand and rack of lamb (both served for two); there are always several choices for vegetarians as well.

Located right in historic downtown Flagstaff, Pasto has a lively urban feel and is frequently a lively boisterous place. The food is some of the best in town and is always reliable. Casual yet sophisticated, Pasto is less formal than The Cottage Place or Josephine's, so if you don't feel like getting dressed up after a day at the canyon, try here. Located in downtown Flagstaff, this place can be boisterous and lively on the weekends, so come prepared for a surprisingly urban scene. As the restaurant's name implies, the menu includes a good assortment of pastas. Try the unusual orange-garlic chicken or the salmon piccata.

Located right in historic downtown Flagstaff, Pasto has a lively urban feel and is frequently a lively boisterous place. The food is some of the best in town and is always reliable. Casual yet sophisticated, Pasto is less formal than The Cottage Place or Josephine's, so if you don't feel like getting dressed up after a day at the canyon, try here. Located in downtown Flagstaff, this place can be boisterous and lively on the weekends, so come prepared for a surprisingly urban scene. As the restaurant's name implies, the menu includes a good assortment of pastas. Try the unusual orange-garlic chicken or the salmon piccata.

Good espresso and baked goodies draw people in here the first time, but there are also decent vegetarian pasta dishes, soups, salads, and other college-town standbys

Oyster lovers will be delighted by the selection of more than a dozen varieties at the raw bar.The extensive list of entrees includes a range of fresh fish and seafood items prepared to your liking (broiled, grilled, blackened, and sautéed), and there are some big-ticket items such as Maine lobsters, Alaskan king crab legs, and stone crab dinners.

Prices overall are moderate, especially considering the generous family-style portions. The large calamari appetizer -- "for two, " the menu says -- will almost certainly keep you in leftover land for a day or two. The menu offers real Italian home-style cooking, such as pasta e fagioli (thick macaroni-and-bean soup -- really a kind of stew). Or, try the rigatoni with veal meatballs, served with steamed escarole and melted slabs of mozzarella, or the spicy grilled boneless pork chops served with peppers and roasted potatoes. The lunch menu includes about a dozen Italian sandwiches, such as scrambled eggs and pesto, meatball, and Italian sausage.

While the menu changes frequently, the salmon soufflé or cream-of-Alsace-cabbage soup with smoked sturgeon and caviar are popular choices as appetizers; signature entrees include roasted Maine lobster in Alsace Gewürztraminer butter and ginger, and poached tenderloin of beef cooked pot-au-feu style and served with horseradish cream. Desserts are suitably sumptuous. This is the sort of restaurant where the clairvoyant service team seamlessly anticipates your every need, and the wine list offers some wonderful American and Alsatian selections.

Many Chicagoans consider Gino's the quintessential deep-dish Chicago-style pizza (I know transplanted Midwesterners who come here for their cheesy fix whenever they're back in town). True to its reputation, the pizza is heavy (a small cheese pizza is enough for two), so work up an appetite before chowing down. Specialty pizzas include the supreme, with layers of cheese, sausage, onions, green pepper, and mushrooms; and the vegetarian, with cheese, onions, peppers, asparagus, summer squash, zucchini, and eggplant. Gino's also offers salads, sandwiches, and pastas -- but I've never seen anyone order them. If you want to take a pizza home on the plane, call a day in advance and Gino's will pack a special frozen pie for the trip.

Many Chicagoans consider Gino's the quintessential deep-dish Chicago-style pizza (I know transplanted Midwesterners who come here for their cheesy fix whenever they're back in town). True to its reputation, the pizza is heavy (a small cheese pizza is enough for two), so work up an appetite before chowing down. Specialty pizzas include the supreme, with layers of cheese, sausage, onions, green pepper, and mushrooms; and the vegetarian, with cheese, onions, peppers, asparagus, summer squash, zucchini, and eggplant. Gino's also offers salads, sandwiches, and pastas -- but I've never seen anyone order them. If you want to take a pizza home on the plane, call a day in advance and Gino's will pack a special frozen pie for the trip.

The overall mood is Zen calm (dark wood tables, chairs, and floor; recessed lights that illuminate textured paper covers). The menu emphasizes Japanese and Thai preparations and flavors; almost half the entrees are seafood. Shikami's signature dish is his tuna tartare, widely acknowledged as one of the city's best versions of this now-trendy appetizer (here, it's livened up with spicy wasabi and paired with a seasonal salad).

It's a totally unpretentious place with a long mahogany bar up front and a modest dining room in back with red Formica-topped tables crowded close. Of course, you don't need anything fancy when the ribs -- the fall-off-the-bone variety -- come this good.

Taking the standard food court up a few notches, foodlife consists of a dozen or so kiosks offering both ordinary and exotic specialties on the mezzanine of Water Tower Place mall. Seats are spread out cafe style in a very pleasant environment under realistic boughs of artificial trees festooned with strings of lights. A hostess will seat you, give you an electronic card, and then it's up to you to stroll around and get whatever food strikes your fancy (each purchase is recorded on your card, then you pay on the way out).

If you're tired of the glitz and glamour of the Valley of the Sun and are looking for Old Arizona, head to Monti's La Casa Vieja. The adobe building was constructed in 1873 (casa vieja means "old house" in Spanish) on the site of the Salt River ferry, which operated in the days when the river flowed year-round and Tempe was nothing more than a ferry crossing. Today, local families who have been in Phoenix for generations know Monti's well, and rely on the restaurant for solid meals and low prices -- you can get a filet mignon for $12. The dark dining rooms are filled with memorabilia of the Old West.

There just isn't a more romantic restaurant in the valley. Located within the walls of the Mediterranean-inspired Royal Palms Resort & Spa, it's surrounded by decades-old gardens and even has palm trees growing right through the roof of the dining room. The focal point of the open kitchen is a wood-fired oven that turns out a fabulous spit-roasted chicken as well as an impressive platter of paella. T. Cook's continues to make big impressions right through to the dessert course. Although this is one of the most popular high-end restaurants in Phoenix, it manages to avoid pretentiousness.

offers food that's every bit as imaginative, but not nearly as expensive, as that served at other (often overrated) Southwestern restaurants in Phoenix. Breadsticks with picante-flavored cream cheese, grilled vegetable tacos, and angel-hair pasta in a spicy jalapeño sauce with shrimp and mushrooms all have a nice balance of flavors.

offers food that's every bit as imaginative, but not nearly as expensive, as that served at other (often overrated) Southwestern restaurants in Phoenix. Breadsticks with picante-flavored cream cheese, grilled vegetable tacos, and angel-hair pasta in a spicy jalapeño sauce with shrimp and mushrooms all have a nice balance of flavors. The downtown Sam's has a large patio that overlooks a fountain and palm garden; it stays packed with the lunchtime, after-work, and convention crowds.

This location, in the middle of a sprawling golf resort, doesn't exactly seem like cowboy country. However, up at the top of the hill, you'll find a fun Western-theme restaurant where you can start your meal by scooting down a big slide from the bar to the main dining room. While the view north across Phoenix is entertainment enough for most people, there are also cowboy bands playing for those who like to kick up their heels. If you've ever been bitten by a snake, you can exact your revenge here by ordering the rattlesnake appetizer. Follow that (if you've got the appetite of a hardworking cowpoke) with the enormous cowboy "stuff" platter consisting of, among other things, steak kebabs, barbecued ribs, cowboy beans, fried shrimp, barbecued chicken, and skewered swordfish.

This location, in the middle of a sprawling golf resort, doesn't exactly seem like cowboy country. However, up at the top of the hill, you'll find a fun Western-theme restaurant where you can start your meal by scooting down a big slide from the bar to the main dining room. While the view north across Phoenix is entertainment enough for most people, there are also cowboy bands playing for those who like to kick up their heels. If you've ever been bitten by a snake, you can exact your revenge here by ordering the rattlesnake appetizer. Follow that (if you've got the appetite of a hardworking cowpoke) with the enormous cowboy "stuff" platter consisting of, among other things, steak kebabs, barbecued ribs, cowboy beans, fried shrimp, barbecued chicken, and skewered swordfish.