Best Sacramento-area restaurant meals I ate in September | Food reporter’s notebook

Sacramento has a standout ceviche cafe, a bagel-and-empanada bakery on Stockton Boulevard and a Guilin-style rice noodle bar worth swooning over. Don’t forget about a certain historic fine dining restaurant out in Placerville, either.

These were the best meals that I, The Sacramento Bee’s food and drink writer, ate in September around the capital region. All reviews were first published in my free weekly newsletter; sign up for future editions at bit.ly/bee_food_drink_newsletter.

LA COSTA CAFE

Ignacio and Lys Ortega have crafted the grid’s cutest new coffee shop/ceviche bar, La Costa Cafe , at the corner of 19th and G streets in Boulevard Park. Opened in January, it’s become a popular study and work spot for scores of young Sacramentans eager to claim the in-demand tables.

Ignacio grew up on a rural Mexican farm and immigrated alone to the U.S. at age 16, working his way through San Francisco restaurants before going into catering and private cooking classes. Lys, a UC Davis Medical Center resident physician, oversees La Costa’s housemade sourdough, conchas and other baked goods as well as the copious plants decorating the space.

Lime-cured seafood is a La Costa calling card, including Mexican-style shrimp ceviche ($16) and Peruvian-style fish ceviche ($18). The former is thin-sliced in a piquant tomato broth with avocado chunks, cucumbers and onions; the latter is rockfish as well as shrimp surrounded by large-kerneled corn, sweet potato hunks and sliced habaneros that aggressively make their presence known.

You won’t find a guajolota ($14) at many Sacramento-area restaurants, and this is one worth tasting. The Mexico City-born creation is a torta smeared with black beans and stuffed with salsa verde, queso blanco, crema, cilantro, onion and your choice of tamale (chicken, pork or cheese), a cornucopia of contrasts that spills out of the bun.

Yet it is the humble pan de elote ($8) that emerges as La Costa’s sneaky superstar. Honey-sweet on its golden shell and wonderfully chewy past that, this cornbread is great any time of day.

Address: 701 19th St., Sacramento

Hours: 7 a.m.-4 p.m. daily

Phone: None listed

Website: lacostacafesac.com

Drinks: Housemade aguas frescas and coffee drinks from Lamill , a roastery in the San Gabriel Valley

Vegetarian options: Chilaquiles, heirloom tomato-burrata salad, a trio of sourdough toasts and a pair of veggie tostadas

Noise level: Loud

Outdoor seating: A couple of sidewalk-adjacent tables

FORGOTTEN BAKERY

Stockton Boulevard’s northern end has the UC Davis Medical Center. Further south, you get into Little Saigon’s crackly banh mi spots and soul-warming pho joints. Forgotten Bakery aims to revitalize the thoroughfare’s oft-overlooked middle section.

Opened in March by business and life partners Robby Naim and Paul Dollar, Forgotten Bakery makes bagels and empanadas, two baked goods that are hard to find done well in the Sacramento area. Naim’s parents ran Bagel Mania Bakery in the Bay Area, while Dollar’s Chilean heritage inspired the hefty hand pies now made in Forgotten Bakery’s small kitchen (all seating is outdoors) on the border of the Fruitridge Pocket and Colonial Heights neighborhoods.

The bagels are fermented in Pabst Blue Ribbon overnight, rolled by hand and boiled in honey water. You can take home sesame, poppy seed, plain or everything bagels ($3 for a single, $16.50 for six or $34 for a baker’s dozen) with eight ounces of plain or scallion cream cheese ($7.50 and $8.50) , or indulge in a bagel sandwich.

There’s the classic Loxann ($15) with smoked salmon, dill fronds, pickled onions and tomatoes, or the summertime sando ($13.50) bearing sliced avocado, English cucumber, red pepper flakes and housemade tahini-lime sauce in lieu of cream cheese. Though the bagels had the requisite chewiness and crackly crust missing from many area imitators, the ingredients’ distribution could be a little screwy, resulting in some bites full of flavor and others that were lacking.

Empanadas de pino are Chile’s classic beef-raisin-hard boiled egg-black olive turnovers, salty and savory with thick dough and a lingering kick. They’re certainly worth trying at Forgotten Bakery, along with ethereally creamy spinach-and-cheese with smoked Gouda and gently tangy guava cream cheese empanadas (each $6.50) born in Cuba.

Address: 4650 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento

Hours: 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday

Phone: 916-476-6224

Website: forgottenbakery.com

Drinks: Coffee, tea and a few carbonated soft drinks

Vegetarian options: Two empanadas and most bagel sandwiches

Noise level: Not much from customers or business operations, but some from Stockton Boulevard traffic

Outdoor seating: Six tables on wood chips and a small patio; no indoor seating, and no bathroom

OLD GUI LIN

Sacramento has a pair of restaurants dedicated to Guilin-style noodles: Top Choice Restaurant in Little Saigon, and Old Gui Lin in South Land Park. Also known as mifen, these rice noodles with meat and broth have been a breakfast staple in their namesake southern China city since 200 B.C., though they’re also eaten for lunch and dinner.

I recently opted for Old Gui Lin, where families slurped bowls of noodles at four long tables inside a Hollywood Park shopping center dotted with salons and Asian grocers. A menu with photos hangs in the window, advertising a range of noodle soups that, truthfully, aren’t all that different from one another.

You can get Guilin rice noodles with crispy, chicharrónes-like pork belly strips along with slices of pork and beef, pork ribs rice noodle soup with meat wrapped around circles of bone or slightly tough braised brisket dry tossed noodles (each $14). All come with the same slippery noodles and milky, tangy broth, though it comes as a pour-over version in the last of the three and is dyed auburn by chiles at the bottom of the bowl.

The soups’ greatest differences come at Old Gui Lin’s topping bar, a choose-your-own adventure replete with Zhenjiang vinegar, green onions, mustard greens and more. Add some funk to your bowl with pickled turnips, or some crunch with roasted peanuts.

The bar has chili oil, too, perfect for beef rolled pancakes ($10). Also known as Taiwanese beef rolls, the thick scallion pancakes are rubbed with hoisin sauce, filled with more scallions and slices of braised beef and wrapped into appetizing appetizers.

Address: 5131 Freeport Blvd., Sacramento

Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily

Phone: 916-455-1687

Website: oldguilinca.com

Drinks: Boba tea bar, as well as sodas

Vegetarian options: Only appetizers such as pumpkin cakes, cold marinated seaweed and sweet-and-sour lotus root balls

Noise level: Pretty quiet

Outdoor seating: None

SMITH FLAT HOUSE

After advocating for September trips to Apple Hill (early season means no crowds, and many varieties are ripe now), I put my money where my mouth was on a recent Sunday. Apple picking at Pine-O-Mine Ranch , browsing the shelves of Abel’s Apple Acres and wine tasting with a side of pie at Delfino Farms all led up to dinner at Smith Flat House , Placerville’s premier fine dining restaurant.

Founded in 1853 as a Gold Rush hotel and community hub, Smith Flat House weaves its historical setting with modern California cuisine. The spacious courtyard patio was rented out for a private event during our visit, relegating all other customers to the subterranean cellar dining room that still bears signs of its past as a mine.

Wooden booths and tables atop wine barrels give Smith Flat House’s cellar a rustic feel, forming an apt backdrop for the risotto pizzaiola ($27) . Housemade marinara sauce swallows up roasted red peppers, whole grape tomatoes and sheets of mozzarella in a stew-like dish that feels like ratatouille’s cousin.

There are a range of brick-oven pizzas as well, including the seasonal stone fruit ($17 for a 9-inch pie, $30 for a 14-inch) hanging on the menu through the last bit of summer. Contrasting flavors fold nicely together atop the medium-thick crust: salty prosciutto and Sierra Nevada Cheese Co. feta, sweet peaches from Beals’ Orchard and caramelized onions, tart lemon juice coating peppery arugula.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the bourbon chicken’s ($40) dark brown sauce, a complex-tasting mix of Dijon mustard, brown sugar and the namesake alcohol pooled around an 8-ounce, candied pecan-crusted piece of breast meat. It was served with mild garlic mashed potatoes and purple slaw, inoffensive counterparts for the sauce’s intense flavor.

Address: 2021 Smith Flat Road, Placerville

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-9 p.m. Friday-Sunday

Phone: 530-621-1003

Website: smithflathouse.com

Drinks: Full bar, with lots of El Dorado County wine in addition to locally-produced beer and cider.

Vegetarian options: Entrees are based around meat or seafood, but one can enjoy the risotto pizzaiola or Margherita pizza as a main dish.

Noise level: Depends on setting — sound bounces around more in the cellar than on the patio.

Outdoor seating: A choice patio, though it’s not always available.