Downtown Sacramento’s 5 best restaurants: Moroccan sandwiches, pizza and jaw-dropping ramen

Downtown Sacramento’s best restaurants include a new Moroccan breakfast-and-lunch spot, a sourdough with a daily vegetarian option and a couple of high-end concepts ideal for a special night out (or expense account).

These five options aren’t just the best in downtown Sacramento. They’re among the Top 50 Restaurants anywhere in the Sacramento region, as published in a sortable list last week.

Don’t see your favorite downtown restaurant? Write them in to The Bee’s poll. The five most popular write-ins will be added to the Top 50 list as “readers choice” inclusions.

Camden Spit & Larder

$$ — British

Glitzy and glamorous on Capitol Mall, Camden Spit & Larder is a restaurant true to chef/owner Oliver Ridgeway’s being: British by birth, modern Californian by choice. Attentive servers in gingham shirts always seem to have some pleasant special to pitch, including a crispy, dill-forward salmon Scotch egg topped with trout roe and laid over housemade tartar sauce on a May visit. While the restaurant’s 2018 genesis revolved around rotisserie meats (that’s the “spit” in its name; “larder” refers to a cool, dry pantry, and Camden is Ridgeway’s son’s name), its meat pies have become defining dishes in their own right. You might find them filled with the classic steak and ale, or shredded pork accompanied by cotija-whipped potatoes and a mini pitcher of pour-over chile colorado. Chunky, gamey sausage rolls wrapped in flaky puff pastry have become a flagship dish as well, served with coriander bread-and-butter pickle slices and mustard that will clear the sinuses.

555 Capitol Mall, Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95814 | 916-619-8897

Ella Dining Room & Bar

$$ — Californian

Ella’s refined dining room and shaded patio on The Kay are Californian classy to the core, a downtown destination for conference attendees and birthday dinners alike. Founded by Selland Family Restaurants in 2007 and named for patriarch Randall Selland’s granddaughter, Ella’s seasonal menu makes good use of local produce while a wood-burning oven churns out standing favorites such as the famous bone marrow. Executive chef Dustin Harvey’s skill showed on the gorgeous wild rice risotto, a nutty, cheesy creation that kept its texture (and even added some additional crunch with a potato-leek crumble topping) around a whole sweet onion. A Dungeness crab melt served in April felt like Northern California’s more flavorful iteration of a lobster roll, sweet crustacean meat poking out from white cheddar and red mustard greens on a torpedo roll served with potato chips. One of Sacramento’s best happy hours offers a taste of this high-end restaurant at a slightly lower price, lubricated by gin and tonics dyed soft yellow with quinine powder and available in mocktail form.

Kodaiko Ramen & Bar

$ — Japanese

The “Sac Ramen Kings,” as staff T-shirts read, hold court a block from Golden 1 Center. Getting into Kodaiko’s forward-thinking basement ramen shop and cocktail bar can be tricky before a basketball game or concert (a new online waitlist helps), but chef de cuisine E.B. Shin’s culinary creations are worth braving the lines and downtown parking mess along The Kay. Shin continues to whip out favorites established by Kodaiko partners Takumi Abe and Billy Ngo back in 2019, such as 72-hour creamy tonkotsu or an umami-packed mushroom paitan that’s on the short list of the city’s best soups. He’s also expanded Kodaiko’s Japanese-inspired egg salad sandwiches, sliding housemade kimchi slaw, chile oil and fried chicken cutlets between slices of fluffy milk bread. The rotating mazeman, aka brothless ramen, is always worth scoping as well — iterations such as chipotle shrimp with chayote or a summertime “BLT” with smoked pork belly, local tomatoes and nori ranch sauce are among Kodaiko’s most ingenious inventions.

718 K St., Sacramento, CA 95814 | 916-426-8863

Little Morocco Cafe

$ — Middle Eastern/African

An endearing breakfast-and-lunch nook on the ground floor of the 7th & H Apartments, Little Morocco Cafe has charmed downtown workers since opening in February. Silver kettles pour mint-infused green tea from on high at Moroccan immigrant Jamaleddine Kabbaj’s halal restaurant while customers dig into vigorously-spiced tagines, salads embellished with dates or chickpeas and, on Fridays, couscous adorned with beef and roasted vegetables. Few $5 breakfasts are as appealing as Little Morocco’s baghrir, unflipped semolina pancakes pocked with little holes and soused with honey butter. The Marrakech shredded chicken sandwich lurks as a hidden gem on the arch-shaped menu — its salty green olives, lemon-marinated poultry and harissa paste doing wonders between slices of chewy baguette. A terra cotta vessel called a tangia holds a trademark dish by the same name with fall-apart beef hunks in a preserved lemon/saffron/cumin sauce with French bread and a side of zaalouk (eggplant dip).

716 7th St., Sacramento, CA 95814 | 916-246-0009

Majka Pizzeria & Bakery

$$ — Italian

The marks from Berkeley’s exalted Cheese Board Collective, where Cal grads Alex Sherry and Chutharat Sae Tong met as employees, are evident in Majka. A new vegetarian pizza takes center stage on the menu each day, its ends destined to be dipped in herby papi chulo hot sauce. Yet Sherry and Sae Tong have built a distinctly Sacramentan restaurant out of their industrial dining room near the R Street Corridor. While the daily special may center around Amagaki persimmons from Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle or matsutake mushrooms foraged by a friend, classic cheese and pepperoni are always available on the naturally leavened sourdough crust, along with a brilliant sausage pie buoyed by fennel and smashed San Marzano tomatoes. Friday is pasta night with, perhaps, tortelli with red kuri squash or taglioni with shaved white truffle imported from Tuscany, always made with eggs (and sometimes lamb) from Riverdog Farm in the Capay Valley. Dessert can be frozen such as a strawberry-raspberry-Campari sorbet that was as smooth as gelato, or melted like the chocolate chips in miso cookies with Maldon Sea Salt freckles. When at Majka, let the seasons guide you.

1704 15th St., Sacramento, CA 95814 | 916-572-9316