Want to eat like Domantas Sabonis? Kings star credits durability to this regimen — and takeout

Sacramento Kings three-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis was just one of 17 NBA players to play in all 82 games last season. He credits his durability, in part, to a meticulously-crafted diet.

Sabonis outlined his diet in a recent video interview with Men's Health , and snippets of it appear in "Starting 5," a Netflix documentary released last month that followed the lives of a quintet of basketball greats. His father, Arvydas, says in the show that he taught his boys to take care of their bodies from the time they were young, a lesson Domantas seems to have taken to heart.

Sabonis starts each offseason morning with avocado, eggs, some sort of protein such as sausage, and oatmeal or a small salad, he told the magazine. Coffee is essential, too: "Starting 5" shows him brewing at home or driving with a cup of espresso behind the wheel.

Protein shakes and creatine supplement the 6-foot-10, 255-pound center's diet as well. The secret to a decent protein shake, he told Men's Health: use milk, not water. He typically has one with every lunch, while dinners usually include salmon or steak prepared by his private chef.

Sabonis returned to Spain, where he grew up, for a month after the Kings were ousted from the play-in tournament in April. Paella, croquettas, jamón serrano, meat-stuffed potato pancakes — all of it was on the table, he told Men's Health.

During the season, though, Sabonis binds himself to the results of a test designed to limit inflammation. Gluten, beef, apples, asparagus, yogurt and even egg whites can make him flare up, the test said, so they're out of his diet from October onward.

The cardio of games and practices can cause Sabonis to lose weight throughout the season, but he still needs to be beefy enough to bang down low with Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis or the Phoenix Suns' Jusuf Nurkić. Post-game meals such as chicken with rice help pad him with filling protein and carbohydrates.

Sabonis lives in Loomis during the Kings' season but calls Napa home in the offseason. In "Starting 5," viewers see him, then-teammate Chris Duarte and musical duo JavyPablo toasting the end of the last season with a bottle of Ones by Sabonis , Domantas and his wife Shashana's private line of Cabernet.

Past Kings teams have come on retreats to Sabonis' Napa home, drinking, dining and bonding before the season started. He also did a cooking demonstration at Bottlerock Napa Valley's culinary stage alongside Kings guard Kevin Huerter, former San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence and chef Shota Nakajima last May.

What about Sacramento's food scene? Sabonis doesn't eat out much, he told my colleague Chris Biderman , which is understandable given his narrow diet.

His favorite local restaurant by far is Kru Contemporary Japanese Cuisine , Billy Ngo's high-end East Sacramento concept at 3315 Folsom Blvd. But don't expect to see the Sabonis towering above the rest of the dining room; Kru makes an exception to its no-takeout policy to feed the big man.

"Kru's the only one," Sabonis said. "We just order everything. (Ngo) just takes care of us. Every time I order, I get three extra bags, so it's great."

What I'm Eating

The Sacramento's hottest Asian restaurants are opening in Elk Grove, a trend I explored in a lengthy that will be published later this month. Washoku isn't part of the newest class, having opened in July 2022, but the dignified, cozy dining room enclosed in dark wood adds its own homey touch.

Japanese food can be broadly divided into two categories: yoshoku, dishes adapted to or influenced by Western tastes, and washoku, traditional items crafted with a sense of harmony. While the specials menu at Daniel Yim's izakaya in Stonelake Landing shopping center gears toward those old-school offerings — salmon sashimi ($17 for six pieces)beef tongueeel skewers ($6/$7) — its main menu is more yoshoku dishes, some trendy now and others made popular in the 1960s and '70s.

hambāgu ironyaki ($19), in particular, feels like an updated relic from the days when TV dinners reigned. A housemade ground beef patty is fried to order then laden with a rich, teriyaki-like glaze and served on its skillet with corn, a simple salad and rice or boiled potatoes.

Curry became a Japanese home staple in the 1960s, a way to deploy pantry fixtures and use excess meat. At Washoku, fish katsu,minced pork ($15-$19) go into the ultra-umami brown sauce alongside vegetables and (in some cases) ajitama, the jammy eggs commonly seen in ramen.

Speaking of ramen and savory, the Hokkaido's ($20) murky, nutty beef-kombu broth will have you powering through the fried onions, basil oil and still-cooking sous vide beef filet to the cartoon fish on the bowl's bottom. Tan tan tacos ($10 for two) apply another ramen's spicy nature to an appetizer of minced pork nestled with avocado slices in wonton shells.

Address:

Hours:

Phone:

Website: washokueg.com

Drinks: Sake, beer, tea and soda

Vegetarian options: Not a ton to choose from outside of tofu curry, spicy garlic edamame and a cold tofu appetizer in soy dashi.

Noise level: Relatively quiet

Outdoor seating:

Openings & Closings

Marilyn's Pizza began its soft opening last week at 2011 J St., the midtown Sacramento space previously home to Cafe Marika. TJ Bruce's New York-style slice house is open until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Burning Barrel Brewing & Spirits will open Friday at 640 Main St. in Placerville. It's a distillery and restaurant expansion for father-son duo Jack and Duncan Alexander's brewery, which has made kettle sours, IPAs and barrel-aged stouts in Rancho Cordova since 2018.

Dolan's Bar & Grill announced its closure last week on social media. The Irish pub at 199 Blue Ravine Road, Suite 170, in Folsom's Natoma Junction Plaza had struggled since COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns began, the owners said, and had its liquor license suspended for several months last year.

The Bee's Chris Biderman contributed to this story.