New restaurants in Phoenix, Mesa and Ahwatukee to try in September

The strip mall dining scene in greater Phoenix got even better with newly opened restaurants adding Filipino barbecue, Bangkok street food and Chesapeake Bay blue crabs to the menu. 

Two of the venues let you get up close and personal with your food. In Phoenix, grill your own Filipino barbecue skewers over a repurposed Korean barbecue grill. And in Ahwatukee, crack into steamed Maryland crab flow in fresh from the Chesapeake Bay. 

Over in Mesa, Jinnathip Phuprasert, the new owner of Thai Food Corner has transformed the neighborhood Thai restaurant into a beacon of Bangkok street foods, serving the likes of moo ping, glistening pork skewers served on a wooden plate with a little bamboo basket of sticky rice.