Beef roll, but instead of the customary hoisin and cilantro, and maybe some cucumner or spinach or bok choy, this had… Pickles. Dill pickles. From a jar. And also chopped raw jalepenos.
Pork XLB. Rather flat. Pork and onion without any ginger. The dipping sauce was almost straight soy (no black vinegar to be seen). The skins were decently thin but as you can see, they didn’t all make it to us in tact.
Pork, shrimp, and chive steamed dumplings. The best of the three, but that’s a very low bar to clear. Again, heavily onion flavored with little to no ginger and the same WAAAAAAY too salty dipping sauce.
Surprisingly, they’re apparently on the cusp of opening another location in midtown.
Hey, it’s only in the last 3-4 years that we could get anything more than sweet-and-sour-general-tso-egg-roll-lunch special. Now we actually have a couple of CHOICES for XLB, and some aren’t bad.
But that beef roll… man. Is that some alternate style I just haven’t encountered or is it as weird as I think it is?
Journey to the Dumpling, another Elk Grove XLB-serving Chinese place, is also opening a midtown branch. Their food has been generally “good” (not great) but the service has always been very spotty.
We’ll see if there’s any changes with the new location.
“But that beef roll… man. Is that some alternate style I just haven’t encountered or is it as weird as I think it is?”
Agreed that “Beef Roll” looks like an Abomination.
The Taiwanese style of this is Braised and Sliced Beef Shank in a flaky Scallion Pancake with Cucumber and Scallions. That looks like a Flour Tortilla with green peppers and Dill Pickles?
International chains have Sac on the radar, and I put money on the Fresno area soon too. Zhangliang Malatang, which has locations in the SFBA, SGV, and Queens, just opened in Sac, right near the SF Market off Florin Rd.
evidently, their midtown location is now open. I posted a form of this review on r/SacramentoFoodies and have gotten a couple of replies saying the midtown location matched what I unfortunately found here.
I suspect it will not be long for this world unless they seriously revamp their recipes.
We have a bunch of Ramen 101’s and Kansai Ramen (both of which, I think, are chains, though I don’t know about ‘international’) There are a metric ton of boba/milk-tea shops, many of which I assume are chains. I even know some of them serve quite good food, but as I don’t go for boba at all, they seldom hit my radar. Which is a bummer.
We have a 99 Ranch, an SF Supermarket, and an H Mart will be opening soon, I think.
Now if we could get a couple Thai places that were a bit closer to Luv 2 Eat or Sapp or Lers Ros…
Wow, that beef roll looks heinous. Like the results of a Chopped! basket with beef, jalapenos, dill pickles and tortillas in the hands of a chef with no taste.
The SFBA also has a ton of Ramen 101s too, and I hadn’t realized they’d spread as far as Sac. I assume they’re a NorCal chain rather than international— based on some ingredient cards I saw posted at one a few years back, their soup bases are generic ones from Wakou.
There’s very much a ‘get what you pay for’ tier system. Someone cranking out $8 tonkotsu available in 7 levels of spice is not gonna be some handcrafted secret. I’m unsurprised but pretty fascinated to know my sun noodle kit ramen with trader joe’s pork belly is probably pretty close to what I could get out and about.
