{"id":564204,"date":"2026-02-03T21:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/564204\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T21:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:54:17","slug":"phoenix-restaurant-named-among-best-soul-food-joints-in-u-s-we-agree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/564204\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix restaurant named among best soul food joints in U.S. We agree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Yelp released a list of the Yelp Elite&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yelp.com\/collection\/rRVPgWkLC-OK6yrfU8UA_Q\/Top-25-soul-food-restaurants-you-ll-want-to-call-home\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Top 25 soul food restaurants you\u2019ll want to call home;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Top 25 soul food restaurants you\u2019ll want to call home<\/a>&#8221; in the United States, and the no-frills Arizona joint happens to be one of our favorite too, making <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2026\/01\/05\/best-phoenix-restaurants-2026\/86991787007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Republic&#039;s 100 Essentials;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Republic&#8217;s 100 Essentials<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To curate the list, Andrew Perrin, Yelp Maryland Burbs Senior Community Manager, identified restaurants in the soul food category and used Yelp Elite Squad&#8217;s &#8220;volume and ratings of reviews.&#8221; All restaurants were open as of Dec. 18, 2025, and had passed health inspections as of Dec. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Here&#8217;s a look at the restaurant Yelp Elite said was the best soul food in Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>JL Smokehouse in Phoenix<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">While Yelp gave an anemic sentence about having the food shipped if you can&#8217;t go to the restaurant, The Arizona Republic&#8217;s features team thinks highly of JL Smokehouse, likening the sausage to &#8220;some kind of manna from heaven.&#8221; The restaurant made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2025\/01\/06\/best-phoenix-restaurants-2025\/75708945007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Republic&#039;s 100 Essential list in 2025;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Republic&#8217;s 100 Essential list in 2025<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2026\/01\/05\/best-phoenix-restaurants-2026\/86991787007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:2026;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Rating:<\/strong> 4.5 from 438 reviewers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Details:<\/strong> 2010 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix. 602-620-5132, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jlsmokehouse.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:jlsmokehouse.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">jlsmokehouse.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Reach the reporter at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/lifestyle\/articles\/mailto:BAnooshahr@azcentral.com\" data-ylk=\"slk:BAnooshahr@azcentral.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BAnooshahr@azcentral.com<\/a>. Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/baharcreative\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@baharcreative;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@baharcreative<\/a> on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Hungry for more? Sign up for our newsletter <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/profile.azcentral.com\/newsletters\/dining-with-azcentral\/?ipid=phoenixdining\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dining with azcentral;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><strong>Dining with azcentral<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong>Readers voted it best new restaurant: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2026\/01\/20\/first-bite-golden-oak-bbq-bar-phoenix\/88161098007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:One meal at this Phoenix spot showed me why;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">One meal at this Phoenix spot showed me why<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2026\/02\/03\/phoenix-soul-food-restaurant-yelp\/88488571007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Phoenix restaurant named among best in US for soul food;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Phoenix restaurant named among best in US for soul food<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yelp released a list of the Yelp Elite&#8217;s &#8220;Top 25 soul food restaurants you\u2019ll want to call home&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":564205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,25421,246149,246150],"class_list":["post-564204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-phoenix","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-yelp","tag-yelp-elite","tag-yelp-maryland-burbs-senior-community-manager"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116008928301357180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}