Dos Banditos Restaurant Reviews: Tortilla heaven at Senor Pepes - By Willieboy and N.L. Belardes

Willieboy Bandito:

With over 11,000 Mexican Restaurants in Bakersfield (again, no actual research has been done to confirm this number), it is hard to figure out which one to go to. I find that most people pick one within a mile or two of where they live or work. In some cases, probably walking distance. You can find Mexican restaurants three abreast in this town. You could walk blindfolded down any street in Bakersfield and stumble into a Mexican restaurant. In conclusion, I feel people get stuck in their Mexican food rut. Which is unfortunate, because there are so many mediocre Mexican food restaurants just waiting to serve you! Yes, I said mediocre. Do I sound disappointed? Dejected? Didactic? Perhaps. That is until now!

Let me explain then I'll get on with the stupid food review. N.L. and I first tried some classic Bakersfield "commercial" Mexican food restaurants, and were not blown away. Then we tried a couple of dumps, hoping to find a hidden gem. Mostly they are just dumps. So what magic charm could we use to divine our adventure to a truly great meal? That "lucky charm" my friends turned out to be a Yellow Pages coupon. Just look it up. It's like God's way of saying "Here's a good place to eat: go and buy 1 meal and get the other one free!". Thanks God, I will. And I'll clip and save 10 bucks on a oil change while I'm at it.


The magic coupon

So off we went to Senor Pepe's with our coupon. Located on Granite Falls Drive just north of Rosedale off Coffee, Senor Pepe's was once home to the Red Pepper's distasteful step child, Red Pepper West. Which thankfully tanked and was replaced by this gem. The interior is nice, and as we were lead to our table, I noted the fresh tortilla making operation. Didst I feel the cool moisture of drool running down my chin and hitting my chest? I didst!


Salsa and chips not bad.


A meal fit for any Pepe

Drink orders: "Coke", "Coke", "Tea". Why do I order tea? I hate tea! I love Coke! "Coke makes you fat." Nonsense! Two baskets of these delicious chips and salsa makes you fat! I was eating the chips two-handed. That's when I noticed the two-for-one offer on the coupon was for "Combination" Meals"! Uggg! The unimaginative "taco, enchilada", "enchilada, tamale", "taco, tamale, enchilada", or any other of the infinite combinations of those drab fares. I was bummin', there was no way I was going to waste a coupon. So, as I pondered another boring mex meal, chingpea pipes up, "I'm getting the two taco combo." Bless her heart, all the restaurant adventure of a six year old. As if on cue, N.L. flips over three pages in the menu to the "Specialties" page. I hear him licking his lips and saying "Shrimp Diabla... yummm!" Eleven bucks! Damn him! I'm buying today! I will have my revenge though. Did I mention we are reviewing Red Pepper next week?


Tacos, beans and rice, yes!


chingpea thinks twice, considers alternate meal

I decide on Carne Asada tacos. Flavorful chunks of beef topped with onions, lettuce, cilantro and a slice of avocado. Were these fresh corn tortillas? I don't know, I forgot to ask, I was too busy multi-tasking between shoveling tacos in my face and making rice and bean burritos with the fresh made flour tortillas N.L. ordered. Is this the shortest food review ever? Yes. To summarize: chips good, rice good, beans good, asada tacos good, flour tortillas great. Tea: bad.

Chips and Salsa: ***
Food: ***1/2
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ***

P.S. I was thinking these reviews might be becoming as stale as the chips at Cemitas Poblanas. In a future review which "add-on" scenerio would you like to read about? #1. N.L. and I wear cheap sombrarros to lunch? #2. I can only speak Spanish? (and I do so very poorly let me assure you) #3 Or that N.L. and I speak with a lisp? Not saying that it will happen, but if we did...


N.L. Bandito:

Willieboy had a coupon idea several weeks before we embarked on our journey to the Mexican food lands of Bakersfield. “We get a coupon and follow a good deal as opposed to searching for the holy grail of Mexican food restaurants,” he said.

The Holy Grail of Mexican food? No, we hadn’t found it yet. We did find a few holy stomach aches, some really bad rice, a lardsicle, and some sub par chips and salsa at some of the restaurants we stepped into. Not to mention a Virgin Mary shirt stain.


Rosa Reyes: the gem of Senor Pepes

Now we had a coupon for Senor Pepes out in the Rosedale area of Bakersfield. Irony abounded as Willieboy discovered a great telephone book coupon deal, and Brent Hicks, the previous owner of Bite Me Cookies had written to me:

If there were a place where you could see Mom rolling out tortillas from little pieces of dough and putting them on the griddle, would you want to know about it? Senior Pepes behind Wal-Mart on Rosedale. Good food too!

Was this karma? Was Brent lying? Maybe there weren’t homemade tortillas at all. Maybe this was just a dirty trick to get me to go to another Cemitas Poblanas stomach burner.

Ah what the heck. I can stomach any Mexican food place in Bakersfield. Bring it on!

When we rolled up I realized the building was the old Red Pepper. We walked in and there stood our waiter behind a counter, singing a Mexican ballad. He seemed happy enough. I thought chingpea was going to dance with him around a big ceramic pig. We all considered such a festive moment as we waltzed to our table.


Ceramic festive ornaments: we like!

Senor Pepes is a class act. The service was great, the chips and salsa were decent: light crispy chips and a salsa with just enough kick to make chingpea show us her food. Yuck! But tasty. Why do some people do that? I don’t know, but she was gross. I wanted to dump the entire basket of chips over her head (I won't show you that video).


A festive plate of Devil Shrimp

I felt daring. I ordered the Camarones a la Diabla, “Devil shrimp”. And it was tasty! Great complex flavor. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and the sauce had a slight citrus taste that along with some chile spices, gave it a kick. Add some perfectly fluffy rice, and beans with flavor, and it was a delightful meal. I was wishing it was a mariachi Thursday night. Willieboy and I were tempted to have margaritas and whip out our own accordion and guitar. I would dance on the tabletops. But would chingpea and Willieboy?

Enough dreaming.

The best part of Senor Pepes was the tortillas. I spied them with laser eyes as soon as the container opened. "Are these for real?" I said in disbelief. I must go film these homemade wonders being made. "Would the senora who makes these tortillas mind if I filmed her cooking?"

"Let me see if she thinks she's cute enough today," said our waiter.


Unfocused moment, pondering the fate of all tortillas


"What is this Senor Pepe that you place before me?"

Now, Santiagos has homemade tortillas during their Sunday brunch, but I don’t know anywhere in town where you can get tortillas cooked just the way my grandmother used to make them, and on a weekday! The waiter came back, led me to Rosa Reyes. She rolled dough and tossed tortillas on a grill for some excellent authenticity.


Thank you Rosa for letting us watch you work!


Rosa Reyes masterfully burns images onto tortillas for added flare

These tortillas are better than good. I ordered a second batch of light and crispy flour tortillas that melted in my mouth just as good as the first batch.

Yes, we had followed a telephone book coupon. But look where it took us: to a gem of a Mexican food restaurant, complete with homemade tortillas prepared on a griddle. You couldn’t ask for a better afternoon lunch.

Chips and Salsa: ***
Food: ***1/2
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ***

Read past Dos Banditos Restaurant Review articles:

Mucha Lucha Salsa Libres at La Colonia
Cemitas Poblanas stirs the stomach acids
Hunter's paradise buffet at El Cazador
Authenticity at the Arizona Cafe
La Costa Earwig

***************************************

Michael "Willieboy" Willis is a grizzled 46 year old graphic artist. His studio, coincidentally called "Willis Design Studios", has been operating in Bakersfield for the last 26 years. His 15 minutes of fame came in 1997 when he co-authored a best selling book about webpage design titled "Web Pages That Suck". The rest remains a mystery. His personal page is www.willieboy.com.

N.L. Belardes is a novelist and blogger out of Bakersfield, California. He’s on myspace.com/nlbelardes and www.nlbelardes.com.

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Sunday, December 03, 2006. You can leave your response.