Asian infused awesomeness

The best Far East inspired restaurants in Sacramento.

Sushi Cafe

4491 Freeport Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 452-6888

Love this place! It is a great, fun, inviting sushi restaurant where the staff is always welcoming. They have a big variety of Japanese food, including sushi, bento boxes, Japanese beer and sake. It is fairly inexpensive and in a cool location across the street from Land Park.  If you're ever in the area, you should definitely stop by! They used to have photos of the regulars hanging up, but they’ve since taken them down. I’m a little bummed because I was obviously one of those regulars that prided themselves on their picture being up.

Thai Basil Cafe  

Fried.SpringRolls.nom

2431 J St
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 442-7690

Thai Basil Café is one of my favorite restaurants in Sacramento... well, one of my favorites in downtown... well, on J street...well, it is definitely my favorite restaurant on J and 24th... haha. Just kidding, this place really is one of the best places to go in Sacramento.  It's perfect for date night, casual night, fun night, sad night, break up night, drunk night, whatever, Thai Basil has it all.  They have a very kickass patio out back, plus the side patio, and tons of indoor seating. But don't sit indoors.  Be strong, brave the outside.  Live a little. It's nice!
Now, enough about the patio (did I mention there is a fountain??) and onto the food.
The food is perfect. Fresh, big portions, prepared quickly, big selections, and most of all, delicious! The chicken is great, the beef is great, the rice is great, the veggies are great... see a pattern? This place rocks. The servers are always fast and do their best to make you happy. They have some pretty refreshing Thai beers (didn't know they existed before drinking them here).
Oh and the fried spring rolls... as the ever famous Jack Donaghy once said, "O-M-F-G".
The food is moderately priced, but for what you get (portion size and quality) it is really worth every penny.  I go here in the winter too, but summer time is the best.
Tell them Eric sent you... that and $12.99 will get you a plate of red thai peanut curry.

Erawan Thai Restaurant

1180 35th Ave
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 391-8996

lamb and rice. yum

I went to Erawan this weekend and was really excited. I finally got to try it out.  I read a ton of good reviews, and had been dying to get some Erawan time.

I got some seasoned lamb with rice and veggies and friend spring rolls.  Dude, yes! So good! The lamb and vegetables were perfect, especially the vegetables, oh gosh, the vegetables! Yum! The rolls too! They were hot! Not spicy hot, but like hot, wicked hot, straight out of the fryer hot, which equals straight out of the fryer deliciousness.

I also had a good, refreshing Thai beer, a Singha, good stuff!

The restaurant is tucked away in the South Hills Shopping Center (or at least that's what I think it's called) it's a quite little shopping center that apparently hides a great Thai restaurant. The walls are decorated with cool, classy wood paneling and some cool paintings that look like they are from Thailand.  Also they have a huge fish tank with a big fish in it.  He just swims back and forth.  It is kind of hypnotic to watch him. This place is great! Will most certainly be back in the near future!

Futami Japanese Restaurant

dont let the sign deceive you

5609 Freeport Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 428-0975

Futami Japanese Restaurant is Futastic!!

The people who work there are outrageously nice! They were very attentive and they seemed happy to help.  I had some spicy tuna and a bowl of delicious udon.... more like u-nom-nom-nom.

The only problem I had with Futami is that it was just a little bit more expensive than Sushi Café is, but that's okay, I know they need to make money. Plus, it was worth it.

The restaurant has a very awesome little traditional Japanese eating room, except, it's been Americanized (aka: awesome-nized).  Last time I was there, they were still in the process of updating and remodeling the place, I bet by this point it is finished and looks awesome.

I would not hesitate to go back to Futami's.  Actually, after writing this, and thinking about my dinner, I want to go to there, like now.

Azukar Sushi

1616 J St
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 504-1121

Crunchy Californian

Azukar Sushi is a trip.  During the day it's a mild mannered all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, but at night, it transforms into a club.

For an all you can eat sushi place, Azukar is pretty good.  The servers are quick and the food is fresh and tasty.  I've only eaten here once, but I dominated enough food for a lifetime. I went for lunch, so it was about $15.  The rolls are generally a little smaller when compared to normal sushi restaurant rolls.  They do this to combat wastefulness. The menu isn't all sushi, it has other types of Japanese food, and a pretty good assortment of desserts. My one complaint would be that if you don't like the roll you get, and you kind of pick and choose and eat around the bad stuff, they get upset and charge you for the left over rice and whatever else didn't get eaten. I get why they do it, but come on.

After lunch and dinner is over, the club appears.  I've only visited it once at night. It was... eh, clubish, which I'm not a huge fan of. I never liked going into places to drink where you have to get frisked and go through a metal detector first, but this place was cool.  Getting drinks was easy and quick and the dance floor, while pretty packed, had room enough for me... and I flail and twist a lot... it's bad.

Azukar is in a central downtown location, which is cool. The staff were all really nice. There were enough cabs out front for everyone to get home safely and as I remember, the drinks were reasonably priced for a weekend club.

I'd go back for sushi and I'd go back to dance the night away... although, I don't think anyone would want to see that. 

Wayne's Wok

7116 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 428-1234

lol. okay, yes this looks ghetto, but tasty ghetto

Wayne's Wok... more like blaynes block... ok, I understand that makes no sense, but I lack what most people call "cleverness".

This place has pretty good food.  I always call ahead and get the food to go.  It never takes more than 15 minutes and surprisingly it is always tastes so good and so fresh.  The price is always right, never too expensive. Wayne's Wok is your basic Chinese food restaurant, but more than that, it's my basic Chinese food restaurant.

my favorite: wor wonton

Panda Garden

Sacramento, CA 95831
(916) 399-1028

This place is really awesome.  It is small, (about 8-10 tables) but the staff is more than courteous and are always available to get whatever you need.

The food is very good, especially the string bean chicken, and the wonton soup! It is relatively inexpensive and it is always super fresh! Go to this place and you will not be disappointed, it is a new Greenhaven must!