Pizza, tacos and Filipino sandwiches: These 13 restaurants opened around Sacramento in February
At least 13 new restaurants opened across the Sacramento region in February, adding spicy Chinese dishes, an instant ramen noodle bar, Mexico City-inspired street food and more to the local dining scene.
Most restaurants opened within Sacramento city limits, including two downtown, one in The Pocket and another in East Sacramento. Carmichael, Roseville, Folsom and Rio Linda each added one new concept as well.
Bistro Bravado (1129 11th St., Sacramento): Housemade vanilla Greek yogurt greets 6 a.m. arrivers to this Capitol-adjacent restaurant where Lit Delhi once was, while salads, sandwiches and grain bowls await lunchtime visitors.
Cariño Mexican Cuisine (729 J St., Sacramento): Backbone Cafe’s replacement in downtown Sacramento focuses on Mexico City-inspired street food, such as elote, chicken tinga tostadas and chorizo-potato sandwiches called pambazos.
Chu Mai (1829 17th St., Sacramento): Billy Ngo, Tyler Bond and Michael Ng teamed up to launch their contemporary Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant named for Ngo’s mother near midtown Sacramento, creating dishes such as mushroom clay pot congee and a pasta version of the pork-crab-tomato soup bun rieu.
Folklore Mexican Food (715 56th St., Sacramento): East Sacramento’s new orange-walled Mexican restaurant, opened on Feb. 21, serves up bowls of albondigas, heaping chile verde plates and Gunther’s Ice Cream 50/50 cups.
Jalisco Restaurant (5207 Madison Ave., Suite C, Sacramento): Javier Ibarra’s catering company put roots down with its first brick-and-mortar location, a breakfast-through-dinner taqueria north of American River College.
New York Pizza (1046 Florin Road, Sacramento): Slices are just $3 and pies range from $13-$26 at Ali Kolaie’s takeout-only pizzeria in The Pocket’s Lake Crest Village shopping center.
Palo Palo Kitchen & Bar (5804 Marconi Ave., Carmichael): FJ and Janine Villalobos closed El Papagayo Restaurant to serve Filipino fusion dishes such as cauliflower sisig and lechon sandwiches with calamansi mayonnaise at their new concept.
Silk Bar (303 Iron Point Road, Folsom): Silk Bar replaced Iron Bulldog Sports Bar & Grill on Feb. 10 alongside Highway 50, offering similar pub grub including housemade onion rings, chicken wings and pastrami-laded burgers around big-screen TVs.
Spicy Temptation (9555 Folsom Blvd., Suite D, Sacramento): Fiery Hunan and Sichuan dishes such as pickled cabbage and fish soup, cumin beef stir-fry and boiled pork blood in chili oil stand out at this Chinese restaurant in La Riviera.
The Crepe Stop (1485 Eureka Road, Suite 160, Roseville): This San Carlos-based concept chose Stone Point Plaza for its second location, with 25 varieties of savory crepes and 12 sweet ones in addition to gelato, panini and fluffy mini Dutch pancakes called poffertjes.
The Grotto (960 Oak Lane, Rio Linda): Pizza, pasta and hearty meat entrees are on the menu at this “elevated comfort food” concept, which opened where Papa’s Pizzeria had been in Rio Linda Shopping Center.
The Mexican Taco Shop (8251 Bruceville Road, Suite 130, Sacramento): Saul Gonzalez’s south Sacramento taqueria has a lengthy list of burritos, tacos, breakfast items and combo plates.
Tomo Noodles & Dumplings (3230 Arena Blvd., Sacramento): A build-your-own instant ramen bar is the centerpiece at this snack shop in North Natomas’ Market West shopping center, which also serves shumai, boba drinks and desserts such as mango sago.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM.