Eating Our Way Through Palm Springs

As you drive down Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, one thing is immediately clear: this is a restaurant town.

There are cute cafes, trendy bistros, and upscale dining options on every corner. Plus coffee shops, frozen yogurt places, and bars. You will not go hungry (or thirsty) in this town.

My sister and I begin our Palm Springs dining experience at Trio.

The interior of this restaurant has such unique flair. My sister and I encounter this throughout Palm Springs — there is extra attention paid to the interior decor. It adds a fun element to our dining experience and makes the meal more special.

We select the $19 prix fixe menu, which includes a starter, main meal, and dessert. Quite a bargain. Check out their mouth watering menu here.

By this point (post-outlet shopping) we are starving and inhale the appetizers before I remember to snap a photo. If memory serves correct, we had hand cut potato chips with house made Ranch dip and fried artichoke hearts with caper aioli dipping sauce. YUM.

Here’s a shot of Bethany at Trio:

For a main course, I select the Australian sole with parsley, caper, lemon zest, bread crumbs, and Israeli couscous.

We both get pumpkin bread pudding for dessert. Have I told you about my weakness for seasonal baked goods?

We’re not sure how any other Palm Springs restaurant can top this. It’s our new favorite.

After lunch we check into our hotel room and hit the hot tub.

We spend most of the afternoon stuffed from lunch. Around 9pm we are finally ready for a light dinner. Here’s the view from our hotel room just before we head out:

My sister poses with this statue of Sonny Bono as we walk around searching for a restaurant.

We settle on Lulu’s California Bistro and it doesn’t take much arm twisting. The place is stuffed with people and the menu looks incredible and well-priced.

This place is HUGE! The fact that it’s so popular helped sway us. Clearly this is a Palm Springs favorite.

We splurge on Lulu’s fancy martinis. My sister orders her usual Lemon Drop and I go with a Key Lime Pie martini.

While we’re tempted by the excellent prix fixe menu (a three-course menu for $20… Palm Springs for the prix fixe win!), we are still recovering from our large lunch. We settle on two appetizers to share: vegetarian pizza and quinoa stuffed acorn squash.

It’s official: Trio has been supplanted by Lulu’s as our new favorite Palm Springs restaurant.

But then the next morning we go to Cheeky’s…

My sister’s friend Michelle had RAVED about this place. She and her husband have driven all the way to Palm Springs on occasion just to eat at Cheeky’s.