The Abridged version:
- Nearly 100 readers submitted restaurants in the city of Sacramento they thought should have made Abridged’s list of Sacramento’s defining restaurants.
- The Waterboy, Paragary’s and Kru were the most common submissions.
- Five restaurants tied for the fourth-most write-ins: Magpie Cafe, Mikuni, Fox & Goose Public House, The Kitchen and Zelda’s Gourmet Pizza.
“You haven’t tasted Sacramento unless you’ve eaten at these 11 restaurants,” a provocatively titled Abridged article claimed last week. We invited readers to sound off about what restaurants they thought were snubbed, and they let us hear it.
Nearly 100 readers wrote in the restaurants they thought should have made the list. These were the three most popular answers — each of which was included on the original list, but merely as an honorable mention.
The Waterboy
The Waterboy first opened in 1996. (Benjy Egel)
The Waterboy earned the most reader votes of any restaurant with 11, a testament to its many fans (including Corti Brothers owner Darrell Corti, whose grocery store’s deli made the list). Rick Mahan opened his farm-to-table restaurant in 1996, two years before an Adam Sandler movie by the same name hit theaters. While the restaurant is more serious than Sandler’s slapstick schtick, its dining room carries a Provence-inspired air of relaxed formality, a sense of coziness atop white tablecloths. Veal sweetbreads are the house specialty along with fresh pasta, steak tartare and duck breast from Petaluma-based Liberty Ducks.
Paragary’s
Ten readers argued for Paragary’s, Stacy Paragary and Kurt Spataro’s Cali-French-Italian bistro in midtown. Founded in 1983 by legendary restaurateur Randy Paragary, it was one of the first Sacramento restaurants to embrace local ingredients and a culinary beacon in the dark culinary days of the 1980s and 90s. A 2022 James Beard Award semifinalist, its jaw-dropping patio fills up quickly over the summer as customers dine on wood-fired pizza, housemade pasta and the iconic mushroom-Jarlsberg salad.
Kru Contemporary Japanese Cuisine
A5 Wagyu beef nigiri with white truffle shavings at Kru. (Benjy Egel)
Billy Ngo opened Kru in 2005 in midtown when he was just 23 years old. By 2016, it had moved into its larger space in East Sacramento, cementing itself as the city’s top Japanese restaurant with one of the deepest and most creative cocktail bars around town. Ocean trout from Scotland, bluefin tuna from Baja California, fresh scallops from Hokkaido — all of it ends up expertly sliced by the skilled sushi chefs, while dishes such as the warm mushroom salad, Ngo burger and tea-smoked duck confit flex the kitchen’s culinary muscles. While chef de cuisine Jared Harwood holds down the kitchen on most nights, Ngo is still a frequent presence, particularly during the omakase dinners he hosts Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Five other restaurants received four votes apiece: Magpie Cafe, Mikuni, Fox & Goose Public House, The Kitchen and Zelda’s Gourmet Pizza.
Benjy Egel is the senior food editor at Abridged. Born and raised in the Sacramento region, he has covered its local restaurants and bars since 2018. He also writes and edits Abridged’s weekly food and drink newsletter, City of Treats.