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American, Italian, and Mexican are common Gold Country fare, but chefs also prepare ambitious European, French, and contemporary regional cuisine that mixes California ingredients with international preparations. Grass Valley's meat- and vegetable-stuffed pasties, introduced by 19th-century gold miners from Cornwall, are one of the region's more unusual treats.
Breakfast salads, avocado toast, and caffeine several ways are on the menu at this jovial café that’s also a good stop for sandwiches and charcuterie, hummus, and bagel boards. You can eat indoors or watch Main Street’s comings and goings out on the patio.
Zesty pies like the Miner Moe's BBQ Chicken with red onions, pineapple, bacon, and cheese make this casual spot a few steps off Main Street a fitting choice, particularly for lunch or a midafternoon snack. You can also build your own pizza or order a sandwich; there's some indoor seating, but when the weather's good most folks eat outside on the front patio or the creek-side one in back.
Eat like a 19th-century Cornish miner at this modest takeout shop serving home-baked pasties, flaky on the outside with moist and flavorful meat, vegetable, and other fillings. Jammed with skirt steak, potatoes, and turnips, the Cousin Jack hews closest to tradition, with vegetarian and barbecued pulled pork typical of the equally satisfying updates.
Inside an exposed-brick 1857 former assay office where miners exchanged gold nuggets for the coin of the realm, the Heyday is a happy haven for salads, panini, and thin-crust pizzas at lunch and dinner entrées like seared salmon, hanger steak, and pasta with mushroom ragout. The mood is casual, but the food is prepared with style.
Youthful and compelling, with found-art decorative elements and exposed vents, this historic former fire station is a favorite stop for cocktails, craft beers, and farm-to-fork fare. The area's year-round farmers' markets supply ingredients for the delectable salads and soups, and the pizzas, beef, poultry, and seafood entrées are always good.
This Midtown eatery with a vaguely industrial look and a casual vibe takes its food seriously: nearly all the produce is sourced locally, and the chefs prepare only sustainable seafood. BLTs and grass-fed beef burgers (and a plant-based option) are among the staples, as are steak and fries and pan-roasted fish with seasonal vegetables.
Since 1956, the Gillman family has been serving up its famous two-patty "Moo Burger"—so big it presumably still makes cow sounds. The convivial diner is also known for milk shakes and floats.
The scene's light and lively indoors and out at this pub whose 16 taps dispense everything from pale ales to studly stouts. The kitchen turns out well-made snacks, salads, burgers, wraps, and a slew of sandwiches on various breads.
Many patrons at this restaurant serving seasonal California cuisine are attending performing-arts events at the Mondavi Center a short walk away or visiting their kids at UC Davis. With hardwood floors and soft lighting, the dining room is cozy and romantic, but when the weather's fine, the tree-shaded patio out back is the best place to enjoy dishes like tomato bisque crowned with a puff pastry or herb-crusted rack of lamb.
Perch yourself on this homey bungalow café's wide porch for homemade soups, salads, and sandwiches that include tuna plus three or four tri-tip, turkey, chicken, and BLT offerings. Everything from olives, jalapeños, cornichons, and celery to bacon, cheddar cheese, and shrimp—sometimes all of the above and more—accompanies the peppy "loaded" Bloody Marys (vodka and virgin), nearly a meal in themselves.
The seasonal produce of nearby purveyors figures in nearly every dish at Preserve, which pairs elevated gastropub fare with artisanal beers, wines, and cocktails. Grilled or sautéed fish, fried chicken, and an elaborate burger that appears at lunch and dinner are typical menu items, served in the brick-walled, rustic-industrial, semi-chic bar or the plant-laden outdoor patio.
The wood-fired pizza oven blazing away on the sidewalk turns out this café's handmade pies, but the lunch and dinner fare extends beyond them to pan-seared fish, a tri-tip sandwich, and fresh salads with ingredients from a local farm. The brick-walled dining room has been a farmers' hangout for breakfast (you name it) for decades.
Comfort food crafted with care makes a trip to this low-slung restaurant on downtown's edge a pleasure whether you dine inside at linen-topped tables or on the dog-friendly, street-facing patio. Several burgers, one vegetarian, another named for a local winemaker, entice the regulars, but don't overlook dinner entrées that might include shrimp curry, lamb and grits, or grilled Indian-spice tofu with pistachios and Sriracha.
Exposed brick walls and a pressed-metal ceiling heighten the air of nostalgia at this restaurant whose theme is the golden age of road trips and automobile service stations. Half-pounder burgers and pulled-pork, tri-tip, and other sandwiches and wraps count among the menu's highlights, along with small plates like nacho fries and fried calamari and entrées that might include chicken, grilled salmon, or steak.
Homemade lunches and breakfasts served with warmth and cheer are the trademarks of this restaurant and coffee shop in Sutter Creek's historic district. Egg scrambles, pancakes, bagel sandwiches, French toast, and biscuits and gravy headline at breakfast, with soups, salads, sandwiches, and wraps on the menu for lunch.
A local success story that expanded into a second storefront after a few years in business, Small Town serves morning coffee and baked goods, by 11 am adding small bites, salads, sandwiches, and flatbreads. For a midday pick-me-up, pair affordable, well-selected wines from the area and beyond with deviled eggs, a three-cheese mac, or an artisanal charcuterie plate.
The chef at this brewpub with a no-nonsense industrial decor (high ceilings, concrete floor, huge garage doors) tailors the cuisine to the namesake beers produced by two Sierra foothills natives, one with an enology degree, the other with extensive experience in European beer making. A buttermilk fried-chicken sandwich, a corned root-vegetable Reuben, and a burger with the cheese of your choice might appear among the gastropub options.
Named for the founder of Tower Records, this energetic diner plays the nostalgia card with an all-vinyl soundtrack and comfort classics from bagels and lox or biscuits and gravy for breakfast to pastrami on rye, two-patty burgers with melted cheddar, or the chef's take on SpaghettiOs at lunch. A few vegetarian optoins, cold-brew coffee, and craft beers in cans and on tap keep the fare current.
Locals flock to this always-busy diner on a Victorian's ground floor for lobster Benedict, a spiced-up Mexican chicken scramble, and other dishes that are anything but your ordinary eggs and pancakes (though you can order those, too, as well as vegetarian versions of several items). Imaginative burritos, wraps, burgers, and more lobster in the form of a melt sandwich appear for lunch.
A circa-1865 Victorian that was expanded willy-nilly over the years houses this downtown spot known for made-from-scratch fare. Scrambles, four-egg omelets, pancakes, waffles, and French toast get things going for breakfast (served until 1 pm), with salads and well-built sandwiches the main items for lunch.
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