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.