Benji's French Basque Restaurant — Restaurant in California

Absolutely horrible in every way. We have been to basque restaurants for decades, and this was the worst one by far. Me and my family went here today for Mother’s Day, and we are throughly dissatisfied and disappointed. For starters, the place where you dine in is incredibly boring, bland, and dirty. Our seats were covered in trash and sauce from a previous party that we had to clean ourselves. For a basque restaurant, I expected more decorations that fit the basque theme, however there was only a few paintings on dirty walls in a dark room. Our service was one of the worst we have ever experienced here in Bakersfield. Our server was this old lady who seemed as if she was put up against a timer to get everyone’s orders. She would essentially yell at us passive aggressively the way in which the restaurant is strictly ran (she had to take our orders in a specific order, for example), and she did not take our orders correctly the first time. The policies of this restaurant are also disappointing. Everything was very overpriced, and you were unable to get a refill on even basic drinks without them charging more (which was not stated on the menu). We were also informed that the would get infinite soup and salad “family style”, however when we asked for more soup, our sever said that they not only would charge extra by the quart, but that we also would not be able to take any extra home as left overs. The worst part of this by far would be the food. We were charged nearly 30 dollars for each meal we got, which didn’t even come with the infinite soup and salad as stated before. Every bit of food was bland and flavorless. The fried chicken tasted frozen, rubbery, and had no meat on it and did not come with so much as a dipping sauce to add flavor. The beef raviolis tasted like the water they were boiled in. The beef had no seasoning whatsoever, the sauce had the consistency of water and was flavorless, and the cheese on top tasted spoiled and overpowered everything. The pasta itself was also over cooked. The shrimp was undercooked and rubbery, did not taste fresh at all, and the sauce it came with tasted like straight milk and water. The lamb was thin and rubbery, and tasted as if I was chewing on a rubber boot. The only redeeming food was the steak, but even so, they left so much fat on the steak and charged so much for it that it was hardly worth it. The salad and tomatoes were also alright, but they were so scarce that it couldn’t even be shared amongst everyone. The corn tasted straight from the can, the spaghetti was sweet, overcooked, and covered with more watery sauce, and the bread was chewy, cold, and disappointing. The salsa provided had no spice to it, and tasted like tomato sauce For all of this, we spent over 270 dollars. Would not recommend...

First off, the "delicious french bread" is some stale nonsense loaf you get at Safeway. Dense, cold, crumbling away like dead leaves. I don't know how some yelp elites loved that bread.

Oh no wait, let's start with the fact that there's a minimum charge per person! Like a New York comedy club, but the only thing funny is how much you are paying for bad food. $14.75 per person, so everyone has to order the "set up". That means you can't just walk in to eat their much-vaunted soufflé, which is what my wife and I wanted to do.

So we order one entrée (which includes this set up) and two soufflés (because you have to order a minimum of two soufflés of the same flavour!). We get crapbread with butter, a dog bowl of cabbages and hints of other vegetables in water (soup), baked beans out of a can, a pretty nice hot salsa, wilted greens, a half decent pickled beef tongue smothered in generic Italian salad dressing, sliced tomatoes in generic Italian salad dressing, a tiny fillet of orange roughy that's clearly not very fresh drowned in some orange yogurt sauce, overfried fries, and some other stuff we didn't bother to try.

Finally. The soufflés were brought to the table, ripped open, and a "chocolate sauce" was poured into them until everything was a mishmash of brown. Pretty nice, but far from great.

Oh and the plate at the bottom of your soup bowl is your entrée plate. Wet from the heat of the soup. When we asked for dry plates, our waitress took them in, dried them, and came back out saying there were no more...

We had dinner at Benji's after a long stint in an Arizona food desert. We saw mixed reviews, and I'll just say the negative reviews reflect the diner's lack of experience with this cuisine.

Everything was perfectly prepared and fresh. Service by Kenji was spot on, and he was a delight. The ambiance was cozy and comfortable. We did opt for a wine we had with us over the wine list offerings. $17 corkage was fine.

We started with the traditional picon punch. Cabbage soup was so comforting and nourishing, we ate it all. Salad was perfectly dressed with a light creamy vinaigrette that also graced the tongue that was thinly sliced and tender. Beans, marinated tomato, and warm salsa accompanied the salad to mix and match at your discretion. Do put beans over your salad for the traditional experience.

The roasted lamb was good, and veal medallions were excellent. Accompanied by perfectly stewed green beans, the entrees were nicely sized, not wastefully huge.

And the Grand Marniere souffle... I have no words for this light, decadent fluff with plenty of creme anglaise.

Don't let the tourons deter you. If you're looking for a delicious, comforting family-style meal in the true French Basque style, you'll...