Here are my restaurant reviews from our trip in 2010. In 2011 we also went to The Cliff House in La Quinta, which I would definitely recommend.
Sherman’s Deli – Rather uninspired dinner and service. My wife had the soup/sandwich combo, my daughter had fried matzo and I had broiled chicken. The main reason we went here was to buy some corned beef for lunches and lox for breakfasts. The corned beef was very poor, only had one sandwich and then tossed the rest. The lox, on the other hand was fabulous, best I’ve ever had. Cost for dinner was $35, the corned beef was $13 per pound and the lox was $30 per pound.
Chop House Palm Desert – A truly outstanding dinner. I had the small filet with a Caesar salad. Wife had the filet Oscar with spinach salad, and daughter had the NY Strip with Caesar salad. The filets were very good but the NY Strip was incredibly good. We also split a side of mac and cheese which was phenomenal. Wife’s dinner came with desert so we shared a crème broulet. We also had one bottle of wine with dinner. Total cost was $147, most expensive dinner of the trip but well worth it. We did get 10% off the food portion with our Marriott Vacation Club privileges card.
Devane’s Old Town – Kind of a mixed bag here. I had the seafood paella which did have lots of stuff in it but I did not care for the flavor. Wife had the special fish of the night and daughter had them make up some pasta with calamari in spicy sauce (very spicy as it turned out). Service was very good, bread was great but I would not go back. Cost was $79.
Picanha – The second truly outstanding dinner of the trip. This is a Brazilian style steakhouse and every single meat dish (carved skewers at the table) was incredibly flavorful. The salad bar was kind of small but that didn’t really matter much to us. The normal price is $29.95 per person but between 5:30-6:30 it is only $23.95. Then we also received a 20% discount for the MVC privileges card so our cost ended up being $72. I’ve been to a few churrascarias over the years and this was the tastiest of any. Highly recommend.
Murph’s Gaslight Palm Desert – This is simply a place for pan fried chicken. You get a very complete family style dinner, including soup, salad, corn bread, mashed potatoes, gravy, black eyed peas, and a bunch of very good chicken. Service was very friendly and he even brought us some more chicken so we’d have plenty to take home with us. We had enough left over for three lunches. I would recommend this place but go early in your trip so you can have time to eat the leftovers. Total cost was $53, with a 20% off coupon I found on line.
Maracas Palm Springs – This is one of my two favorite Mexican restaurants in the country (the other is Papasito’s in Austin, TX). It is located right in downtown Palm Springs by the Sonny Bono statue. I know that Mexican food is very subjective taste for people, but I do love this place. Excellent service. We shared a queso fundido appetizer, which was the best I’ve ever tasted. My wife and I each had two tacos, complete with beans and rice and my daughter had the carne asada. Cost was $58.
Daily Grill – This was our final night’s dinner and we went on Friday for the prime rib special. You get a very large (they say 16 oz, but I think it was more) prime rib, great baked potato and creamed spinach. It isn’t cheap, but it is a real nice place and the food is excellent. Cost was $103, including one glass of wine for my wife.
is fun.