Grab-and-go Buddha Bowls & Rolls makes Sacramento’s wildest banh mi — state workers, take note

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order calling state workers back into the office four days a week has rankled agency staffers. As some employees return to the city’s grid, they’ll find a silver lining in Buddha Bowls & Rolls’ presence around the corner — or even in their building.

Opened a year ago Wednesday, Buddha Bowls & Rolls asks customers to pick their proteins for sandwiches, spring rolls and grain bowls like an “Asian Chipotle,” marketing manager Eilleen Le said.

The restaurant at 801 14th St., Suite B, is grab-and-go until construction finishes on a communal dining space. A second location with seating will open inside the new California Natural Resources Agency Headquarters at 715 P St. in April, and catering is available.

Le is a second-generation Asian American, as are Buddha Bowls & Rolls owners Nai Saeteurn and Justin Fong. With Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Iu Mien (a southern Chinese and Southeast Asian ethnic group) ancestry between them, they’ve grown comfortable pairing flavors from across the region in different culinary vessels.

“It’s really just our play on taking what’s familiar to us, maybe (from) growing up with it, and giving it a little twist to make it more modern with the fresh flavors you see now,” Le said.

Customers might fill their sandwiches ($10.60) with Thai chicken sausage, fried tofu squares dusted with salt and pepper or brisket smoked for 12 hours and finished with a char siu-style glaze. The sandwiches have banh mi’s traditional pickled carrots and daikon, cilantro, cucumber and jalapeño slices, and also a slathering of housemade Thai basil, sriracha or red curry aiolis.

Spring rolls ($9.70 for two) can be stuffed with grilled koji shrimp, smoked five-spice chicken teriyaki or tempura cod tossed with sweet chili sauce. There are Cali-Asian options such as lemongrass tri-tip and plant-based bulgogi (each an extra $2), and traditional Taiwanese sausages or grilled pork over bowls of vermicelli or white rice.

Most of these proteins can be swapped into bowls, sandwiches and rolls, with a couple of exceptions. A Thai chicken-and-rice soup with mushrooms, lemongrass and galangal-infused red curry paste keeps people warm in winter months, while fresh-pressed sugar cane drinks and house-baked ube white chocolate, coconut pandan or mango sticky rice cookies end meals on sweet notes.

“We just felt like there was a need for a concept like this in this area. There’s nothing really like it,” Le said. “If you’re looking for a sandwich or maybe soup, you’re typically going to the Stockton Boulevard area. So this opportunity just came up and this space was here, and we just want to liven up the area right here.”

Saeturn spent eight years as Star Ginger’s general manager when Mai Pham’s Southeast Asian restaurant was at the corner of Alhambra and Folsom boulevards. Fong, meanwhile, worked for local sushi chain Mikuni before he, Saeturn and the rest of their hospitality group began opening Buckhorn BBQ + Grill franchises in Rocklin, Folsom, Vacaville and three in Sacramento, including one next door to Buddha Bowls & Rolls.

Buddha Bowls & Rolls is open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday and closed Sundays. The CNRA location will serve food from 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday.

What I’m Eating

Few small-town Placer County restaurants feel more lively on a Saturday night than Il Pizzaiolo, Pete and Jackie Lostritto’s Neapolitan-style pizzerias in Loomis and Colfax. Brooklyn native Pete tapped his family roots in Naples and Puglia to deliver an Italian-inspired experience centered around a wood-burning Forno Bravo Vesuvio pizza oven that heats up to 800 degrees.

“No ranch,” staff T-shirts proclaim, fending off an inevitable question before it’s asked. Il Pizzaiolo’s dough is cold-fermented for two to three days hours before being stretched thin with puffed-up, charred rims called corniciones, which are plenty tangy and tasty without additional sauce.

A basic margherita ($14 for a 12-inch pie) lays mozzarella globs, toasted basil, tomato sauce and terrific extra virgin olive oil on top of that crust, and it’s enough to be one of the best regional iterations of this classic. The rosmarino ($16) offers a bit more excitement, with crushed pistachios, mozzarella and slivered red onions backing up a dominant rosemary flavor and olive oil-based white sauce.

Calzones and spaghetti with meatballs are more reminiscent of American pizza parlors, and Il Pizzaiolo hopped on the Detroit-style pizza wave with a trio of raised rectangular pies. Pepperoni cups, Mike’s Hot Honey, chili flakes, crumbled Romano cheese and mouthwatering housemade marinara sauce spooned over the top make the No. 1 ($20) a crowd favorite, with two crispy edges to each of the four fluffy slices.

Il Pizzaiolo

Address: 3640 Taylor Road, Loomis; 230 S. Auburn St., Colfax

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Loomis); 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; closed Sundays and Mondays

Phone: 916-672-6556 (Loomis); 530-388-8412 (Colfax)

Website: ilpizzaiololoomis.com and pizzacolfax.com

Drinks: Local beer on tap as well as wine, sodas, canned Italian lemonades and Sacramento-based Resilience Coffee

Vegetarian options: Several pizzas and a couple of pastas and salads

Noise level: Loud

Outdoor seating: None

Openings & Closings

▪ Rio Linda’s only Japanese restaurant, Ginza Sushi & Grill, is in its soft-opening phase at 440 Elkhorn Blvd., Suite 5. It’s a mix of hand rolls, noodle soups, teriyaki, nigiri and maki such as the Ginza roll (lobster tempura and cucumber-crawfish salad inside, avocado and microgreens on top).

▪ Bailarín Cellars will close its downtown Sacramento tasting room at 720 K St. this spring, the Sacramento Business Journal reported. The Healdsburg-based winery was one of the original tenants in The Hardin building next to Downtown Commons.

▪ Di Kitchen recently closed after two years at 6829 Stockton Blvd., Suite 395, in south Sacramento’s Little Saigon district. The Vietnamese restaurant specialized in bò né, sizzling rib-eye steak and eggs served with sausage, pate and a meatball.

This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 7:00 AM.