Island flavors shine at these three Caribbean restaurants in Sacramento
When Bodega Kitchen & Cocktails opened three years ago, it stood out as the only truly pan-Caribbean restaurant in the region, offering a vibrant mix of dishes from across the islands. Its closure earlier this month, left a notable void — not just for loyal diners of the Greenhaven restaurant, but for the city’s culinary diversity.
While Sacramento is home to several Caribbean eateries, most focus on a single island’s cuisine — Jamaican jerk, Puerto Rican pernil or Trinidadian doubles, rather than a cross-regional approach. The loss of Bodega, with its curated fusion menu and community vibe, underscored how rare it is to find places that showcase the Caribbean as a whole.
But the flavor doesn’t have to disappear with one restaurant’s exit. Across Sacramento, a handful of restaurants continue to serve bold, authentic tastes from Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Guyana and beyond — each rooted in heritage, family recipes, and local adaptation.
Here are three spots where the Caribbean spirit still lives in the capital region:
Calabash Caribbean
A relative newcomer to the scene, this Jamaican spot opened for business in July in the flatiron-shaped building previously occupied by Woodlake Tavern at the corner of Del Paso Boulevard and Arden Way.
Since the tavern’s closure five years ago, the building had sustained significant water and roof damage.
“It took six months of daily work to get it restored to its original glory,” said partner Wolete Atherley, who is also the proprietor of the more casual Jamaican restaurant Dubplate Kitchen & Caribbean Cuisine in Arden Arcade.
Chef Ever Champagnie hails from Jamaica, and gives the island’s cuisine a refined touch.
Diners are greeted with a complementary bowl of hearty bean soup, thrumming with the subtle buzz of chili pepper. Wings ($12) come generously sauced in three preparations; classic jerk, a Red Strip beer marinade, and a sweet and surprisingly unspicy mango and Scotch bonnet sauce.
Classic dishes like richly stewed curry goat ($27) and oxtail and butter beans ($32), served along rice and peas, tick the boxes for island cuisine. On our server’s recommendation, we also tried the rasta pasta as a side. The creamy, comforting dish is a proprietary recipe.
Another standout is the rich, spicy seafood pepper pot ($38), which definitely had the strongest kick of the things we tried.
As of our visit, the restaurant had not yet received their liquor license; however, they do have some housemade refreshers, such as the island punch ($7) and watermelon breeze ($7), made from fresh juices.
Address: 1431 Del Paso Blvd., Old North Sacramento
Hours: 3-10 p.m. daily
Phone number: 916-891-5804
Drinks: Soft drinks only
Cafe Connection
Positioned across from the state Capitol, Cafe Connection has long been popular with state workers and politicos, including former Vice President Kamala Harris during her tenure as Attorney General.
Since 2008, Ken Chan and Debbie Rajkumar have served up Indian-inflected dishes reminiscent of their native Guyana, a South American nation the shores of the Caribbean that prizes cuisine closely tied to its island neighbor Trinidad and Tobago.
Chan originally opened the space as just a coffee shop. When he realized there was no freshly cooked food in the area, he started making the food of their shared heritage.
“When he started doing curry, it’s like, ‘one day only,’” Rajkumar said. “ Now, every day is a curry chicken plate, every day’s jerk chicken.”
Curry and jerk chicken are the core of their menu, and they wear many hats, served alongside rice and beans as a plate ($14.70), on a salad ($14.70), and wrapped up in a burrito ($14.70) or roti wrap ($14.70) — convenient portable lunch fodder for the Capitol crowd.
The curry also comes in a vegan version. In fact, vegans have multiple options.
They are among the few places that make doubles ($9.50), a fried turmeric-tinted flatbread with curried chickpeas. Also don’t miss the pholourie ($4.95 for six), chewy balls of fried dough stuffed with yellow split peas, spinach, chickpeas and spices with a tamarind dipping sauce.
It’s just the two of them running the spot. But they don’t mind.
“I enjoy every day coming in here,” Rajkumar said. “It is one of the things that I’ve enjoyed most. This is the best job I’ve ever had.”
Address: 1007 L St., downtown
Hours: 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; closed Saturdays and Sundays
Phone number: 916-447-8855
Website: calabashcaribbean.co
Drinks: Beer, wine and soft drinks
Lola’s Lounge
When Lola’s Lounge mother-daughter team Annette and Lola Serrano moved the restaurant into the Broadway corridor from Elk Grove in 2019, they changed the concept from a more broadly Latino menu, leaning into their heritage.
They were the first Puerto Rican restaurant in Sacramento “that we know of,” Lola said with a laugh.
“All the Puerto Rican dishes on our menu are recipes from my grandmother, her mother,” she said. “And, so, they’ve been in my family forever, even our sangria recipe actually is my grandmother’s.”
Their bestseller is the Puerto Rican special ($22), a sort of greatest hits of the cuisine, featuring pernil (roast pork) with arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), beans and maduritos (sweet plantains).
Perhaps their most iconic Boricua offering is pastelón ($20), a sweet-savory dish made with plantains, ground turkey, tomato salsa and cheese, layered into a sort of Puerto Rican lasagna.
They do still step outside strictly Puerto Rican offerings, such as Cuban ropa vieja ($22), shredded roast beef. Their popular paella for two ($50), served only on Fridays and Saturdays, sells out consistently.
Less prominent than the neighboring front patio at Tower Cafe, Lola’s outdoor dining patio has long been one of the best-kept secret outdoor dining spaces.
“We did actually just double the size of it,” says Serrano. “We’re putting a stage back there. We have a dance floor, and we are bringing back live music next year.”
Address: 2424 16th St., Land Park
Hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 5-10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, closed Sundays and Mondays
Phone number: 916-389-0429
Website: lolaslounge.co
Drinks: Full bar with beer, wine and spirits
This story was originally published November 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
