Scottsdale At Its Best: September 2026

Join us as we explore some of the great new things in Scottsdale this month.

Din Tai Fung at Scottsdale Fashion Square

Arizona’s first outpost of the internationally acclaimed Taiwanese chain opened its doors April 26, offering diners the rare treat of watching chefs hand-fold hundreds of dumplings through an open kitchen window. Beyond the signature xiao long bao, the menu leans into celebratory extras like pear-lychee martinis and chocolate dumplings, and the crowds it’s drawn since opening confirm it as one of the city’s most-talked-about tables this year. It’s the kind of restaurant people build a trip around, and Scottsdale now gets to claim a piece of a reputation built over decades and continents. Visit Din Tai Fung.

Hotel Solaya

Hyatt’s JdV by Hyatt brand landed in Old Town this April with Hotel Solaya, a ground-up reimagining of 194 guest rooms and suites built around a Sonoran-desert design language layered with modern Mexican influence. The hotel is designed to double as a neighborhood gathering spot, with a central pool and cabana scene, seven event spaces, and dining split between Ella on the Park and the all-day Common Ground Bistro. Rather than sit apart from the neighborhood, it was built to be part of it — a rare hotel that locals and guests alike will actually want to make a regular stop. Visit Hotel Solaya.

Salt & Sol at Hilton Scottsdale Resort & Villas

The centerpiece of Hilton Scottsdale’s $24 million resort-wide renovation, Salt & Sol opened this spring as an open-air, poolside restaurant built around coastal Mediterranean flavor with Southwest touches — think grilled halloumi, fig-topped pinsa, and churrasco-style steak, paired with cocktails and live music. It’s a deliberate bet on lighter, globally-inspired dining as the resort’s new social hub, rounding out a transformation that also delivered new villas and a reimagined fitness center. It turns a simple pool day into a genuine evening out, exactly the kind of elevated-yet-easy experience a luxury resort should be delivering. Visit Salt & Sol.

Starfish Scottsdale

Orange County-based Starfish Hospitality Group picked Scottsdale for its first restaurant outside California, opening in McCormick Ranch on May 5 with a menu drawing on the coastal cuisines of Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, China, and Japan. The 5,200-square-foot space pairs its Asian small plates with handcrafted cocktails across a roomy patio and dining room, giving the neighborhood a genuinely new flavor profile rather than another steakhouse or Italian spot. That a celebrated California brand chose Scottsdale, of all places, for its first leap beyond home turf says a lot about how far the city’s dining scene has come. Visit Starfish Scottsdale.

Sexy Roman at W Scottsdale

W Scottsdale’s rooftop-adjacent Italian concept opened June 2 under a James Beard-nominated chef, bringing a playful, maximalist take on Roman-style dining to the hotel’s dining program. The name signals the attitude: bold pastas and shareable plates built for a scene as much as a meal, fitting neatly into W’s design-forward, nightlife-adjacent brand. It’s confident, a little theatrical, and exactly the kind of concept that keeps Scottsdale’s dining-as-entertainment reputation moving forward. Visit Sexy Roman.