I finally created an account on here just to review Wiki's. I have been here about seven or eight times now and I LOVE this place. It's my new favorite in town.
The atmosphere is great, and the service has been wonderful most of the times I have been. Servers have been attentive and friendly.
My favorite dishes: short ribs sandwich, crab sandwich, wild boar pasta, filet mignon, salami pizzetta
Dishes my friends have had that they've liked: fried chicken, scallops, shrimp and grits (brunch menu)
Dishes I probably won't order again: veggie burger, lamb (only the entree though - the appetizer is really good)
The most disappointing dish is the bread pudding. It is really dry and dense! I hope they fix this recipe because I love bread pudding. The other desserts are good though. Love the mango sorbet. Also loved the carrot cake but I don't know if that's on the menu anymore.
In terms of the drinks: the wine list is quite extensive and has a lot of good choices. The white and red sangrias are both really yummy, especially if you like sweeter sangrias. They also sell bottles of wine retail, if you like one that you can't find in the stores around here.
Wiki's is on the expensive side, but I've had such great experiences there that it's worth it for me!
I'm sad to say that I did not have a good experience here. The issue for me came down to service.
Starting off, I was with a group of 6, and it was a Thursday around 7:30pm. The server, who was very polite and outgoing, seemed to take a while to get to us. While she was taking our drink order, she was distracted by another server who handed her a salad before she could get my drink order. She left with the salad to another table and it was around 20 minutes before she came back. When she did come back, I ordered a tasting of a rose'.... The tasting took 20 minutes to arrive. The excuse was that it needed to be chilled. This isn't the servers fault, but I'm a bit surprised that a wine bar doesn't have all of its wines prepared as its a summer evening and a cold rose' would have been nice. When I did get the tasting, I ordered the same wine with my meal. About 10 minutes later the server came back and told me that they had to chill the wine again. I canceled my wine because I wasn't about to wait for another 20 minutes for my wine. I opted for my now room temperature water as my sole beverage.
When my food came, I had ordered a ceasar salad with a shrimp appetizer. The server took it upon herself to add chicken to my salad, chicken that I had not ordered. When I told her this, her reply was "its free chicken to make up for the wine" So, now I had to remove the chicken that I didn't want from a rather standard ceasar salad. The shrimp was good.
Essentially my issue is with the service and how they are disorganized, unattentive, and unapologetic.
I had such high hopes for this place as the restaurant itself is absolutely beautiful and looks so high class!
But in the end, they failed.
My husband and I went for dinner tonight (Friday) had at most a 20 min wait. Rosa was our waitress and she was absolutely amazing! Can't say enough good things about her, she was knowledgable in all the dishes and the wines and beers that we would mention. Husband had chicken Caesar salad and he said it was "ok", I had the Kobe beef burger w/blue cheese and truffle fries and it was HUGE and awesome, I ending up sharing it with my husband. For dessert we shared a piece of chocolate mousse cake and it went great with the wine. I was hesitant to come here because of some of the reviews but we were pleasantly surprised and loved our experience tonight. Thanks again to Rosa!!
Review Source:I really, really, really had high hopes for this place and when I first entered I was pleased with the general look and feel of Wiki's. Â After a brief wait my husband and I were seated and browsed our menus eagerly. Â There were many items we wanted to try. Â I asked the waiter about what kind of cheeses were on the cheese plate and he didnt know. Â Seeing as how I am pregnant I try to avoid raw cheeses so I explained that I didnt want to order it if it had too many cheeses that I couldn't eat. Â The waiter replied that he didn't know. Â Not being sure was not a problem, but the fact that he didnt check with anyone was very disappointing. Â So we decided to share a trio of dips. Â None of them were even close to as good as the same dips I make at home or could buy at the store. Â I tried to remain optimistic about my corn chowder soup and husband's salad. Â My soup was supposed to have a bacon foam which had turned into a bacon grease pool on the top of my soup. Â There was crab in it, and the pieces of crab were rather generous, but I absolutely could not taste them over the bacon and spice flavor from the soup. Â I love bacon, and I love spice (most the time) but here they were so overpowering the ingredients that were supposed to be the stars- crab and corn. Â My husband ordered a grilled ceasar salad, while I appreciate the grilled romaine that is a little harder to find, it was only ok. Â That was probably the high point of our meal. Â I had the sand dabs which were also only ok. Â The sauce was fine and the fish was really pretty over cooked. Â My husband, on the other hand had one of the worst plates of food either of us had ever had. Â I looked on the menu and it appears to have been removed. Â It was some kind of miso glazed fish. Not only did the fish have no discernable miso flavor, but was rendered completely unpalatable by a thick, gelatinous gravy of some sort. Â The gravy tasted faintly like brown gravy, only a quarter of the flavor. Â Clearly, this was not an acceptable pairing with seafood of any kind. Â Really, it would have been not good on anything, it might have been a mistake or something in the kitchen. Â Prior to coming to wiki's neither my husband nor I had ever sent any plate back ever. Â But this dish absolutely could not be stomached. Â Atleast, the waiter did notice that my husbant had only taken a bite or two, and offered to exchange it for something else. Â He tried the scallop dish which was ok, but the scallops were over cooked (not uncommon) and way over salted and over peppered. Â We also tried the milk chocolate and pistachio panna cotta which was only ok. Â So we didnt really have anything good, but had some big disappointments. Â I would not recommend Wiki's for food at all, but I can't speak for their wine. Â It is clear that may be a major draw for many who would want to go there. Just perusing the wine menu though left me with the impression that going to imbibe would be a better wine enthusiast place.
Review Source:Ambitious yes! Â Reality..... Wiki's falls short! Â
House Salad was old and brown on the edges edible but hardly special... Dressing was a faint mayonnaise based meh.
Coq Au Vin was " close but no cigar" in the end it was served cool.... Maybe it's me. Â
I may give it another chance....
I say skip it!
Have been back a few times now and have always enjoyed it. Â I can see where the other reviewers are looking at how relatively expensive this place is. Â I guess it hasn't bugged me too much (though I have taken notice of $13 for a small Chimay beer...REALLY???). Â Regarding the food, I think the quality is pretty on-point. Â Love the salmon caviar flatbread, and the egg sandwich (it sounds hum-drum, buti it's delish!). Â I probably wouldn't get the oysters or the beef rib grilled cheese again...those two dishes...not worth it in my opinion.
Review Source:I agree, the decor and atmosphere is upscale, chic, and lovely but in a restraurant, decor can only get you so far...
Food was meh. The grilled chicken and veggies (ordered from the kids menu) seemed like a health-conscious no brainer. However, my dish had no salt (and no salt could be found on our table). Both chicken and veggies were swimming in oil!! Yuck!! And an oily palette does NOT fair well with my pricy glass of Pinot Gregio, let me tell you!!
This place has potential to improve if they take into account all these accurate yelp reviews!!
2 thumbs down. I really wanted to like this place.
PROS
-decor and atmosphere is very nice
-patio is very nice and large
-nice wine list
-interesting and delicious sounding items on the menu
-very large bar area
CONS
- overpriced wine list
-overpriced food
-food was not prepared as it was ordered
-happy hour was not a good deal nor observed on the bill, had to tell waitress
After reading Pete Tittl's review (which seems as though they knew who he was when he came in) in the Bakersfield Californian and reading about how absolutely perfect the food was, I was beyond excited to give Wiki a try.
I was disappointed. I had a glass of wine and the fried calamari. It wasn't very good. I Â also had the Martha's Vineyard Salad which was okay. My friend and I split the filet mignon (medium rare) and it came out medium well. I didn't send it back because it was pretty busy and I didn't want to wait.
Happy hour was expensive too. Most of the wine by the glass is $10+ so with 2 bucks off it's still expensive and all apps that weren't fried green beans and fries, were $10+ as well. Not too happy.
When it was all said and done, my friend and I had ordered 2 glasses of wine (1 each on happy hour), an order of calamari (happy price too), a salad (no meat on it, just regular), and a filet and our bill was 85 bucks!! All the places in town that are that expensive are worth it and this place was not.
Hope they work out the kinks so I can go back one day.
Went here for the first time tonight. The 3 of us were pretty unimpressed. The atmosphere is great, patio looks like fun and they have a fabulous wine selection. The server we had was terrible, I felt like we were at Carl's Jr. or something. My husband's silverware was dirty and our food wasn't anything to write home about. The food was beautifully presented but seriously lacked flavor. Might go back for the wine and give their weekend brunch a try...we'll see.
Review Source:I'm so glad Bakersfield has another option besides Imbibe for a great wine selection, especially to people in the Southwest area. I was in town visiting when my parents and I decided to stop in for some wine and appetizers. I ordered the brussel sprouts and fried green beans, both were good. My dad ordered the short rib sandwich, and while he's super picky, he still went out on a limb to try it. I didn't get to take a bite of it before he decided he wasn't going to it eat, but my mother assured me it's a great sandwich (she's had it before).
Our server Heidi, who was quite amazing I might add, sensed a lack of desire on behalf of my dad towards that sandwich, so without hesitation, she sent the manager over to quality check. Unfortunately, I missed the managers name (brunette, slender gentleman), but he was MORE than accommodating in replacing my dad's meal with something more appetizing to him, which he was definitely more happy with (he went with the burger, which I didn't get to try because he ate it so fast lol).
We even told the manager we would pay for the short rib sandwich because we know my father is a picky eater, but in a brilliant example of customer service, he kindly removed the sandwich from our bill. Â
Everybody we encountered here was MORE than friendly, from the hostess, to our server, the manager, even the girl who cleared our plates was super friendly and genuine. I work in fine dining, and for Bakersfield, I'm impressed to see a nice selection of wine accessible to the public :), these kinds of places will keep Bakersfield well rounded for sure.
I only deducted a star because everything on the menu seem to lack originality, I've had everything on their somewhere else, it just seemed to be a culmination of a lot of different restaurants menus, oh well, that still won't keep me from returning. Also, the high top tables in the bar were pretty small and don't allow much room for wine, plates, personal space lol etc.
Thanks again! I will spread the word about you guys and return as well :)
We enjoyed an early dinner with friends on the patio at Wiki's.  The food was delicious and presentation was nicely done.  Prices are varied so if you want to splurge you can but, if not try the coq au vin for $16.  It is well executed and as a cook I know it takes a bottle of good wine to make it well (and all day), so the price is fair!  My husband had the lamb kung  pao and it was excellent, tender and flavorful!  The rib eye was huge and scallops were seared perfectly.  The sommelier gave us an inside tour of the wine room and helped us choose a bottle for our meal.  Service was relaxed and pleasant.  I'm glad they're close to us and we will be returning!
Review Source:I went to Wiki's on a Saturday night with some friends and it was a great experience. Even though they have only been open a few months, it seems they do have some of the kinks worked out.
The hostess staff were all smiles when I came in and suggested I sit at the bar until the rest of my party arrived and they would send them back.
The bar tenders were friendly, introducing themselves and made great eye contact. I have a pet peeve of hospitality staff not making eye contact but everyone was very attentive.
As the name implies, Wiki's is a wine bar, but the only wine we had was the excellent tawny port (not on the menu) at the end of the meal.
My friends and I had beers and what a great, albeit limited, selection. I rarely find Fuller's 1845, Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, Gonzo Imperial Porter, and Dead Guy Ale at the same restaurant, and they also had some other great beers.
The food menu had so many offerings that were appetizing. The bonus of having the executive chef as one of the owners.
We began with the cured meat and artisan cheese plate which was perfect to start the meal.
My friend and I enjoyed the filet. As other reviewers have stated, the meat is cooked a bit under what is ordered, but I normally order medium and am perfectly happy eating medium rare which is what I got. Good cut, great sauteed mushrooms, and whipped potatoes.
My other friend enjoyed the strangely great grilled cheese with house-made potato chips.
The server was friendly and attentive. Even other servers who were not on our table cleared plates at the appropriate time with smiles.
The atmosphere is casual so dress accordingly.
All in all, a great experience. My friends and I weren't rushed and everything came out at a relaxed pace.
I don't live in Bakersfield any more, but if I did, I would go to Wiki's a few times a month.
Very Disappointing. We went for lunch and tried  the Tuna roll, Kobe Burger, Riblet Grilled Cheese, Grilled Shrimp, and Brussels Sprouts. Where do I start. The Tuna Roll, fresh, innovative with bacon bits, however, the rice was not correct. It  was mushy, not sticky, and warm. Difficult to hold with chopsticks. The Kobe was not cooked to my order,  it came medium rare and of the 2 choices I was given for cheese, they got it wrong. Doesn't matter, it was completely tasteless from top to bottom. Riblet Grilled Cheese. Okay... Where's the beef, the brie was tasteless, and it was smothered in a sweet jelly, which is all you could taste. Grilled shrimp, well seasoned, just on the edge of chewey. Now the B.Sprouts. Well... of all we ate this was my favorite dish, they were toasted, and the sauce was done very well, however the bacon was tasteless, and the cherries sank to the bottom of the dish so you wondered what they were. Over all I agree with others, atmosphere is great but I'm not eating the atmosphere. For the cost & quality I am not satisfied. Perhaps it is because we didn't drink anything stronger than ice tea.
Review Source:3.5 stars. Great ambience for an intimate dinner. Staff was friendly but the wait time for food was a bit overextended. Understandable for such a busy place, but just don't come starving on a Saturday night. Food, when it came, was delicious and memorable not for its depth of flavor but for its combination of surprising tastes. I ordered the 'crispy pork osso buco' and was delivered a plate offering juicy savory pork with wine-enriched rice harboring the sweet twist of apple. Nice restaurant overall, definitely would return if in the mood but not one I would fantasize about. Don't get the fruit plate - not worth the dough.
Review Source:Was so looking forward to trying this new restaurant....huge disappointment. Our server, Marco, was the highlight of our evening. I ordered the filet mignon medium and it was still mooing when it arrived. They must have just taken the hooves off and slapped it on the plate. My husband's chicken was really good. Marco helped us pick a red wine that went perfect with our order. He took my steak back and made sure that it was cook to my liking, and kept checking back to make sure we were happy. The disappointment came when we got our check! Are you kidding me, this is Bakersfield not Orange County! I guess I just expected something a little more upscale, not a wine/sports bar. My husband was pissed because he couldn't order an Old Fashion....his pre-meal cocktail. Â We will give this place another try....ask for Marco if you go...he was great!
Review Source:If I could review Wiki's solely on atmosphere it would get 5 stars. This may be the nicest looking and most comfortable restaurant in Bakersfield. Everything looks very custom and you can tell they spent a fortune putting this place together. When I came it was for Sunday brunch and we sat out on the patio. They have top of the line overhead heat lamps, a huge ceiling fan that covers up nearly the entire patio area and a gorgeous custom fountain just off the entrance that acts as a partition to the patio and the front door.
The brunch menu was very innovative (for Bako) and most everything sounded delicious. I decided on the braised short rib grilled cheese sandwich, my wife had the crab eggs benedict and a few others in our group had the fried chicken and pancakes. The food did take a very long time to come out and wasn't very good. Not for the prices they were asking for it. Every entree on their menu is around 15 bucks. My sandwich was the best thing I tried. Just enough cheese, tender short rib and a raspberry jam that cut the richness. My wife's crab benedict had a generous amount of crab but the poached eggs were very overcooked. They were more like hard boiled eggs in the center. They didn't put much hollandaise on the plate either which left the dish feeling dry because the egg yolks were not runny. As for the fried chicken, it was crispy but lacked flavor and salt. We did have oysters for an appetizer as well and they were very fresh and came with a bacon mignonette - YUM!
A cool thing about brunch here is their endless Mimosa Bar. It's $22 a person so it takes about 4 or 5 of them before you get your money's worth. They were running out of different juices as the day went along too but when we got there they had a lot of cool choices like mango, cranberry, pomegranate and your more standard orange and grapefruit.
The service was pretty good as well. Not overly friendly but definitely efficient. Not bad for a place that just recently opened. The owner was also around helping out so that was nice to see. Overall I liked this place and will come back and hope the food improves. It's a great place to grab a beer or glass of wine. 3.5 stars.
The restaurant really seems to listen to feedback. Their success has allowed the sommelier, Ricardo (great guy,) to go out and find more good wine. They've even got some things I had talked to him about from Paso! Really like this place. Food is still great, and the managers are very personable for such a high-end restaurant.
Definite fan.
Just wanted to update my review as I Â just went to try their brunch yesterday. Â I had no idea they even had brunch specials! Â There was a live jazz band playing outside which was really nice. Â Also, something i really enjoyed was the mimosa bar. Â You could choose to get a glass or get bottomless (I believe the bottomless is $22 so you have to want to drink a lot to get your $$ worth!). Â The mimosa bar had orange juice, passion fruit juice, grapefruit, lemon aide, pineapple juice, raspberry liquor, coconut liquor, grapefruit liquor, and some fruits. Â It was a great selection. Â I made myself a passion fruit mimosa, raspberry lemon aide mimosa, coconut pineapple mimosa, and just a regular. Â They pour it for you and the pours are really generous as well. Â This is definitely mostly champagne! Â
The menu changes a bit for brunch. Â We ordered a lot of food, we had the salmon flat bread, oysters, fried egg sand which, and the shrimp n grits. Â First, the salmon flat bread was the best dish of them all! Â If you like smoked salmon I would recommend it. Â I will say, it is salty with the cavier too, but I liked it as it complimented the savory onions, cheese, and bread. Â But if your not a big salt/fish person stay away! Â We even ordered another flat bread to eat for dinner. Â The oysters were good, I read a yelp review on them and that's the only reason we ordered them. Â Oysters in Bakersfield?? A little scary, but honestly they were good! Â The fried egg sand which also came with truffle chips that are soooo yummy! Â They dont skimp on the truffle! Â The sand which was a bit heavy but delicious! Â Theres a lot going on in the sand which (see picture!). Â Finally the shrimp n grits were tasty, I have been craving grits since I left Houston a year ago so I was excited to get to eat them. Â The shrimp and grits is covered in a bacon gravy and topped with collard greens. Â Def a southern dish...and if you havent tried some of those items, you need to ASAP!
In my previous review I mentioned the service was still working on the kinks, but on Sunday we found the service to be top notch! Â I was very impressed with how much has changed in just 2 weeks! Â If you love brunch, you will love this place!
I had such high hopes for this place - especially since I frequent places like it in Orange County all the time. Â Unfortunately they are not ready for prime time yet. Â
I visited twice... once for the heck of it with some friends and the other with the wife for dinner.  The friends thing went well but we were just looking for a place to have drink or two grab a bite and maybe smoke a cigar outside.  The second time I'm with the wife and it was pretty much a disaster.  The waitress was super attentive until we ordered and then she was not to be found.  The Filet Mignon my wife ordered "medium" was so under cooked it couldn't even be described as rare - it was African lion safari raw.  Jeez.  Since our waitress disappeared I flagged down one of the dozens of tee shirt  wearing wait staff who asked how she could help me and then proceeded to tell me she couldn't help me but would find someone who could,,, ten minutes later I flag down the hard working frazzled manager in a blue polo who apologized and got our order moving in the right direction.  Ironically, the Tommy Bahama wearing "owner"  spent most of his time shooting the breeze with two tables within ear shot of us like he was hosting a BBQ in his backyard and service was something the hired help was supposed to provide and he was just there to mingle.  Good God this man is in the wrong business. Â
Quick thoughts - put salt and pepper on every table - pretty basic. Â The menu reads like a room service menu at a airport hotel - seriously. Â Having 24 wait people working at the same time when only three of them are remotely competent does not improve service. Â I am more than disappointed. Â I am the type of person who will gladly drop $150 on a week night if the quality of food and service is of value - this was not one of those places. Â Too bad because I live in the neighborhood and could walk there. Â
it would appear that Wiki is trying to figure out if they are a bar or a upscale restaurant - since its only wine and beer they aren't a bar - and based on what I was served tonight - they aren't  fine dining either.
Amazing restaurant! Fine dinning unlike any others in Bakersfield. The food is top notch and wine collection is out of this world. This is a fine dining with a fitting price tag. I disagree with the other reviewer that it's over priced for Bakersfield. Bakersfield has plenty of people with distinguished taste and expect a quality experience.
Review Source:We are out of town from Santa Maria and came for the amazing Oysters our local friends had told us about. Its a Saturday but we still got a table. Our server Amanda mentioned that they sold them for brunch and we were so bummed but the owner came up to us and said he'd hook us up so he went and had them make a special order of them for us. The staff was great, Amanda was super friendly and super personable. As a bartender I appreciate great servers and she was awesome. We would definitely come here again! Super classy, perfect for a night out or a chill evening. We're actually coming back for unlimited mimosas and and brunch tomorrow morning!! This new restaurant is going to do great. Come here and ask for Amanda! Thanks for such great service Amanda- you ROCK!
Review Source:Trying the new place in town. Nice place but way overpriced for the area. They want $35 for a 16oz prime rib. I just paid $32 for 16oz at a five star Resturant / resort in Montecito with breathtaking views of Santa Barbara and the ocean. This place doesn't even offer a side salad with the meal. I ordered the cau au vin for $16. The seating reminds me of a diner more than a higher class eatery, if you look up from your booth you end up looking right at the table next to you, so no intimacy.
Review Source:Friendly staff, great food and delicious wine.
Try the Lamb Lollipops with some delicious Zaca Mesa Z Cuvee. Mmmmm
Zaca mesa was one of my favorite Vineyards that I visited while in Los Olivos, I was pleasantly surprised to see them carry it.
I am definitely looking forward to returning and trying more of their seasonal chef-driven menu food items and wine collection.
I like this place. I'm happy there's a wine bar open after 10 (Imbibe closes at 10pm, with last uncorking at 8:30) in Bakersfield. Apps are really good. Try the deep fried green beans with Sriracha Aioli. Yummy. And the wine. Great choices and great pours -- not your standard 3-finger pour---just a little more. :)
The only qualm I have is that I'm struggling to figure out if this place is a cool, trendy sports bar or is it a wine bar? It doesn't seem to live up to whatever it is. The decor is very much high-energy liquor bar with flat screens piping in sports. But there's no liquor at the bar, just wine. The offer "bar food" instead of the standard wine pairings...kind of odd. But the wine selection is quite comprehensive. Confused? Yeah, me too.
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