Best Sacramento-area restaurant meals I ate in October | Food reporter’s notebook

Enormous lamb legs served atop Iraqi pilaf. Surprisingly tasty sushi in a Broadway dive. Chicken, blackened on a unique grill at one restaurant and roasted in homage to a San Francisco institution at another.

These were the best meals that I, The Sacramento Bee’s food and drink writer, ate in October around the capital region. All reviews were first published in my free weekly newsletter; sign up for future editions at bit.ly/bee_food_drink_newsletter, and be on the lookout for my 2024 Top 50 Restaurants list dropping Nov. 14.

Sumer Nights

I capped one of Sacramento’s final 100-degree days of the year by heading to Sumer Nights, Abbas Allaftah’s Iraqi restaurant in Arden Arcade. Opened last June in an expansive Country Club Plaza space, it replaced a former Cajun seafood joint, nautical ropes and decor from which still show up on the wood-paneled walls.

I generally have a pretty big appetite. It’s what’s allowed me to down a local fast food joint’s 10x10 smashburger earlier this year, and place second out of 12 competitors in a Jimboy’s Tacos-eating competition last month.

So hear me when I say: Sumer Nights’ entrees are big enough to split among at least two people. Each comes with a luscious yellow lentil soup, a quartet of sides such as tabbouleh or baba ghanoush and khubz, a circular flatbread spilling from the basket.

Then there are the dishes themselves. The dolma plate ($35) is no cute appetizer, but hulking grape leaf wraps stuffed with rice and ground lamb, cooked in tomato broth and served with lamb ribs, spicy pickled vegetables, pomegranate molasses and more rice over khubz.

Quzi ($35), one of Iraq’s national dishes, is similarly colossal. But the two lamb legs that tower over a rice/vermicelli/raisin/almond pilaf are so tender that they fall right off their bones with a light shake. Dyed yellow by saffron but perfectly pink inside, it was sprinkled with cumin and served with a tomato-white bean soup called fasolia.

Past pages of kebab and shawarma platters, there are smaller items — falafel wraps, chicken burgers and lamb tikka sandwiches, for example. Yet even starters such as shwandaria ($7), a salad of pickled beets julienned and sprinkled with parsley, are generously portioned. Fortunately, it’s just as good the next day, as are most mains when reheated.

Address: 2316 Watt Ave., Sacramento

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 3-10 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday

Phone: 916-750-5088

Website: sumer-nights.com

Drinks: Tea and sodas

Vegetarian options: Falafel plates or wraps, and a few appetizers

Noise level: Quiet during the week, louder on weekend nights

Outdoor seating: Parking lot-adjacent patio spruced up with faux turf and palm trees

Monsoon Burger

If the Kings’ 2024-25 season gets off to a hot start, Monsoon Burger might deserve a shred of credit. One of star point guard De’Aaron Fox’s favorite Sacramento restaurants, it originally opened in Fairfield in 2001 before adding a second location 15 years later in North Natomas’ Park Place shopping center.

Visiting Monsoon Burger during an October windstorm felt appropriate, too. Safely inside, a mural of Sacramento history, tubs of Dreyer’s ice cream in a chest freezer and employee favorites written on a chalkboard help the locally-owned fast food joint create a welcoming environment.

The Natomas burger ($13 for a 6-ounce patty/$14.19 for 8 ounces, both served with fries, baby carrots or mixed greens) and all others are cooked to order on a custom grill resembling a giant rotating lampshade. Rubbed with Cajun seasoning and cayenne powder, topped with your choice of cheese and slid onto a buttered bun, it’s then left otherwise naked. A condiment bar with all the classics as well as pickled onions, chipotle aioli and kimchi made by owner Jim Hsu’s father gives the DIY burger construction a backyard barbecue feel.

The Monsoon burger ($18.50, eight-ounce patty) is an exception to that limited-topping rule, a fresh beef patty slathered with bright housemade guacamole, swirls of bacon and mushrooms. If a burger doesn’t seem right, quarter-pound hot dogs ($10) are split and flame-broiled to a crisp around the edges, then slid into XL toasted buns for maximum use of the condiment bar.

On the meatless side, the mushroom garden burger ($12.50) features a pale soy-grain-vegetable patty topped with sauteed creminis. It has a cleaner, fresher taste than its counterparts — you’re definitely aware that you’re not eating meat, but you’re not mad about it either.

Address: 4740 Natomas Blvd., Suite 130, Sacramento

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Phone: 916-419-7970

Website: monsoonburger.com

Drinks: Eight taps pouring craft beer and other beverages

Vegetarian options: Veggie burgers, salads and fried sides

Noise level: Medium-loud

Outdoor seating: Patio with five tables

Casa East Sac

Casa East Sac is an easy crowd-pleaser, straightforward and well-executed food in a literally homey environment. The building at 54th and H streets was a single-family home before housing a couple of short-lived restaurants, The Neighborhood Pizzeria and Joon Market, prior to Casa’s opening in 2022.

Steve and Ted Gibanov worked their way through Northern California restaurants — Ted was Revolution Winery & Kitchen’s chef in midtown Sacramento — before launching American River Provisions, their Citrus Heights catering business. That’s closed for the time being as the brothers spin potato-topped pizzas and weekend brunch out of Casa, which seems to have become increasingly popular throughout the year.

Steve cooked in San Francisco for 20 years, and Casa occasionally nods to some of the city’s iconic creations — a shrimp Louie salad ($24) that’s been on the menu since Day 1, the occasional cioppino night. The half-roasted chicken ($32) is a riff on Zuni Cafe’s signature panzanella entree, with giant sourdough crouton hunks you’ll pinch out of the shaved fennel, pine nuts and currants swimming au jus.

Housemade lasagna ($30) squares are another labor of love, this time from Italy-born pastry chef Bruno Caccia. Beef bolognese and a generous amount of béchamel flow through six layers of pasta, all topped with a tangy marinara sauce and a sprinkle of herbs.

Address: 5401 H St., Sacramento

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday

Phone: 916-898-3702

Website: casaeastsac.com

Drinks: Full bar, with happy hour specials (3-6 p.m.) Wednesday to Friday

Vegetarian options: Appetizers, salads and pizzas including the Pops and the Vic (herbed ricotta, mozzarella, mushrooms and white truffle oil).

Noise level: Relatively loud inside, quieter on patio

Outdoor seating: Lovely front patio that feels like the former house’s front porch

Cantina Pedregal

I’ve wanted to dine at Cantina Pedregal since visiting Folsom’s high-end northeastern Mexican restaurant before it opened in July. Built on Nixtaco Mexican Kitchen & Distillery owners Patricio Wise and Cinthia Martinez’s roots in Monterrey — and elevated through a partnership with Canon owners Brad Cecchi and Clay Nutting — it’s unlike any other restaurant in Northern California.

Most area taquerias trot out staples from Jalisco and Michoacán, but Mexican cuisine is as regional as the United States’, if not more. Monterrey influences Cantina Pedregal’s decor — custom cups bear the outline of Cerro de la Silla, the famous mountain Wise grew up rock climbing — as well as chef de cuisine Bucky Bray’s small plates and shareable proteins.

If there’s a flagship dish, it’s cabrito en salsa ($49), Monterrey’s famous stew made here in a cumin-oregano base (and with adult goat instead of the traditional but hard-to-find kid). The gamey braised meat and savory sauce really shine on their own, accompanied only by sauteed onions and housemade tortillas. It’s all you need.

Cantina Pedregal’s owners say it’s the Sacramento region’s only restaurant with a Vesuvio, an indoor charcoal grill/combination oven used to char dishes such as the grilled black chicken ($49). Served with salsa roja and grilled scallions, it’s fragrant, salty and hearty, an easy-to-love platter meant to split among the table.

Canon’s focus on small plates and multiculturalism shows up in the sweet corn tetela ($10), a triangular Mitxtec blue-and-yellow masa pocket topped with summer succotash and a smear of housemade labneh. Hamachi crudo ($20) is a highlight from the menu’s “raw” section, its pickled onions, radishes and groundcherries plated around the fish in leche de tigre like a beautiful biodiverse pond.

Address: 185 Placerville Road, Suite 150, Folsom

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. daily

Phone: 916-790-8479

Website: cantinapedregal.com

Drinks: Extensive, intriguing cocktail program that includes but goes beyond tequila and mezcal. Nixtaco’s Dorotea gin also makes appearances.

Vegetarian options: Enough small plates, sides and salads to happily make a meal, but none of the shareable mains.

Noise level: Relatively quiet

Outdoor seating: Patio with ample room

Miso Japanese Restaurant

Miso Japanese Restaurant sits in a seemingly run-down space across Broadway from Tower Cafe and Tower Theatre’s bright lights. That’s part of what makes it a favorite restaurant for several cooks: a Japanese dive with premium fish and old-school items you won’t find in many other Sacramento restaurants.

Winnie Fok’s restaurant is quite a bit nicer on the inside. A light wood sushi bar, samurai swords, geisha dolls and a display case of small Japanese figurines create an amiable backdrop for happy hours and tabletop-grilled meats as well as $80-per-person omakase nights.

While specials such as sushi tacos keep Miso current, its bread-and-butter is less glamorous but filling dishes such as Japanese curry ($12.50-$17), Kyoto-style beef katsu ($20) and yakiudon ($14.50-$18.50), thick noodles stir-fried with vegetables and your choice of protein. It’s all bound together by a creamy house-secret sauce that has a hint of tanginess and served with a pile of fluttering bonito flakes.

Sushi runs the gamut from simple ebi (shrimp, $5 for two nigiri pieces) to premium hamachi toro (yellowtail belly, $24 for five sashimi slices). Hon maguro (bluefin tuna, $9 nigiri/$17 sashimi) is an excellent choice to split the difference, a buttery, tender delight finished with fried leeks and kizami wasabi. If taken as nigiri, it’s served over Edomae-style rice tossed with sourer red vinegar instead of the usual, sweeter rice vinegar.

There are rolls aplenty, and the sake punch ($15) might be the best of the bunch. Eight pieces of spicy tuna and shrimp tempura took a smoky taste from the torched salmon, garlic cream and bonito flakes on top before lingering heat crept through.

Address: 1517 Broadway, Sacramento

Hours: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 4-9:30 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday

Phone: 916-680-9338

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/miso916/home

Drinks: Full bar

Vegetarian options: Available for most menu categories, including yakiudon, ramen, sukiyaki, curry and rolls

Noise level: Relatively quiet

Outdoor seating: None