Thanksgiving in Palm Springs

MsRev and I are headed to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving. It's our first visit and we are looking for any suggestions. I've searched some other boards and the dining situation sounds a bit dreary, unless one is a fan of veal oscar and chateaubriand. Any suggestions in all price ranges are welcome.

The only 2 places I've found that look like they could be of any interest are Matchbox, serving wood-fired pizza, and Zin, with contemporary cooking.

I'm more familiar with the areas to the east of Palm Springs, so I could probably help you more in that area -- I'm typically out there at least a few times a year visiting my parents. Are you willing to travel at all (meaning, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta)? Any specific items that you'd like to find? You are correct that the Desert is burdened with people with plainer palates so the key is typically finding which ones are the best.

Any of the areas around Palm Springs are fine. We will eat anything.

castelli's in palm desert is "ok" if your father in law picks up the tab. the dining in that area seems terrible. a date shake at hadley's west on the interstate might be worth the drive.

I spend most of my time east of Palm Springs, so I have not visited the restaurants in Palm Springs as often. That being said, I have been to the Matchbox once and I really liked their pizza and mini burgers, though I don't recall specifics. I have not been to Zin, but my parents were there once and said they had a very good meal -- menu looks good to me too.

Don't forget that there is an In-N-Out Burger right at Ramon and I-10. It's packed all hours of the day so expect it to be difficult to get into the parking lot -- just be patient . . . you'll eventually find a spot as well as a table.

The best meal that I can recall in Palm Springs was at Copley's and I ate there twice. The food was creative and very well executed on both occasions. In fact, Copley's might be the best food I've had in the entire area. Keep in mind that even at the more creative spots in the area, there will be a lot of meat on the menu.

I've also dined once at Johannes and had a very good meal -- an excellent venison dish IIRC.

I've had a couple of pretty good breakfasts at a place called Don and Sweet Sue's. It's nothing fancy -- just a greasy spoon-type diner, but I like it.

There are a couple of deli-wannabes -- Manhattan in the Desert and Sherman's. I much prefer Sherman's, but don't love either one. Manhattan draws huge crowds of people desperate for very good Jewish staples which really cannot be found there.

There are many steakhouses in the area. My favorite is LG's. LG's has a handful of locations and I've always had very good quality beef there.

Thai Smile is pretty good for standard Thai food.

And if you end up desiring really old fashioned, French-continental fare -- totally old school in a Sabatino's kind of way, but more upscale -- I'd suggest Wally's Desert Turtle. Service is outstanding and the food is excellent -- I love the Baked Alaska.

Outside of Palm Springs, there are a couple of very nice spots for lunch on El Paseo in Palm Desert (a very upscale shopping street with many art galleries and restaurants). One is the Tommy Bahama Cafe -- yes, same as the clothing brand. Their outdoor dining area cannot be beaten, and the food is surprisingly good -- nice salads and sandwiches mostly, with a bit of an Island-Caribbean tilt. On the same street, Augusta is less casual and more expensive, but the food is very good and the atmosphere is relaxing.

Also in Palm Dessert, I've had some excellent meals at Cuistot, but service has marred a couple of the visits. Very pricey and lots of meat, but still pretty creative.

If you choose to travel as far as La Quinta (which could be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour) I like Arnold Palmer's, at least for some of their old-fashioned home-style food (meatloaf, chicken pot pie, mac & cheese), which can be very good. I also like their Sand Dabs. And at the La Quinta Resort, there's Azur, which is outstanding for very creative seafood (but also very expensive). It was affiliated with Le Bernadin of New York -- don't know if it still is, but the food is excellent. Finally, I've had a couple of very good meals at Blend and the food is pretty creative (though still a lot of meats), although the decor is lacking a little and service on one visit was beyond incompetent.

As you can tell, when I travel to the desert, I pretty much give up on good ethnic food, although at the flea market at the College in the Desert (weekends), I've had some very solid Mexican fare. Otherwise, I've been a little less than enthused with the quality of the Mexican and Southwest fare in the desert.

This post may be a day late and a dollar short but in Rancho Mirage, we had a really nice meal at Shame on the Moon. This is where the locals dine, said our hosts who have had a home in Rancho Mirage for 30 years.

http://www.shameonthemoon.com/menu.htm

My wife loved the veal meatloaf and my roast Lond Island duckling was perfectly pink on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Davooda

Palm Springs was wonderful with absolutely perfect weather. The 2 restaurants we dined at were contemporary, using market fresh indgredients. Zin, in Palm Springs, and Beefsteak, in Rancho Mirage were quite enjoyable. Beefsteak is named for the tomato-it's not a steak house.

BR or others,

I'll be in Palm Desert for a week and am starting to investigate dining options. While I'm digging through the suggestions in this thread, if folks have any others, it'd be appreciated. I'm particularly interested in casual options in Palm Desert itself, since I'll be with a large family group that likely won't be interested in high-end dining.

Ralph--

For a large family group, you might want to try Murph's Gaslight. The original is in Bermuda Dunes, but a new one has opened in Palm Desert on 111 just East of highway 74. Their specialty is fried chicken, served family style with all the trimmings, and it's good (if not good for you).

I first tried Murph's with my parents a few months ago on a Sunday for their fried chicken dinner. This place had my name written all over it. I wasn't thrilled with the fried chicken, but I thought it was ok. It wasn't very crisp (should have been since it's pan fried) and the crust tasted slightly burnt (perhaps the oil; perhaps the lack of cast iron). In any event, my parents have been there multiple times and enjoyed it and this might have been just an off night. But they give you tons of food -- all you can eat -- and the sides are good and so is the service. Note that on Sundays they offer only fried chicken dinners and the regular menu is not available. I'd be willing to give it another shot.

I've always been a fan of Tommy Bahama's Tropical Cafe, although I've only eaten lunch there. They do offer dinner though. It's particularly nice sitting outside here. The food is Caribbean themed, and I've generally been pretty happy with items such as coconut shrimp, the shrimp blt and the fish sandwich.

In La Quinta, there's Arnold Palmer's restaurant which I mention above. The service at this place is always terrible (expect to wait even with a reservation, and expect them to not care) . . . but I really like the food and atmosphere (great for golf fans in particular). My favorites are always some of the simple, homestyle dishes such as the chicken pot pie, the meat loaf and the sand dabs. The place is always packed. And while I complain about the service, I will say that on my last visit there, our waiter knew he was screwing up and brought us free desserts, so not everyone there offers bad service. This is really not very far from Palm Dessert . . . anywhere from 10-15 minutes depending upon where you are at.

Maybe slightly closer to you, there's Vicky's of Santa Fe. I've always liked Vicky's, but I haven't been there in a little more than a year. They have pretty good steaks, chicken, sand dabs and the like . . . nothing fancy but it's all pretty good.

If you'd like seafood, you could do worse than Pacifica. It's generally decent, and not too pricey or fancy, but nothing special and there's very little for meat eaters.

I can now say I've been to Zin, and I had an outstanding meal, and it was reasonably priced considering the quality of the food. I started off with roasted beets (yellow and red) which were served in a light vinaigrette and topped with goat cheese and lightly sweetened, toasted walnuts. The vinaigrette was very light so the flavors and textures of the salad were not in the least bit affected. I also tasted the caprese salad which paired beautifully ripe tomatoes and excellent buffalo mozzarella.

My main course was fantastic. It was a braised rabbit in a dijon mustard sauce with pommes frites. The rabbit and the sauce were fantastic . . . I wanted to drink the sauce with a spoon. It was just mildly tart, creamy and a perfect pair for the rabbit. The pommes frites were served in the obligatory beer glass with faux newspaper and were done more in the Belgian double-fried style I suppose - crisp on the outside, tender inside and quite delicious. I had a small taste of the macadamia-crusted mahi mahi served in a coconut-lemongrass sauce. It was also very good, nice crust, perfectly cooked fish and a delicious sauce.

Zin is called an American bistro, and I assume this is because it offers a number of Americanized homestyle classics, but also offers some French classics. For anyone traveling to Palm Springs, I would highly recommend a visit to Zin and above all, I would recommend the braised rabbit.

Zin American Bistro