My travels throughout the fruited plain have taught me that there are attitudinal differences between residents of different states. Most people have significant pride in their homestate and don’t necessarily think that highly of neighboring states. More than any state, the Lone Star state will broach no claims of superiority by any other state. The saying that “everything is bigger in Texas” actually means “everything is better in Texas.” Barbecue is better, football is better, country music is better and Tex-Mex is the only acceptable derivative of Mexican food. Don’t ask me. Ask anyone from Texas.
Some forty years ago (1985) when the Texaz Grill opened under the name “Lone Star Steaks” at 16th Street and Bethany Home Road, they conceived the restaurant as the Valley of the Sun’s first proper Texas steakhouse. That means aged, choice beef hand-cut on premises by a real Texan. While Phoenicians quickly embraced the steakhouse’s chops and filets, they were even more enamored of Texaz chicken fried steak (which was on the menu solely at the request of Texas customers).
The spirit of Texas is infused in virtually every square inch of the restaurant. Memorabilia and bric-a-brac are strewn throughout the space’s tight confines. License plates from every state in the union are tacked onto the bar. Signage from smalll town Texas (Terilingua, Ghost Town, Luckenbach) will remind you that Texas is so much more than Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. If not, don’t be surprised to hear Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings crooning about Luckenbach. The restaurant’s sound system plays both types of music: country and western.
You’ll get a sense of how Texas is prioritized even on the restaurant’s name. “Tex” precedes “Az” on the marquee. It’s not often Texas will share billing with a lesser state. During lunch you can order everything on the “supper” (dinner usually means the biggest or most formal meal, supper is a light or casual home meal), menu save for the smoked prime rib. Your server will apprise you that portions are Texas-sized (that means biiiig). Besides, she’ll tell you, you’ll want to save room for the bread pudding or the root beer float. Texaz Grill also serves brunch on Sundays from 11AM – 3PM. The brunch menu features classic comfort food dishes.
Chicken fried steak is a sacred culinary icon and an unofficial state dish in Texas (often grouped alongside barbecue and Tex-Mex as a core food pillar of the state), representing the pinnacle of down-home comfort food, cowboy heritage, and immigrant roots. It’s so important to Texas that in 2011, the Texas House of Representatives designated October 26 as official Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day. An estimated 800,000 chicken fried steaks are served across Texas every single day. That’s almost as many chicken fried steaks as my friend Bruce “Sr Plata” Silver and I ate while he compiled Sr Plata’s Chicken Fried Steak Trail.
Since Sr Plata relocated from the Land of Enchantment to the Valley of the Sun, he’s frequently lamented the absence of great chicken fried steak restaurants (Go New Mexico!). It was a given that during a visit to Arizona, he and I would visit at least one restaurant serving one of his very favorite dishes. So, why not visit the best. Based on 2026 data, Texaz Grill is widely considered the top spot for authentic chicken fried steak in Phoenix, often cited as the best comfort food place in the Valley. It should be noted that the Texaz Grill’s menu lists far more than chicken fried steak. That menu includes, for example, chicken fried chicken and a chicken fried pork chop. Seriously, you’ll also find a number of steaks on the menu, including a smoked prime rib.
As we perused the menu, our gracious server ferried over a basket of biscuits with butter. A squeeze bottle of honey is available on every table. The biscuit is a large, fluffy, Southern-style buttermilk biscuit. It’s a bit on the crumbly side, but at least the butter was semi-warm so it was easy to spread. For us, jam would have been preferable to honey. All three of us ordered from the “supper” menu section where every entree came with two sides. You risk filling up with the biscuits and sides, some of which are delivered before the entree. Among the sides we enjoyed most were corn (on-the-cob would have been more Texan) and coleslaw.
When my Kim couldn’t have smoked prime rib for lunch, she ordered the beef kabob (three pieces of beef tenderloin skewered with mushrooms, bell peppers, onion and tomato). The skewer was longer than the plate in which it was served tenderloin outnumbering the vegetables. The tenderloin was prepared at medium which meant a warm, thick band of pink through the center, a firmer texture than medium-rare, and slightly less juice. It’s just the way she prepares steak at home. The vegetables were mostly al dente. She enjoyed the mushrooms most of all.
One of the reasons Sr Plata hasn’t visited restaurants in the Phoenix area proffering chicken fried steak is because most of them serve it with a sausage gravy. He doesn’t do sausage or any other pork products. When we found out the Texaz Grill serves their chicken fried steak with a cream gravy, he planned extra time on the treadmill. It’s not often Sr Plata is intimidated by a slab of chicken fried steak. He was actually surprised at just how prodigious a portion covered most of his plate. At his request, gravy was served on the side in a cup. The gravy was on the thick side with a bit of lumpiness. Sr Plata also found the chicken fried steak overly breaded, but didn’t leave a morsel so it couldn’t have been too bad.
Sr Plata’s benevolence knows no bounds. So that I could have more variety, he suggested (begged, pleaded, threatened, bribed, cajoled) I order the “chicken fried goodness.” This is a platter that should be accompanied by an angioplasty. It’s a week’s worth of calories on one plate. Picture one beef steak, one chicken breast and one pork chop all breaded and drowning in gravy. The gravy is flecked with pepper. Frankly, at first glance you probably won’t be able to tell which protein is which. That’s because that gravy is laid on so thick. All three meats were prepared very well. My favorite may have been the pork chop (don’t tell Sr Plata). This is a dish only for diners with gigantic appetites (and healthy hearts). No sharing or substitutions are allowed when you order all this goodness.
The official state motto of Texas is “friendship.” Maybe Sr Plata and I should be Texans after all.
Texaz Grill
6003 North 16th Street
Phoenix, Arizona
602-248-7827
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LATEST VISIT: 3 August 2026
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: N/R
COST: $$$
BEST BET: Chicken Fried Goodness, Chicken Fried Steak, Biscuits, Beef Kabob
REVIEW #1541