Bakersfield DET — Restaurant in Detroit

One of my favorite places to eat is Imperial in Ferndale. A buddy told me this place was better in terms of taste. So I felt I had to try this out. The tacos at both places are very similar. And because both taste delicious along with the overall atmoosphere of each of them, I rate them both 5 out of 5 stars. Technically, I'd give this one 4.8 out of 5, so Imperial I do feel edges this place out. Let me focus on why... I had 3 tacos: Fish, Arbol (Spicy) and Al Pastor. By far my favorite was the Arbol. It was very hot, tasted amazing and I loved it. The problem is, it's not always on the menu. And it's the only spicy taco they had. And essentially why Imperial, I think, is the overall winner. They make 3 of their own sauces, 2 of which are hot and it's why I go there often. The Al Pastor was delicious as well. It had a chili sauce that tasted pretty amazing and the little pineapple chunks sprinkled on were a good balance of different flavors. The fish taco was good but I did feel it could have used a little something more to add some flavor. But still worth getting. They serve a limited amount of cocktails, which is also why Imperial edges them out in my opinion. They have more. At Bakersfield I had a Cucumber Margarita - which is exactly what it sounds like, I was glad they added the cucs! In terms of the menu as a whole, I do think Bakersfield has more of a selection that I would like than Imperial does. Imperial sells hot dogs as well as tacos and apparently they are really good but I'm not a fan of hot dogs. Given Bakersfield also has ensaladas and tostadas I'd be much more willing to divert from just tacos. Service was excellent here. I really liked our server. She was easy to talk to and had no problem answering our questions. Due to a miscommunication which wasn't even her fault - ans was really mine - I got the wrong drink originally. She was more than willing to replace it and even took $1.00 off my bill. She did not need to do that and it was a very nice gesture. Pricewise, Bakersfield is a bit more expensive than Imperial as well. Right next door in the same building is the New Order Coffee Roasters too. It may not seem like fit, but I had no problem getting a delicious coffee from there and then jumping into some tacos and margarita's...

I used to love Bakersfield! I went almost every Tuesday for $3 shooters and tacos. It’s been a while since I’ve been and I do not like the new staff. I came here yesterday with a large bridal party after leaving Empire Cocktails & Kitchen for brunch. We ordered rounds of $5 tequila shooters (shots of the day) from a female bartender and paid the bill as the shooters came out. On round number 3 (this bill was paid for) we received an extra bill from a male bartender with a bowler styled hat. He wasn’t there when we got there. We questioned him about the bill and he was getting flustered, gave us attitude and no explanation. Because this was my best friends bridal outing, I decided to just pay the bill. I even left a tip to let him know, we don’t want any trouble… just a good time. We ordered one last round and paid that bill. People from our party started leaving out. I seen another friend and I offered her a shooter of Hennessy. When I asked the female bartender for the shooter, she told me that she was instructed to not serve me anymore. I convinced her to give it to me since it was for my friend. She did and I tipped her too. I was perplexed as to why I wasn’t able to order anything else. I never displayed signs of being drunk. We tipped. We paid our tabs. I was polite. I even paid a tab that wasn’t mine to keep the peace. I’m sure it was the male bartender with the bowler hat that told her not to serve me. Why? Because we questioned about the mysterious tab? It was paid and a tip was left. I am a bartender and I am also TIP certified. I know that you can cut customers drinks off at your own discretion if you feel they are drunk. I wasn’t even offered food or water if he felt as if I was too drunk to serve. I came in there on a full stomach from brunch next door. (Food slows down the process of alcohol getting into the blood) I also have been served more than 4 oz of liquor at Bakersfield and wasn’t cut off from drinking. The whole ordeal put a bad taste in my mouth. I’m never coming...

Very cool restaurant and loved the decor of the restaurant. The staff was friendly enough but seemed confused. We had a 5pm reservation but we arrived 10 minutes early. We still got seated right away which was nice.

Unfortunately, we didn’t receive our meals until 6:10pm. Someone did bring chips and guacamole with salsa early on. We didn’t order it but it was our first time dining here so we thought maybe it was included or something. Server didn’t say anything, just dropped it off. A few minutes later, someone else came to our table asking if we had an order of chips and salsa. We said we did not. Turns out the had the wrong table. Then, another person came over saying that they had brought the chips and guac to us incorrectly and it wasn’t meant for us. He did say it was now on the house so that was a pleasant surprise.

When our food finally arrived, they had forgotten my husbands meal so he had to wait a while for his to come. They were very confused about this too. My son and I finished most of our meals before his arrived. I ordered the full sized Johnny salad and paid extra to add roasted chicken to it. As you can see in my photo, there was hardly and chicken in it. Literally a few tiny pieces! I was shocked. I actually asked the server if that was all the chicken that came with the extra payment and she said yes. My son’s single taco had more meat on it and it was cheaper than the add-on!

The salad actually was very good but I certainly wouldn’t have paid an extra $5 for chicken to be added if I would have known it was only going to be MAYBE 1.5oz worth.

Not sure if we’ll actually return due to the major confusion with the servers (we had at least 5 different people that came to our table), the long waits multiple times, and the small protein portions. It was a pretty cool looking...