Best restaurant meals I ate around Sacramento in December | Food reporter’s notebook
Handmade tamales at an Arden Arcade taqueria. “Salmon bombs” at a Japanese restaurant on the outskirts of midtown. Locally-grown mushrooms atop sourdough pizza in Placer County.
These were the best restaurant meals I, The Sacramento Bee’s food and beverage reporter, enjoyed around the region in December.
All reviews were first published in my free weekly food and drink newsletter, which hits inboxes at noon each Wednesday. Visit https://bit.ly/bee_food_drink_newsletter to sign up.
Los Nopales Carniceria & Taqueria
Los Nopales Carniceria & Taqueria’s name is only half true: there’s no meat market attached to the hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, and you won’t find much in the way of nopales (cacti) either.
Michoacán natives Flora Cortez and Arturo Martines-Alvarez opened Los Nopales in 2016 between a liquor store and a hair salon on Fulton Avenue in Arden Arcade. It’s a place for handmade tamales ($2.50-$2.89) and velvety refried beans served on paper plates, as well as ice cream sundaes and fruit cups.
Few if any other Sacramento-area restaurants make camarones a la Huichol ($17.89), a seafood dish native to the coastal Mexican state of Nayarit. The red marinade’s chile-lime flavor washed over the medley of shrimp, blackened onions and peppers, all served over white rice.
A veritable vat of bright red pozole ($15) stood out for its tangy flavor as much as its toothsome hominy and giant chunks of fatty pork. Red was also the color of the pambazo ($5.89 for one, or $9.99 for two), a small sandwich filled with chorizo and (mostly) potatoes on bread that had been dipped and fried in a guajillo chile sauce.
Address: 3106 Fulton Ave., Sacramento.
Hours: 10 a.m.-11 p.m., seven days a week.
Phone number: (916) 489-3592.
Website: www.instagram.com/los_nopales_carniceria/
Drinks: Beer, sodas and aguas frescas.
Vegetarian options: Tamales, chiles rellenos, quesadillas and chilaquiles.
Noise level: Loud.
Koi Japanese Bistro
One can’t accuse Koi Japanese Bistro of misleading customers. The first steps into Nikki Nguyen’s, Alain Ng’s and David and Jenny Macawile’s restaurant put customers on a small bridge overlooking a koi pond, before walking into a high-ceiling space decorated with cherry blossom trees and seasonal holiday decor.
Opened in February 2022 in the Newton Booth neighborhood on the fringes of Sacramento’s city center, Koi balances Japanese familiarities such as teriyaki, ramen and (especially) sushi with more inventive small plates.
Take the miso-and-mushroom risotto with pan-seared scallops ($13), a creamy, savory concoction that benefits greatly from a squeeze of the accompanying lemon. Or plump grilled oysters with uni and crab compound butter (MP, available in multiples of three), a rich “cheers” to start off your meal.
There are two ramen choices: tonkotsu or shoyu (both $13). I went for the former and appreciated its salty, tangy broth and tender pork chashu, but especially the juicy lollipop chicken drumstick (an extra $2.50, or included in the shoyu ramen).
Koi’s deepest menu section is its sushi rolls, and the sesame seed-speckled futomaki ($19) made for a pleasant mix of unagi, tuna and salmon with pickled and roasted vegetables. But the salmon bombs ($16) were my favorite sushi-adjacent dish: four spoonfuls of seasoned imitation crab, sweet potato and green onions, wrapped in salmon, torched and drizzled with garlic aioli and soy sauce before being served with a peppery slaw.
Address: 1920 29th St., Suite A, Sacramento.
Hours: 5-9 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Friday, 5-10 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday.
Phone number: (916) 619-8569.
Website: https://koijapanesebistro.godaddysites.com/
Drinks: Sake, beer, wine, soju, hard cider, tea, soda and juice.
Vegetarian options: Three veggie rolls, and small plates such as pan-fried mushrooms, agedashi tofu and glazed sweet potatoes (all $9).
Noise level: Medium-low.
Pizzeria Luba
Corey and Carmen Belanger’s dinner-only sourdough pizzeria has been open for a mere two years but already feels entrenched atop downtown Auburn.
Named for Corey’s great-grandmother, Pizzeria Luba decorates naturally leavened, 12-inch pies with ingredients from nearby Placer County farms. Calzones are a Wednesday night specialty, sausage is made in-house and string lights illuminate the wood-floored dining room under a corrugated roof.
The Foggy Dew mushroom pizza ($21) is the clearest example of that farmer-chef relationship. While flavorful oyster mushrooms are the default and crimini might sneak in there as well, the pizza features whatever Foggy Dew Fungi in Newcastle has recently cultivated, along with decadent truffle oil, Fontina cheese, caramelized onions and roasted garlic cream sauce.
Pizzeria Luba’s Coronado pizza ($22) is more piquant, and prettier. A creamy, artistic aji verde drizzle covers chorizo, Hatch chile jack cheese, pickled peppers and roasted garlic cream sauce as the chewy crust reaches up to its crunchy cornicione end.
The butter lettuce salad ($13) was the more interesting of Pizzeria Luba’s two salad options, a mix of its pleasant namesake green and more assertive arugula along with pungent Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. blue cheese, Fuji apple slices, candied pecans and a house vinaigrette.
Address: 780 Lincoln Way, Auburn.
Hours: 4-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.
Phone number: (530) 537-2200.
Website: https://pizzerialuba.com/
Drinks: 13 beers on tap, many of them produced locally, along with wine and sodas.
Vegetarian options: Several — consider the Foggy Dew or the Bella (spinach, bell peppers, red onions and Castelvetrano olives) pizzas, and opt for vegan cheeze or gluten-free crust if you’re so inclined.
Noise level: Loud.
Twin Lotus Thai
Art meets food at Twin Lotus Thai, Joe and Kai Gilman’s restaurant in the College/Glen neighborhood’s College Greens shopping center. Joe is a music professor at American River College and adjunct professor of jazz studies at Sacramento State, while his wife Kai grew up in southern Thailand before immigrating to the U.S.
A piano sits at Twin Lotus’ west end, and local bands play two or three shows to accompany curries and noodle dishes on Friday-Sunday evenings. Recorded past shows play on the restaurant’s TV during lunch service, while poets take the mic on the fourth Tuesday of every month.
Kai ran a boutique in Phuket until the infamous 2004 tsunami, and she pays homage to her former city with the Phuket salad ($9.75). Chunks of avocado, mango, apples and canned pineapple sat over shredded carrots and green papaya, tied together by a savory tamarind/fish sauce dressing.
The spicy basil ($15) hit a high note with its squeaky sauteed green bells and bell peppers, poached egg and choice of protein (I went for ground chicken) over mild garlic rice. Don’t be fooled by the name; while Thai basil is a primary ingredient, the dish’s oyster-soy sauce had merely an easygoing level of sweet heat.
An earthy panang curry ($14.25), meanwhile, made for a warming cold-weather dish with ample burn. Fried tofu cubes tucked nicely into their jackets alongside zucchini, carrots and green beans.
Address: 8345 Folsom Blvd., Suite 119, Sacramento.
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-8:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 12-3 p.m. and 5-8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Phone number: (707) 564-3277.
Website: https://www.twinlotusthai.com/
Drinks: Beer, wine, boba and housemade sodas served in fun pineapple-shaped glasses.
Vegetarian options: Several.
Noise level: Loud during performances, and medium at other times.
Sacramento Eats: Recipes from the Capital Region’s Favorite Restaurants and Bars
Order your cookbook here to get recipes from 60 of the Sacramento region’s top restaurants and bars, plus photos and descriptions of what makes each business so exceptional.
