Tia Carmen is a high quality contemporary South-West Style restaurant located in the Desert Ridge JW Marriott in North Phoenix Arizona. For an authentic taste of Arizona this restaurant uses Arizona purveyors and cooking is done with a wood fired grill. The restaurant is led by Michelin star chef, restauranteur, Bravo Top Chef, and cookbook author Angelo Sosa (pictured below on the patio).

Inside is modern and contemporary with large light fixtures.

Tonight we were seated in the back dining room that is less bright.

We LOVED the amazing FANTABULOUS tuna crudo we had last time (pictured at the top) and we are so glad that it was still on the menu tonight. We did notice that the other FANTABULOUS dish the wagyu kababs have been replaced with tri tip kababs.

Tonight we wanted to try new things so we shared a bunch of plates.

We started with the tomato salad.

It’s a tasty WOW! These tomatoes make angels sing and it’s all so delicious with the corn puree, burnt corn dust, basil, pickled onions, fancy greenery, and flowers.

Next was another WOW!

It’s expensive for a tostada ($20) but I guess it was delicious enough to be worth it. It’s a beef and bone marrow tostada with guacamole, pickled onions, and fancy micro greens.

We shared something really interesting, delicious and really different mushroom menudo.

Here’s a better look.

It’s so flavorful that you wouldn’t guess that it is vegetarian. Also the mushrooms are so different and interesting. I never heard of or tasted cordycep and cauliflower mushrooms before. They are not like mushrooms at all……It’s more like eating a fancy grain pasta….They are really great…I think that this is another WOW dish.

This next dish does taste really great but my only complaint is that I don’t agree that this is a dinner. I think that this is more of an appetizer or side dish but truly it is delicious. This is the ember roasted purple yams in queso sauce with a 30 week aged tepary bean (local bean) mole negro and burnt corn dust.

Again really delicious but I don’t agree that this is a dinner.

My husband did a great job helping me eat everything but he is a big eater and needs one more plate than I do. He tried the native grain fried rice with lingica sausage, bacon, serrano Chile, garlic, ginger, sunny up egg.

He ate it but I think that this might be his least favorite plate because he thought that it tasted like soy sauce.

I was pretty full but I was able to enjoy some blood orange sorbet.

The blood orange sorbet is another WOW!…It was very flavorful and really great!

Last time I enjoyed the striped bass very much. It’s very unique with Thai basil and mole verde and was prepared to perfection.

My husband had the Tia Carmen’s famous chicken dish called chicken guisado (a very good stewed chicken).

For dessert we tried the coriander torte.

It was very well made but the orange flavor was very subtle………… so the coriander could shine.

Tia Carmen Phoenix AZ is still

Worth a Fork!

Tia Carmen at Desert Ridge JW Marriott Phoenix AZ

5350 E Marriott DR PHX AZ

480-293-3636

www.TiaCarmenDesertRidge.com

Everything is subject to change.