Bakersfield Mass Ave — Restaurant in Indianapolis

I’ve been here multiple times in the first few years it opened. It used to be my go to place downtown. But my sister and I came here for Cinco de Mayo before attending Hamilton and our service was HORRIBLE at the bar. And our bartender didn’t seem at all busy, while we watched him quite closely for over an hour trying desperately to get his attention. It took over 40 minutes to get our appetizers and we were never once checked on after they were delivered to see if we wanted more food. No plates. No napkins. No water. For 1.5 hours. I gave up on ordering tacos. I tried that entire time to make eye contact/flag down the bartender, to no avail. If you’re over the age of 28, this is probably NOT the place for you. I never thought I’d already be experiencing ageism in my 30’s, but we were virtually INVISIBLE, no matter what we did. Thank God, we had a 2.5+ hour time window to work with. I used to LOVE this place! And now I don’t care to ever go back. All thanks to one horrific bartender. Good food (though in our 2.5 hours at the bar we were never given the opportunity to order entrees) drinks were mediocre at best (though the margaritas the other bartender was making looked really good, ours were very pale yellow, and VERY heavy on the sweet and sour) and absolutely terrible, TERRIBLE service!!! The service is really the only thing that stands out. Given that I could see what little our bartender was actually doing, I’d say it’s probably the worst service I’ve ever received. I understand being in the weeds. I used to be in the service industry and I’m extremely forgiving when it comes to mediocre service. This was WAY beyond that! I doubt I will ever go back. Which is sad, because I used to...

Bakersfield has always been a bit disappointing to me when I go there. My most recent trip for Cinco was the same. Mind you, I expected it to be busy and a bit crazy for the drinking holiday, but that still doesn’t excuse some of the issues we had.

We put our name in and were told it’d be an hour and a half wait (totally expected so I’m fine with that). We decided to grab drinks elsewhere while we waited. After 45 minutes we got a text that a table would be ready for us shortly and we confirmed through the text that we would be there. We then got a call from them to also confirm, which we answered and confirmed we were on our way over about 5-10 minutes away. Once we got there the host told us that they moved us to the back of the list because they texted us and called three times and we did not respond, which we clearly had from the text message we showed them and the phone call. They moved us back up and we were seated within the next 10 minutes from that point, so a good save on their part but annoying nonetheless.

We are seated downstairs and a waitress stops by rather quickly to take our drink order. We ordered the Pineapple Marg Pitcher (which was very good by the way). However, after about 10 minutes a different waitress came by and said she would be helping us now, and told us that our drinks were still on their way. After about another 30-40 minutes and only a couple more stops from our waitress, we finally got our pitcher. Overall it was a very long, slow, and otherwise forgettable experience for Cinco.

Also, I have always found Bakersfield to be overpriced for tiny, decent tacos and pretty good margs. I always leave feeling that I overpaid for what I got so I hardly go...

For the longest time, I was a loyal customer of Bakersfield - I've been to this restaurant more than 20 times in the last two years. My favorite part of the experience is always their amazing margaritas - specifically, the house and pineapple margaritas, both of which are fantastic. I also love their chips and salsa, with rojo and verde salsas that are full of amazing flavor.

When it comes to the tacos, I always go for the Huitlacoche, which is made with corn truffle, roasted poblano, corn, onion, cotija cheese, and cilantro. I also love the Hongos taco, which features portabello, poblano, bell pepper, buttermilk kale slaw, and cotija cheese. Both flavors are great and the overall flavor profile is memorable.

However, during my many visits, I've noticed that the quality of the food can vary from visit to visit. While there were times when the food quality was exceptional, there were other times when it felt like they were using ingredients that weren't fresh. On my last visit, my friend found an insect in their food. Although the restaurant apologized and took care of our bill, they claimed that the insect must have come from outside. However, the insect was found in the filling of the chicken bread/sandwich (can't recall the exact name of the dish), so it seems likely that it came from the kitchen.

Despite this incident, I still have great memories of Bakersfield. The servers are friendly and flexible, and the margaritas and tacos are fantastic. However, the inconsistency in food quality is a concern, and the insect incident has made me...