Palm Springs - Felipe's: the best Mexican you'll ever have

Felipe’s Fine Mexican Restaurant is a fairly new restaurant in Palm Springs, located on El Cielo off Ramon in a strip mall. It’s owned by two guys named Felipe, a brother and brother-in-law (and a young son busing tables named Felipe III) from outside Guadalajara.

It’s like being invited to a family meal where the Abuelita is doing the cooking from generations of family recipes handed down, using the freshest ingredients and no skimping, no skipping steps, in anything.

The Chile Relleno is light and incredibly flavorful (the chile really jumps). The red sauce on the enchiladas (which are also light, they don’t weigh you down or overfill you), has a red chile bite that is both sweet and powerful - something you might find in the finest restaurant in Mexico City. The winner, for me, is their Pollo a la Pasilla, a double breast of chicken with the kind of sauce you want to lick off the plate - a creamy poblano pepper sauce.

All the salsa’s are incredible, the guacamole is fresh (and no fillers). They get major reviews for breakfast (specifically, the chilaquiles), but haven’t tried that yet.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Felipes-Fine-Mexican-Food/580511215430142![|375x500](upload://jn5JIt1Gpg6c4imhOpKzKKyn7Js.jpg)

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Awesome. Great tip. I’ll be in Palm Springs at the end of Oct (gettin’ hitched!). Any other favorites??

Here are some of the places I’ve liked in previous trips:

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This is great. Good Mexican in P.S. We love P.S. But it’s strange. While it’s having a renaissance, more relatively young - shall I say hip - Angelenos are going, good food is still not easy to find.

Let’s take a moment and bow our heads in thanks for our local restaurants :relieved:

Good list @President_Mochi! We mostly stay at the Alcazar and frequent the attached Birba & Cheeky’s… Love the bacon flight. The P.S. locale is the best of the Ace Hotels! You wouldn’t happen to be getting married there?

Anyway, thanks for the additional recs. Congrats to you and best wishes to First Lady Mochi.

P.S. Yes… Hadley’s Date Shake on the way back is a must. And maybe a Buffalo Burger…

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Did you book Le Vallaurius in PS on the patio for your wedding dinner/reception?
The 3 course meal is lovely and a deal too!

Ace Hotel used to have Gay Bingo night that was a riot with Ms. Linda RIP and its a lot of cocktails and so much fun.
Ace’s Amigo Spot is a classic bar cave that is a must…

Willma & Frieda’s in Palm Desert…fantastic for breakfast…
Shame on the Moon in Rancho Mirage is old school with lots of locals.

www.wilmafrieda.com

Can’t wait to go to Felipe’s!

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Wow… More good stuff.

Vallauris looks great. Their website is a little clunky. But the event packages look sweet. We’ll go for dinner when we’re there at the end of the month. We’re planning an event soon and are flirting with the idea of P.S., to keep the guest list down.

I tried to get my old man to go to Gay Bingo when we stayed at the Ace Hotel. He’s the most gay friendly macho guy I know. Hence his preference of P.S. over the more “straight” Palm Desert. But he still wouldn’t go to Gay Bingo. In his defense, he’s not really into things like bingo or karaoke anyway. But it looked like a blast.

Thanks for the other recs too. We can never really figure out where to go for fun.

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Great list @President_Mochi

Definitely add Miro’s to your list. Besides Le Vallauris and Cheeky’s (and now, Felipe’s), it is my favorite restaurant and visit every time I’m in PS (bi-monthly). Miro’s is a Mediterranean restaurant by way of Central Europe (Hungary, Austria) with items like Schnitzel on the menu. But do NOT miss the chopped cabbage salad, I crave it.

http://mirospalmsprings.com/dinner/

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I think I remember reading about Miro’s. The Mediterranean / Central Europe (schnitzel) menu triggers my memory. I just don’t remember that name. Will check it out.

@TheCookie - Thankya! Not getting married at the Ace, no. But will be going at one point or another fur sure. Our wedding is going to be pretty dang small, so we’ve rented out a house for the weekend. Will definitely keep an eye out for that Buffalo Burger!

@Plumeria - I was in contact with Le Vallaurius a bit, but our group size wouldn’t have been big enough to book out the patio and didn’t want to be surrounded by tables of unknowners, ya know? We’re staying in P.S. for a few days after the wedding, so hopefully will be able to go still!

@yogachik - Will also add Miro’s!! That combo sounds deadly. Appreciate all the recommendation.

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Great. We were thinking about a house too.

I know you’re probably really busy. Maybe when you get back to normal you could tell us how it was, egs. was it hard planning an out-of-town event, catering and such.

So excited for you. Thanks!

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I’m all over it. .

Casa Elizabeth

www.airbnb.com/rooms/6063423

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Sweet. I’ll check it out.

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Aw. Thank you! Luckily, by keeping it smaller (~35 people), the planning hasn’t been too, too stressful.

Palm Springs is a bit finicky in terms of “events” - a term they seem to use loosely. I imagine they’ve been burned in the past by Coachella swells and whatnot. If you look through the fine print of many house rentals, you’ll see that they often go into detail about how many occupants are allowed per room and how many day guests are allowed on the premises. On top of the rental fee, we ended up needing to pay an additional “event fee” to allow for more day guests. We also had to get event insurance through Palm Springs, which was a couple hundred $$ (I think. It depends on event type, vendors coming in, etc.), and seems more like a formality than anything. Who knows if we could have gotten away with not doing the additional fee - we just didn’t want to take the risk of getting kicked out.

Oh. And apparently they just passed some city ordinance regarding amplified outdoor music. I mean, unless you’re planning a rager, you should be fine, but they do often use some scary language like:

“Amplified outdoor music of any kind is not allowed by City ordinance. It is understood and agreed that ANY loud or large party, violations due to over-occupancy, unnecessary outdoor noise, indoor noise that causes neighbors to complain, or for violations of minimum age requirements of homes can result in immediate eviction and forfeiture of all funds”

So there’s definitely been a learning curve. I’m not sure if most cities are like this or if Palm Springs is just extra ornery due to it being a melanged retirement/golf/gay/hip/festival/etc destination.

If you do go the house route, I would recommend getting the managers on the phone and talking through what your event plans are and getting a feel for how strict/lenient their residence is. A lot of them were very nice and helpful - when you finally get 'em on the phone! But then definitely follow up to get any approvals or agreements in writing. They have a funny way of forgetting : )

Hope this didn’t scare you away! It wasn’t so terrible - just takes a bit of wrangling and finagling. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it!

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This is great @President_Mochi !!!

Did you use local caterers, florist, etc?

It doesn’t scare me off. I had a feeling there would be red tape. Even here in L.A., and at locations specifically for events there is a certain amount of red tape. I understand the urge to try and cut corners by not following all the rules. We have friends that have done it and gotten away with it. But I’m with you. Who needs the extra stress?

Thanks so much for your detailed response! It really helps a lot. I will definitely refer to this post should my family decide to have something in P.S.

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Chica…
Have you been to Wilma and Frieda’s on El Paseo in Palm Desert?
Fantastic for breakfast…

@Plumeria Yes I’ve been there and it was good - but not racing to go back. I’m not in Palm Desert very often, though.

Cheeky’s surpasses W&F, in many ways. It’s one of the first stop I make (I usually arrive about 11ish) for the bacon flight (last week had a Strawberry Jam slice that was out of this world, and of course the regular addition of the Jalapeño slice) and their incredibly light waffle. http://www.cheekysps.com/pdfs/CHEEKYS_Week413.pdf

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I need to get to Cheeky’s…

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Wally’s…have you been lately?

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The food at Felipes was indeed great. We had shrimp ceviche, carne asada plate which came with a chorizo and chile relleno. Wife and daughter split the chicken fajitas.

Felipes had excellent thin hot tortilla chips and refried beans.

The table next to us was a family of 8 who knew the owners. They came in with a bunch of open cans of beer. The waiter brought them glasses. They crushed up their cans of beers and placed them by the tree. I wish we did the same thing.

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If you’re not friends of the owners, why would they let you bring in outside alcohol?

But they have a full bar, so why wish you did the same thing? Just order a beer.