valley farms hitching post, 36005 hwy 99, traver, ca, 93673

food: 4/5; price: $. if you're heading north on 99, stop off here. traver is north of visalia, about 5 miles south of kingsburg (30 miles south of fresno). driving along, you'll see plenty of signs letting you know valley farms is coming up. the one that always grabs my eye reads "date shakes." DATE SHAKES?!?! sccrrrrreeeeeeechhh!!
the hitching post restaurant is in the same low-slung barn that houses valley farms. the latter sells specialty nuts, candy, olives, sauces, dried fruits, souvenirs and the like, similar to casa de fruita near gilroy or charlie brown's in the high desert or many other places like that. these specialty items are a little on the high side, but you won't be disappointed cause it's all delicious. if you've got people visiting from out of state, here they'll find mementos that'll help them remember the san joaquin valley.
the eatery was open for once (we usually come thru too late in the evening), so we grabbed a bite. the decor is absolutely charming, nostalgic-friendly, with corny humorous signs blanketing the walls, 40s pin-up girls, old-fashioned beer & soda logos, down-home witticisms, etc. we sat up at the bar & were waited on by a large-framed fellow, handsome as a movie star, with charming mexican accent & friendly manner. the waitress, too, was mighty nice. the place was bustling with what my spouse called "farm folk" - it looked to be a popular spot with the locals.
the menu was large & through the swinging doors leading to & from the kitchen, we saw cook & wait-staff smiling, laughing, dishing up food. is this a family operation? i don't know, but no one looked disgruntled, which always helps my food go down smoother. overall, the vibe was positive, as our friend in santa cruz might say.
the restaurant is housed in an old-fashioned garage: the owners open & close two or three garage doors for business, so if you're not at the bar, you sit at wooden tables & look out on the orchards across the road while you eat & visit. a big sign announced happy hour & the setting is a great one for that, i'd think. i'm a teetotaler, but had romantic thoughts of sitting for lazy hours, getting a little lit in the golden afternoon while laughing with compadres & gazing out on the sleepy fields & highway...
our date shakes were scrumptious; we split a club sandwich. the bill was quite reasonable & we left happy.

prime cut meats & eats, 9500 brimhall, bakersfield ca 93312

food: 3/5; atmosphere: 4.5/5; price: $ 1/2. the prime cut has been in biz locally for decades, owned by a husband & wife team. recently, i got the inside scoop on the new location: the owners wanted to deck the place out like new orleans. yes!!!! i still think for all the restaurants we have in kern county, too few focus on atmosphere... i'll eat most anything & be happy if the digs feel fun, glamorous, exciting, relaxing, mysterious, etc... dining out, even if you don't drink & be merry, can be real entertainment, if the place is done up right - you can nearly feel like you've traveled someplace special. however, most often when i go out to eat locally, the most interesting sites are tv sports, beer signs, cornball signs & the like. there's gotta be more.
the new prime cut is working on it. my aunt kept saying, "they're gonna get better." i know the new location was rush-opened, & the place was quite busy when we ate there for lunch. i imagine the owners are plenty overwhelmed in their new location, which is 3 times larger than the old. i liked the atmosphere: walls made to look like an old barn with faded brick & distressed wood; nostalgic LPs & NOLA signs on the walls; parade beads; a big mirrored bar; and best of all, recorded zydeco & cajun blues music playing behind it all. the last time i heard beau jocques in a restaurant was in austin - this was nice!!! i put my two cents in, too: "if i had a restaurant, it'd be darker & there'd be more **** on the walls & lights, too - the kinda place you go in for a beer & come out nine hours later, feeling like you've been someplace." a restaurant's music choice can really make or break an eating experience for me - once i had to leave a steak house at the market place, which was blasting country pop music, the worst of the knee-jerk pablum, nearly losing rather than indulging my appetite... on the other hand, prime cut's music was on par with the lovely & exotic stuff you hear in mama roomba's - i'll be back just to wash in the sound of "laissez les bon ton roulet!" i learned, too, that the decorating is not quite finished, so i hope that when i return, there'll be more neat stuff to look at.
prime cut sells mostly meats - tri-tip, shredded beef & chicken, ribs, & the like. there's a butcher shop attached to the restaurant, but we didn't go in. i know prime cut's reputation precedes it - the local paper has used much ink to sing the praises of the "merv burger," for instance.
the sides offered at this point are small: chili beans, macaroni salad, fries. "they need to have more of them," my aunt commented. right now, the place seems to be split - atmospherically, it's going exotically southern (that is, louisiana-mixed rather than oildale), but culinarily, it seems aimed at the tailgate crowd. i believe the menu'd benefit from adding on sides: greens, corn bread, mac & cheese, yams - the tasty extras that make J's Southern and Phine's over-the-top delicious & special local eating experiences. i know the new prime cut already is leaning more toward the southern - jambalaya every day, etoufee & gumbo, too. i hope they continue to add on, so the food's not only good, the atmosphere special, but the food choices special, as well.
we went plain - hot tri-tip sandwich for my aunt, shredded chicken sandwich for me. the bread was homemade, but way too much for me. i was certain the menu said my sandwich, with chicken as soft as tuna, came with BBQ sauce, but i had to go ask for it. my aunt said her meat was delicious, but "needed something - it's too dry," so i got her sauce, too. i ordered cajun fries, but was told "we only have regular ones right now." i imagine these are all kinks that will be worked out. we were happy enough with our food, appreciated this was a brand new place trying to offer something different to the locals, & like i said, i'd come back, anyway, just to hear that music someplace other than at home coming out of my own stereo.

la mina cantina, 4001 auburn st, bakersfield ca 93306

food: 3.5/5; price: $ 1/2. i am a huge (in both senses of the word) restaurant goer, but still manage regularly to miss many of the popular local places. la mina has been one. i finally went with family members to this northeast mexican food spot today and am still foggy-brained from the overeating experience, all the blood i would need to think & write clearly being in my stomach right now. this is a quite pretty, colorful, large restaurant with high ceilings, leveled floors, wide central area resembling a patio, lovely carved chairs and tables, tile floors, wall hangings, etc. there's a bar i'd bet is a fun place to go get plastered, large, dark, with margarita goblets and loaded soldiers lined up and ready for action.
la mina abounds with pasteled, festive, restauranty-romance. a visit here feels a little like going to a party.
mom and auntie ordered bowls of albondigas soup with a side of rice, the soup being, my aunt told my mom, "the closest i've had to how mama made it" (high praise) - it came with something extra, green bell peppers. mama, who hasn't been feeling well, slurped her whole bowl up, which made me like la mina that much more. i got the extremely reasonably-priced lunch buffet, under $7, and ate like a porker. the food was plentiful, pleasant, nothing outstanding, but two hours later, still stuffed to the gills, i have no stomach ache, and that's a good sign for me. the buffet included big, tender pieces of BBQ chicken; chicken fajitas with grilled vegetables; beef quesadillas; rice and beans; menudo with all the fixin's; tortillas; some kind of deep-fried fish (took all three of us tasting it to figure out what it was) with french fries; and more, but my memory's poor right now, as i said... add to this the salad and fruit bar, desert table, and (saving the best for last) rice pudding con canela and flan. the flan was delicious and i ate three squares before realizing that i'd pay for my gluttony if i didn't stop right then and there.
lunch for the three of us, minus tip, was $28. it would've been cheaper, but we got the extra side of rice and drinks, the latter of which, in restaurant-bars like this, always brings the tab up $4-$7. la mina serves large portions of standard food, nothing outstanding, but in a lovely environment, and for the overall experience, i'd recommend it. you could bring the family here for an uncle's or other family member's birthday and have a grand time, or come in with work buds for happy hour: both experiences would satisfy just plenty.

la herradura restaurant, 7101 rosedale hwy, bakersfield ca 93308

rating: 4/5; price: $. this place is easy to miss, a storefront restaurant on the south side of rosedale hwy in a still-industrial section... inside is an ordering window and a cozy dining room with stocky, comfortable new mexican tables & chairs hacked from (looked like) entire blond pines and ranchito artwork of horse, mexican village, gaucho, and such. the big tv murmured futbol and other diners chatted politely in spanish. the waitress said they were out of ice cream when we tried to order a coffee milkshake, but then, after walking away to another table & maybe composing the english sentence in her mind, she returned and smiled, "i promise we will have it the NEXT time." i liked that friendly touch, as well as the hearty food. we had nachos, sopes, and tortas all stuffed with or topped with carne asada (it had been a bad day for us both and we needed a serious pigging out session). the torta was the biggest thing i'd ever seen, like a child's catcher's mitt, except delicious (unlike the mitt - i suppose i didn't need to write that part...). all our food was very tasty and the nice young waitress kept the sodas coming. at other tables, we spotted giant bowls of soup, siete mares, and other tasty looking plates that will tempt us, along with the cozy mexican-western atmosphere of la herradura, to return.

tony's pizza, 4130 california ave, bakersfield

price: $; food: 5/5.
as kids, we'd go visit our grandparents in delano. they lived across the street from the grape orchards, where grandpa, who rarely left his recliner, his TV baseball, and his iced tea, would steal over and rustle grapes (the little sweet green thompsons seedless you can't get in stores anymore)... if we were lucky, we'd get a dollar to walk over to thrifty's and the three of us could get an ice cream. if we were REAL lucky, our extravagant aunt would give us a fiver and we'd go to tony's pizza for a slice and a coke. i don't remember much at all of my life, but i remember the pizza - thin-crust, topped with big big circles of ham, not too greasy, delicious.
yesterday, we walked into a newly-opened tony's pizza in bakersfield, located in the mervyn's shopping center on california (east end of mall). the place is new, very clean (unusual for local pizza parlors), not decorated with sports teams (also unusual)... the theme is firefighting: the comfy blue walls and historical pictures feature old fire engines and houses; the most interesting picture (to me) shows firefighters' uniforms, how they've changed over the past century-plus. fancy brews include amber bock (involuntary drool) and firehouse ale, with proceeds from the last going to firefighter causes. beautiful poinsettias and other deep-red plants really spruced the place up further. i couldn't believe it; a beautiful pizza parlor! "give it time," my hubby said, but i'd like to think that tony's will stay clean...
they sell slices! three different sliced pizzas rotated in a warmed glass compartment... slices started at just $1.50! that's much better than the three-bucks-plus you'd pay at the mall... i noticed, too, small cokes were just 75 cents. drinks are usually where restaurants will gouge you - particularly at bar-restaurants, which'll charge up to three bucks for a soda, if you don't watch it... these prices seemed reasonable.
excited, as a semi-joke, i called my delano cousin (now in texas), sister, and aunt. "guess where i am?" i said. "TONY'S PIZZA!"
the man behind the counter smiled... did he look familiar?
the pizza arrived. how can a pizza look familiar? yet, it did. i went to the counter. "i remember there was a tony's in delano," i said to the young woman now there. "yes," she replied. "it's the same family."
wow! thought i... what a nice coincidence! 25 years later, here we were, back at tony's.
the pizza was just terrific, as i knew it'd be just by looking at it: not greasy, covered with giant, thin slices of sweet ham and plentiful pineapple (we always order this, if it's available. we're from california, you know)... even though sports played on the flat screens, the volume was low enough that it sounded a bit like calming surf... i was not even disturbed by the 10 video game machines, all with hunting and killing themes, rationalizing that somehow maybe that was related to peace officer training... the small pizza with two toppings, $8, was just right for the two of us gluttons; we even brought home a slice. it was still delicious later as i scarfed it from in front of the refrigerator. when we go back, we might try some of tony's specialty pizzas, like mexicana (with chorizo and spices) or chile verde... or maybe we'll just stick with the delicious ham/pineapple (their offical hawaiian pizza is topped with bell pepper, too)... also on the menu are bread and pizza sticks, salad bar, and sandwiches, as well as the beer bar i mentioned.
instead of china buffet next door, visit tony's pizza for good prices, delicious pizzas ranging in price from just $6.50 (small cheese) to $22 (x-large with four toppings), and very pleasant and clean atmosphere.

pour house, 4041 fruitvale, bakersfield ca 93308

food: 3/5; price: $. although it's still open, absorbed into the bbq factory at the garces circle, we miss the old highland cafe in oildale. no partier these decades, i'm still a bar fly and love the darkness, the clinking glasses, the mirrors, the lights, the odor, the blinking tvs inevitably showing sports or country music videos, the jukebox tunes of these places... at the old highland, the bar atmosphere was absolute romance for me and my spouse... at the new location, the food's good, the service is nice, but, well, it's a restaurant.
we went to the pour house, where "guys from the oilfield go," i was told. the pour house, unlike the old highland, is more bar than eatery, but it satisfies the desire for dark and dingy... our stressed-looking waitress, dealing with her (seeming) boyfriend at one table and some jerk at the bar who told her to "stop throwing food at me," brought us the special, chicken fried steak, as well as a grilled cheese. we poured from what we thought was ketchup, but it was pepper. at least this made the waitress laugh... the food was good and probably the more we go here, the more friendly people will get. that's what happened at the highland, and it became one of our favorites...

honolulu hawaiian bbq & chinese express, 1201 24th st., bakersfield, ca, 661-323-6888

food: 5/5; price: $.
before i went to hawaii some years back, i read here & there while researching what to do, where to eat, & kept reading, basically, that the food was nothing special & don't get your hopes up. what did this mean? no haute cuisine? nothing high class & high-falutin'? i don't know... when i got to hawaii, since i had no expectation (kind of like when i went to paris, was told the people hate americans, then, braced for the worst, was pleasantly surprised to meet nothing but nice folks) i was in heaven!! : not just to enjoy the beauty of the smaller islands' native culture & geography, but the food...
what i ate while on "the islands" seemed to combine asian (chinese, japanese, filippino), mexican, & american comfort/soul food. nothing spicy, nothing too chewy or fibrous, lots of sweet & savory flavors, simple ingredients, what some people might even call "ghetto food" - rice, chicken, eggs, cabbage, mayonnaise salads, nuts... and spam??? yes, spam is very popular in hawaii and parts of asia. spam is atrocious to really contemplate, way too salty, but guilty-pleasure good - like the "cheesecake chimichanga" my cousin in texas called me recently to confess she'd eaten. anyway, i don't know if hawaiian food has any equivalent of expensive wines and caviars, but i liked it plenty...
even poi!! the best meals i had were macadamia pancakes topped with tropical fruit & served with kona coffee; manapua (hawaiian for steamed buns, or bao); japanese-style bento box lunch; and hawaiian-style plate lunches.
locally, there is another place that advertises serving hawaiian food, but i've been disappointed by it - its menu seems mostly chinese. this new place, at the west foot of the 178 freeway on 24th, downtown, in the newish village town centre shopping centre featuring starbucks, juice it up, flame & skewer, & more, features the most hawaiian-like menu i've seen locally! at least, hawaiian in the way that i experienced while there...
honolulu hawaiian bbq is a large, clean, bright, fast-foodish kind of sit-down restaurant. they have breakfast specials, 7-1030: 3 dim sum-kind of rolls, buns, or breaded pieces containing fruit, fish, meat, etc. for 99 cents. three for 99 cents! you could really go to town sampling this and that! i plan to go tomorrow morning...
meanwhile, i had my favorite plate lunch. what is a plate lunch? basically, a main dish served with two scoops of rice and macaroni salad. "they created them for the surfers," mom said. i didn't check this. the plate lunch seemed a bit messy to handle with chopsticks, or to roll up & eat while jogging out to the surf, but what do i know? i got my favorite plate lunch, which is called "loco moco" (i imagine like locomotion, but that name sure made my two little hispanic kid friends laugh their butts off, since "loco moco" loosely translates as "crazy booger" in spanish slang...). loco moco is the best - a hamburger steak on a small bed of cabbage, topped with two eggs and a delicious brown gravy. this food, as my sister would say, is GRUB!
the price was a little high for this cheapskate, six bucks, but was a very large portion: my mom & i noshed away at it for quite a while, then i brought it home and cooked it up, adding an extra egg, & my spouse & i ate the rest. if the other plate lunches are as large, you could feed two people with one, i think, or just be a glutton & stuff the whole thing down! go to town!
other flavors of plate lunches include satay, pineapple, or curry chicken; kalua pork with cabbage (tea leaf, banana leaf, sea salt); honolulu bbq, seafood mix, pollock & bbq chicken combo, and... GRILLED SPAM MOCO! HHB&CE also serves spam musubi, which is spam wrapped in seaweed, sort of a sushi-like hors d'oeuvre, but island down-home.
HHB&CE also has a big drink menu of fresh juices (including delicious watermelon juice), milk shakes, hawaiian canned drinks (oolong tea, strawberry guava, etc.) & asian-style specialty drinks (slushes, boba, blended teas).
this restaurant served interesting, unusual, & delicious food for reasonable prices and deserves to be supported by local diners. and, as i've said of other places i've reviewed, if you don't want to go exotic, there's always the standard fare - burgers, salad, chinese food. hope you check it out today, & enjoy a happy, tasty, ono-rific meal...