WHEN PLAYTIME GIVES WAY TO MEALTIME
THESE 10 RELIABLY DELICIOUS RESTAURANTS IN PALM SPRINGS CAN DRAW CROWDS. JUST STAY CHILL. YOU CAME HERE TO RELAX.
LIKE MOST VISITORS,IheadtoPalmSpringstochill: to bake in the sun, to watch the colors of the San Jacinto Mountains change with the seasons and the daylight, to do as little as possible. A culinary tour is never my driving agenda in the desert — and yet it’s also my nature (and my job) to always be looking for my next great meal. ¶ Touristoriented restaurants abound, so places that radiate individual character and serve consistent, careful cooking tend to stand out. There’s rarely a short wait for a good meal out in Palm Springs. These are 10 restaurants where I’m happy to wait in line or jostle for a last-minute reservation. For this guide I stayed within the Palm Springs city limits; dining through the surrounding towns is fodder for a future project.
Bar Cecil
The first thing to know about the most buzzed-over Palm Springs restaurant in years is that reservations are nearly impossible to score. If you want a table, set cancellation notifications on the OpenTable app the moment you know you’re headed to the desert. If the trip is last-minute, your only likely option will be to show up and put your name down for a bar seat — which is a great place to be, honestly. The bartenders are engaging pros, and you have a front-row view of the swank design. Mod, gorgeously mismatched floral wallpapers set the mood. The room is small but brimming with first-rate art, including originals by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. You’ll want to peer more closely at the shelves full of intriguing coffee-table books and framed photos. Gabriel Woo’s eclectic, tightly calibrated menu — beef tartare and smoked fish rillettes, a starter of mussels in fragrant Thai curry and an entree of scallops in vadouvan beurre blanc, a righteous bonein pork chop or mushrooms over butternut squash — matches the verve of the decor. If you’re up for a splurge, the $50 martini with caviar-studded deviled eggs is indulgent fun. Sometimes the experience matches the hype: If I’m asked to name the best restaurant in Palm Springs, this is the place.
1555 S. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite H-104, Palm Springs, (442) 332-3800, barcecil.com
Cheeky’s
To visit Palm Springs even once is to know that breakfast/ brunch is a social pillar. Prettier, grittier and far more lavish options for morning meals abound, and they have their appeal. To focus squarely on the cooking, though, Cheeky’s is my favorite. The menu doesn’t ramble on and on; the kitchen has mastery over the dishes. If there are at least two of us, we’re sharing the chilaquiles, layered with chorizo and tomatillo salsa, and the true-to-theirdescription “custard cheesy scrambled eggs.” The croissantdough cinnamon rolls and buttery blueberry pancakes are also persuasive. It’s not my thing, but plenty of souls love the “bacon flight” whirling with flavors like sesame-honey and harissa. Weekends, to no one’s surprise, are mobbed: Go early or late, or stick around for a far calmer weekday morning.
622 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 327-7595, cheekysps.com
Gabino’s Creperie
More than 14 million people visit the Greater Palm Springs area annually; no establishment serving distinctive food ever remains a hidden gem for long. Gabino’s Creperie sits in a short alley between two buildings near the corner where Palm Canyon Drive veers at a 45degree angle. Marcel Ramirez, a native of Palm Springs, opened his creperie as a takeout window in 2020 after starting the business as a pop-up in 2018. He took his original inspiration for serving crepes from the slightly thicker panqueques his Argentine father made when he was growing up. Cooks shape the filled crepes into wide-mouthed cones wrapped in paper. Star ingredients recall popular menu items at diners and sports bars: buffalo chicken with bacon bits and ranch, turkey and cheddar, chicken pesto. The genius twist? Ramirez folds cheese into the batter, so the cooked edges take on the lacy savor of a quesotaco. Tables scattered along the walkway are usually full; some customers end up leaning against whatever free wall space they can find. Everyone seems
to understand the crepes are best eaten immediately.
170 E. Palm Canyon Drive, No. 4, Palm Springs, (760) 808-8150, gabinos-creperie.com
Johannes
The main draw of Johannes Bacher’s restaurant can be conveyed in a word: schnitzel. Bacher is a native of Austria. He and his kitchen crew have the lock on frying pounded, breaded veal or chicken into plate-size discs with sheer, rippling fringes. The menu details half a dozen variations in sauces; I’ve tried most of them and prefer the schnitzel unadorned or in a restrained lemon-caper sauce. This being Palm Springs, where poolside physiques often take priority over caloric splurges, the schnitzel can be requested without breading (which then is technically more of a cutlet) or sidestepped entirely for a broadly New American entree like dilled salmon and spinach in fumet. Really, though, come with an appetite for schnitzel — even better with a side of squiggly spaetzle suspended in Gruyère and fontina.
196 S. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 778-0017, johannespalmsprings.com
King’s Highway
Among Palm Springs’ multitude of hotel restaurants, the reenvisioned diner at the Ace Hotel strikes the right balance. It doesn’t attempt pointless fanciness; the dining room has the kind of comforting Midcentury Modern kitsch that makes Clark Street Diner in Hollywood Hills endlessly appealing; and the shaded patio overlooks the hotel’s enormous, angled pool (a scene unto itself ). Breakfast and lunch hit their marks: omelets and scrambles, a breakfast burrito that crunches with tater tots, familiar Caesars and wedge and chopped salads, and a pestolaced grilled chicken sandwich. Dinner veers between similar crowd-pleasers and a rotation of more ambitious dishes, like a New Orleans-inspired montage of fish, shrimp, crab and andouille with red beans and dirty rice.
701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 969-5777, kingshighwaydiner.com
El Mirasol
Felipe Castañeda and his wife, Lisbet, opened El Mirasol in 1985, centering their menu on family recipes drawn from their home state of Zacatecas in north-central Mexico. Theirs is comfort food reminiscent of L.A.’s newer school of classic Mexican restaurants: nachos, queso fundido and combination plates of enchiladas, tamales and chile rellenos, but also nuanced pollo en pipian and an earthy sweet mole poblano. I gravitate to the pork chile verde — excellent on its own or in an enchilada, where the bright flavors zing through the blanket of melted cheese — or the lightly smoky camarones a la diabla. There are two locations, including one in the Los Arboles hotel, which the couple owns; the restaurants reside on opposite sides of often-thronged downtown, so their chill patios double as retreats from the masses.
140 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 323-0721, elmirasolrest.com
Paul Bar
In 2018, Paul O’Halloran opened a business in a nondescript strip mall several miles from downtown Palm Springs. The sign out front simply reads “Bar/ Food.” The mystery only made would-be imbibers and diners curious about what might be happening inside. They found a small space with a few booths and a mirrored, mahoganylined bar that O’Halloran designed as an homage to his early hospitality jobs in New Jersey and New York. If he originally envisioned Paul Bar as a neighborhood haunt, he eventually adjusted to nightly, eager crowds. Be prepared for O’Halloran and his deadpan humor to meet you at the door, letting you know how long the wait might be. As someone who has tagged along with friends who live in Palm Springs, I can tell you he’s kind to regulars — and that he makes a martini as dry and delicious as his wit. It’s excellent alongside a burger or steak frites.
3700 E. Vista Chino,
Palm Springs, (760) 656-4082, thepaulbarps.com
The Real Italian Deli
I don’t believe in wrong answers when it comes to people’s preferences for delis. Manhattan in the Desert and Sherman’s Deli & Bakery both have their deserved adherents. The Real Italian Deli opened in Palm Desert in 2013; a year later, owner John DeVita debuted a small Palm Springs location wedged into a strip mall. I’m a fan of its hot sandwiches, particularly the sausage and peppers sub saturated with fairly obscene amounts of melted mozzarella. A chewy, precisely seasoned farro salad makes a cleansing side dish. The shop qualifies as a restaurant — an indoor communal table set with oilcloth and a couple of metal picnic tables outside constitute the seating — but it’s largely geared for takeout. With that in mind: If you have access to a kitchen, take home the lasagna and warm it in the oven. Something of its textural beauty is lost when the staff reheats it in a microwave on-site.
100 S. Sunrise Way, Suite B, Palm Springs, (760) 325-3800, therealitaliandeli.com
Rooster and the Pig
Tai Spendley spent years work ing as a food and beverage director for hotels throughout the country before opening his own restaurant. For his menu he channeled the adaptive culinary style of his mother, who immigrated from Vietnam and synthesized her native cuisine with what she could find in American grocery stores. Garlicky, chilesparked chicken wings sticky in their glaze of caramelized fish sauce deliver on their obvious appeal; pair them with a starter of sliced okra in a wonderfully crunchy mulch of peanuts, shallots, garlic and ginger. Spendley’s version of bo luc lac, or “shaking beef,” winningly bounces through its salty, sweet and peppery notes. Rooster and the Pig, named for two compatible animals in the Vietnamese zodiac calendar, doesn’t take reservations; sip a Singha lager or one of the lime-bright cocktails next door at the restaurant’s lounge while you wait.
356 S. Indian Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 832-6691, roosterandthepig.com
Workshop Kitchen + Bar
I considered leaving Workshop off this list. After introducing the Palm Springs original in 2015, chef-owner Michael Beckman and business partner Joe Mourani brought Workshop west to Los Angeles last year. The outpost on La Brea Avenue has a similar sensibility to its older sibling — upscale vibe, designs that use concrete and shadowy lighting to fullest effect, modern American cooking that pulls freely from a global grab bag of flavors. But the menus are different, and more important, the Palm Springs flagship retains a distinct place in the dining landscape.
I love sitting at the bar in the back of the beautiful dining room. The bartenders are some of the most skilled in the city, and it’s a more relaxed option for grazing until you’re full. Small plates show off the kitchen’s creative minds: Fried rice tossed with duck (both confit and sausage), kimchi and a fried egg was a standout, as was a lamb kefta plate with plush flatbread. Otherwise, look for dishes full of vegetables that show off the California seasons.
800 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, (760) 459-3451, workshopkitchenbar.com /palm-springs.html