The Sacramento Bee’s Benjy Egel picked the region’s 50 best restaurants last month.

Now the votes are in, and readers have added these five establishments to The Sacramento Bee’s Top 50 Restaurants list.

AIOLI BODEGA ESPAÑOLA

$$ — SPANISH

Aioli has been a Capitol-adjacent crowd favorite since opening in 1994, and it’s not hard to see why. Owner Aziz Bellarbi-Salah (Brasserie du Monde, The Grand wine bar) has continued the standard set by previous owners, including his parents: moderately refined, rarely-seen Spanish eats in a gorgeous setting, particularly in the back garden. Craft a smorgasbord of tapas such as pinchos morunos (Moorish lamb skewers) and fish-of-the-day tartare, or go in on a two-person paella pan if you can spare 45 minutes for prep. Entrees are stellar, too, such as ground duck ragu-laden lasagna or a grilled meat platter including chorizo, lamb chops and manchego cheese.

MIKUNI

Taro Arai’s ever-popular sushi restaurant kept humming in 2022, hosting birthday celebrations in midtown, Arden Arcade, Folsom, Fair Oaks, Elk Grove, Davis, Roseville (two locations) and Concord. Separate menus for light and gluten-free fare help Mikuni reach broader audiences, and the restaurant’s $60 family-style dinner for two is one of the best date night deals around. While Mikuni’s long menu includes simple nigiri and sashimi, it’s best known for over-the-top inventions that flood the palate with several flavorful ingredients. The Marilyn Monroll is a good encapsulation of the restaurant in a bite of maki, a smattering of scallops, crab mix, avocado, panko shrimp and masago that titillates the taste buds. Don’t sleep on an excellent Kurobuta pork katsu, crackly-crispy on the outside but moist where it matters.

Q1227

The youngest of 10 siblings raised outside of Gainesville, Florida, Quentin “Chef Q” Bennett grew up to grill steaks for Golden 1 Center’s basketball players, performing artists and celebrities as the kitchen boss at Downtown Commons’ Echo & Rig. His own concept, opened on his 50th birthday (Dec. 27, 2019, hence the restaurant’s name), merges those two worlds. Q1227 has gripped Placer County by elevating Southern-inspired cooking into a fine dining setting with dishes such as crispy shrimp-and-grits, braised oxtail soup and bacon-wrapped meatloaf. The only Black chef in Placer County to his knowledge, Bennett has become known for large market-price shareable platters including a grilled seafood tower that normally reaches north of $200. Steaks are still in his arsenal as well, from three ounces of Japanese wagyu to 18-ounce cowboy ribeyes in a bone marrow/red wine demi-glace.

SOUTHPAW SUSHI

$$ — JAPANESE

Del Paso Boulevard’s longtime, ongoing revitalization dreams got a boost with the 2019 opening of Southpaw Sushi, veteran area chef Lou Valente’s first project since splitting with the former Lou’s Sushi two years prior. Loyal supporters and new fans have flocked to Old North Sacramento for Valente’s mix of classic nigiri and “unique, beautiful, sometimes weird” items, per Southpaw’s own website. That can mean gracefully-sliced black snapper over rice, or the Woodlake roll filled with tempura sweet potato and avocado and topped with seared tuna, Brussels sprouts, ginger ponzu and sweetened garlic. Southpaw has also become known for prepared items such as the L-Train, where tuna, fresh snow crab and shiso leaves weave around stalks of grilled asparagus.

TRES HERMANAS

$ — MEXICAN

Dora and Norma Saenz and Sonia Chaidez might be the three most famous sisters in Sacramento, though most people don’t know their real names. The “tres hermanas” and Chihuahua natives landed on the scene in 1997 when they founded their first sit-down Mexican restaurant in midtown Sacramento, and have since added two more that are still standing. Each location is a little different in style and menu — Dora’s East Sacramento spot is written as 3 Hermanas, for example, and keeps a slightly shorter menu than the midtown restaurant, bought by Armando Jacobo earlier this year. Constants include chiles rellenos, camarones al mojo de ajo and the ensalada norteña, a happy marriage of bell peppers, green and black beans, corn and avocado over Romaine lettuce. The midtown and Davis restaurants’ patios, in particular, are great for housing house margaritas and doing a little people-watching.

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 9:07 AM.