For a diverse, rapidly-growing city of nearly 180,000 just south of Sacramento, Elk Grove’s culinary scene doesn’t always get its deserved shine.

There are higher-end date night restaurants and plenty of chain concepts to satisfy as-seen-on-TV cravings. But for my money, Elk Grove’s best restaurants are less expensive eats: Chinese, Vietnamese, Afghan and Middle Eastern dishes that delight the palate without hurting the wallet too badly.

These four places aren’t just the best in Elk Grove, they’re among The Sacramento’s Bee Top 50 Restaurants, the full list of which was released on Nov. 18. A full explanation of The Bee’s selection process can be found here.

Browse through that guide, and write in your favorites that didn’t make the list through this form. We’ll update the list to include the five highest vote-getters some time in mid-December.

ADAM’S INTERNATIONAL MARKET

$ — AFRICAN/MEDITERRANEAN

Look no further for frozen veggies, raw meat and some of the region’s best Middle Eastern food, all under one roof in this Elk Grove halal market. Adam’s full deli counter accommodates American palates a bit with fried chicken and ribeye sandwiches, but the best items are predictably those like ful medames, a warm, thick Egyptian fava bean dip with a sneaky burn. The falafel is fried just right, the sumac-speckled cucumber salad makes for a lovely side and the lamb shawarma wrap is exceptional, its creamy tahini just barely soaked up by a flatbread called saj. Be sure to grab one of Adam’s many varieties of nougat Turkish delight for dessert, from sesame honey to cinnamon hazelnut to pomegranate sour raisin.

9175 Elk Grove Florin Road, Elk Grove. (916) 685-2211.

CHOPAN KABOB

$ — AFRICAN/MEDITERRANEAN

Chopan Kabob continues to offer some of Sacramento’s best Afghan food, albeit with a pared-down menu, despite not offering dine-in service since the pandemic began. Afghan immigrants Mahbooba and Sadiq Qadri speckle their bone-in lamb kabobs with sumac and other mystery spices, wrap them in aluminum foil, grill them and fill to-go containers with the resulting masterpieces, which send customers zooming over to nearby parks’ picnic tables. Pizza boxes are filled with the tastiest bolani one can find, featuring potatoes, chili flakes and Afghan chives called gandana when in season. As great as these dishes are, they’d likely taste even better in Chopan Kabob’s dining room filled with Afghan pottery, maps and paintings, so here’s to hoping for a return to full strength for the Laguna Crossroads restaurant.

9105 Bruceville Road, Suite 5A, Elk Gove. (916) 684-8711.

JOURNEY TO THE DUMPLING

$ — CHINESE

No Sacramento-area restaurant adapts Chinese dishes for the modern day like Journey to the Dumpling, which usually has hour-long dinner waits but is more accessible during lunch. Chris and Yvonne Tan’s restaurant is best known for its xiaolongbao, pork meatball soup-filled dumplings that are perfectly pleated and love a dash of black vinegar. Wrinkly siu mai are topped with roe and a layer of shrimp that lead to a scrumptious pork-mushroom filling, while other dumplings are stuffed with Impossible meat or wrapped in spinach dough. The mix of old and new brought Carmichael native-turned-TV host Lisa Ling back to the area for her new HBO Max food show, which featured Journey for its episode about Chinese cooking. Now, would Journey please hurry up and open the long-awaited Sacramento location underneath The Press at Midtown apartments?

7419 Laguna Blvd., Suite 180, Elk Grove. (916) 509-9556.

QUÁN NEM NINH HÒA

$ — SOUTH/SOUTHEAST ASIAN

Dozens of quality pho houses and banh mi shops surround Quán Nem Ninh Hòa in Sacramento’s Little Saigon neighborhood, but you won’t find either Vietnamese staple inside. The Nguyen family’s two area Vietnamese restaurants (and a third in West Covina) are best known for DIY spring rolls, rice paper cocoons stuffed to the diner’s content with skewered ground pork, đồ chua (pickled daikon and carrots), greens and a red peanut house sauce. Noodle soup lovers can still get items like bún chả cá, an umami-rich yellowtail fishcake stew with pineapple and tomato chunks, as early as 9 a.m.

6450 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento. (916) 428-3748.

8469 Elk Grove Blvd., Elk Grove. (916) 683-9621.

This story was originally published November 29, 2022 at 6:00 AM.