Uricchio’s Tratoria:
Uricchio’s Trattoria consistently gets top ratings for a good reason. The food is great. Although it’s a trattoria atmosphere with tables and chairs, it is fancy enough for a business dinner or anniversary and casual enough for Bakersfield summer attire. I have taken business colleagues there numerous times. First time diners ask me, “What do you recommend?” and I always say, “The chicken picata and ravioli alfredo”. Because that is what I usually get.
One colleague came to Bakersfield from rural New Mexico. He’s a real cowboy and kind of simple, in a good way. I ordered a Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon from Wild horse. It’s not too expensive and I know it will be good. In the middle of his chicken picata and ravioli alfredo, he said, “I can’t think of any words to describe how good this is”. He clearly was not used to such fine Italian food.
The chicken picata is a thin breaded half of a chicken breast and pan fried. What makes it so incredible is the lemon caper butter sauce. And the ravioli’s are plump full of ricotta cheese and smothered in a rich alfredo sauce. It is great with the fresh Italian bread and the fresh grated cheese on the table. Although the alfredo and picata sauces are white, they are rich enough to stand up to the red wine, in my opinion. In fact, on my last visit, I brought a bottle of Le Cuvier 2005 Zinfandel. You can’t find much richer wine than that. And it was great with the dish. Uricchio’s charges a $15 corkage fee, FYI.
Highland Café:
I went at the highland Café in Oildale this week. Remember the highland? I do, with the coldest beer in town, the BBQ, the line of booths down the middle of the dining room, having lunch at the bar because the tables are full. Yeah, that was years ago. My favorite dish was the diet plate, a nice fresh salad with lots of blue cheese on the plate with a pile of sliced tri-tip or chicken. I always got the tri-tip. And the barbeque sauce was so good on the tri-tip and the salad. It mixed well with the blue cheese dressing too. Too bad it closed years ago. It was very popular for lunch with people working at the Kern River field. I usually saw someone I knew there. I remember the waitresses were true Oildale born and bred. They were meaner than the oilfield workers and had a sharper tongue. They were nice and we all had fun eating there. I thought it was funny when the older waitress and I were talking about our kids and she had a kid going to Cal Tech studying aerodynamics. He was going to be a rocket scientist. From Oildale? Is that great or what? She was really proud of him.
That gem has been closed for years and stood empty for a while until it was re-opened as an upscale diner and bar. There are new booths and tables and the menu is new. No more BBQ like the old days. But the food is fine. And the service is still great. I had the cheddar jalapeno burger. And I got the sweet potato chips on the side. The burger is about as gourmet as you will get in Bakersfield. The patty is nice and thick and still juicy. The bun was big and fresh and the cheddar and jalapeno’s added lots of flavor. I really liked the sweet potato chips.
They were thin, crispy and made fresh. They were great with extra salt and not as filling as French fries. The burger was on special that day and was $10.95. That is a lot for a burger in Bakersfield, but the value was there. The other sandwiches looked great also. I can recommend the Highland Café if you are in the Kern River area. Google the Highland Café Bakersfield and you’ll see other great reviews.
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