Good Bakersfield Fare: Santa Fe Burrito

In a town that has a flare for South of the Border cuisine. It's some of the small places that really give that great Mexican flavor. With a rash places large, fancy, small, fast food, and truck.  I have found a small place sandwiched in between many other types of cuisine from around the world. Santa Fe Burrito is one of those places. A small restaurant, with a huge lunch crowd following. Santa Fe shows how it's done. No frills here, just good food cooked right, without draining your wallet. My friend and I decide to have lunch there Saturday after my suggestion. When you walk in you're greeted with a specials wipe off board and a nice size, but not extravagant menu. The decor is simple adobe colored and fashioned walls, a few booths, and a few tables. There is also a fresh salsa bar, from a nice pico de gallo, several types of red salsa, that range from the mild to hot, and a nice medium tomatillo green sauce I opted for the Burrito with carnitas, which comes with chips, refried beans & cheese and mexican rice for $6.95. My friend opted for one of the specials which were the 4 Flautas served with rice & beans, a side of sour cream & fresh guacamole, and a 16 oz drink. My friend opted for the cheese flautas, which amounted to $4.99.

While we sat at a table and waited for our food, there is a flat screen TV to keep your attention. The small grill area is right behind the cash register at the front of the restaurant. So you could watch the staff cook everything fresh. With in a few minutes we had our food, and served on real hot plates, not paper or styrofoam.

My burrito was cooked just near perfect, the carnitas (seasoned pork) were moist and not greasy like so many other places, along with the burrito being stuffed with rice, sour cream, & cheese. A little large to eat with my hands but after a poured the green tomatillo salsa on top that was a mute point.  The beans were a little bland, but with some hot sauce they were well spiced up, along with the rice. I would have to say that a very good meal. My friends flautas were crispy,but not overly crunchy. He opted for the mile red salsa from the salsa bar, and was nicely surprised at the flavor. With in a few minutes our meals were finished and were well satisfied. So for under $15, the lunch was a quick, fresh and filling.

So for Santa Fe Burrito's rating:

• Surroundings: Subdued decorations, but nice and clean : 4 Stars
• Service: Quick and easy with not a lot of smiles and flare: 3 Stars
• Food: Fresh and fulfilling, served hot:  4 Stars
• Overall: Quick, fresh, hot, clean & filling: 4 Stars 

5436 California Ave, Bakersfield, CA 93309, in between a Thai restaurant and an old juice place.

Good Bakersfield Fare: Best Bite Pizza

There are so many pizza places here in good ole' Bakersfield, and most of them are big chain pizza places. So to the little pizza parlor or delivery pizza place you have to have niche or you won't last. The big ones seem to push them out of the way. But now and then a place comes along that has decent pizza, not cardboard and when it's just delivery, it's at a good price. My family and I discovered Best Bite Pizza years ago, when one of many door hangers were placed on our door. Now times were pretty tough so pizza was not always an option, lets face it, when your on a budget pizza sometimes was a treat and still can be. Well we couldn't believe our eyes to see the excellent deals on the advertisement, now if only the food was as good. We've been let down before by promise of great deals, and get bad food.

Well Best Bite Pizza after all this time hasn't changed. Same great deals, same good pizza. Now Best Bite pizza is a delivery only pizza place. So for a Friday Family Movie or Game night it's perfect.

So my family and I ordered their Large Family Pack special. This includes 2 Large (16 inch) pizzas, 1 order of wedges, 1 order of Buffalo Wings and a 2 liter bottle of soda for $26.99(delivery charge may apply). That's a lot of food for a low price, so it really works out well for my family of 5.

Best Bite's pizza is of the had tossed variety, no deep dish or thin crust here. From when I have done a pick up the kitchen is open to view by the public, so everything is out there, and it is very clean and white. Not a lot of fancy decorations on the wall to gather dust. Shoot most people won't see it any way since they're delivery and carry out only. But it's nice to know that you food is coming from a well maintained , clean atmosphere. From what I can tell, dough is made fresh daily, with fresh ingredients. This is always a plus.

Since I have kids, pizza in our house is usually ordered pretty simple, except by myself, who likes to be adventurous and my son who has become a carnivore and like his pizza with multiple meat toppings. So we get 1 pepperoni pizza and 1 just extra cheese. I get the BBQ buffalo wings ( they have a choice of hot or bbq) which is about a dozen, 1 order of wedges, which is a pretty decent size order by most standards, and a 2 liter bottle of Sunkist (they serve Pepsi products). We were told it would be about 45 minutes for delivery, and after tax and delivery charge it's $32.93. Which is not bad, we get hit with a delivery charge because of our location  from their base, which is at 1010 Chester Ave. and we are way in the Stockdale Area. Of course our experience when ordering from Best Bite, is 45 minutes is an extreme estimation. We usually get it in about 25 to 35 minutes, this was the case once again when we received our pizza in about 25 minutes, and nice and hot.

Like I said the pizza is the hand tossed variety, so you have a nice thick well cooked bread crust, the sauce is the only plain part of the pizza, its just tomato sauce, but it's not drowned all over the pizza, it's well applied and spread out. Plenty of cheese which looks and tastes like a mozzarella/monterrey jack/cheddar combination. It's well spread out over the pizza with the pepperoni added then more cheese, so it really bakes in well. The pizza was very good, nice taste, and very light on the grease that you find on a lot of delivery pizzas that you have to dab off.

The BBQ Buffalo wings are of a nice large size, and well covered in a tangy BBQ sauce that is not BBQed on but sent trough the pizza ovens so the chicken cooks and the sauce cooks on. The wedges to me are the only down side. The are nothing more then lightly breaded, lightly seasoned wedge fries. Not like the battered ones you get from most pizza places. They still good, and you get free dipping ranch and ketchup to go with it. The service on the phone was ok, but maybe a better phone system. They had a hard time hearing or understanding us on the phone. And delivery while quick, the drivers really need to know Bakersfield a little better, we were called  from 3 blocks away saying they couldn't find us, and believe me our home is very easy to find..

So for Best Bite Pizza's rating:

• Surroundings: for Carry out only it's well maintained and clean: 4 Stars
• Service: Difficult to hear us on the phone and couldn't find our home well: 2 Stars
• Food: Hot & Tasty, not overly extravagant, but good just the same:  4 Stars
• Overall: Fast, Clean,  Good, and friendly: 4 Stars

Other specials: Every day special, Large pizza one topping only $5.99 +tax. Only for carry outs.

Best Bite Pizza on Facebook

Address	1010 Chester Ave. Bakersfield, CA, 93301
Phone	661-323-3535
Hours	Mon - Thurs: 11:00 am - 11:00 pm Fri - Sat: 11:00 am - 12:00 am Sun: 11:00 am - 11:00 pm

Welcome To The Restaurant Rant

A friend of mine gave me the idea that I should blog about what I know, and what I do know is food. Especially in our little, but not so little town of Bakersfield.  I also like to go on Road Trips, Vacations and Outings with the family, and we are always eager to try something new. So there will be that occasional what I will call a "Road Trip Rating".
For years I have grown up in Bakersfield, California and seen restaurants come and go. I've seen them rated by only one food critic, and I just think that food critic is over critical to what the Bakersfield person wants. This is not L.A., this is not Chicago, and this is definitely not Paris. People's idea of good dining is different here in the Central Valley. We appreciate the simple things in life, nice simple fare. However, we also like to paint the town red and go all out for good meal in an well thought out ambient setting. We don't mind paying more for the extras at these places as long as the food is worth it. But don't want to be nickeled and dimed at the every day fare. In Bakersfield and the Central Valley we work hard for our money, so we don't need someone to come in say you have to pay extra for this or that, when Joe Schoom's place up the way has just as good food and not charging for this or that.
Now, don't get me wrong, I have no real degree in food, but I am well traveled and spent many years in the food industry. From the lowly fry cook at your favorite fast food place to line cook at a nice restaurant to short order cook at a greasy spoon to a supervisor at food stand, plus more. Many in my family were servers in many industries, so I grew up with an insight into what good service is. This includes my mom, she spent many years on her feet in a restaurant, bar, banquet hall and more raising me. And she prided herself on good service, otherwise the tips didn't come. And believe me, those were always important to go out of town and family road trips or pay the bills. Your food server (i.e., waiter, waitress, bartender, etc.) depend on those tips as part of their wage. So tip often and tip well if they have made your experience a good one.
I'll have different ratings depending on where I visit and eat.

1. Road Trip Ratings: For the out of town eats.
2. High Class: The restaurant that's just above the rest in atmosphere and food
3. Chain Gang Game: Lot's of Chain restaurants reside here in Bakersfield, I do eat at many.
4. Good Bakersfield Fare: Your average restaurant eats, from small to large, from the truck to the around the corner place.
5. Fast Food Fare: We all eat them, but just because the name is the same at one location as it is at another location doesn't mean it's the same service or food, plus many of these places are always introducing new stuff.

I will rate on a simple 5 star rating system, (no halfs, I mean come on is it 2 stars or 3 stars, what is that) 0 being the absolute worst, and 5 being the best. I will rate the eateries on Surroundings, Service and of course food. So now that you have some information from this ranter. I hope you will stop by once in awhile and see what might be some good food or a bad food rant.
Michael - The Restaurant Ranter