Baja Fresh

Wow, best food ever. Thank you, Samantha, great service. Everything was perfect, fresh tortillas, fresh guacamole. The pork was perfect, not watered down, but not dry, great flavor. Beans and rice perfect. This was the best food I’ve ever had at Baja Fresh.

It would be great if the nachos at Baja Fresh in Kettleman City were made with melted cheese like the website banner picture. Instead, it comes out of a vat of spiced Velveeta that’s spooned lukewarm over the chips. At $ 9.39 for Chicken Nachos Fundida, that’s unacceptable, unless «Fundida» means «ripoff» in Spanish.

I find it very pleasant when you have a good service. This place saved my day, as a vegan is hard to get a place to eat on the road! I talked to one of the employees and they helped me customize the menu so I could eat not only a vegan option but also without wheat. Im really happy with the attention and the food was great! Im taking a star because I think they can improve in the cleaning department. The floor and most of the tables where dirty with leftovers.

Glad there’s a decent Mexican Food options at this exit. This Baja Fresh is small and is inside a larger building holding more than one eating establishment.
This Baja Fresh is a counter near the end of the building beside Togo’s Sandwiches.
Ordered a Burrito and was told they ran out of some of the ingredients. So I ordered and paid for a Tostada with Carne Asada.
It took a longer amount of time than I expect to make it. ESPECIALLY since they ran out of several other ingredients (like avocado and cheese) to put in it. Which they told me after I was called to pick up my order.
There are enough parking spaces in the area.

Fast food place conveniently located in Kettleman City — the halfway point between SF and LA.
Shares building space with Quiznos Sub and gas station, so formation of lines can be awkward and might extend through the gas station store.
Workers are particularly in a hurry to serve travelers, which I both appreciated and didn’t appreciate. I mean, just take a little care when talking to customers and not make customers feel hurried or anything.
Pork Carnitas Tostada (~$ 9.95) — The pork carnitas are SO good but there is a substantial amount of oil left on them. The oil dripped all over my tostada salad. The salad is actually a non-​healthy option since it comes with guacamole and sour cream glops. Take care since one order of this is approximately 1,600 calories! Suggest eating the tostada first since it’s not crunchy as a leftover.

Live and learn…
Here are, recorded for your acceptance or dismissal, a few things I’ve taken away from my experience at this place:
1. When a known chain restaurant like Baja Fresh is attached to a gas station, you’re gonna have a bad time.
2. It seems the attachment of the qualifier «Express» further declines the overall quality, selection, freshness, and service. Perhaps «Express» refers to the manner in which they hired their workers? Or the way they prepare your food? Or the lane in which you will have to drive to find a restroom within a few hours while continuing up the 5 from Kettleman City? Maybe it’s all of those things…
3. Proximity to cattle operations means flies. Lots of flies. Flies land on manure. Then they land on food. Then you eat the food. So by the Transitive Property of Equality, loosely applied, you’re eating manure. And in the immortal words of Mad Dog Tannen from Back to the Future 3: «I hate manure…»
4. I should have looked under the seats for gummies and goldfish crackers dropped by my kids. Would have been better.
Since I’m not a germophobe, we kinda just went with it. No salsa bar, here– they give you pre-​dredged containers. And since I was more thirsty than hungry, the self-​service soft drink fountain squeezed a weak second star out of an Uno! experience.
From now on, I’ll look for stand alone fast food places and use gas stations for fueling my truck. Kettleman City, we hardly knew ya.

Crap wrong Baja fresh

The conversation began by telling me about what they did not have: gueritos, wet burritos, fish, shrimp.. They did have Molcahete salsa so I ordered 1 carné asada burrito. $ 9.69 was where the conversation ended. I went 25 yards to the In and Out and bought 2 cheese burgers, fries, and a vanilla shake for $ 9.86. And they had gueritos at In and Out! When chain restaurants in remote locations jack up the prices and provide less, the only hurt the brand. There are too many Mexican choices in this state to get crazy with your pricing.

I made the drive up to Sonoma from L.A. recently, a long day alone with the 5 and an audiobook of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The highlight of the drive was supposed to be lunch at the Kettleman City In-​N-​Out, and I was pretty sad when I missed my exit. I considered turning around, but when I saw a Baja Fresh off the freeway, I decided to take it as my consolation prize.
I hadn’t eaten at a Baja since high school, maybe early college, when I used to get the shrimp tacos on a fairly regular basis. This Baja was inside a gas station/​convenience store, nothing more than a food stand with a single employee manning both cashier and grill. He was pleasant enough.
I got a shrimp taco combo, which came with two soft tacos, rice, and black beans. The tacos were exactly as I remembered them, more satisfying than I thought they’d be after a decade in which I developed a taste for non-​fast food chain tacos. Obviously, Baja is not on par with most of those tacos, but they hit the spot anyway. I love the self-​serve salsa station, mainly because I can take a million jalapeños and no one can stop me. I got my lunch to go, as I wanted to make good time, but it didn’t take long for me to figure out I couldn’t eat it while driving. I scarfed it down in the front seat of my car.
It’ll probably be another while before I have Baja again, but these tacos saved me from my burgerless grief. I made it to Kettleman City with a full stomach, and got my In-​N-​Out fix on my way home.

Coming back from LA, we found this intersection serving variety of food (burgers, sandwiches, soup, salad, etc). that seemed apt for a family of 6. Decided to stop at this place (seems like same ownership as there is no wall separating Quiznos from baja fresh). All food we ordered across both these restaurants was really bad. Over fried, too sour, and so on. Pretty bad experience and everyone of our 6 people party was unhappy (everyone had different food items). Won’t stop at this place again.

All I gotta say is all yall are ridiculous! I’m giving this baja fresh 5 stars. Let me break it down for you and literally refute all of these bad reviews.
1. Convenience:
This is right off of the highway! There are LIMITED food choices on the 5! You are lucky your only choice isn’t Taco Smell!
2. Health conscience food:
There is none. I didn’t want greasy in n out after my over indulgent weekend. Baja Fresh has… omg salad! And burrito bowls! If you are ordering a quesadilla and are complaining it’s cold you deserve taco smell anyways.
3. Service:
Was exceptional! The checker was super friendly and accommodating! I subbed my beans for double rice and got TWO kinds of salsas.
4. Food:
BOMB! I am looking forward to my next stop in Kettleman city so I can get this baja fresh. The burrito bowl with chicken was on point. Fresh fajitas! Fresh lime! Hot rice! Perfectly grilled chicken! Delish pico de gallo!
BEST PART the fresh hot chips! They literally were hot out of the oven. So crunchy and good. Better than el torito.
This Baja Fresh is in the middle of no where, you shouldn’t be coming here with high and mighty expectations. Let’s keep it real people. I enjoy clean Chipotles in my nice sunny neighborhood of Los Angeles too, but this is Kettleman city… c’mon.

The employees here had hooked up their own personal MP3 player to the sound system and were blasting out electronic dance music at a ridiculously high volume. Music in a restaurant should be in the background, not make you feel like you’re about to bleed your ears out in some European night club. It is a sad day when eating outside on the patio facing Highway 46 is a more relaxing than eating indoors.
At least the food was tasty and fast. Whomever is the manager at this place needs to regain some control of the employees when it comes to the music. You shouldn’t send your customers outside if they don’t want to be there!

Baja Fresh provides good quality food. I had their steak taco from this location and I was not disappointed. Okay, maybe I should mention that the chopped raw onions in the taco was a bit on the strong side. The sauce and meat was consistent with their company’s flavor. For a four dollar taco, I was expecting something much more than the 3-​bite taco «sampler» that I found wrapped in paper wrapped in foil. And, I don’t care how much free chips and salsa comes in the bag, it’s the damn taco that I paid four bucks to eat for dinner. I will look for another Baja Fresh and give it another try. Chips and salsa were deserving of an honorable mention, though.

Really off that people hate on this location so much. Yes, it has a limited menu. It’s an Express in the middle of nowhere. Yes, the bathrooms aren’t the best. Did you notice they’re next door and the Baja Fresh isn’t responsible for them. Correct, they have no breakfast burritos. It’s a chain, none of them do so far as I know.
I think the low reviews are because every customer who eats here is three hours into a six hour drive from SF to LA (or the inverse) and they’re cranky. This was a totally chill Baja Fresh in the Central Valley where there’s nothing else but McDonalds and Subway every 50 miles for hours. Chill out and enjoy, kiddos. It was fine.

Baja Stale. Yowza! It has all been said before: flies, dirtiness, incompetence, inability to execute on a formula. Has corporate HQ ever sent anyone to look in on this franchise?
Apparently not.
Those looking for a place to recharge off of I-​5: don’t kid yourselves! You really think all these reviews are wrong?
Avoid.

Well its a Baja Fresh at a truck stop so c’mon, its not gonna be good. First off, they do not have the full salsa bar that you would get at most BFs. It shares a space with a Quiznos which was closed when we went in, otherwise I would have opted for something at Quiznos.
Went for my go-​to, the Baja steak burrito. Probably the worst one I have had at any Baja. Including the sales tax I had to pay, I felt really screwed. The staff was not friendly. Sorry that I am coming into your business to give you money, is it so much to ask that I get a half decent burrito? I should have went to In-​N-​Out across the street. No matter their location, they have standards. We were quick to hop back in the mini-​van and gun it to L.A.

This place is a legit option at the I-​5 /​Hwy 41 intersection.
You need to own the fact that you have put yourself in the position of being hungry (possibly with cranky kids) in Kettleman City, while trying to eat quickly and stay close to the freeway, and you have decided against going to In-​n-​Out. You’ve made all the choices that put you in that situation. Accepting that reality…
This place has a limited, but flavorful, Baja Fresh menu with friendly and efficient service, and clean tables. Even the guacamole was fresh! My experience was that the staff deftly dealt with a line of about 8, and got hot food out quickly.
That all said, I did not appreciate the mark-​up. The $ 6.89 burritos you find at every Baja Fresh are $ 8.99 here. So, at the point that you’re committing to a $ 9 burrito, you may want to think about what other sort of delicious snacks (a pint of Ben & Jerry’s? beek jerky?) you can purchase int he attached convenience store might make your soul happier as you continue your drive.

This Baja Fresh is connected to the Shell gas station in Kettleman City. Bathrooms are in the convenient store area of the gas station. The two restaurants in this area are Baja Fresh and Quizno’s.
Came here with the USC band, and about 30 kids of the 300+ in our group went to this Baja Fresh/Quizno’s spot. I decided not to wait in line for In N Out like the rest of them band. Having a door that connects to the gas station convenient store and restroom was clutch.
Since the first tip for this town on Foursquare says «Don’t drink the water», I decided to save myself the extra water-​born sickness and opt for a big-​a$$ bottle of water at the gas station.
Ambience ¹⁄₅
The place is very small. I’m sure it’s more spacious when a whole bunch of college kids aren’t crammed inside, but that was my experience. This place sees bus loads and groups all the time, so they don’t get sympathy from me. Also… flies. There were too many flies for my taste… and I’m assuming most people don’t like flies flying around things you want to put in your mouth. Put up some flypaper! I digress.
Service ²⁄₅
A couple people I was with have specific digestive needs, and are very specific when they order. I understand that you’re swamped, but when an order/​request is made and is shown on the receipt, it is the cook’s/preparer’s responsibility to get it right. In the case of preference, it may not be that big of a deal, but if someone was allergic to something you accidentally put in their food, things could go pretty badly for that person.
Food Wait ⁴⁄₅
Actually didn’t have to wait too long for my food, which I was definitely happy about
Food ²⁄₅
I chose Baja Fresh over Taco Bell because I wanted decent Tex Mex. Baja Fresh is normally decent, and the food is usually quite good. I ordered a Carnitas Baja Burrito, and it was definitely forgettable. I mean I didn’t get food poisoning so I hooked you up with a second star.
Overall ²⁄₅ Eh.
I could do without the flies, and definitely wish the food tasted better. I was starving so I inhaled the hell out of my burrito, sadly without enjoying the flavor.
The search for the Kettleman City Oasis continues…

Terrible terrible and terrible. This was the stop on the megabus up to San Jose. I stopped by since it was the only place without a line. McDonald’s had a line, in&out had a line, I figured this was the place. Plus I had liked Baja Fresh before. I ordered the nachos and a taco at 4:09pm, at 4:15 I was notified there was no cheese for the nachos and told I could swap out my order or wait for the cheese which should be ready in a couple minutes. It was 4:26pm and the cheese wasn’t ready yet? So I cut my losses and swapped it out for another taco. Terrible. Seriously? Cheese?

Place was next to a gas station and needed gas for the car. Place was clean and easy to find. We decided to hit this place to eat since its better than Taco Bell. Everything was good and with good portions (gave lots of chips to fill the plate) but I still think its a little pricy.
I am undecided if I can recommend this place as I have gone to more authentic Mexican restaurants which are much better and cheaper. This is more of an American chain. If you don’t care what kind of Mexican restaurant, then go here.