Our favorite restaurants in Palm Springs? They're on the map. Click the blue markers to get a quick review, with more detail on each restaurant below.
Watercress Vietnamese Bistro
Vietnamese cuisine is perfect for the heat of Palm Springs. This new restaurant has a way with chicken that's different than most Vietmanese restaurants in the US. I really enjoyed the Wok fried noodles.
There's a happy hour from 3-6.
Watercress Vietnamese Bistro
415 N Palm Canyon Dr
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760-832-9927
Zin American Bistro
Right downtown on 198 South Canyon Drive is a very good restaurant with a fine wine list, usually featuring a "zin of the week". Attuned to the Palm Springs community, Zin American Bistro features a Follies Rush Prix Fixe Menu served early so you can get to the show, plus brunch and special occcasion menus. There's an award winning wine list (last time we visited all wines on the list were half price, so we snagged a great Morgan Pinot Noir for $27. Zin offers a great mix of Belgian/American cuisine. We often get the Belgian "frites" as an appetizer; they come with three great dipping sauces. You can get ketchup, but I still can't understand why anyone wants sugared tomatoes with their fries. Try it the Belgian way. You'll never go back and it won't rot your teeth.
Zin American Bistro - European American Cuisine
Lunch Daily
Brunch Saturday and Sunday
Nightly after 4:30
Alicante
Zin has spawned Alicante. That's a good thing. Alicante might be called a tapas restaurant, where small plates rule--although the pizzas are also quite good. This means you can get a very tasty and very light meal, which is a good thing, especially if you have breakfasted at our next selection, Shermans, where quantity rules.
Alicante
140 S Palm Canyon
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760.325.9464
Woody's Burgers Palm Springs
Woody's has moved recently, to a location uptown; you can still walk to it. It's called Woody's Palm House and is now less of a burger joint and more of a full service jazz club. The old burger menu is still offered--at a higher price. There is now a full bar and some innovative cocktails. I tried the "Smoked Old Fashioned" and it was very good, although the smoking was quite a bit more subtle in the glass than it was as an intriguing perfume spreading through the dining room. It's entertainment watching it being made.
I miss the old place, to tell the truth. A classic burger bar with hidden jazz joint in the back has its alure.
450 South Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs
Monday - Sunday 11am to Close
(760) 230-0188
Reservations
The Tropicale
Classic Palm Springs. My favorite dirty Martini in the Coral Seas Lounge or on the outdoor patio, especially at happy hour. Comfortable booths, innovative cuisine.
Tropicale
330 E Amado Rd,
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Live Jazz Tuesdays and Thursdays
The Workshop Kitchen and Bar
We had brunch here--and were suitably impressed. It must have been duck Sunday. The fries cooked in duck fat were the best. The duck confit hash, a side dish, was loaded with chunks of duck leg simmered in fat and recooked to be greasless. The Huevos Rancheros featured duck eggs. But it wasn't all duck. You don't have to be a duck person at all, as a matter of fact: there are Maine Lobster Breakfast Burritos on the menu. I'll give you a link to the brunch menu because it's a bit hard to find: Brunch (PDF).
The Workshop Kitchen + Bar isn't cheap, but the prices won't kill you, either.
The Workshop Kitchen + Bar
800 N. Palm Canyon Dr. Suite G
760.459.3451
Shermans Deli and Bakery
Shermans was 2009 Restaurant of the year in Palm Springs. The Kosher-Style restaurant offers great mounds of food, breakfast through dinner. Wonderful quality stuff, except for the absolutely insipid bagels. You'll enjoy eating on the outside patio. Friendly staff. Special on earlybird dinners in the off season, 4pm to 7pm (July thru Oct.).
Shermans Deli401 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way
Palm Springs, CA 92262
760.568.1350