15 Best Restaurants In Prescott, Arizona | Where To Eat In Prescott, AZ

Written By: Gail Clifford | Published By: Foodie Flash Packer | November 12, 2019

https://www.foodieflashpacker.com/restaurants-in-prescott-arizona/

Prescott, Arizona is a city known for its history and culture.  Located in North Central Arizona, with a population of about 40,000, this former capital of the Arizona Territory is nestled in a geographically diverse area, with mountains, granite hills, and lakes and rivers.  Within this Wild West backdrop and historic town center,  you can find many of the best places to eat in Prescott.

With dozens of Victorian homes, over 800 locations on the National Register of Historic Places, and the infamous “Whiskey Row”, it’s only natural to assume there will be many of the best restaurants in Prescott preserving this history even today.

Will you also be checking out other destinations during your time in Arizona? Check out my guide to the best restaurants in Sedona & The Best Things To Do In Goodyear, Arizona!

15 Must-Try Restaurants In Prescott, Arizona

The Palace Restaurant and Saloon

120 S Montezuma St. // 928-541-1996

One of the Top Ten Historic Bars in America, the oldest Arizona restaurant, and the longest-running saloon in Prescott, The Palace serves the best steak in the region. See where Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday celebrated before moving on to Tombstone.

The historic doors, rebuilt after the 1900 fire, lead to a glimpse of the past. As you move past the front of the saloon into the restaurant area, take the time to view the self-contained museum.

The rooms for the “ladies of the evening” and the bookkeeper are just up the stairs (false front, don’t worry). 

For a solemn moment,  pay homage to the nineteen Granite Mountain HotShot firefighters who lost their lives in the 2013 Yarnell Fire. 

In this Prescott fine dining restaurant, anything you order is likely to be delicious.

The appetizers range from onion rings to prawns, steak bites to Brussel sprouts. If you’re still not sure where to start, try the two braised beef tacos. While there’s a soup of the day, the corn chowder with bacon is a staple. Four salads options round out the pre-entrée menu.

My all-time favorite is the Cattleman’s Filet Mignon served with market vegetables, grilled asparagus, and either the baked potato (with all the fixin’s) or the red skin mashed potatoes. It’s so much food, I’ve no room for rolls, appetizers, or dessert.

For those that like to mix their proteins, I’d recommend the grilled prawns prosciutto, the Palace corn chowder, the Rough Rider ribeye, and the sautéed wild mushrooms. 

If you’re visiting Prescott, you could legitimately visit The Palace every day and eat something different.  But there are many other of the best places to eat in Prescott, Arizona, so save time for them.

The Lone Spur Café

106 W Gurley St. // 928-445-8202

My absolute favorite place to get my breakfast steak, The Lone Spur sits directly across the street from Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza (aka “The Square”). 

Open from 6:30 AM till 2:30 PM, it’s a great place to meet with friends before sightseeing if you’re visiting, or before work if you’re not. The cowboy décor and music put you right at ease, and it’s easy to imagine getting food from Cookie while on a cattle drive.

My standard order is Ribeye Steak and Eggs. Eggs are made to order, with hash browns at served at breakfast and French fries at lunch. Add Texas toast if you wish. Delicious. 

For vegans, the order is typically a Veggie Burger or an Avocado BLT, hold the bacon. The servers are very adept at handling food preferences and allergies.

The most common food order is the Chorizo Scramble, with chorizo sausage, green chilis, green onion, melted jack and cheddar cheese, salsa, and sour cream served with potatoes and choice of toast.

Alternatively, try the Cowboy Benedict, two biscuits topped with smoked ham and two basted eggs, smothered in country gravy, served with potatoes. 

BiGA

623 Miller Valley Rd. // (928) 227-2543

One of the healthiest Prescott restaurants is also one of the smallest. Tables for four are crowded into the space and the line starts early. Feel free to ask anyone with an extra seat at their table if you can join them. 

Their focus on clean, modern food, locally sourced, is obvious in their menu.

While you can count on the Caesar or house salad being available, many of the other items change often. Generally,  they offer four or five salads, featuring standard “add-ons” like turkey, chicken, a burger patty, bacon or avocado. 

They usually have five or six sandwiches, including a burger, Reuben and the BiGA Club.

If I’m the late one to the table, I’ll choose the BiGA Burger in a heartbeat. It’s a hand-pressed patty with sliced local caramelized onions, Arizona lettuce and basil aioli. They’ll add cheddar cheese if you like.

My favorite vegan is happy with all the selections offered for her here. During our last visit, she tried the Grilled Avocado with puffed quinoa, house-smoked local tomato, market roasted chili aioli, sunflower seeds, pickled carrots in a sherry honey reduction.

Then, the Farm to Fork Spring Risotto, holding the cheese, with smoked local tomato, Brussel sprouts, toasted garlic, pickled market carrot, shaved fennel, and local spinach pesto. 

Others in our party enjoyed the Corned Beef Reuben with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing on homemade rye bread and the Sherry Braised Lamb Shank with a local parsnip apple mash, beet top gremolata, slow-roasted market vegetables, and cremini lamb jus.

BiGA makes it easy to eat healthily being one of the best restaurants in Prescott to eat at.

Raven Café

142 N Cortez St. // (928) 717-0009

The Raven Café quickly becomes a go-to spot for food, drinks, and nightly entertainment. Its moniker, “Prescott’s Gathering Place,” is well deserved.

Their focus on organic espresso and an innovative menu, with organic and locally sourced items, makes it painless to reduce your carbon footprint.

First, the food. A lot of conversations here revolve around the drinks, whether craft beer or organic espresso. There may be more vegan and gluten-free dishes here than anywhere else in town. The jackfruit tacos are a favorite, as are the cauliflower tacos. 

For the non-vegan, the Raven burger, the salmon, and the Wahoo Fish Tacos are my go-to dishes.

These fish tacos are small, served on a long plate. It doesn’t look like they’d be very filling, but they are, and end up being exactly right for a lunch portion. If you’re really hungry, choose the more substantial burger or salmon. 

While the Raven is one of the best restaurants in Prescott, the entertainment is also top-shelf. 

Starting with Trivia Monday, and Movie Tuesday, you can enjoy great drink specials and just hang out with your friends.  Wednesday and Thursday evenings feature drink specials, and on Friday and Saturday, you can have live music with your meal and drinks. 

Sunday brunch is from 8 am to 2 pm, and features a bottomless mimosa.  

It’s a fun place. It’s organic. And it’s one of the best downtown Prescott restaurants. 

Murphy’s

201 N Cortez St. // 928-445-4044

Murphy’s is in a historic building three blocks from the Courthouse Square.

The mahogany bar is a century old, polished lovingly by bartenders then and now. It’s a great place for Sunday champagne brunches and special occasions, as well as happy hour, lunch or dinner.

Their appetizers include seafood, pecan encrusted brie, or sautéed mushrooms. 

They offer four salads and seven sandwiches, including Murphy Dip, shaved prime rib with Swiss cheese and sautéed mushrooms on a hoagie roll, served with au jus and creamy horseradish.  

Their entrees also include four burgers, one of the most popular a “build your own,” as well as steak, catfish, and half a rotisserie chicken.

While I’ve been tempted by other dishes, I always go back to their salmon. They offer it with a balsamic tomato relish that I favor, but you can also order it with a honey mustard sauce.

Their burgers and steaks are excellent, and the sum of all these items makes this one of the best places to eat in Prescott.

The Office Cantina

128 N Cortez St. // (928) 445-1211

“No, Mrs. Jones, she’s at The Office. Can I help you?” While your office staff may not be able to protect you for long if people realize this office is a great restaurant just a few blocks down from the Courthouse Square, you can enjoy a great meal, dessert, their specialty margaritas, or soft drinks as you watch sports and get away from it all for an hour or more. 

Featuring some of the best Mexican food in Prescott, the southwestern flavors and fun atmosphere make this a perfect place to step out of the noon-time sun.

We make a point of starting with dessert first.

Their fried ice cream is the best in town. A generous portion, perfect for two or three people, with whipped cream and a crispy crust around the frozen vanilla ice cream makes for a yummy treat any time of day.

But if you’re not going for a meal, you may want to keep the whole serving for yourself.

For starters, you may go for their Nachos Grande, freshly made corn chips with spinach con queso, olives, pico de gallo, green chilis, green onion, and topped with your choice of black beans, machaca beef, chicken or pork.

They’re known for their catfish bites, but most people love the catfish most in their fish and chips. 

Their Chile Rellenos are a family favorite with roasted Anaheim peppers stuffed with shredded cheddar, shredded jack, roasted red peppers, green onions and your choice of chicken or pork, served with red, green or con queso sauces.

You can also try the Guadalajara Sliders, three mini-burgers glazed with raspberry BBQ sauce, and topped with caramelized onion.

My favorite is the Machaca Tacos. I’ll even get them as a takeaway for lunch the next day.

While I prefer chicken, they also offer beef or carnitas meat, with shredded cabbage, a two cheese mix, pico de gallo, and avocado aioli. The cilantro garlic fries are so filling, that you should consider saving them to reheat at home. 

Their daily specials make this one of the best places to eat in Prescott.   Any day of the week you can have a fun, festive time at the Office, making this the best place for Mexican food among the restaurants in Prescott.