The Rise of the Hotel Restaurant as a Travel Destination in the Southwest

As travelers increasingly plan trips around tasting menus, chef residencies, and dining rooms worth lingering in, the hotel restaurant has stepped into a starring role. Across the Southwest, a new culinary era is taking shape, one where food programs anchor the identity of a property and shape the rhythm of a stay. These 4 destinations lead the shift, each offering dining experiences inseparable from their landscapes, communities, and sense of place.

At Castle Hotel Springs, an award-winning desert retreat, dining is rooted in terroir and timing. Nightly tasting menus at Harvest are shaped in close collaboration with the resort’s on-site farm, where hundreds of varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and florals thrive across distinct desert microclimates. Guests are invited beyond the plate through immersive access to the farm, kitchen, and cellar, creating a deeply connected experience that reflects the surrounding high desert. A Wine Spectator–recognized beverage program rounds out an approach that places seasonality and land stewardship at the center of every meal.

Hotel Willa offers a quiet, soulful approach to destination dining through Juliette, its signature restaurant grounded in Northern New Mexico’s culinary heritage. Wild-foraged herbs, coal-roasted vegetables harvested from the hotel’s edible garden, and heirloom ingredients sourced from nearby farms come together across communal plates meant for lingering. Guided by respect for land, season, and story, each meal feels like an intimate expression of Taos itself, where tradition is honored through thoughtful, modern ritual.

Inspired by the heritage of Morocco and Southern Spain, this Scottsdale oasis delivers a dining program shaped by fire, flavor, and atmosphere. Across its refreshed venues, Prado focuses on wood-fired tapas and mesquite-smoked cocktails, Taqueria Centro highlights Arizona-Mexican cooking paired with tequila, and Mbar centers around fire-lit courtyards serving sangria and small plates. The experience unfolds as a sensory journey, where Old World influences and desert surroundings work in concert to define Omni Scottsdale’s culinary identity.

High above the city, Lucero Rooftop Lounge & Terrace sets the tone for one of the Valley’s most dynamic social dining scenes at Omni Tempe Hotel at ASU. Led by Arizona-native Chef de Cuisine Cesar Ruiz, the menu pairs adventurous cocktails with shareable plates rooted in local flavors and seasonal ingredients. Sweeping views of downtown Tempe and the surrounding university district frame an experience that feels tuned into the city’s evolving energy, drawing both travelers and locals into a gathering place defined by food, conversation, and skyline perspective.