Under new management, but the food is still phenomenal. When I am in Bakersfield, for any reason, I stop and have a meal at one of the Basque Food Restaurants. I like the Pyrenees because I can enjoy a meal at my own table and my own pace, plus I am able to take home my leftovers. I don't know how anyone could eat all the food they give you in one sitting. My single meal was enough for 2 people, by far. I ordered the Shrimp Scampi; Basque Style. This included, the typical Basque set-up of cabbage soup, beans, fresh salsa and scrumptious French bread; salad, cottage cheese, French fries, and my main course; Shrimp Scampi. A lot of food. Rod, who is either part of the new owners or manager, came over and said hello, checked on my meal, and mentioned "they" had just taken over about a year and a half ago. I could see the changes. All for the best. The cabbage soup had more veggies than just the normal cabbage, onions and carrots; it now had potatoes and zucchini and celery. Still the same yummy broth. The salad is no longer just lettuce and vinaigrette; it came with corn, cherry tomatoes, pickled beats, olives, pepperoncini, red onion and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Beautiful and delicious. My main course of Shrimp Scampi was the best I have ever tasted. Oh my gosh, it was good. The shrimps were big and plump, cooked just right, but the sauce was out of this world delicious. It was a buttery wine sauce; creamy and oh so garlicky. I wanted to bathe in it...the sauce was that good! I have been coming to the Pyrenees since I was born...many years ago, and this is the best meal I have had since then. Cheers to the new management. I wish them great success. Mostly because I want to come back the next time I'm traveling through. (I am so selfish) Eat here!! :) read more

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Waited almost an hour an a half for our food.All the people that ordered after us were served first.Will not be coming back !!!

Great atmosphere and wirh the newly added patio and back bar room can't go wrong meeting up with friends, family or work meetings. Keep in mind it's not a quiet place (which is fine by me). . . food is good with lots of options. Standard setup, sandwiches, burgers, appetizers or entrees. Steak was great, french dip amazing, must try the lamb kabobs for sure. read more

Thursday night steak night was a great deal for $13.95. Dinner came with NY steak, pasta, soup, salad, bread, and fries. read more

Pyrenees Cafe - NY Steak, pasta, fries, soup, salad, bread, and salsa for $13.95 on Thursday nights. - Basque Near Me - Bakersfield, California

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Don't order the mayonnaise shrimp cocktail. Don't order the slimy half bacon wrapped chewy shrimp stuffed jalapeno poppers. Don't order the soggy almost fried zucchini. Don't go with a large group of people in general. As amazing as the serving staff is, 30 min between drinks is a little much. Alan and Jen we're the best part by a light year! read more

One of my favorite dishes here. Great food. Come with a big appetite. One of my favorite spots for Basque food. Mclove it! read more

Pyrenees Cafe - Garlic fried chicken - Basque Near Me - Bakersfield, California

Stopped in Bakersfield to visit my cousin. The Pyrenees is one of her favorites. Everyone enjoyed their dishes. My sister and cousin shared a dinner set-up. We all enjoyed the tongue served with the set up. I really enjoyed my burger. read more

Pyrnees cafe is IMO the best basque type food you can get in town - some lean to woolgrowers. Me, the atmosphere and the friendliness of the staff and owner make all of the difference. I called during coronavirus to see if they were doing takeout - and they're not, unfortunately, but it was the owner who answered the phone and despite probably having to answer that same question 1000x a day he took the time to explain and let me know when the estimate to be back to curbside service would be. As an owner of a company i know how painstaking that can be. Takes passion for your business. Thank you Pyrnees! Can't wait till you're back at it! read more

We were a group of 24 people for a Thanksgiving Eve family dinner. The restaurant has 10 family style tables. We were there at 6:00 PM and our waitress was very accommodating with menus and drink orders. By 7:00, the place started filling up with younger groups of people. By 7:30 we couldn't hear the person next to us talk. We had smaller children to elderly people in our group. This place is located in a seedy part of town. Our Uber driver seemed shocked to hear where we wanted to go. Homeless people and bikers hanging out around the building. The bar when we left had security guys letting people in from a line outside. There is no exit from the restaurant section with the only exit through the bar. It was double capacity at the least and wall to bar crowded and would have been impossible to exit from the restaurant in an emergency. I ordered my dinner 3rd out of 24 diners and got my food last. It was supposed to be scampi in cream sauce. The sauce was watery and didn't even begin to cling to the pasta. The shrimp was good, but again plain with no sauce. By the time we got our food, the waitress was nonexistent most of the time. I thought I would have dessert since my dinner was marginal but was never given the chance to order it. My dinner consisted of the Basque set up menu shared with 4 people. My husband had a lamb shank and it had spaghetti sauce on it instead of barbecue sauce. He didn't enjoy it either. The hamburgers and sandwiches ordered by others looked amazing. If you are 21 to 35ish you may like this place. We won't be back, ever. read more

This place is an oasis in a pandemic desert. The patio dining here works well without fearing for your health. Great service and great food as usual. Personal favorite for solo lunch: the half size Pyraneeian (sic) salad. Everything in it is delicious. read more

This is a staple in Bakersfield.. the food is excellent.. they have live music on occasions.. with a patio courtyard and pretty well shaded throughout.. with misters and fans.. that are a must in the Baketsfield summer. I've tried probably two thirds of the menu and have enjoyed it across the board.. great flavor! You will leave with a full belly no matter what you order. Reasonable drink prices, full bar and historic yet clean building.. renovated but kept it's traditional feel. Friendly bartenders, and good atmosphere with great food.. only issue you might face is finding seating so reservations are a good idea if you have a party greater than four. read more

Over priced and the Food is trash. Service is awful. I had a whole story about why I feel this way but to be honest this place isn't worth it. Bottom line in my opinion, If you want to go to the "bar" I'm sure it great. If you want to eat, go somewhere else. This place just isn't worth your time. read more

I can't say enough good things about Pyrenees it's my go to morning destination after working on the railroad all night. Reyna always makes me laugh with her uncommon unique outgoing charming personality. Thank you Pyrenees Cafe! read more

Pyrenees Cafe - at Pyrenees! - Basque Near Me - Bakersfield, California

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Let me start with the positives. The food is great- that's why we go here. But that's about it. On this most recent visit the annoyances far outweighed any positives. We most certainly will not be back. It's always bugged me that any restaurant adds a mandatory gratuity (a contradiction in terms) of 20% for parties of 8 or more and won't split the check. The clear message here is that they would rather inconvenience the customer than make an employee actually do a little extra to actually accommodate the customer and still demand a full tip. For those not familiar with Basque restaurants, the "setup" is served "family style" and you can order entrees in addition if you desire. The setup has always been endless but on this visit we were informed that they don't do refills. So my wife and I paid almost $50 for soup, salad, pasta, fries and bread- these were small servings as the items were not refilled and we had to share the items with the rest of our party. We drank water, which we refilled from pitchers on the table (convenient), as the sodas were almost $4 each (add tax and tip and you're spending almost $5 per soda). Our service was fine, but not outstanding. The waitress had to be reminded about a refill and didn't share that they were out of green beans (part of the setup) until asked. So apparently they will still charge for the full setup even when they DON'T HAVE the full setup. She did bring out some substitute vegetables when we mentioned the lack of green beans, but after we had finished the meal. When the bill came, we discovered that they charged 3.99% extra for paying with a credit card (this was posted on the inside of the exit door so we did see it when we left). On our bill, this was a whopping $17. Who carries hundreds of dollars in cash with them? Virtually any party with more than 3 people will get into triple digits here. They obviously know this and exploit it. Oh, and we were charged full price for an extra setup because one of the kids in our party ordered a burger entree and still had some soup (apparently the "setup" was not included in that order). Although they did refund that later, why not an option to add the setup for a small fee? Overall, the experience left us all upset with the nickel and diming in addition the already rather high prices. And really, Pyrenees, you can't be bothered to split a check for 10 people (it would've been 3 checks) when you're charging a $60 tip! The food was great, but we left feeling like we'd just been taken advantage of. read more

Food was terrible. I haveppointd had Basque food and this doesn't reflect authentic Basque food. Very disappointed

This place is great!!! Is a bar/restaurant that should make Baketsfield proud. The basque food was true to form. Seasoned but not over powering. What was the power was the freshness and balance. This place has to be seen and tasted to appreciate Bakersfield. Dine with Patsy Clien and Gorge Jones in the background. Moon river is playing as I write this. Bon appétit read more

It's hard to give bad reviews, and even harder to do so for a community legend, but our visit warranted it. We arrived at 10:30 for a breakfast to a roughly half full restaurant. Our drink order was taken promptly and we waited for the rest of our party to arrive. Those in our party that ordered bloody marys remarked that the drinks were good, though those with coffee weren't impressed- it was a pretty basic, bland coffee. Still, nothing major. Upon placing our orders we waited close to 40 minutes for our food. I can handle long wait times for food if restaurants either warn of the wait, or it's an establishment that I'd expect to take longer to prepare the food. Basic breakfast egg options don't fit that bill. During our wait, our drinks were rarely refilled. We were told our food was almost ready, but after 10 more minutes we figured that wasn't the case. When our food arrived, it was an incredible letdown. All around the table the eggs were dry, as well as the breakfast steaks and, perhaps the biggest letdown, the pork in the chile verde. My chile verde burrito would be passable with hot sauce, so I poured on some Cholula from the bottle at the table. With the first bite with the sauce, I realized it was off. Others at the table agreed, and we came up with the same description independently of each other: dirty dishwater. Fortunately I'd only put it on half my food, but the remaining half was dry and rubbery, so I left it on my plate and walked away having paid $14 for a small side portion of hash browns. Overall, only one person was satisfied with their food out of 6, with the rest of us disappointed we waited so long for food that was dry, rubbery, and flavorless. The biscuits and gravy had sat so long it had developed a skin and dried out. When our plates were cleared, we admitted to our server we were unimpressed. There were no apologies (even when I pointed out half my burrito was ruined by the clearly contaminated hot sauce) for the quality, the wait, or lack of attention to refills. Even worse, when I got my bill I discovered they charge $3.50 per cup of black coffee. That's an outrageous price and simply added insult to injury. A major letdown for a well known establishment, but proof that something once good doesn't guarantee always good. Skip this place for breakfast and head somewhere else where the service is better and food edible. read more

I'm a little reluctant to tell everyone about how great the food and service is, because I don't want to ace myself out of being able to get my favorite table, because they're so busy! This place is amazing!! The food, service and camaraderie of the "regulars" makes this a must go to place. I've NEVER had a bad meal here, and I eat here several times a week. Don't go here thinking it's going to be all fancy like Applebee's....this is down home cooking that will warm your heart and soul. If you're really lucky and listen when you walk past the kitchen on your way into the restaurant, you just may hear the cooks singing and whistling!! If you want a true Bakersfield experience, this is it!! read more

Definitely qualifies as a hidden gem. First it's located in the industrial part of town in the old St. Francis Hotel across from the railroad tracks. If you think you're in the wrong part of town you're probably nearby. It's a Basque restaurant And we had two of their specialties Coquille St Jacques, and rack of lamb Most restaurants serving rack of lamb usually offer three or four chops on the rack. This restaurant served eight chops - the entire rack. We have leftovers to take home. Interesting assortment of side dishes. They'll bring you the entire range of side dishes, or you can order an American style with just two sides. We are taking home the delicious homemade salsa, the baked beans, the leftover bread's, and the leftover green beans. The parking lot behind the hotel enclosed in wrought iron belongs to the restaurant Go through the moderately noisy bar out front, the restaurant with large tables is separate and further back. read more

Best Restaurant in town. Best Basque. Best staff. Best management. Best food! Best drinks! We love you!

Service was great, food was fair, not some place that I would make extra effort to get to. I had the garlic fried chicken. It was garlicky for sure. We did go very late and maybe that was part of the problem. I will give it another chance read more

I have been to the cafe many times over the past several years. Today, by far, was the worse service I have experienced. We sat at the bar for a good 15 minutes and NEVER got waited on. The bartender acknowledged us at some point but never asked us if we wanted anything. We even moved down the bar closer to others , who were being served, in hopes of getting served. We finally left. read more

I planed my bosses retirement party here about a month ago, for tonight. I have to say Julie and her crew are awesome, 64 plus people and food was brought out in time and fast, along side their normal business crowd, and did I not say hot and delicious. Thursday steak night is a must have with the setup you can not go wrong. Highly recommend I can't wait for a return trip to this Old Kern restaurant. read more

I asked for a water with no ice, when she poured the water in my cup she held the ice back with her hand. Water poured through her fingers into my cup.... Ya never going back. read more

Went here for the first time on Saturday night. My husband isn't from here and we wanted a date night somewhere local. Dinner was great, but even better was our service from Christopher! He was crazy busy ( we were there around 8pm ) and didn't fail to communicate with us or touch in when possible. His personality made the whole dinner even better! Food was outstanding and the "set up" was awesome. We usually go to another basque restaurant in town but found a new option! Thank you Christopher for exceedingly going above and beyond. read more

Food is good. The short female brown hair bartender was taking shots with customers and getting hammered. She was working drunk and messed up the bill charged other people for our drinks and became loud and defensive when the bill was questioned. Not cool business at ALL!!! read more

The cabbage soup was very good, but that was probably the only thing they perfected. Who can enjoy they're food when you're surrounded by proud gun enthusiasts clanking they're beer mugs and singing praises to their racists trump. Sitting in a room full of red hats and white privilege surely sours the tastebuds. read more

Pyrenees Cafe - Menu - Basque Near Me - Bakersfield, California

So came down from the Bay Area for the Bakersfield picnic. Stumbled upon the Pyrenees Cafe. Wow, lucky us, Friday nights they serve clam chowder. Hands down the best clam chowder we have ever had anywhere. My friend had the garlic fried chicken and I ordered the Coquille Saint Jacques both dishes were really delicious as well. But let's not forget all of the other food that comes with the set up, salad. Fries, cottage cheese , pickled tongue, (which I really enjoyed). Pasta , green beans bread...... April our server was super sweet. The other server was very nice as well. Love that. We will definitely come back. I recommend that you try it too. read more

My husband and I have enjoyed breakfast here. My husband loved the chicken fried steak. I usually get something off the specials board. We came in this morning. It was one the most awful breakfast we have ever had! My husband ordered the chicken fried steak, I ordered the ham and sausage with eggs. The chicken fried steak was a pre formed patty, the gravy tasted like it come from a package. ( in the past it had hunks of meat and very good) my ham was very tough, sausage was way over cooked. I ordered a pancake it was tasteless. The cowboy potatoes were decent. We like to support local businesses. This one was a fail! We only go out to eat once a week, this was a waste of money read more

I like to think of myself as a redneck connoisseur. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy culinary experiences from every corner of North America. I had two of the best iterations of classic dish's I've experienced during my very first visit to this establishment. The French onion soup from here is now my favorite soup. I also had a ribeye steak while there, it was among the worst cuts of ribeye I've ever had, little too chewy for my taste, but it was prepared so perfectly that I don't mind at all. The flavor, despite the poor cut quality, was the best I've ever had. The whiskey battered onion rings were the best onion rings I've ever had, the portions were large to the extreme! I ate about 60% of what I ordered. The drinks were almost entirely liquor with a hint of coke. Very generous pours. Service was the best I've ever had on the west coast. I went in dressed like a grease monkey after a 10 hour workday and they welcomed me like I was family. 10/10 despite the poor steak cut. Everything else made up for it. This is far and away my new favorite place to eat and drink out west. read more

Great place for food! Variety of mixed drinks to choose from. Great place to have a party. Separate dining area makes it great to have a gathering or party. Service is really good and they are always helpful explaining the menu. Everything on the menu is more than acceptable. So hard to choose from so many dishes, plates or items. Go there, you will no regret it! read more

Service sucks, Natalie as our waitress, gave us menu's and we waited 25 minutes before leaving. Waived her down and still didn't get service. Will continue to go to Benji's & Woolgrowers, no attitudes there! read more

Went here the other night for a birthday dinner and wanted to write a review because the food was so good. I got the Basque set up which I knew would be plenty of food. The soup was some of the best I have ever had. With the salsa, beans and bread just delicious. My husband ordered a steak and it was cooked to perfection and so nicely seasoned. Everyone said their choices were great too. After dinner we checked out the great patio out back and we will be going back next time to enjoy that as well. read more

This is second Basque place I have tried in the area. It has the famous set up, with soup, bread, salsa, plate of beans, French fries etc. What is different is that they have Basque set up and American set up, which are slightly different because of the onion rings. Then there is lunch and dinner menu, and the choices are amazing- from meat to halibut fish! Not to mention the bar with full menu there. The decor is no frills with communal tables and black and while historical pictures on the walls. The set up did not have tomato salad compared to Wool Growers. Their salsa on the spicy side, but delicious. However, the food was as good and a huge plus is that there are much fewer people and no wait during the weekday lunch hour. The service was welcoming and attentive. Recommend and would return if back on the area for sure! read more

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It is a staple of Bakersfield. The best Basque food any where. The service is fantastic and the restaurant ambiance has not changed in over 50 years. read more

If I was rating it as simply a dive bar (establishments which I truly love) I would have given all the stars. It's got the goods - strong drinks, a juke box, a well stocked bar, the rail, the local community. Settling in just to drink up is the gold mine here in my opinion. My local cohort had never been here before either, so it was a stab in the dark for us both. The food was just A-ok. It was my first time having a Bakersfield Basque themed set up and for months, I'd been looking forward to it. It was truly impressive on the menu - whatever dish you order comes with a plethora of sides and starters come along with it. You get a soup, which for me, was the star player. To which you add salsa and beans and slurp down - then a really basic salad, plus a side of bread. The bread was nice, but again, basic. The pickled tongue, a basque staple, was nicely done, but not something I'd be into normally. I found the pickled cucumbers to be really tasty tho. Next a spaghetti with sauce and veggies come along with my main dish, simple fried shrimp. The shrimps were good sized and quality, but fried and that's hard to screw up. The noodles and veggies were not my cup of tea. I took a bite but didn't finish either. Quantity wise? I can totally see why people are obsessed with the concept. Quality wise, the dish were half good and half not for me. My other issue was price - again a ton of food, but I didn't feel it was a quality value at over 30$ per person after tax for dinner. Service was stellar - I'm planning to go back for drinks next time I'm in town for sure. read more

I can only say one positive thing... it was a night I'll never forget!! Absolute worst customer service I've ever witnessed. We were asked how everything was and we gave our feedback.. unfortunately it wasn't the feedback the new owner wanted so she turned into a totally horrible person (I'll leave bad names out) most managers and owners want to try to make things right, or empathize and a simple "Thank you for your feedback" would have been perfect, then learn from it... oh no not this witch. She decided to get super defensive and decided to add insult to injury by charging us $20 for a couple extra plates of pickled tongue..., THEN threatened to take us to small claims court if we didn't pay it. No I'm not joking, she really said that. Forget this place, go to Wool growers !! read more

The food would be perfect if was not all on one plate during the entree course. Watered down French fries are not appetizing at all. Get it together Pyrenees. read more

Pyrenees Cafe - Please Please Please stop throwing the dinners into one heaping watery mess!! Thumbs down Pyrenees. This should not be an option. - Basque Near Me - Bakersfield, California

My wife and I decided to try this restaurant because it got a good review on DDD. We arrived for dinner at 6:00 pm on a Saturday night. After we found the entrance we entered into an extremely loud bar with rap music so Loud we couldn't hear each other talk. After a few minutes we were approached by a person who asked if we were there for dinner. We were directed to a large dinning room that was void of people. We should have known better at that point and left. We decided to stay and give it a try. My wife ordered a steak sandwich that she couldn't eat because it was so tough. I ordered their signature dish (garlic chicken) with the full basque set up. A basket of sliced bread game that was stale. Vegetable soup was room temperature the salad arrived at the same time and it was ok. The pickled tongue tasted bad and mushy. The small did of pasta with meat sauce, green beans with tomato sauce and French fries. Everything but the French fries were room temperature and was ineatable. The chicken was delivered before I could finish my salad. I asked the waiter to ask the chef to make sure the chicken wasn't dry. When I took my first bite I knew I could not finish because it was so dry plus the garlic tasted like it came from a jar. When we got our check we let them know how disappointed we were since we were really looking forward to this meal. They did adjust the bill by 25%. read more

The vibe of having a drink with great friends . The servers, waitress, and bartender have a great presence . This was my second visit and ate chicken and waffles I didn't have to struggle getting service and refills on my drinks. I am definitely coming back to check out the live music and have some more drinks. read more

Pyrenees Cafe - Basque Near Me - Bakersfield, California