Gatsbys Diner - Sacramento, CA

Gatsby's Diner was kind of a fusion of American diner meets Japanese cooking.  There were old Japanese hibachis inside which makes me think that it might have been a Japanese steak house in a previous life.

So, The chefs cook out in open which is kind of cool.  You can chat with them as they go about their work.  Instead of cooking Asian food, it could be anything the diner serves but they still do that spatula slap on the griddle thing..  My chef ask me as I passed by when I was leaving how I liked my buger.

They serve cold beer in frozen mugs which struck me as a thing of beauty for some reason.

I ordered the fire burger.  It had thick cut bacon and avocado on a really good quality bun.  They describe their own food as American comfort food with a twist and I would have to agree.  As the hamburger juices are dripping down one hand while your fingers are frozen by the frozen beer mug in the other, it definitely seems decadent and comfortable.  Luckily, they give you a wad of paper towels to clean yourself.

This was not a dive at all.  I was impressed that everything they did, they tried to do with a flair. Even the way they arranged the buns on griddle in a nice ring.  They make their own deserts.  I didn't try them but one in particular that looked interesting was a strawberry rhubarb tort cooked and served in a Ball jar.  People obviously care.

The atmosphere was pretty good.   I appreciated that all the people who work there really seemed to care about my experience.

I would rate Gatsb's a 9.1.  They had good food and good pizzaz.  Definitely worth a trip back.

Gatsby's Diner 2598 Alta Arden Expy Sacramento, CA 95825 (916) 977-0102 gatsbysdiner.com

Dads Kitchen - Sacramento, CA

Dad's Kitchen is kind of deceptive compared to what you see when you first drive up.  There are neon beer signs for cheap beers and the signage is cheap and hap-hazard.  When you first step in there are some old pinball machines set up.  Who plays those anymore?

It looks like a tiny hole in the wall restaurant but, when you get inside it just keeps going back to the back of the building then out into the little yard in the back.  I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.  Both the food and the service were really good.

I ordered the onion rings with red bell pepper aioli to start.  I had to eat it with a knife and fork.  The onion taste and texture was really very pleasantly strong and crunchy.  It almost was a meal unto itself.  I had some help with me this day to eat it.  The aioli sauce was like something you would get from an expensive upscale restaurant.

I followed it up with dads chili pulled-pork sandwich.  As a Texan, we are not prone to praising anyone else's BBQ but, this was pretty good.  Guy steered us right this time.

Parking was kind of tight, but worth putting up with the bother.

I would rate Dad's a 9.8.  It was a dive but, not too much of a dive.  It had a cool atmosphere and the food was really something special.  I took three other people with me and they were all excited about what they ordered.  So, it was a hit with us.

Dad's Kitchen

2968 Freeport Boulevard 

Sacramento, CA 95818
(916) 447-3237
http://ilovedadskitchen.com/

Jamie's Bar and Grill - Sacramento, CA

Jamie's was a little too much of a dive for me.  It was a little intimidating as I walked up to the front door.  There was graffiti on awning outside of a not particularly nice building.  I was a little weary about leaving my car parked outside.  If it was later at night then I probably would have not stopped here.

It was very dark inside in stark contrast to the bright outside California sun.  It felt kind of dirty.  There were deer and buffalo heads on wall and a picture of Guy hung behind the bar.  I got the sense that even though this was a bar and grill that it was much more bar than restaurant.  It is more of a beer and a shot kind of bar rather than a martini kind of bar at that.

Despite my reservations, I ordered the chicken gumbo with a half-BLT sandwich on sourdough bread.  The gumbo was spicy but pretty good.  The BLT was ordinary.  It was definitely not DDD quality.

I rated Jamie's a 4.0.  I can not say that I recommend it.  Oh well, they can't all be winners.

Jamies Bar and Grill
427 Broadway
Sacramento, CA 95818

Tex Wasabi's Rock and Roll BBQ - Sushi - Sacramento, CA

Tex Wasabi's has never been featured on the Food Network's Diner's, Drive-Inns and Dives but, it is actually owned by none other than Guy Fiere himself.  Anyone slightly familiar with the program knows that Guy is a wild and creative guy with a love of really great food.  His restaurant definitely reflects that.

The concept behind Tex Wasabi's is to mix two completely different types of food into it's own class, an "infusion" of different influences to use the restaurant buzz-wordy name.  In this case it is sushi and BQQ.  It doesn't sound like it would work but, it really does.

When you first walk in past the bar area you notice a statue of a cowboy on a bucking fish, kind of like a bucking bronco.  So, you know right away that this is a whimsical place.  It is going to be fun and unpredictable.

As we walked in there was a couple who had ordered a drink from the bar.  The drinks that they serve were out of absurdly large goblets.  They looked like small fish tanks, in fact they very well could have been small gold fish bowls into which they stuck huge straws the size of the old pixie stix tubes.

It looks like they put a lot of imagination into the drink menu as well.  They were advertising a double apple mojito that sounded pretty good.

We got an order of the chicken wings to start off with.  They came with slices of fried jalapeno pepper on top.  The pepper had a nice even flavor and slightly crunchy tempura texture and it was not spicy-hot at all.  The wings were spicy-hot Buffalo wings.  They also had a selection of hot sauces that the waitress brought over.

They don't let you forget that this is Guy's place.  His picture is all over the place between the bbq sauce bottle lables, t-shirts, posters and the several large lcd screens showing DDD episodes in continuous loops.

The menu has two sushi sections: maki sushi and gringo sushi.  Off of the gringo menu, I had the Jackass Roll which was BBQ pork, avocado, french fries & garlic chili mayo sauce.  It had a real smokey BBQ flavor like you would expect of of BBQ but not sushi but it really did work well.

The baked beans side were some of the best beans that I have ever had.  They were black, white and red (I think) beans but the sauce was not too sweet and had a great slat-smokey flavor to it that is hard to describe.  I really enjoyed it.

The ribs and pulled pork were really good as well.  Coming from Texas, we get a lot of really good BBQ.  I would consider this to be Texas style BBQ and really good.  By the time I got through the BBQ sushi and all of the other experiences, the plain old BBQ seemed kind of boring because it was just BBQ.

I would rate Tex Wasabi's a 9.9 because of the imagination and awesome food.  Tex Wasabi's is definitely not a dive.  It is a nice restaurant, part of a corporation with a CEO and all of the other alphabet soup titles, multiple locations, etc. So, it lacks that kind of dive charm which is the only reason why it could not have been a 10.  Definitely worth checking out.

Tex Wasabi's
2243 Arden Way
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 927-8399
http://www.texwasabis.com/