Bakersfield’s distinctive food tradition is Basque. Sheepherders from the Pyrenees settled here in the late 1800s, and the boarding houses that fed them evolved into restaurants that still serve the same way: communal tables, a set menu, soup and beans and salad and pickled tongue arriving whether you ordered them or not, followed by the main course. A handful of these houses remain and they are the reason to stop in Bakersfield.
The city also sits in the middle of Kern County farmland, and its Mexican food — particularly the taquerias on the east side — is excellent and cheap.
It is a working city rather than a destination, which is much of its appeal at the table.