TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

I know I've praised the happy-hour specials and food at Tahoe Joe's in the past, but KC Steakhouse (2515 F St.) is giving the southwest restaurant a run for its money with a menu of winter early bird specials, available Monday through Saturday 4:30 to 6 p.m. through the end of this month. For $13.50, you can choose from top sirloin, filet, lemon chicken breast with mushroom sauce, scampi, blackened chicken with beurre blanc sauce, blackened scallops on a bed of spinach fettuccine alfredo or the homemade fried chicken. We visited and sampled the chicken and the filet, and both were incredible values. The chicken was the best I've had since The Pantry closed: two chicken breasts with ribs, a fierce batter shell, protecting chicken meat that was still moist. My companion's 6-ounce filet was tender and flavorful, definitely prime beef. These meals include the beans, salsa, bread, soup or salad and either garlic mashed potatoes or cowboy potatoes. I'd put it right up there with that Uricchio's Monday night special ($15.99; by the way, Uricchio's, which offers the deal only occasionally, will discontinue it after tomorrow. Get in quick.).

Grand opening watch

We've got a lot of new places with Grand Opening banners, including La Mina Cantina at the corner of Brimhall and Coffee Road ($2.50 happy hour specials of draft beer, margaritas and appetizers), The French Quarters Southern Cooking at the corner of Stine and Planz (open Wednesday through Sunday) and The Original Hacienda Grill at its new location, 2600 Buck Owens Blvd. (happy hour specials from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday). Get there before I do -- and let us know what you think.

New, different -- and free

The Orchid Thai Fusion Cuisine (9500 Brimhall Road) has a piano bar with a happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m Monday through Thursday, featuring $3 house wine, $2 domestic beers and martini specials. Also opening soon in the Rosedale area will be Red Stone Pizza and Grill in the old Great Harvest Bread location on Hageman.

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Enjoying a day of recognition Monday is frozen yogurt. Yogurtland will celebrate National Frozen Yogurt Day by offering free frozen yogurt at their more than 160 stores across the U.S., including the local store in the Riverwalk shopping center, 10930 Stockdale Highway. From 4 to 7 p.m., guests can enjoy a free 5-ounce treat with special-edition collector cup and spoon made in celebration of the big day.

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Speaking of bargains, the Bakersfield outlet of Applebee's will be offering a VIP dinner for two for $25 from Feb. 10 through 14, with $15 bottles of Barefoot chardonnay or merlot, and Valentine's Day cocktails like the "Flirtini." On Valentine's Day, specials from 9 p.m. to midnight include half-price appetizers, $2 small domestic drafts, $3 well drinks, $5 Jager Bombs, $1 Jell-O shots and $15 bottles of Barefoot wine.

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I have fond memories of the dessert pizzas I've had in the past at Giovanni's in Shafter, but there's a new contender at Mountain Mike's if you want a little something after a night out at a pizza parlor. They have a cinnamon sugar dessert pizza ($5.99) that is an amazingly simple but irresistible treat. I asked the guy behind the counter what they put on it before I ordered it and he said "sugar, sugar and more sugar." It's not that simple, but it's worth ordering, cut into tiny strips that make it easy to eat.

Going, going gone

The special winter menu items at Macaroni Grill will be leaving the scene after Feb. 19. These include the excellent Parmesan-encrusted veal chop (with prosciutto/pea/mushroom fettuccine and a truffle demi-glace) and the butternut asiago tortellaci (roasted squash, pasta stuffed with four cheeses, crispy prosciutto, truffle cream and the trendy pumpkin seeds).

Upscale, but still Taco Bell

One advantage of living in Bakersfield is we're often used as a test market. Remember when Jack in the Box unveiled its JBX restaurants, with the fireplaces and the gourmet burgers and all the other upscale touches? Those were opened only in Bakersfield and some city in Ohio. Sure it failed, but being a guinea pig has benefits for those looking for the new and different.

Now Taco Bell is testing a "Cantina Bell" menu in town (and in Louisville, Ky.) to see if the concept flies in the real world. It's their attempt to be the new Chipotle, with more upscale food options. Not a difficult break. Most people know that Taco Bell is more a food assembly operation than an actual restaurant, with the refried beans dehydrated, the food precooked and heated, etc. A lot of moderately priced restaurants are going that road, too, surprisingly. And everyone wants to be Chipotle, it seems, not just due to that casual Mexican restaurant's financial success, but also the halo effect it has from its use of organic vegetables and meat raised away from factory farms. Just look at the lines of patient people waiting at the Bakersfield stores.

What can you expect at Cantina Bell? Burritos, tacos or a salad bowl made with romaine lettuce, some grilled canned corn salsa mixed with peppers, no cheese and a cilantro-lime dressing that can pretty much overwhelm everything else, for just under $5. While all this can be seen as an improvement, it isn't yet on a level to challenge the quality of Chipotle, and you lose that cafeteria-line chance to customize your bowl/tacos/burritos. More importantly, at Chipotle you can see the crew behind you grilling the chicken and the beef for the steaks and cooking the beans. The freshness is overwhelming. Here, the chicken in my companion's bowl was pale and seemed steamed, not the chicken breast with the brown grill marks found on the poster near the counter. There are signs selling the new items, attributing them to a "five star" Miami chef named Lorena Garcia, who I'm sure was doing the best she could with the constraints of the Taco Bell service line. But considering our experience, nothing we sampled would lure us away from a Chipotle dinner.

-- Pete Tittl