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    Giovanni's Italian Eatery

    4.1 (79 reviews)
    ModerateItalian, Pizza, Thai
    Closed 12:00 pm - 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM - 8:30 PM
    Updated over 3 months ago

    Giovanni's Italian Eatery Photos

    Business Info

    GIOVANNI'S ITALIAN EATERY ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Quiet
    Good for kids
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Giovanni's Italian Eatery

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    Reviews With Photos

    Pineapple Fried Rice
    Bess B.

    A diamond in the rough. That's what comes to mind when I pulled up to this hidden gem in the city of Shafter. I've heard of Giovanni's from coworkers who stopped by when they were in town. Told me it was a fantastic Italian joint. But, you get a two-fer here. Not only does Giovanni's specialize in Italian food, but Thai food, as well! And no, it's not a fusion-type grill. They sell each type of food separately. When you walk inside, it's still got all the Italian-esque decor. It's got lots of seating. The lighting is not too bright, so it could provide some level of intimacy for dates. Today, I tried the Pineapple Fried Rice to go. Drove all the way back to Bakersfield and it was still piping hot! So delicious! It was a good portion that saved me some for tomorrow's lunch. It came with several shrimps, sliced carrots, chicken, pineapple, and fried egg. The next time I visit Shafter, I'm thinking of trying the Baked Mostaccioli!

    Lasagna

    The food was so delicious and fresh! I loved it the service was absolutely amazing, the place was also very clean and nice! 10/10!

    Stuffed mushrooms.

    Had Giovanni's last night and it was delicious. The stuffed mushrooms were delicious. We had the garlic chicken fettuccine alfredo with broccoli, lasagna and the tortellini alfredo. Everything was served hot and delicious. Noy and Angel are great. Angel was waiting by himself and the service was great.

    Dinner time is from 4-8pm!
    Kelly S.

    One of the great gems of Shafter! I did not expect such good service and food from this place. It just shows that the owner really does care about their customer base. I was on a travel assignment from Los Angeles to the Bakersfield area for work and came across this small Italian restaurant on Yelp. It had the best reviews and everyone was chiming on how amazing the owner and the Thai food was. So naturally, I had to give it a chance! I arrived a few minutes before opening and saw multiple cars waiting outside too. Unlike me, they already knew to call in and place the order as he is very attentive to the phone. I walked in and was greeted by the owner, a local man originally from LA area too, he explained the menu and his best seller and offered the local Thai menu too, as many stated that this is the best Thai food in town. I ended up ordering the shrimp pad thai with tiramisu as he seemed very proud of it. He told me to wait in my car as he would hand-deliver each order to their individual while making small talk about their day. I can genuinely see the connection that he made with the locals thoroughly. The Thai food was very good but not great compared to some of the places I visited in Thai Town in Los Angeles, but it fills a niche in Shafter which people needed, a real authentic Thai location which has the best service hands down of any place I visited in Shafter during my week stay. The price was very reasonable at $12ish for the pad thai and $4ish for my slice of tiramisu. I would come back just for the service and to actually try their Italian cuisine haha! tl:dr Great personalized service with good food at a little small town. A gem of Shafter indeed!

    Pizza bread appetizer
    Linda W.

    If you have cravings for Italian and Thai food then you have to travel to Shafter! A gem down the street from the DMV on walker street. Celebrated a birthday with family and the food was great! The bread rolls were excellent with just a little butter dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. My son ate two of them and I wanted to save my stomach for other things but I still ate 3/4 of the bread! We started with stuffed mushrooms and pepperoni cheese bread. Couldn't get a picture of the stuffed mushrooms because it was devoured before I could get my phone out. The pepperoni garlic cheese bread was delicious (the French bread was light and airy). I was told the pizzas and calzone was great. I didn't get a picture of the already devoured tortellini in alfredo sauce because I was eating the delicious fried pineapple rice and panaeng chicken curry! The best pineapple fried rice I had so far. The panaeng chicken curry was on point!

    Wall hanging
    Christina E.

    It's been a really long time since I walked into this place. When we arrived the place was empty and our service was great. Our drinks were always being filled. When our dinner bread came out, I was in awe, I don't think I have ever seen more prettier looking bread. It was hot and buttery. My only negative was that we were given country crock instead of real butter. But we did get some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip our bread into. The menu was decent but looked like it could use a few more pasta choices. Maybe like some linguini and clams or eggplant parmesan. We finally decided on what we wanted. I ordered the mushroom and olive lasagna, he got the Portabello mushroom ravioli with their pink sauce and our daughter got a pizza. We weren't disappointed when our plates arrived. I was a little shocked to see my lasagna in a bowl but once I paid attention to my dish I understood why. It was hot and oh that cheese was smothering my dish. The sauce was poured on generously and I had a generous amount of olives and mushrooms. There were more than eight - ten ravioli on that plate. It was a real dinner serving and that sauce looked delicious. The pizza, you could tell that was hand made. The crust was a pretty golden brown, the pepperoni was a gorgeous looking brick red and black olives to top it off. Again, oh that cheese. One thing I always wondered was why doesn't anyone ever season the dough. That's just me. Service was great and so was our meal. I'm glad no one cooked today since it gave us the chance to dine out. I'd say this was a successful dine outing.

    The Pad Thai
    Ronald Q.

    Was a bit hesistant to order from here but a friend said that their thai food was good so i gave it a go and im glad i did. The pad thai was tasty just a slight salty but other then that it jad good flavor. I believe they do free delivery if u live within 3 miles of the restaurant so thats a plus all in all ive only had the thai food so i can only recommend that at the moment

    Ribeyes, shrimp scampi, fresh roll, portobello mushroom ravioli.

    Food was absolutely amazing. Ribeye's, shrimp scampi, calzone, took a pizza to go. Small town gem. Jacob the server is very personable and attentive. Love this place. Thank you for a wonderful meal. Don't forget to grab a piece of carrot cake before you leave!

    Chicken calzone

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    1 month ago

    Wife stopped on the way home from work and picked up my order. Very good, loved it all

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    6 months ago

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    3 months ago

    Their food is always fresh and authentic! Large portions! We order their calzons. We order to go.

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    2 months ago

    Food is very flavorful, service was great kept checking if we needed anything, atmosphere was nice will be coming back

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    2 years ago

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    9 months ago

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    8 months ago

    His personal pizzas and his Baked Turkey sandwiches are amazing!! Love this little hidden gem of Shafter!!

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    5 years ago

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    6 years ago

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    3 years ago

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    2 years ago

    Love the Thai food not a huge fan of the pasta nah more though! Over all it was a nice experience with the grandkids

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    2 years ago

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    4 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Good food, great customer service and family owned. Thai & Italian food, I recommend it.

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    6 years ago

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    14 years ago

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    4 years ago

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    5 years ago

    Was looking for chocolate cake and tiramisu and stumbled upon this wonderful gem in shafter amazing pasta calzones and desserts

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    11 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    5 years ago

    I love the Giovanni's special sandwich and cheesecake! I always order to go so I'll have to try the dine in one of these days.

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    6 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    15 years ago

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    17 years ago

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    4 years ago

    41/2 stars good service good food. I have eaten at the eatery for the past 2 decades and intend to continue. I happily recommend.

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    Ask the Community - Giovanni's Italian Eatery

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    Zeppo's Pizza

    Zeppo's Pizza

    4.5
    (561 reviews)
    12.1 mi
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    Love this place! I don't know why it took us so long to finally order from here. We only decided to…read moregive it a try while browsing Uber Eats and noticed they had a great deal going on...free zeppoles plus 20% off a $25 order. For our most recent order, we got a large combination pizza with pink sauce, a large garden salad with ranch, and an order of zeppoles with chocolate caramel dipping sauce. Let me just say, the pizza with pink sauce was amazing. It may not sound like the most enticing combo, but it was so good. The salad was pretty standard, but the zeppoles were dangerously addictive. They reminded me of beignets, and that dipping sauce was absolutely fire. I will say that sometimes the order doesn't come exactly right, although that could just as easily be an Uber Eats issue rather than the restaurant itself. Either way, the flavor and the deals have more than made up for it. We'll definitely be ordering from here again, and hopefully dining in sometime too... depending on how well the kids behave

    I moved to Bakersfield from Huntington Beach. I'm on the hunt for quality pizza. Zeppo's Pizza has…read morea 4.5 star review and is less than 2 miles from my home, so I decided to give it a try. The Good: the price is reasonable. It's on the cheaper side and not much more than fast food delivery pizza. Staff was cordial and it was ready for pick up in record time. I ordered garlic on my pizza and they had fresh garlic. That's a huge plus considering many pizza establishments put minced pickled garlic from a jar on the pizza. The Bad: The pizza tasted like fast food pizza. The dough has a certain texture and doughiness reminiscent of Pizza Hut while the cheese tasted like it came from Costco. The spaghetti was the most disappointing part of the meal. There were only three meatballs in the spaghetti with meatballs and it had a weird taste and kick to it that reminded me of jarred Mexican salsa. It wasn't arrabiata. Inexcusably, there was so little sauce in the pasta that not a single plate could cover the noodles. It may have earned a higher score if my expectations were fast food, low quality pizza

    Photos
    Seating and decor
    Seating and decor
    That's how pizza should be done
    That's how pizza should be done
    Clean dining area

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    Clean dining area
    Slice of Italy

    Slice of Italy

    3.6
    (524 reviews)
    11.6 mi
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    One of our very first Bakersfield meals, taken as a much-needed break from house hunting chaos was…read moreat Slice of Italy (Rosedale), and honestly, it still holds a soft spot for us. After a long day of "Is this the house?" and "Why is everything beige?", sitting down to a comforting plate of pasta felt like exactly what we needed. As someone plant-based, I was genuinely happy to find a rich, spicy, savory red sauce that didn't feel like an afterthought and even better, it could be customized. Small win, big flavor. The service has always been warm, cozy and welcoming, which is probably why this has quietly become one of my husband and my go-to spots when cooking at home feels like just a little too much effort. Is it fancy? No. Is it reliable, tasty, and tied to one of our first memories here? Absolutely. And sometimes, that's exactly what you want. My husband is a fan of their Combination pizza!

    I have been ordering from Slice of Italy for years and have recommended this place to plenty of…read morefamily and friends. Unfortunately, after this experience, I will not be ordering from them again. We placed an online order for two large pizzas with pepperoni and olives. When the order was delivered, both pizzas were plain cheese. Mistakes happen, and this has happened a few times over the years, but in the past they corrected the issue and delivered the correct pizzas. This time was completely different. When we called to explain the problem, the woman on the phone argued with my wife instead of trying to help. She kept saying their system showed that we ordered cheese pizzas, so that is what we received. There was no attempt to listen, verify the receipt, or resolve the issue professionally. We ended up bringing the receipt and the pizzas back to the restaurant, and even then they continued to insist they were right. The staff was rude, dismissive, and unwilling to take responsibility for the mistake. After several back-and-forth comments, they finally issued a refund, but the entire situation was handled terribly. I understand that order mistakes happen. What is unacceptable is arguing with a customer, refusing to look at the actual receipt, and treating long-time customers like they are the problem. After years of supporting this business, this experience completely changed my opinion of Slice of Italy. I will not be returning, and I will make sure others know how poorly this situation was handled.

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    Nice place to watch games, good food and drinks
    Nice place to watch games, good food and drinks
    Chicken Picatta
    Chicken Picatta
    Seasonal pumpkin cheesecake

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    Seasonal pumpkin cheesecake

    Giovanni's Italian Eatery - italian - Updated July 2026

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