Looking for something new? Check out these 10 restaurants now open in the Sacramento area

More than 250 restaurants opened throughout the Sacramento region in 2024. These 10 made serious marks on their surrounding neighborhoods — and could have staying power.

These were the 10 hottest restaurant openings of 2024, from lobster tacos for a cause in Roseville to handheld sushi in Elk Grove.

Cantina Pedregal (185 Placerville Road, Suite 150, Folsom): Canon and Franquette owners Brad Cecchi and Clay Nutting combined their fine dining experience with Nixtaco owners Patricio Wise and Cinthia Martinez’s roots in Monterrey, resulting in this one-of-a-kind Northeastern Mexican restaurant that opened in July in Folsom Pointe shopping center.

Forgotten Bakery (4650 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento): Robby Naim and Paul Dollar gave Sacramento’s bagel (and Chilean empanada) scenes some much-needed life by launching Forgotten Bakery in March on an oft-overlooked corner Stockton Boulevard.

Fresh Off Da Boat by Chef T (1515 Sports Drive, Suite 300, Sacramento): American Samoa native Muagututia Tuala-Tamaalelagi opened his Polynesian restaurant in a North Natomas business park in January after a year of catering, offering dishes such as mahi-mahi fish and taro chips or house-ground loco moco along with a more traditional Sunday menu.

Hello Temaki (9261 Laguna Springs Drive, Suite 150, Elk Grove): Umai Bar & Grill owners Larry Hoang, Ann Le Hoang and Feng Liang’s new Japanese restaurant opened in Laguna Pointe shopping center in March and specializes in hand rolls, including premium options filled with king crab, Hokkaido scallops or bluefin tuna.

Husick’s By Forester (36510 Riverview Drive, Clarksburg): Matt Forester Brown, formerly of The Golden Bear and Bodega Kitchen & Cocktails, arguably gave the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta its first modern dining destination when he launched his Clarksburg bistro in September, dishing out the salsa di Parmigiano he grew up on, wood-fired pizzas topped with Calabrian chicken and soppressata and hangar steaks served on hand-carved cutting boards.

La Costa Cafe (701 19th St., Sacramento): Ignacio and Lys Ortega’s Mexican ceviche-focused coffee shop was a quick hit upon opening on a Boulevard Park corner in January; don’t sleep on the humble, sweet pan de elote in the bakery display case, either.

Little Morocco Cafe (716 7th St., Sacramento): Downtown workers on the go can grab lemony chicken sandwiches or semolina pancakes called baghrir from Jamaleddine Kabbaj’s halal breakfast-and-lunch spot on the ground floor of an affordable housing development, though heartier dishes such as kefta tagine are worth sitting down with a cup of mint tea.

Masa Masa (2310 Pleasant Grove Blvd., Suite 130, Roseville): Ashlie Millington, Emily Torres and Juli Hilton aim to spread humankindess one tortilla at a time at Masa Masa, donating proceeds from tacos jammed with sous vide lobster, fried avocado, soy-marinated pork belly and more to different nonprofits since opening in April in West Roseville.

Qamaria Coffee Co. (13405 Folsom Blvd., Suite 950, Folsom): A Yemeni coffee craze swept from Michigan through the U.S. during 2024’s latter half, and Qamaria became the first to open in the Sacramento region in July, followed by Qisa Coffee in Curtis Park and Sana’a Cafe in downtown Sacramento. Franchisee Najla Althaibani serves earthy coffee imported from Haraz, Yemen along with pastries such as knafeh (syrup-soaked cheese and shredded filo) and bint al-sahn (flaky honey cake).

Solimar (3413 Broadway, Sacramento): North Oak Park superstar Faria Bakery’s neighboring pizza offshoot rotates through creative, vegetable-forward pies — a recent creation was topped with whipped ricotta, pickled Asian pear, beer-battered sage and chili oil — in a dimly-lit space that calls the 1970s to mind.

What I’m Eating

Tacos 65 has become Tahoe Park’s hottest taqueria since opening in September 2023, a pocket-sized spot owned by Vietnamese American couple Calvin and Linh Le Dao at the corner of 65th Street and Broadway. A few stools face the windows and walls of the white dining with red trim, but most people grab their food to go and peel out of the crammed parking lot.

Tacos 65’s specialty is Tijuana-style tacos ($3.50, or three for $14.50 with rice and beans), a style trademarked by flour tortillas and healthy dollop of guacamole on top. It’s a bit of a unheralded regionality in the Sacramento area — aside from Chando’s Tacos — and Tacos 65 takes pains to set forward a good representation.

The tortillas are hand-pressed and fried to order, and guac is made in-house every morning from smashed avocados and nothing more. Customers choose from carne asada, pollo asado, mushrooms, chorizo or adobada with pineapple shavings, all grilled over a combination of mesquite charcoal and white oak wood for a distinctly smoky flavor.

Those meats and fungi are also available in gooey queso tacos ($4.50), mulitas ($5), quesadillas ($11.50) and neatly-wrapped burritos ($12) with pinto beans, cheese, sour cream and tomato-dyed rice in addition to the ubiquitous cilantro and onions. A quartet of salsas crescendos with a creamy, slow-burning orange sauce similar to that at San Jose’s famous La Victoria Taqueria.

Tacos 65

Address: 6498 Broadway, Sacramento

Hours: 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday; closed Sunday

Phone: 916-739-1671

Instagram: @tacos65_

Drinks: A range of Mexican and American soft drinks. Our host recommended Sidral Mundet, a bittersweet apple soda that cut through some of the spicier salsas nicely.

Vegetarian options: Mushrooms available in lieu of meat for all dishes.

Noise level: Relatively loud

Outdoor seating: None, and not much indoor either

Openings & Closings

▪ Casa Flores opened Dec. 27 at 8304 Delta Shores Circle South in Meadowview’s Delta Shores shopping center, its second location after the original in Lodi. The sit-down, family-owned Mexican restaurant has served its signature combination plate (beef taco, beef enchilada, chile relleno and steak ranchero) down south since 1992.

▪ Yo ho ho and a pint of lager: pirate-themed craft brewery Darkheart Brewing reopened Dec. 26 at 7110 Auburn Blvd. in Citrus Heights, the first of its kind within city limits. Cynthia and Rick Lee closed Darkheart’s original Arden Park location after five years in May.

▪ Midtown Sacramento hot spot Beast + Bounty, a beacon in the Ice Blocks development since 2017, will close Wednesday. Michael Hargis’ creative California cuisine concept at 1701 R St. frequently deployed its wood-fired oven for both meat and vegetable dishes.

▪ Another Hargis restaurant, Elk Grove barbecue spot Slow & Low, has temporarily closed to make “necessary changes for this next chapter,” teaming up with one of the nation’s most acclaimed barbecue chefs — Bay Area pitmaster Matt Horn, founder of Horn Barbecue in West Oakland — to open a new eatery in the Railroad Street spot.

This story was originally published January 3, 2025 at 7:00 AM.