Taste Arizona's most refined Mexican food

If subbing corn for wheat tortillas is your idea of stepping it up at the corner taco joint, it's time for a meal at Cafe Poca Cosa. Chef Suzana Davila's soulful homage to regional Mexican cooking—that's shorthand for the 98 percent of a cuisine that rarely makes it north of the border to your local taqueria—is the best restaurant in Tucson, and perhaps the entire Southwest. We're talking complex sauces like the smoky-tangy Oaxacan mole, whose ingredients you can't quite put your finger on, but never mind because, oh look, here comes corn-sweetened tamale pie topped with spicy curried carrots and Yucatan-style fish cradled in steamed banana leaves. Or dark chocolate mousse infused with cinnamon shavings. The menu changes twice a day. The quality and creativity, never.