3 Best Restaurants in Grass Valley, Sacramento and the Gold Country

With exposed brick walls, a tall ceiling, and a well-worn bar and floor, Cirino's serves up a vast menu of hefty Italian American favorites like Corsican rosemary chicken, steak à la Gorgonzola, and pork chop Milanese. The bar crew, which slings the signature Bloody Mary and other specialty cocktails, is as friendly as the rest of the team.

Eat like a 19th-century Cornish miner at this modest takeout shop serving home-baked pasties, flaky on the outside with moist and flavorful meat, vegetable, and other fillings. Jammed with skirt steak, potatoes, and turnips, the Cousin Jack hews closest to tradition, with vegetarian and barbecued pulled pork typical of the equally satisfying updates.

Locals flock to this always-busy diner on a Victorian's ground floor for lobster Benedict, a spiced-up Mexican chicken scramble, and other dishes that are anything but your ordinary eggs and pancakes (though you can order those, too, as well as vegetarian versions of several items). Imaginative burritos, wraps, burgers, and more lobster in the form of a melt sandwich appear for lunch.