maria_so

Hi All,

We leave this Friday for our Palm Springs overnight then a week in Anaheim for my hubby's conference.

We decided to stay at the Spring resort and Spa in Desert Springs and want to make it out to the town that evening (Friday) for a nice dinner.

So can anyone recommend the best restaurant in Palm Springs? We like really good food and good atmosphere. Price range isn't an issue so any recommendations are good. (in Palm Springs or Palm desert)

Also please recommend a nice place for lunch that has outside seating with some people watching (in Palm Springs or Palm Desert).

Many thanks in advance!

MBnancy

Some of our favorites in Palm Springs are Spencers, Le Vallauris or The Falls Prime Steakhouse.

Wally's Desert Turtle in Rancho Mirage.

In Indian Wells, we like Le St. Germain.

In Palm Desert, Jillian's is best.

In La Quinta Azure, or Arnold Palmers.

There are really many more we enjoy, but these are some of the best you requested.

We like Tommy Bahama's for lunch

RBCal

Zin American Bistro
http://www.zinamericanbistro.com/

Copley's (was Cary Grant's former estate)
http://www.copleyspalmsprings.com/

Le Vallauris
http://www.levallauris.com/

maria_so

le vallauris, spencer, and zin looks good. i'm printing out the menus so we have them to decide that evening....or do you think dinner reservations are a must?

please keep recommendations coming if you have other suggestions and thanks for those who have!

TahitiTams

Le Vallauris is always my husband and I's favorite place.
We stay sometimes at the Desert Springs and the teppanyaki restaurant is really good..forget the name but quite good.

Dukey

Does the type of cuisine have any bearing whatsoever in this discussion or is it strictly everyone's opinion of 'the best?'

maria_so

hi dukey, just everyone's version of a great place to eat. most of what's been recommended are the kinds of restaurants i was looking for so it's been all good.

if you can recommend more "hip" places, i would like that too!

thanks

RBCal

Palm Springs doesn't have many "hip" places. The hippest restaurant is probably Mr. Parker's
in The Parker. It is expensive but so are most of the other suggestions.

http://www.theparkerpalmsprings.com/index.php

lvk

Based upon TahitiTams, MBNancy's & others recommendation, I'm going to try to talk my husband out of Johannes (www.johannesrestaurant.com), and into Le Vallauris.

On our last girls' trip, we tried Picanha, which is a Brazilian Churrascaria, where the waiters bring out grilled meat on swords. Kind of a novelty if you haven't been to this type of place before.
www.picanharestaurant.com

Are you staying in Desert Hot Springs or the Desert Springs Marriott? Biiiig difference. You are wise to look for restaurant in Palm Springs/Palm Desert, and not Desert Hot Springs.

lvk

oops, the link for Johannes (our favorite place in the Desert) didn't work. Forgot an "s".

www.johannesrestaurants.com/

MBnancy

Maria, if I were you, I would make dinner reservations for this Friday night, just to be sure you get what you want. This is a three day holiday.

Ivk, I haven't heard of Johannes restaurant, but it's been about 4 years since we stayed right in PS, usually are in other desert cities, and we tend to return to our favorites. I made note of it, as well as Copley's, which looks good too.

We never starve in the desert!

maria_so

RBCal & Others,

We went to Zin last night for dinner and OMG, amazing food. Very simple atmosphere, I think they can do better but I just about melted on the spot when I had my first taste of my medium rare venison. My hibby had the filet mignon with the adult mac & cheese and asparagus and it was yummy but my venison with endive and fingerling potatoes in currant gravy was absolutely incredible. We had the Prince Edward Mussels in white wine sauce to ztart and ended with the chevre cheesecake with balsamic vinegrete sauce (that was just ok).

Thanks so much for the recommendation!

The drive to Palm Springs was excruciatingly painful with all the traffic and when we finally got there, we change quickly and went to dinner.

For those of you who like spas and mineral pools, the place we stayed in was really nice (Desert Springs Spa in Desert Springs). We had a lovely one bedroom with a kitchenette and pool view. We spent most of today in the sauna, in the pools drinking tea. It was incredibly relaxing.

We walked around palm springs in the afternoon havng lunch at grill-a-burger (yummuy burgers and good chili cheesew fries). Very nice although it's not what I expected, Palm Springs. I always thought that it was a "rich" California desert town and perhaps it is but it wasn't as "rich" as I thought it was compared to say Jackson Hole, Wy or even Sedona, Az. That doesn't mean I didn't like the place by any means, just means it wasn't what I expected.

Anyway, thanks for the recommendations. Thought I'd let you know what we ended up doing....

p.s. why is traffic that bad in all these freeways near LA?????

mlgb

Palm Desert's El Paseo has more of the "rich" vibe now. It's a holiday weekend, Friday was getaway day! Not the best time for traffic. I just hope you are not headed back toward town on Monday. If so, you are not in for a fun time.