Chalet Basque Restaurant

Great basque restaurant. You get soup with salad and pickled tongue. The main dishes are huge.

Amazing! The best Basque food I’ve ever had! My favorite waitress is Rosa, she’s always super friendly and happy. I always look forward to eating here on birthdays because they can always host big parties. My favorite is the set up since I’m vegan but the other food looks awesome. My friends love going.

This is a very odd restaurant. I am still shaken up by the experience. First of all, I don’t like Basque food. My party does. I was just along for the ride and trying new things. Honestly, the food portion wasn’t that bad. It was a family style situation so they served the table and you serve yourself from there. The spot we sat in had a view of the bar, so that was interesting. The characters that hit up that bar were very… full of character. It was kind of an odd place to sit because when I went to to bathroom I realized there is a whole restaurant in there that we weren’t really apart of. Anyways, the food was OK. Nothing super memorable to me, but not bad either. I’m more thrown off by all the weird vibes this place gives off. It’s also strange because I drive by it often and the parking lot is often not very full and they seem to close early… with a full bar? It just seems odd. I honestly won’t be back because of the hard to describe weird vibes and the world’s okayest food.

Wow where is the waiter. Lousy service and ok food. Could be much better. Tough to get drink refills. Not a strong setup like at other Basque restaurants but priced the same. Nice décor though.
The setup is ok and the entrees ok but this place is riding the coat tails of its betters such as Noriega’s and Wool Growers. It explains why reservations are available on a Saturday night but not at the others.

Busy night but celebrating my birthday with those I love. Was disappointed that my escargot was over baked. Had to send it back. Owner gave me a really nice birthday gift though.

I have been here once before but it was quite awhile back so I wanted to go in with very little bias and I am glad that I did. It is a very nice atmosphere inside, pretty quiet with instrumental music playing in the background. For what you pay per meal you really do get a LOT of food here, a 3 course meal in reality. They start off with soup, beans, salsa and bread. The salsa has a bite to it for sure and the soup and beans together taste absolutely wonderful! The bread is a french type of bread, pretty soft, I would have preferred sourdough, but eh, it was still good. Next you get cow tongue (what Basque restaurant’s are famous for!) and a nice salad. After that your main course comes out with french fries, green beans and whatever it was that you ordered for your main entrée. I ordered the chicken a la basquaise which was delicious and all white meat chicken breast. I will definitely be visiting sooner rather than later for sure!

I’ll give these guys two stars ONLY because I like their bar. Bartender is usually pretty cool and usually plies on the free drinks until I’m staggering home.
The Asian lady that either owns or runs the place (or both) is so unbelievably rude I don’t know how no one has punched her in the face yet. She practically yells at you to sit down and plops menus down at you. Terrible, tasteless, previously frozen food. This isn’t Basque food. I’ll go to Woolgrower’s.

Wonderful service, great food including interesting hors d’oeuvres, cabbage soup and ordered the T-​bone steak special, huge portion! Only thing wish they had more champagne & sparkling wine selection.

This was my first experience at a Basque restaurant in Bakersfield, supposedly what this city is famous for (food-​wise). Bakersfield’s claim to fame, just in general, might be «largest meth importers».
Depressing Bakersfield drug cracks aside, I was truly disappointed in my experience here. We came around 6pm on a Sunday, and the host (who also became our server) seemed like he knew nothing about food while also somehow not exhibiting any sort of interpersonal skills. It was completely embarrassing and uncomfortable every time he visited the table. I was trying so hard to make him feel comfortable, because I don’t know what kind of day he had or if he was new. But even at simple questions he balked, and even told me he didn’t want to ask the kitchen about a certain dish because he «hated doing that». Whaaaaat??? Hoo boy.
And the food… ugh. Frozen to microwave to my plate vegetables. Sad tasteless soup that I’m supposed to spoon jarred mild salsa into? I don’t think this is what the fine Basque people had in mind when they were honing their culinary skills. My lamb chops were fine, dumped in-​artfully onto an empty white diner plate. The bread on the table was processed white wonder bread stuff. I just gave up expecting a nice experience after a while and focused on spending time with my family. Oh well. I gave it a try. The elderly folk of this town obviously find value in this place, as they were in and out the entire time.

Horrible service!!! This place has gone way down hill. So sad that most of the iconic restaurants are losing great long-​term customers because of hiring impatient wait staff and are just plain rude! Will «Never» go again!

So sad… I’ve gone to chalet for years as dine in customer… not because food necessarily… it’s good but so is most basque in Bakersfield… but I won’t go back again after tonight… on this great rainy day I was looking forward to basque soup… call up after long day at work for an order… place it… arrive to the atmosphere that draws me there. .quiet and still. Get my order… drive off to realize no beans or salsa… went back to ask for some… to be told sorry not included!70+ dollars later for well under what I would have eaten as dine in with 3… and long years going… yes, recognized and greeted with where have you been… no excuses, no apologies… no explanation on the phone when I ordered… just not included? Aren’t they both a part of the soup? Guess not… this is first Unilocal I’ve ever took time out my busy life to write. That disapointed.

We went there today. Figured it would be busy like the other nearby restaurants since we’d be competing with the church crowd. This was our first visit since the ownership change. The place was more than half empty. That was a clue. I ordered New York steak with peppercorn sauce. The peppercorn sauce was watered down and had very few peppercorns. The New York steak was very grizzily. Totally horrible piece of meat. This was a S26 meal. I took a couple bites and stopped. I informed the waiter who was quite nice. I left behind Ober 90% of this meal. The new owner discounted my meal from $ 26 to $ 20. What a joke. There are too many good Basque restaurants in town to have to put up with this low quality food.

We stopped in for a quick lunch on our way to an appointment. I haven’t been to Chalet in years (I’m usually a Woolgrowers or Benjis girl); however it was in the area and I needed my French basque fix while in CA.
It was not busy and we were sat in the bar at a booth. However, I do not feel that they had sufficient staff to cover the amount of people they were serving. Our server did a good job but he was busy. We ordered the lunch set up and my mom ordered Fried Shrimp. The lunch set up food was pretty good for $ 8.95 but not in comparison to some of the other basque restaurants. The shrimp however, was not worth the $ 11.95 they charge for 5 pieces. They also charged an additional $ 4 to have soup with it. I was bummed that it wasn’t quite as good as I had remembered it being; although I did hear that it has changed ownership in recent years.

I never give bad reviews but this place isn’t worthy of a great review. I used to love this place until it started being ran different years ago. I can say that I have a lot of great memories from the bar scene I used to frequent so it has a little place in my heart still!

Chalet has the best Pickled Tongue and Rack of Lamb in Bakersfield California. We are always seated promptly and the staff is very friendly. It is a quiet setting and a very nice place to sit down and have a nice dinner.

The food was good however the service was lacking. When we did get service one of the waiters was professional and courteous but difficult to find. The other said NOTHING unless prodded and seemed to be disgruntled having to service the others tables. Getting refills on water was difficult to say the least.

The «set up» is great! The soup, the beans, the salad with tomatoes, the bread, the fries… what else… OH yes, MY FAVORITE… the pickled tongue. We had the garlic fried chicken… delicious; and the rack of lamb (medium rare)…Awesome!
Our server was awesome and very knowledgeable about the menu. To finish off the meal we ordered the butterfinger pie… the BEST! Can’t wait to go back…

George and Lisa are the best! George makes the BEST sweet tart. No one else in Bako knows how to make it! They always treat us like family there ! Love this place. Rosa is the best waitress.

My family has been frequenting the Chalet for years, and they never fail to impress. George and Manny take great care of us at the bar, and the service at the table is very prompt, at tentative, and courteous. When we eat there it’s like we are visiting with friends.
The menu is pretty much standard basque. But we have our favorites that we tend to get every trip. The set up with the Pork Chops a la Crème is bliss. The steak is always excellent.
Service is top notch. The only time you make have a wait is if they are busy, but most times even the wait staff is on top of it. The pricing for the food is pretty middle of the road. Most meals with the set up and and entrée run like $ 15-​$ 25. Cheaper than Woolgrowers, and better in my opinion.
We had my wife’s birthday there last night and it was a blast. Give Chalet Basque a try.

The atmosphere was comfortable. The service was prompt and friendly.
The meals are family style. Soup, bread, beans, a warm salsa, salad, pickled tongue, marinated tomatoes, French fries and green beans are brought to the table to share amongst your party.
My daughter had the fried chicken and said it was cooked perfectly and she really liked the seasoning.
I had the special filet mignon. It comes with a brandy and raspberry sauce. It was cooked perfectly, I asked for medium. I loved the pairing of the raspberries (whole raspberries were on the plate) and the steak.
My husband ordered the roast beef. He was underwhelmed. He found it to be bland with an overwhelming flavor of onion. That was a miss.
Overall an enjoyable meal and a great server, just wish my husband would have liked his entrée a bit better.