Palm Springs / Joshua Tree & environs

Staying in Desert Hot Springs for a few days. Any recommendations besides the following?

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robert…heading to PS too, but unfortunately not during the Indian Accent Pop-Up at the Parker Meridien. Hopefully, you’ll be there.

Taco Maria’s Carlos Salgado is now in the kitchen at King’s Highway at the Ace Hotel.

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Don’t forget Lord Fletcher’s on the 111 in Rancho Mirage. .classic old school.

www.lordfletcher.com

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robert…wondering if you’ve gone to PS yet and if you have any feedback for the area. TIA

Marilu in 29 Palms was a perfect stop after hiking to the 49 Palms oasis.

From the “gastropub” label I expected draft beer, but there’s a good selection of bottles.

The owner apologized that the Palm Springs bakery screwed up and gave her hamburger buns instead of slider buns. Regardless, the sorta-Cubanos (no ham) were really good, first-rate pork. Three to an order, one was gone before I thought to take the photo. Cucumber salad also very nice.

Excellent slaw, pretty good hummus. I was craving vegetables after three or four days of mostly pizza and Mexican food.

http://www.hidesertstar.com/the_desert_trail/news/article_b8f8ae26-c792-11e6-8d5c-e74c175441a4.html

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Went to the Desert Hot Springs branch of Casa Blanca the first night since it was close and open late. From the menu and style of the place my expectations were low, but the carnitas, buche, and tongue tacos were all excellent. Comfortable booths and friendly service. I noticed that the Spanish-speaking customers all had seafood, so went back another night and got a campechana cocktail that was very good, as was the cameron ranchero I tasted.

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Miro’s is still closed for remodeling, damn it. The menu, wine list, and view were just what I was looking for.

Is there anyplace else good with a similar view? It’s weird to me that none of the dinner places downtown have patios facing the mountain.

Solid charcuterie plate at Pomme Frite. Very nice selection of French wines, at least by PS standards.

Thursday night braised short rib special, a lot more food than it looks like in the photo, plenty of meat, a nice helping of spinach, flavorful potatoes.

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Speaking of wine, we went to Zin American Bistro because the wine list, which they promote as having something like 500 choices, incuded a lot of bottles that appealed to me. Turned out that they didn’t have any of those. Seems like they hired someone to put the list together and never restocked the non-crowd-pleasing things like moderately-priced Bordeaux or updated the list to reflect the reduced breadth. If you like big, ripe, oaky, high-alcohol reds, they probably have 100+ choices.

We went to Essence, the restaurant at Two Bunch Palms, because we were staying nearby. The menu had a lot of sort of Gwyneth Paltrowy stuff on it but some normal-sounding food as well. The grounds seemed quite beautiful so far as we could tell at night.

For starters we had some nice grilled octopus and a very good assortment of wild mushrooms with rich, cheesy polenta. For my main I got piri piri chicken, which was very good, nice seasoning though not spicy. Turned out the chiles were little strips in the excellent greens. The green beans were also excellent. All the produce was first-rate, the only place on the trip where it didn’t seem like it was all from Costco or Sysco.

I thought I took photos of everything but the app was acting up so maybe they were lost. I tasted the fried chicken, on the bone and juicy, very light panko (?) breading, maybe better than my dish.

http://www.twobunchpalms.com/menus

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Are there any recent Palm Springs discussions or reviews? Going in a few weeks and would love some suggestions, ideally close to the heart of town. Currently considering Rooster & Pig and Shanghai Red’s as more chill options for dinner. I’m never wowed by mid to high-end restaurants in PS. For lunches, I’m always a big fan of The Sandwich Spot and there’s some place called The Real Italian Deli that looks good on the Yelps.

Any recent tips for dinner, lunch or cocktails?

Thanks @matthewkang

I knew you’d hook a brother up. Many were already on my list.

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yep, always good to have a local reporter who knows the scene like Lizbeth. Let me know how they are.

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In praise of reviving perfectly good older threads instead of starting new ones for the same subject. :hearts:

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yeah I’m actually going this weekend so if there’s anything to report in terms of the solidity of that map, will let you know here. I reached to my writer directly for the top recs. She recommended Rooster and the Pig, Birba, and Sandfish.

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I liked Miro’s and Le Vallauris. The patio at Le Vallauris was really nice, but oddly enough, the restaurant seems to be closed.

Nice spaced out tables on the patio at Birba.

Chopped salad, mushroom arancini, spicy salami pizza and spaghetti pomodoro. Good standard Italian fare. They didn’t have a very large wine list but most ~12 bottles of red were between $35 and $45. Forgot the picture of the pomodoro but it was much richer and buttery than a traditional red sauce pomodoro. They had Toto toilet and urinal.


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The Rooster & the Pig. Very spaced out but not a great place for groups larger than 4. Only a handful a tables but they do brisk takeout.

All of the food was very good but not spicy enough for our taste.

The fried rice and crispy fish were the standouts.

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If anyone has any bakery recs for Palm Springs, I’d be much obliged. Going out this way to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Would be great to have dessert.
Thanks!