Will be in Sacramento for one late afternoon / evening on business. Probably won't have much chance to see the town, but wouldn't mind having a nice meal. Will be dining by myself. Looking for something authentic, local, and great quality (i.e., no chain restaurants). Also, easy to find.

Thanks!

Matt

Matt, Several folks here are from Sacramento so I'm sure you will get good suggestions but I had a good chuckle as I tried to figured out what an "authentic Sacramento meal" was.

Where yah staying?

Downtown we like Moxie's, Lucca's, Celestin's, Chops, The Broiler, Esquire Grill (you may run into The Gov there), Mikuni's (good sushi).

Old Town, Firehouse, Rio City, Fanny Ann's.

Eaquire Grill on the K street Mall near the convention Center, the Hyatt and the Sheraton is very good and the waitstaff is excellent:

http://www.paragarys.com/esquiregrill/index.htm

Actually any of the Paragary restaurants are good.

55 Degrees on Captial Mall is very good quite trendy inside with a good wait staff but has a smallish menu:

http://www.restaurant55.com/

Rio City Cafe next to the River in Old Sac is ok:

http://www.riocitycafe.com/

Historically significant Frank Fats may meet your authentic requirement:

http://www.fatsrestaurants.com/frankfats/

4th Street grill reminds me of a local hang out when ever I go:
http://www.4thstreetgrille.com/homepage.php

Waterboy is a favorite of locals and the local chefs alike. Almost universally chosen as the Chef's favorite in a recent survey by the local paper:
http://www.waterboyrestaurant.com/
I love Waterboy going again next week.
Besides terrific food the service is outstanding.

Forgot about the Firehouse! I like the food but our recent experience could have been so much better if the waiter was even a little bit attentive. It's really busy on the weekend nights so without a reservation you'd be out of luck also it's so busy that everything take a long time.

Suuuuuze...I'm quite concerned about the spate of bad luck you've been having lately at restaurants! :-?

We ate at Mas with the lovely Cobbie the other night and while I've never been impressed with the Paragary restaurants, we had a pretty good meal with real good service.
Matty...Mas is a bit out of the way. Just giving Suuuuze the local 411.

Forgot about Waterboy...haven't eaten there since it first opened and we are still hearing good stuff about them.

Firehouse oysters....

Wow, so many suggestions so quickly--thanks! Unfortunately I'm not staying near anything, really. My flight arrives at midnight on night 1, and I'll be staying at an airport hotel. Then I have a meeting *at the airport* at 1pm the next day. My flight out of town is a redeye (back to NYC), leaving at midnight. So I'll have literally 24 hours in your fair city, most of which will be at the airport.

But the pockets of freedom I'll have are before the 1pm meeting (assuming I can get over my jetlag enough to explore in the morning) and from 3ish until my midnight flight. Which is why I was thinking dinner.

I will look into these suggestions! Oh, and any place that serves good, fresh food--perhaps with a focus on that great local California produce--is authentic to me!

Glad to hear you enjoyed Mas Kal ole buddy. I personally love the Esquire Grill. Since I dine out often with friends of the female persuasion we do generally get good service. I was with DH at the Firehouse & La Provence!! At La Provence it wasn't just the service though, the food was really on the pitiful side, though will try again.

We loved Waterboy! They make a really great seafood paella here, the baked goat cheese salad is also very good. ***kim***

OK...I guess this opera is over!

LOL Kal. I've been recently to the Waterboy but don't recall those items on the menu. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. Ah well,

Are you renting a car? If not you will have to take a taxi all the way into town - no public transport to the airport to speak of.

Every suggestion so far would be great and you can't go wrong w/ any of them. Interestingly, just a couple of weeks ago there was a feature in the Bee about the best ranked chefs in the region, and one question was "when you get to go out to eat, where is your favorite place?" 3/4 mentioned Waterboy. That surprised me a bit since I assumed most would say Biba.

But any of the suggestions above are very good, just depends on what sort of food/ambience you want.

Uhm Kal, guess you didn't know LOL
That is almost scary!! Or interesting as the case may be. Baci!!

Try Lemongrass, fantastic Vietnamise food...not very centrally located but a memorable meal.

Ok, a baked goat cheese salad? That sounds disgusting and is probaby full of E-Coli.

The Paragarys are friends of ours. If you're downtown and have a chance to dine at one of their restaurants, do so. Also, Biba is an excellent choice.

Yeah, I will definitely rent a car, even though it will be for only a few hours. It looks like Waterboy and Biba are the front-runners. I'll probably choose between those.

Thanks!

Matt

Biba is really good. A little further from downtown. Very near the Capital City Freeway. Single diner eating may be more comfortable at the Waterboy . You can get a window seat and watch the world go by. Not really anything like that at Biba. Service is phenomenal though so I would expect they would make you comortable.

For a single traveler I would go to Old Sacramento. It is straight down I-5 from the airport and easy to get to. My choice would be the Rio City, even though Fat City isn't bad. If you just want a burger and a beer and people watch do Fanny Ann's.

If you get down there early enough walk through the Railroad Musuem.

It is a great place to kill a couple of hours and is just minutes from the airport.

I agree with jamesr, the Railroad Museum is quite interesting and worthwhile IMO. If you have an interest in trains and their history I think you would really enjoy this museum.