The Mission District is also worth visiting to see the fabulous assortment of murals in the neighborhood.
For Mexican food in Sacramento I would have recommended Chando’s, except they closed all their restaurants a few months ago. It seems as though at least some of Chando’s food trucks are still active, though. When I had jury duty two years ago their food truck could be found daily in the Sacramento Law Library parking lot at 609 9th Street, a block north of the courthouse. But given their recent difficulties I do not know if that’s still true.
It’s been 8 years now since we moved from Sacramento to southern Oregon, so I doubt any restaurant recommendations I could offer would be worth much. I can vouch for the fact that downtown and midtown are eminently walkable. I used to walk from my home near 34th/M Sts to the Old Sac waterfront and back all the time.
If Tres Hermanas still exists (in whatever location), that was our favorite Mexican food. Zocalo had excellent food, but the setting was so noisy as to be unpleasant. Cafe Capricho at the corner of 33rd and Folsom is(was?) a casual, order-at-the-counter Mexican spot that was actually quite good.
I visited the California Academy of Sciences earlier this year and the Osher Rainforest was really impressive.
Expect clear skies at least half the time. We need more rain than we usually get.
Do you like viewpoints? The 37 bus in San Francisco gets you within a 15-minute walk of Twin Peaks. If you go to UC Berkeley, the $1 shuttle bus from the east side of Evans Hall takes you to the 1300-ft level of the Berkeley Hills and a 30-minute walk gets you to views like this (tho the shuttle doesn’t run after dark).
If you go to the top of the Campanile, try doing it at noon so you can watch the guy play the carillon.
Restaurants in or near Berkeley with Mexican and other spicy food
Taqueria Talavera, 1561 Solano Avenue, Berkeley
Excellent mole, both mole poblano and mole guajillo. I also love their posole and chilaquiles (which they serve only for breakfast)
Casa Latina Bakery, 1805 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley
Owned by the same people who own Taqueria Talevera. This place specializes in Mexican pan dulce. The rest of their menu is similar to Talavera’s, though they do have some other things, like empanadas.
Las Cabañas, 1916 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley
Much of their menu is standard Mexican fare, but their seafood is very good. It’s the only place in Berkeley I know of where you can get aguachiles.
Mercado 925, 925 University Ave., Berkeley
More upscale than the Mexican places I’ve already listed.
Rose La Moon Thai Food & Desserts, 2228 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley
No frills hole in the wall with excellent food. My favorite dishes include moo manao, Thai pork dry noodle soup, green papaya salad, iced lemongrass-pandan tea
Wojia Hunan Cuisine, 917 San Pablo Ave., Albany
Many of the dishes here really are spicy. Mother’s recipe (dried radish, cucumber, pickled beans, & pork), pickled green beans with minced pork, Hunan-style sauteed lamb, ma-po tofu with minced pork
It does, on K Street in Midtown. A block from the aforementioned Golden Bear.
I do not know is the OP is into the nightlife scene, but if they are that general area of Midtown around J and K streets would probably be the place to go.
ETA: The lettered streets reminded me, the OP mentioned walkability. Not only is downtown Sacramento quite walkable (and midtown reasonably so as well), the streets are laid out on a very logical grid system with lettered streets running east-west and numbered streets running north-south. It’s virtually impossible to get lost.
BART stops running after Midnight? Wow, wonder how anyone gets across the Bay at night
Very true! Save the Chinese for Oakland Chinatown.
Here are some recommendations for Oakland Chinatown restaurants, just in case you go there. Oakland Chinatown is pretty close to the Oakland Museum of California. All of these places are no-frills:
Mr. Liu Noodle House, 358 11th St.
Many noodle dishes. Pickled veggies shredded pork noodles and Chongqing style spicy noodles are a couple of my favorites. Some of their dishes really are spicy.
Ming’s Tasty, 940 Webster St.
The highest-rated dim sum restaurant in Oakland. Dim sum is best for groups of at least three people.
Shan Dong, 328 10th St. #101
Best known for their hand-pulled noodles. Big menu.
Gum Kuo, 388 9th St. #182, inside Pacific Renaissance Plaza
One of those places with the ducks hanging in the window. Huge menu. Jook/congee/rice porridge. Noodle rolls. Smoked duck, bbq pork, roast pork.
Huangcheng Noodle House, 911 Washington St. (technically in Old Oakland, but close to Chinatown)
Specializes in knife-cut noodles. Chongqing street noodles, noodles with minced pork and eggplant, noodles with sesame oil. Food delivered to table by robot waiter.
Haight/Ashbury ain’t worth a warm bucket of spit. Everyone else has great ideas where to go. Thought I’d chime in with one that isn’t. Cause I roll like that.
Not in the slightest. Whenever folks from out of town come to visit that’s a favorite adventure. There’s way too much to cover it all but it can be tailored to the specific interests of the group - art, architecture, the Botanical Garden is incredible, free concerts, views from the hills and the tower, exhibits everywhere related to the various departments, and do not miss the Main Library.
I think I’m going to have to defend Frank Fat’s here. Based on this and the restaurants you recommended, it kind of sounds like you’re saying restaurants that serve “authentic” Chinese food are inherently better than restaurants that serve Chinese-American food (Or maybe that lobbyists have worse taste in restaurants than Chinese immigrants). To me, authentic Chinese restaurants and Chinese-American restaurants are two completely separate categories, neither better nor worse than the other, just different. Or to put it another way, Chinese-American food is it’s own thing, which itself can be quite good. And I think Frank Fat’s is probably the best version of that style of food.
If you’re drawing a distinction between authentically Chinese food (and ‘authentic’ is a very slippery slope) and Chinese-American food, then you and I are essentially saying the same thing. “Authentic" Chinese food vs. Chinese-American food? Neither better nor worse, just different. Frank Fat’s does an outstanding job at Chinese-American food, possibly the best in Sacramento. You said FF’s did “high quality Chinese food”, and that’s where I draw the line. Good - maybe great - food that Americans have come to recognize as Chinese, but it ain’t the kind of Chinese food my (born in China) mom made, that’s for damn sure.
Fair enough. I just left the word “American” off there for the sake of brevity. I did call Frank Fat’s a Chinese-American restaurant in a previous sentence, so I figured it would be obvious that that’s what I meant.
We cool.