Best restaurant meals I ate around Sacramento in September | Food reporter’s notebook

Where oh where does one go for excellent Mexican seafood, tasty brunch, Brazilian bites or top-notch Italian food in the Sacramento area?

The Sacramento Bee’s food and drink writer Benjy Egel tackled those topics in a series of reviews throughout September.

Each of these reviews was first published in The Bee’s free food and drink newsletter, which hits inboxes around noon each Wednesday. Visit https://t.news.sacbee.com/webApp/mccSignUp?newsletter=sacbee_food_drink_newsletter to sign up.

El Parian Taqueria

It’s a common question from Southern California transplants: “Where is the good Mexican food in Sacramento?” While it’s hard to compete with the Los Angeles or San Diego taqueria scene, in-the-know locals can usually rattle off a few slept-on stars: Lalo’s Restaurant, El Bramido, maybe Mezcal Grill or Nixtaco for a slight step up.

Go ahead and add El Parian Taqueria to that list. Martin Aceves’ North Highlands taqueria along Watt Avenue feels lived-in, with crowds of regulars and a solid salsa bar. It’s not a seafood spot per se, but that’s what it does best.

It’s hard to miss the mariscada ($26), a whole fried tilapia smothered in octopus, shrimp and salsa diabla and served with tortillas. Messy but delicious, it’s one of two ultimate seafood dishes (a molcajete being the other) at El Parian and a fun communal shareable.

A simple fish taco ($5) featuring buttery grilled bass and a cheese skirt was one of the best I’ve had around the Sacramento area. Regular tacos ($3 apiece) hit the spot as well; in a lineup of al pastor, chile verde, pollo asado and buche (pork stomach), the chicken was the somewhat surprising standout.

The tostada de camaron ($6) was more uncomplicated beauty, a heaping mound of cucumber, tomatoes, onions, avocado and juicy shrimp that I could hardly fit in my mouth. For a heartier dish that goes home relatively well, try the alambre ($18), a jumble of beef strips, tangy chorizo, peppers and melted cheese served with two side quesadillas.

Address: 4834 Watt Ave., North Highlands.

Hours: 9 a.m. to 8:45 p.m., seven days a week.

Phone number: (916) 332-3232.

Website: None.

Drinks: Beer, wine, soda, aguas frescas and fresh-squeezed orange or carrot juice.

Vegetarian options: A few options, including tacos, burritos, nachos and quesadillas.

Noise level: Loud.

The Morning Fork

Jennifer Swiryn waited tables at Lucky Cafe for eight years until the 55-year-old midtown Sacramento diner closed in 2017. Two years later, Swiryn and her chef husband Keith opened the Morning Fork in its place, retaining some of the Americana nostalgia while infusing it with their punk rock feel.

Larger inside than it looks from 21st Street, the Morning Fork is a bustling blend of old-school counter stools and local art splashed across the walls. Keith’s culinary creations are generally classic with innovative, modern touches, a major reason (along with enormous pancakes) that it’s emerged as a Sacramento brunch favorite over the last four years.

Take the blue lump crab and bay shrimp Benedict ($23 with your choice of fruit, hash browns or country potatoes), served on a pair of English muffins. The sweet seafood added some frills, but perfectly-poached eggs and a subtle housemade hollandaise sauce showed the Morning Fork can nail the basics as well.

The seared corned beef hash ($17 with the above sides plus sourdough, marbled rye or an English muffin) would have been fall-apart tender were it not for a crispy layer across the bottom. Vegetarians might prefer the veggie burrito ($16), a contrasting mix of crunchy broccoli, earthy mushrooms, gooey Swiss Gouda, fluffy scrambled eggs and jalapeños’ dash of heat.

The Morning Fork’s waffles tend to run sweet, perhaps the orange chocolate ($14) most of all. Made with a cake-like chocolate batter, adorned with chocolate curls and topped with chocolate sauce, it’s so rich that you might want to skip the butter. But don’t: That little white ball is infused with candied citrus and salted maple syrup.

Address: 1111 21st St., Sacramento.

Hours: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. every day.

Phone number: (916) 476-6765.

Website: https://www.themorningfork.com/

Drinks: Coffee from Coffee Works in East Sacramento and beer and wine, including brunch cocktails made with soju or Champagne.

Vegetarian options: Several.

Noise level: Loud.

Sampino’s Kitchen at Joe Marty’s

Sacramento has recently seen a few modern revivals of old restaurant concepts: the new Jim-Denny’s, Mattone Ristorante and Cerveceria at The Shack spring to mind. They should hope to be as successful as Sampino’s Kitchen at Joe Marty’s, which technically opened on Broadway in 2017 but has roots dating back to 1938.

Professional baseball player and native son Joe Marty originally opened his eponymous sports bar on J Street, then moved it near the Sacramento Solons’ stadium in 1951 (a Target sits there today). Joe Marty’s shut down after a fire in 2005, and a 2015 reopening was short-lived.

Enter new owners Bill and Michael Sampino, who brought in some of the city’s best Italian food while keeping the framed jerseys of Sacramento-area natives who made the major leagues. Sampino’s Kitchen at Joe Marty’s is only open for dinner and only Thursday-Sunday (head across the grid to Sampino’s Towne Foods for lunch options), so make a reservation if you don’t want to wait, particularly when dining on Friday and Saturday.

I can’t say enough good things about Joe Marty’s pesto gnocchi ($26.75 and served with French bread, salad and orange sherbet, as with all entrees). Crinkly dumplings made with Yukon gold potatoes were rendered chewy and crunchy all at once, and tied together with a bright pine nut pesto and housemade Calabrese sausage.

The steak puttanesca ($31) was cooked exactly to my father’s medium-well specification while still being tender enough to satisfy those of us who might have ordered it slightly rarer. Served over linguine with truffle oil and chile flakes, it took on a fair amount of tang from the puttanesca sauce’s olives, capers, anchovies and crushed tomatoes.

Some of the Sampino’s Towne Foods sandwiches are offered on Broadway as well, including the flagship Sampanini ($17.85, served with a side salad) and Sampino’s famous meatball ($18.50), both on airy ciabatta. A cornucopia of Italian meats — mortadella, capicola, salami — defined the former, while the latter benefited from the plucky poke of diced pepperoncini.

Address: 1500 Broadway, Sacramento.

Hours: 4-8 p.m. Thursday, 4-8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 4-7:30 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday-Wednesday.

Phone number: (916) 382-9022.

Website: https://www.joemartys.com/

Drinks: Full bar, with an emphasis on Cameron Park-based Due Ragazze wines.

Vegetarian options: A few, including pizzas, salads and ratatouille that can be made vegan.

Noise level: Moderately loud.

Brazil Steakhouse

Brazil Steakhouse is a new name in Elk Grove Crossing shopping center, but it’s been a favorite of city residents for years.

Known as Little Brazil Steakhouse until the threat of a copyright infringement lawsuit from a Florida-based company prompted a name change last month, the restaurant and market was founded by Ronan Defarias in 2019 and named California’s best steakhouse by Yelp earlier this year.

Much of my experience with Brazilian steakhouses centers around all-you-can-eat rodízios. Though Brazil Steakhouse has that option ($33 per person for lunch, $48 for dinner) it mostly operates as a “kilo restaurant” using a pay-by-weight system that runs $12-$24 per pound depending on time of day and food chosen.

The cheapest option is to pick exclusively from the hot and salad bars. Highlights from the former include pão de queijo (a puffy, chewy tapioca cheesy bread), juicy roasted chicken with potatoes, sweet maduros and punchy Brazilian pork sausages.

You might not expect much from a steakhouse’s salad bar, but that turned out to be a pleasant surprise: sweet chile pasta, marinated artichoke hearts, feta-cucumber salad and oven-roasted mushrooms in a balsamic vinaigrette all made for nice sides.

Yet most diners will want to pay a little extra for the “churrasco” section, where a cook shaves rotating meat skewers to customers’ specifications. Popular choices include chicken thighs, pincanha (sirloin cap) and a buttery top sirloin known as alcatra, all of which go great with a sprinkle of toasted yuca, some chimichurri or an acidic orange hot sauce. Don’t sleep on the rotisserie pineapple, either: dusted in cinnamon sugar, it was all the dessert I needed.

Address: 8698 Elk Grove Blvd., Suite 3, Elk Grove.

Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-8:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, closed Tuesday.

Phone number: (916) 647-3963.

Website: https://brazilsteakhouse95624.com.

Drinks: Beer and wine, plus interesting Brazilian beverages such as a sweet cashew juice called caju.

Vegetarian options: Surprisingly many, and surprisingly good.

Noise level: Medium.