Best restaurant meals I ate around Sacramento in October | Food reporter’s notebook
A new Roseville bar pairs award-winning chicken sandwiches with terrific housemade beer. Nepalese dumplings called momos are the focus at a North Natomas restaurant. A creative East Sacramento concept still flies a little under the radar despite its Michelin accolades.
These were the best restaurants at which I ate in October. Each appeared first in my free weekly food and drink newsletter, published Wednesdays at around noon. Visit https://bit.ly/bee_food_drink_newsletter to sign up.
Himalaya Momo
North Natomas has become Sacramento’s de facto hub for South Asian food (don’t sleep on Folsom, either, if you’re out that way). While that most often manifests in Indian restaurants, there are a few Nepalese spots as well, including Himalaya Momo in Park Place 2 shopping center.
Bhojraj Phuyal’s 2-year-old restaurant specializes in momos, Nepalese and Tibetan dumplings that are also popular in India and Bhutan. As such, one should order the classic steamed momos ($10 for a six-piece appetizer set, or $14 for 10 dumplings). Available with chicken, vegetarian or vegan fillings, they’re twisted firm on top with a soft underbelly.
Really, though, most of our table’s favorite dish was the jhol momo ($17 for 10 pieces). Same dumplings, except this time they swam in a delicious, tangy tomato broth. I’ll add that we ordered these filled with chicken and the classics with stewed greens inside, and the poultry made a surprising amount of (positive) difference.
Himalaya Momo’s menu has several pages of familiar Indian dishes, including vegetarian favorites such as chole bhature ($10) or aloo gobi ($12). It’s rarer to find a restaurant that makes lamb sekuwa ($16), skewered chunks of meat coated in a spicy red marinade and cooked in a tandoori oven.
Address: 4740 Natomas Blvd., Suite 150, Sacramento.
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, 5-9 p.m. Monday.
Phone number: (916) 419-2121.
Website: https://www.clover.com/online-ordering/himalaya-momo-sacramento
Drinks: Chai, sodas and Himalayan coffee, with a California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control beer and wine license pending.
Vegetarian options: Many.
Noise level: Relatively quiet.
Canon
I’m frequently surprised how many contemporary eaters I speak to that leave Canon off their tip-top upper echelon of Sacramento restaurants — like, Top 5 in the city. Each time I go to the East Sacramento restaurant, I entrust chefs Brad Cecchi and Sean Rumery to fluidly warp unusual ingredients together, and each time, it’s an absolute hit.
It’s a special occasion type of place, to be sure. But unlike the prix-fixe menus of, say, The Kitchen or Localis, Canon can be enjoyed in a way that doesn’t break the bank. Most dishes are small-ish shareable plates, a business model that’s helped owners Cecchi and Clay Nutting retain its Michelin Bib Gourmand (an award for excellent budget eats) every year since the California-wide guide began in 2019.
The menu changes frequently, but a couple of house standouts never come off. That includes Sacramento’s finest tater tots ($10), rigid-crispy on the outside but fluffy on the inside and covered in a 60-ingredient mole negro, and a pair of fall-off-the-bone chicken drumsticks ($12) in a smoky, slightly bitter urfa biber chile sauce.
A housemade sourdough loaf ($5 for a half loaf/$10 for a full) came with cheddar butter. If like me, you’ve never heard of that, it’s when cheddar fat is separated and whipped into room-temperature butter, then topped with chives and crunchy potato bits. Don’t miss it, or the caramelized Jerusalem artichoke ($19), flavorful tubers served with rainbow chard, pancetta bits and clumps of poppy seeds.
A handful of meat or fish “platters” are intended for sharing as well. Cross-hatched charred Pacific swordfish ($56) steaks came with halved figs, crumbled merguez sausage and a beurre rouge sauce on my visit, making for a delicious savory/sweet/spicy combination. Alas, it was gone from the menu two days later, though it could well be back in the future.
Address: 1719 34th St., Sacramento.
Hours: 5-9 p.m. seven days a week.
Phone number: (916) 469-2433.
Website: https://canoneastsac.com/
Drinks: A long wine list and excellent cocktail menu, as curated by beverage director Jack Winks. Craft sodas for those avoiding alcohol.
Vegetarian options: Marked on the menu. Options on my visit included a radicchio wedge salad with goat Gouda and caramelized onions, heirloom tomatoes on sourdough and Middle Eastern-inspired roasted summer squash with muhammara, pickled raisins and candied walnuts.
Noise level: Medium.
El Boritracho
El Boritracho has been a welcome addition to Citrus Heights’ rather staid dining scene since opening five months ago. Few restaurants around the region carry the Puerto Rican, Salvadoran and Honduran dishes offered at Bella Luz’s restaurant where Alonzo’s Pizza Depot previously stood.
I missed El Boritracho on my first run through Copperwood Square shopping center, as its only signage is a 12-by-16-inch laminated paper between a smoke shop and a nail salon. The interior remains a work in progress as well, with remnants of Alonzo’s train theme providing much of the decor, but vases of fresh flowers on each table were a nice touch.
The tacos Hondureños ($11) appetizer featured two enormous tacos dorados (I would call them taquitos, but that implies something smaller) stuffed with your choice of shredded chicken or beef and cabbage salad. The fried exterior was thick and crunchy, durable enough to hold up under multiple types of cheese, a savory red sauce and pickled onions.
El Boritracho’s pupusas ($3.50, made from corn or rice flour) were large as well, but I tasted the melted cheese inside more than the chicken or spinach I selected. Mofongo ($17), a savory Puerto Rican cake made from mashed, garlicky fried plantains and served alongside chicken, ground beef or succulent shrimp, was a step back in the right direction.
The namesake dish, El Boritracho ($25), is a sampler platter intended for one or two people. You’ll get a taste of trifongo (similar to mofongo, but with cassava and sweet plantains as well) plus smoky shrimp, juicy chicken and surprisingly gamey steak, all flattened and served with a Salvadoran rice/red bean mix called casamiento.
Address: 7054 Sunrise Blvd., Citrus Heights.
Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday.
Phone number: (916) 745-4383
Website: https://www.facebook.com/p/El-Boritracho-100087754245449/
Drinks: A good selection of aguas frescas and international sodas, along with beer, wine, sangria and micheladas.
Vegetarian options: Not much, but trifongo is available as an entree, there are huevos rancheros for breakfast and pupusas can be made vegetarian.
Noise level: Fairly loud.
Moksa Barrel House
One of Placer County’s best fine dining restaurants (Hawks in Granite Bay) meets one of the region’s top breweries (Moksa Brewing of Rocklin) at Moksa Barrel House, which opened last September in Roseville.
Moksa Barrel House is far more casual than Hawks or Hawks Public House, Michael Fagnoni and Molly Hawks’ other restaurant in East Sacramento. Mornings start with coffee and breakfast sandwiches; lunch and dinner revolve around burgers and chicken sandwiches, intended to be washed down with Moksa beer.
That includes the Nashville hot crispy chicken sandwich ($13), a slow burner with herby ranch slaw that was the judges’ favorite at this year’s Sac Hot Chicken Battle (disclaimer: I was one of the judges). Buttermilk fried chicken is the standard, but you can opt to have Petaluma Poultry’s Rocky Jr. chicken roasted instead for a juicy, healthier version.
The cowboy burger ($12) showed some restraint compared to the barbecue sauce-laden versions one finds elsewhere. The beef is sourced from Double R Ranch in Idaho and served with melted American cheese, pickled jalapeños and a pair of onion rings on a potato bun, but it’s the thick, crispy bacon that stands out in this burger.
Even though the Barrel House fries ($10) are a solid take on animal-style fries that hold their crisp better than In-N-Out’s original, I recommend the sweet, blackened chile-miso Brussels sprouts ($12) if you’re looking for an appetizer.
Address: 10007 Foothills Blvd., Suite 180, Roseville.
Hours: 7 a.m to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Phone number: (916) 783-1445.
Website: https://moksabarrelhouse.com/
Drinks: Housemade beer is the specialty, but there’s also wine, cider, hard kombucha and Mostra Coffee (San Diego) drinks.
Vegetarian options: Mostly-fried appetizers, a couple of salads and the option to substitute portobello mushrooms for any burger patty.
Noise level: Relatively quiet on my visit, but easy to see it getting loud during busier times.
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