Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion.
American, Italian, and Mexican are common Gold Country fare, but chefs also prepare ambitious European, French, and contemporary regional cuisine that mixes California ingredients with international preparations. Grass Valley's meat- and vegetable-stuffed pasties, introduced by 19th-century gold miners from Cornwall, are one of the region's more unusual treats.
The tale of how the couple running this spot for to-go or dine-in French food became husband and wife says all you need to know about their passion for beautifully crafted cuisine—he won her heart with his escargot sauce. In a casual space with ocher walls, six utilitarian stools at the wine bar, and a few tables inside and out, the two serve baguette sandwiches; salads; crepes; stews; and entrées like coq au vin, cassoulet, and pork tenderloin.
The menu describes this restaurant inside an ivy-covered redbrick building as "a comfort kitchen," but the term doesn't do justice to the sophistication displayed in the cuisine and presentation. Dinner items on the seasonally evolving menu have included mushroom dumplings in a shiitake ginger broth, diver scallops with pureed cauliflower and bacon jam, hanger steak with smashed fingerling potatoes, and a corn polenta bowl with asparagus and mushroom gravy.
A cheery, sometimes boisterous vibe prevails at this ode to Black cuisine and culture that former NBA star and past Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and his wife, Michelle, founded in a high-ceilinged, quasi-industrial space 3½ miles southeast of the Capitol. Expect heapin' helpings of soul food's greatest hits—gumbo, shrimp and grits, oxtails, and fried chicken, catfish, and pork chops among them—that you can pair with sides that include hush puppies, black-eyed peas, candied yams, and collard greens (with turkey necks).
From potato pancakes for breakfast to grilled rib eye for dinner, this bustling bistro with a series of wainscoted rooms and an outdoor back patio has something for all palates. Lighter grilled vegetables, chicken, sandwiches, salads, and homemade soups always shine here, as does heartier fare that might include elk medallions and prawns, forager-mushroom risotto, and cioppino with a relatively delicate yet full-flavored broth.
It seems as if everybody in Lodi loves bright and chipper Guantonio's, and, after tasting the family-style restaurant's wood-fired pizzas, it's easy to see why. Placing the area's pristine seasonal produce atop naturally leavened dough from "organic non-GMO flour," the chefs turn out cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper), pesto and sausage, and a dozen more tour de force pies.
A casual spot on the eastern edge of town, Alchemy serves sturdy comfort food like meat loaf, pan-seared fish, and mushroom bourguignon over polenta. Fried calamari with roasted jalapeños and a Caesar with smoked-Gouda croutons are among the starters that pair well with the many Calaveras County wines on the list.
The exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and natural light streaming through large-paned windows of this easygoing comfort-food hangout make a great first impression. Favorites like tater tots (in truffle oil), French onion soup, and chicken and waffles (with pecan butter, maple syrup, and pork gravy) prove simultaneously familiar and intriguing.
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.
A good downtown stop especially for lunch, the Dancing Fox also has a tasting room for its eponymous wines. The restaurant, whose decor shimmers with fairy-tale whimsy, serves sandwiches, salads, pizzas, burgers, and wraps and has more than a dozen beers on tap.
This Midtown eatery with a vaguely industrial look and a casual vibe takes its food seriously: nearly all the produce is sourced locally, and the chefs prepare only sustainable seafood. BLTs and grass-fed beef burgers (and a plant-based option) are among the staples, as are steak and fries and pan-roasted fish with seasonal vegetables.
Lodi's go-to spot for Italian American classics wins fans for its quality ingredients, Tuscan-courtyard ambience, and plant-filled outdoor patio (reservations essential on weekends). Expect straightforward, well-executed renditions of chicken piccata and pork Milanese, filling lasagna and seasonal risotto, pizzas, and the like, all delivered with informal good cheer by the cadre of servers.
The chef-owner of this restaurant also known as The "Little Italian Place" describes the menu's influences as his East Coast grandmother's multicourse Sunday family suppers, his later culinary explorations, and his zeal to create "fresh and original" Italian cuisine. The country-road setting accentuates the just-like-home feeling, as do the calzones, pizzas, pasta dishes, and truffle risotto.
The wood-fired pizza oven blazing away on the sidewalk turns out this café's handmade pies, but the lunch and dinner fare extends beyond them to pan-seared fish, a tri-tip sandwich, and fresh salads with ingredients from a local farm. The brick-walled dining room has been a farmers' hangout for breakfast (you name it) for decades.
Comfort food crafted with care makes a trip to this low-slung restaurant on downtown's edge a pleasure whether you dine inside at linen-topped tables or on the dog-friendly, street-facing patio. Several burgers, one vegetarian, another named for a local winemaker, entice the regulars, but don't overlook dinner entrées that might include shrimp curry, lamb and grits, or grilled Indian-spice tofu with pistachios and Sriracha.
After paying dues at area restaurants, husband-and-wife team Oscar and Alejandra Sanchez struck out on their own in 2023, opening this tile-floored trattoria with a bar and indoor seating and a covered street-side patio. Carefully selected ingredients and a light touch with Italian sauces elevate dishes that might include shrimp scampi, cioppino, and chicken and veal piccata and marsala.
Inside a glamorously renovated Hudson Motor Car showroom from the 1920s that looks out of a movie set, Zócalo puts an upscale spin on Mexican classics. Pair the house margarita or its blackberry variation with pozole or a guac or ceviche starter before moving on to enchiladas or a burrito bowl with chicken, salmon, carne asada, or vegetarian ingredients.
