Benji's French Basque - Benton Park

2 stars for the odd tasting water and the rubber scampi.

Benjis has always been a great place to eat however, recently they have amazed me with the size of some of their portions. For nearly $10 this is the size of cheesecake I received. Very disappointed.

Great food and friendly staff. The tongue is a little different than other basque restaurants, and I love it.

Bakersfield has a large Basque population and Benji’s is one of my favorite local Basque restaurants. I’ve enjoyed the family style dinner here for many years and it’s always delicious. Lamb is a mainstay of Basque cuisine in the U.S. and I judge Basque restaurants by their lamb chops. And here they are excellent—tender, good cuts and smothered with garlic (if you request). The side dishes, which precede the main course, are awesome. Vegetable soup with beans on the side, salad, green beans and fresh cut french fries. A Basque specialty—thinly sliced beef tongue in a savory vinaigrette sauce—is also a side if requested. (It’s actually very good). You won’t go wrong eating at this family owned restaurant. Vegetarian options: Go with the side dish setup and it will be all vegetarian with bean protein

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 sauceFor all of this, we spent over 270 dollars. Would not recommend ever to anyone.