Shepherd’s Inn

We made reservations a month in advance for 10 people around noon. We were seated immediately. There were no other patrons in the restaurant at that time. Our waitress was an older lady who didn’t talk much, she wasn’t rude but she wasn’t hospitable either. We all ordered individual meals and a few of us shared the traditional basque side dishes. A few complained their pasta sauce was runny, the potato salad was bland… But we got our food fast and overall we enjoyed it. I don’t think we’ll be coming again though. It’s not a place where you crave their food. It was just a convenient restaurant to eat at before we attended an event in the area.

What is Basque food? I actually didn’t know the answer as I started writing this review. How uniformed of me, but hey a lot of people eat foods they’re unfamiliar with or don’t know the backstory behind. I’ll try and explain it as best I can and offer some helpful insight about this restaurant. I’ve eaten and enjoyed Basque food for many years, but the closest and simplest explanation my mind could come up with was a multi course buffet proceeding your primary entrée. At least that’s what comes to my mind based on my personal experiences with Basque food. I believe Fresno only has two Basque restaurants; this one and Santa Fe Basque, but don’t quote me on that. Here at Shepherd’s Inn they serve Basque and American cuisine. The food here, while restaurant quality, is reminiscent of a fond home cooked meal. It’s not super fancy by any means, but there’s something familiar and comforting about it. From what I’ve gathered from their menu, it’s considered American if you just order an entrée, but if you order your entrée Basque style then you’ll get a seven-​course meal with it (for only a few extra dollars). The menu says that the seven-​course meal includes: soup, green salad, potato salad, the side dish of the day, stew, and bread and butter. That’s only six if you include the bread. Every time I’ve eaten here they always give a scoop of ice cream or sherbet at the end so I assume that’s the seventh. I wouldn’t count bread as a course even if I do eat it like it is its own meal.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend getting Basque if you’re not that hungry or you don’t eat a lot in general since it would be a waste of food in my opinion. Although, I think they have a minimum amount of people needed in a party to be able to order Basque. I heard someone say the last time I was there that there needed to be 8 people that night, but if I were you I’d call ahead and ask before setting your sights on Basque. The different courses are served family style one at a time and definitely start stretching your stomach before your actual meal arrives. If you want more of any of the side dishes, just ask because they’ll give you more. The courses seem to fluctuate a bit every time I eat here. The bread, salad, and potato salad are always the same, but the others vary. I don’t eat red meat, so on my most recent visit I couldn’t eat the soup or the stew, which I was kind of bummed about. My aunt is allergic to shrimp, so they brought out a small side of pasta salad for her in lieu of the potato salad which was nice. I didn’t ask, but I doubt they’d have alternatives/​substitutions for the soup and stew since that just seems like too much extra work for them. There was still a lot for me to eat even without those two so I didn’t mind.
Although you can eat as much of the sides as you want, you CANNOT take any of the leftovers home with you. Seems like a waste of food, but I’m sure they have their reasons. They probably don’t want people ordering more only to take it home with them. You can of course take your main entrée home if you don’t finish it. The food here is decent to good. Like most places it probably depends on what you order and what your standards are. If anything, I’d say if you haven’t already, at least try it once since Basque is a unique dining experience in my opinion. On my last two visits I ordered the fried calamari which isn’t bad, but this last time I couldn’t help but compare it to Tahoe Joe’s and disappoint my tastebuds. Their garlic fried chicken is very popular and supposed to be really good.
I’ve read some confused reviewers not knowing where the entrance is. The restaurant is adjacent to a bar. The bar entrance is on the LEFT and the restaurant is on the RIGHT. They usually have a sign outside in front of the door. You can still access the restaurant from inside the bar since they’re adjoined. When you enter the restaurant, there’s an opening to the bar and a stairwell to the left and some double doors straight ahead. The restaurant is inside those double doors. They also tell you not to park in the 7-​Eleven parking lot next door unless you want to get towed so look for street parking out front which shouldn’t be terribly hard.

food was very good. ordered the cajun catfish. only got one fish. kinda expected two for the price. Landmark serves two for same price. but the fish was good. won’t knock the food. and my wife’s pasta was perfectly cooked.

I did not expect to have a great Basque Dinner and an excellent selection of bourbon! My hats off to Shepherd’s Inn! Great experience.
Side note — service was excellent — Courtney made the experience great!!!

Such a shady little restaurant with a bar attached to it…
I’m confused as soon as I got to the place. Didn’t know which door to enter, so me and my fellow companion just randomly picked. Guess what? We entered into a dark bar with 2 people drinking at the counter… Not trying to be rude, so we all ordered a beer before asking about the food. The woman bartender then told us we can just enter thru the door from the bar area… Cool, so we decided to finish the rest of our beer.
Just as we walked in thru the door, I was hit hard with the rustic look and smell of the place… Which really ain’t always a bad thing but it can also make my mind wonder about cleanliness. Anyways, there were 2 other parties there, which is a comforting sign lol. We ordered the lamb steak basque style with fried chicken and to my surprise is very well cooked and seasoned. Only awkward thing during our meal was that the workers in the kitchen seem to keep on staring at us thru the window on the doorway. And that to be honest made me wonder if they were aware of something with the food but didn’t want to mention it unless we brought it up lol.
So to sum it up, good food but a sketchy operation.

This place really wasn’t as good as I was hoping the food was very bland and did not taste of anything and although they had lots of dishes during the meal it was not really worth it because it did not taste very good. There’s no really rich food here it’s very plain I suggest for anyone to take their old grandma so that they can relax and feel nothing from this boring dull restaurant

This was probably my favorite basque restaurant in Fresno. I’ve tried others, but they don’t compare. The highlights were the fried chicken and oddly enough the macaroni salad.

I love LOVE this place for dinner, Basque style! Affordable, delicious food, and comfortable atmosphere. Always lots of food for me to take home.
I finally got to try their breakfast last weekend and it was the best breakfast I’ve had out in Fresno, in a long time. I’ve heard people get on the train to travel here for breakfast and I understand why. Lots of food as expected and wine at 9am
Will continue to rave about this place.

Great old school sharing tables and appetizer place. We had the garlic chicken, fried calamari steak and rib eye. Hands down the garlic chicken was the best followed by the unbelievably tender calamari steak. For the appetizers the green salad, beans and clam chowder was good

For lunch wife and I wanted Basque. I called before we went and asked if they served pickled tongue and beans. The person who answered the phone said yes. We went, ordered our meal and the pickled tongue and beans. The waitress said they only served the beans on Friday or Saturday night but wasn’t sure. She brought our food, it tasted good, not excellent. She then brings our pickled tongue, it was hot and looked like pulled pork. I have never had hot pickled tongue, very disappointing. She then brought macaroni salad, the menu said potato salad. My wife does not like macaroni salad. I asked the waitress why we got served macaroni instead of potato salad, She said they only serve potato salad at night. I said the lunch menu said potato salad. She said, yeah, they were going to change that. We were never offered a refill of bread.

My friends and I were having lunch at this place and as soon as the waitress brought us our lunches a cockroach decides to appear at our table. We called the waitress to inform her of the situation, the waitress than proceeded to trying to kill the cockroach with a plate at our table!!! We automatically decided to leave this place, if cockroaches are visible at the table can you imagine what the kitchen looks like? I DON’T RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE!!! NO STARS BUT I AM FORCED, to be able to post this!!!

A great home-​style place. An old sign out front apparently from the 1960s, long tables that are shared, an older and slightly run-​down atmosphere, a waitress who was in her 60s, and a long history made me happy before I even tasted the food.
I had the garlic fried chicken, Basque style, meaning with a ton of sides. The chicken was good, fried in an iron skillet and piping hot, with lots of chopped garlic on top of each piece. I enjoyed the sides of beans, pasta, and salad. Do not come here for cutting-​edge cooking, but for standards done well and maybe with a little something different, very much home-​style.
The service was fine (for context, we were here for lunch on the Friday before Labor Day, and it was not very busy).
I would like to come back for dinner when the long tables are full and the place is busy, I suspect that it is a great atmosphere.

The quality of the food definitely carries the weight of this 3 star. The food was cooked very well and was served in a very home cooked fashion. Everything else about this place weighs on the below average side of things.
My friends and I stopped here on the way up north to San Francisco. When we walked in, we walked in to a bar. We stood around for a couple minutes not knowing if we were in the right place. Turns out the restaraunt is right next door. But there are no clear signs indicating this.
The owner of the place seems to be very picky on how people order. We were not sure what basque was so we tried asking and the waitress couldn’t quite tell us in a way that any of us could understand. We wanted the basque vs the American option because it came with stew, but were then told that more than 1 person had to order basque for us to get the basque… it was extremely confusing. Honestly, when our food came, we had no idea what to expect because during the ordering process, we were given such a run around that we had almost no idea what was going on. The reason it was so confusing, said our waitress, was because the owner was concerned about saving money so he didn’t want just one person to be able to get a basque option for an entire table. I can understand this, just make this announcement before people order or have it somewhere on the menu so it us more clear to people passing by that want to check out the local cuisine.

One of the old time Fresno places. Bring your appetite if you are going to order basque. But this is a comfort food family style place. I have been coming to this location for 30 years and have always loved it. Don’t miss your chance to enjoy a truly family restaurant before corporate America takes over everything

Quite Random to be located here. But the bar is a great place to stop by for a drink before or after a train ride. Dim lighting atmosphere, and the building is quite nice! Bartender was nice with some great stories, and the other customers seemed to have some great stories as well. Excited to have a drink here again soon! Now I’m relaxed for this train venture

Shepherd’s Inn Basque Restaurant and Bar is directly across from the Fresno railroad station. Parking is on the street. My wife and I ate there the evening of May 17, 2015. Our server June was attentive, personable and helpful. The facility has separate entrances for the bar and the restaurant, but they are connected. The inside is rustic and features a long table down the center of the restaurant as well as several side tables with place settings for four. Besides us, at least 16 other diners were in various stages of eating and ordering.
The menu of course features Basque dishes, and you can order meals in either American or Basque style. American is just three courses and a few bucks cheaper. Basque-​style has seven courses: salad, soup, potato salad, vegetable, main entrée, French fries, and dessert (scoop of ice cream) as well as homemade bread. We asked June what were the best items to order Basque style, and she suggested either the garlic-​encrusted, deep-​fried chicken or the garlic pork chops. So my wife ordered the chicken, and I the pork chops. We also had wine.
You certainly won’t go home hungry if you dine at Shepherd’s. The food is good, if not gourmet quality. The chicken had a dark crust and was piping hot. My wife saved a couple of pieces for lunch the next day and decided that it tasted better cold. Despite the garlic, I found my pork chops bland. Nevertheless, we agreed that we enjoyed the meal overall, especially the house salad and soup (chicken noodle on the day we were there).
If we visit Fresno again, I wouldn’t mind eating at Shepherd’s Inn and checking out other items on the menu.

My Father used to take me to the Basque hotels for food when i was a kid. It’d been a long long time since id been through this part of town. We’d been out all day and it was time for lunch so we decided to drop in for a late meal. Bread, butter, beans, salad, beef barley soup, ny steak, roast leg of lamb, gravy mashed potatoes, fries… all humble comfort foods. Things my Dad used to love. Still the same after all these years. Not trendy, not changed in who knows how long. Just comforting and filling

Love the lamb and the potato salad with shrimp in it! Really good place I recommend for family dining

There are fewer Spanish-​Basque restaurants in the California central valley than there used to be. Back in the day, my paternal side and in-​tow would frequent the classic «Chalet Basque» (now defunct) and Woolgrower’s restaurants in Los Banos (yes, I’m vested) when we wanted authentic, and I mean AUTHENTIC basque, family-​style, Sunday sit-​down meals. Today, these types of old-​school, family-​style restaurants are dying. Wanna know why? Because we socialites no longer prioritize family gastronomy. Our society is teetering on timing, availability, and priorities. Guess what folks. Not into family dining? Sitting next to a total stranger, having authentic food similar to what was served to the ancestors of the friends you knew back in high school? Then you are missing the opportunity to thread your needle back into the fabric which has laid the foundation of our society. Melting pot? Check. Vino on the table to liberate the spirit? Check. Cuisine that facilitates the gathering of familial souls around a table to share the commonality we used to call family? Check. This, is family-​style consumption. This, is worldly, Spanish-​Basque-​style family feeding.
Here at Shepherd’s Inn, the old-​style attention to detail related to authentication has been muddled in the necessity for keeping a traditional family-​owned restaurant in business, and rightly-​so. The possibilities for this restaurant continuing to stay above water are commensurate with the desire for people to want to experience this type of dining, and the food served here. This is family-​style, sitting around the table eating at it’s most basic, that does no longer happen in the American home.
Want to know where this type of familial consumption still happens on a daily or weekly basis? It happens for three weeks in the Theresienwiese tents with true German spirit once a year during Oktoberfest in Munich. It happens in little hamlets in Great Britain on Sunday mornings to make special the time of those that fostered and fathered the families that carry the family flag. It happens in the eastern-​block countries every freaking night, where they don’t know what the phrase «hustle and bustle».
Want true Spanish-​Basque? Try the sweetbreads at Louis’ Basque Corner in Reno. Want it in the central valley of California? Go to Woolgrower’s Restaurant in Los Banos first. Or try The Shepherd’s Inn at the Fresno Amtrak Station. The former will get you nearer the source, later will get you nearer the experience. Regardless, either will transport you back to the age of familial dining. And, both bars can take care of whatever ails you.

Okay, it’s a fun and different place to take out of town guests, and sometimes in the past the food has been good. Even tonight, for example, the potato soup, the potato salad, the green salad and the pork stew were all tasty. And the Picon punch was extremely small, but also tasty.
But when you order a steak well done (yeah, I know it’s not a foodie thing to do, but that is how I like my steak), and it comes back completely raw and red, and then you cheerfully and politely send it back, asking again that it be well done, and then (1) it comes back completely red, still, and (2) you can’t bring yourself to eat a bite of it, and (3) you never see the waitress again until she asks you «Would you like a box for that?» ****that’s a one-​star experience.****
Yes, I’d love to bring this cold, raw steak home, the steak that I ordered well done… TWICE. I leave my $ 20 steaks uneaten ALL THE TIME. That’s how I roll.
Really bad experience. The waitress disappearing also meant that we never got to order more drinks either or ask for ketchup for the kids’ fries (well, we grabbed some from another table) — or get any kind of service.
My husband, who never complains about food at all, didn’t like his leg of lamb, either. The man loves lamb. He got little slices of lamb, not on the bone. He said it tasted like it had been «sitting around» and it wasn’t fully warmed up. He said the gravy tasted like canned gravy (and not even canned «lamb» gravy, if there is such a thing) and the dish wasn’t heated up enough so that the gravy was fully liquid. It was just glop.
In other words, it was a very disappointing meal. There’s no excuse for a person receiving a red steak when she ordered it well done — TWICE — and then never checking back, or acknowledging «Hey, she never touched this — maybe it really sucked — I wonder if I can help make this situation right.» Nope. I guess it’s much easier to ignore it.
I will be adding a picture of my steak — AFTER it came back from being sent back for additional cooking. And mind you, this is the edge piece I cut into. The center is probably fully raw. Yuck!