HikeArizona.COM

The La Casita restaurant in Camp Verde (address 37 W Hollamon St, phone 928-202-2259) just opened a few weeks back, ate there for the first time on Memorial Day, very good. Huge food and drink menu, cool decor, optional outdoor seating, excellent chips & salsa & guac. Located just off Main Street in the old part of town that most folks bypass when driving through. After some good hiking up on The Rim, it's definitely a major improvement on the dreary fast food options at I-17.

Is this a New Mexican restaurant, or a new Mexican restaurant? I'm partial to the flavors of northern NM.

@Jim_H
The restaurant is new, and the Camp Verde Bugle news calls it "Jalisco style".

Las Margaritas at the top of the hill overlooking the light at the 260 is also very good. We'll check out La Casita they had a good article in the Camp Verde Bugle.

I had no idea any of these places existed. Good to know I no longer have to use Sonic on the way to/from Flagstaff.

Camp Verde Cafe is a good place to get Breakfast! Oh and I have had lunch there too and is good!

Stopped here on the way home today and had the chicken fajitas. They were tasty, but nothing extraordinary. I'll be sure to come back and explore the menu.

For me, if the chiles rellenos are really good, and also the guacamole and the margaritas, then I'll go back. It's good if the beans don't taste like they came out of a can, and if there are a lot of fresh ingredients. Also, a salsa bar is nice, although not required. Another thing which is very important: If I order a hard-shell taco and they have used one of those pre-stiffened tortillas out of a box I'll never go back there again! It has to be deep fried. However, real Mexican tacos have soft tortillas, not fried. I like those, too, especially if the tortillas are good and have some taste.

I have to say that after living in Arizona 27 years and eating at many, many Mexican restaurants and taco stands, and then moving to SoCal for 6 months, I found that one thing SoCal (or at least North County San Diego area) does better than Arizona is the chile relleno. I was amazed at how consistently better they were out there, everywhere I tried them. Juanita's Taco Shop in Leucadia, a really funky surfer dive, has the best chiles rellenos on the planet. And then you can take your to-go box down to the beach a couple of blocks away. Very nice!