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Category: American (New)
73-595 El PaseoCoconut Shrimp, San Juan Shrimp and Scallops, Pina…
Mon-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
i had walked by this place many times over the years, and failed to notice it's existence. I don't wear Tommy Bahama and have no reason to enter into the store.
A friend who lives local took me in and I was dutifully impressed. it's got a nice tropical design inside and has a real comfort vibe to it. A nice patio the looks to the street below was inviting, but it was during the afternoon heat so we abstained.
There is an extensive drink menu that is way overpriced. i had a ($12!) Mojito that was served in a martini glass devoid of the mint it had been mashed with. It was okay-but the Tommy Bahama rum was not the best.
We had a few appetizers the Ahi Tuna With Guacamole and a Goat cheese with soy sauce reduction. As $15. appetizers, they were quite good despite the high price.
Service was attentive and efficient.
Overall a good place even though the prices are a bit high.
People thought this was:
Keeping this sort as we only had 1 cocktail each:
Waitress was PMSing
Drinks were WEAK as hell
Patio was nice - we had the entire patio to ourselves
Awesome bathroom!
Tommy B's always has a nice atmosphere but given the fact it was summer the place was dead as is every other place in the desert. The Steele drum player was rocking, my wife was loving the fruity drinks, and the food was decent.
Atmosphere is nice since it's situated on top of the Gardens of El Paseo. Try to get seating out on the patio when its not scorching hot.
The food was ok, but just WAY overpriced. I enjoyed my coconut shrimp, but not sure if it was worth $17. My bf had the bbq ribs where were ok, but nothing compared to the ribs at Houston's.
Anyways, seems like a nice place to just sit and have a few drinks if you have the $$$.
While I wouldn't really imagine myself dressing in Tommy Bahama garb - the retail store turned restaurant idea was not a bad one. Stepping into the coconut oil scented clothing store, I walked my way through peach colored floral button down shirts and straw hats, up the bamboo lined stairs where I began to hear a crowd of noisy tourists and local shoppers, all waiting for a seat in the outside balcony that faced the glorious snow-capped mountains that edge along the desert lines of Palm Springs. Luckily, our massive group of 8 had arranged for a reservation earlier, so we were able to be seated efficiently (our appt. was at 1pm, and we were seated around 1:15).
The menu was not much different than the clothes. Typical tropical style fare, with nothing too out-of-the-ordinary. Some of the main dishes that were ordered were the fried fish sandwich, burger, chop salad and crab bisque. I originally ordered a shrimp and arugula salad - but unfortunately had to switch meals. My sister did not realise that her chicken chop salad also came with bacon - and she is not a pork consumer (she thinks pigs are cute...go figure.)
The service was SLOWWWWWW - it took us over 30 minutes from the time we ordered until our food was served. Luckily we were entertained by some delicous and HOT bread and cinnamon butter - YUM, The food came in extra large portions (which to be honest - i cannot ever complain about) - but nothing again that was out of the ordinary. Flavors were like the climate you often see in palm springs - the same old every day, with rarely any changes. Good - yet predictable.
The bill racked up quickly, and we were a big surprised that we had all managed to spend that much money. I guess thats what you get for deciding to dine at a place that originally made it's mark with white linen pants and mango-pineapple lotion...at least the view and company made up for it all.
People thought this was:
Let's say you have OGS (Old Guy Syndrome)...you know who you are. You rock Tommy Bahama shirts, you pair the occasional sock w/ sandal, your golf bag contains head covers in the form of either parrots or martini glasses. Or, you're a female OG (somehow ladies mind being called old much more) who wears St. John knits & Brighton & you decorate your house in Tommy Bahama palm tree-style. Wow! You have arrived at your mecca, my friends.
Everyone likes to spend a few hours drinking delicious frozen cocktails outdoors (Jimmy Buffett built an empire on this concept). Genius genius genius. And with retiring Boomers, I expect this place will continue to be very busy for a long time.
People thought this was:
Whenever I am on vacation somewhere warm, I feel the need for a fruity, tropical chick drink - it just doesn't feel like a vacation without one. With that said, I always make at least one stop to the bar at Tommy Bahama's when I'm in Palm Desert(1-2x a year). The drinks may be $9-$15, but they are strong as hell. This experienced cocktail connoisseur is hammered after two.The bartenders are always great. There was one who after 8 months between visits remembered that I was from Portland, that my mother lives in PD works at one of the resorts and noticed I didn't bring my boyfriend that time. They see hundreds of people a week and he remembered all of that info and then some. I have always considered it a tourist bar, but every time I always meet locals, which is a good sign!
The food is good, but overpriced...but this IS Palm Desert and its location is on El Paseo - the Rodeo Drive of the desert and its a hot tourist spot, so with all that taken into consideration, the prices are really where you should expect them to be.
Great for cocktails
Great ambiance
Good for food
Expensive, but the cocktails are a bang for your buck considering how strong they are.
People thought this was:
One of my favorite places to enjoy dinner during sunset and pretend I'm vacationing in the Caribbean.
Great service. Good tropical-inspired food. Awesome drinks.
So the prices are a tad higher for something of comparable quality elsewhere, but this is El Paseo, and there's a reason they don't call this street the Rodeo Drive of the Desert for nothing.
The shopping center this restaurant is in also has covered parking, which another huge reason I come here so often, particularly in the summertime.
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I'm in Palm Desert this week for Demo 2008, a cool conference for geeks, and I'm trying to take a group of 6 out to dinner in town. (The hotel was cool and all, but paying exorbitant dollars for hotel food drives me nuts - even if it IS at a resort). We got a recommendation for dinner at Tommy Bahamas from the Concierge and when we called they agreed to take us at the last minute so we were in like flint.
The funny part is that we got general directions from the Concierge and headed over to El Paseo to eat. We were driving all over and couldn't find it at all. We DID find the Tommy Bahamas Emporium, but no restaurant. So we called the restaurant. My friend asked 'where are you in relation to the TB store?'. The response from the person at the restaurant, 'I have NO idea where the store is, I'm not from here originally'. We hang up, drive up and down the street a couple of times more. On the second pass back, one of the passengers in the back of the car notices lights on TOP of the building where the TB Emporium is. We pull over and walk to the building.
THE RESTAURANT IS ABOVE THE STORE! Not only that, there IS A STAIRCASE FROM THE RESTAURANT INTO THE STORE! Our waiter laughed when we told him and said that he wasn't surprised. Now
THAT'S someone that shouldn't answer the damn phone! We were one minute away from blowing it off and going somewhere else, which would have been lost revenue for the restaurant and we would have missed out on a really great meal!
Loved the food, the waiter, and the appetizers. The directions, not so much!
People thought this was:
I don't want to like anything that has Tommy Bahama's name associated with it, but I do love this restaurant. I get the ahi, and for $27, it's a very generous portion of fish. Desserts are large and moderately priced, as well. Cocktails are tasty and unique. Other dishes, however - coconut shrimp appetizer and scallop and shrimp pasta - didn't have such a great value, and I think their price could be a bit lower.
Don't expect anything overly amazing, but this place is worth a try, particularly if you like fish.
Usually have good customer service.
Ok, to be fair:
5 Stars for decor and ambiance...pretty cool Jamaican, Caribbean, tropical thing going on with the bamboo fans and whatnot. The outdoor patio is FANTASTIC if, and only if, the weather permits. And by this I mean, the weather is 85 and under unless you feel like braving the heat with the Mr. Mister spraying you to cool you off.
4 Stars for the service...every time i've been here the waitstaff's been prety friendly albeit they don't ALWAYS know what to recommend.
4 Stars for location...it's at the Gardens in Palm Desert which houses Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany's among others. So you can do your high-priced shopping before heading to din din. It's also centrally located to many of the P.D., Indio, and La Quinta hotels.
5 Stars for the bread...they give it to you with this wonderful cinnimon butter that's to DIE for.
5 Stars for the Mojitos...YUM YUM YUM.
2.5 Stars for the grub...this is where I have issues. TOO expensive for what it is. I had the Ahi Salad the last time I was there and it WAS a lot of fish BUT...really marbly tuna. I couldn't cut it with a knife!! That says a lot... Everything on the menu is life $15 on up even for lunch. I've also heard of a few people getting ill off the chicken (but that's after it opened) so who knows.
I'd say...if you want to have an appetizer, a few drinks, soak up some desert atmosphere in the eve...check it out. But for the food...perhaps walk on over to Sullivan's steakhouse...you'll be much happier.
People thought this was:
My mom and I went here for lunch while we were shopping on El Paseo Tuesday afternoon. I had made reservations for 2 pm, but we were ready to eat around 12:30. We headed up to see if we could get a table early...we only had to wait 10 minutes. Let me just start with their warm bread and cinnamon butter...so YUM! We had the Crab Calloway with Asian Slaw which was fabulous!! We both had the Martinique Mahi Sandwich which had a huge fillet of Mahi and fruit instead of the fries. The sandwich was a perfect amount for lunch. We finished off lunch with the Barbados Brownie which was absolutely amazing...you can't described how perfect the brownie was...warm and soft on the inside with a crunch to the outside. Just perfect! One of the best meals we had while staying in Palm Desert!
People thought this was:
I really wanted to not like this place. Seriously. There is this whole chain of ill-logic that leads to wearing Tommy Bahamas clothing: "I like Hawaiian shirts, but I really wish they were louder, more garish, and waayyy more expensive...oh, look! Tommy Bahama!" It would only follow that the Tommy Bahama take on dining would be similar.
And even though it was, I was pleasantly surprised to find great ambiance, and friendly staff. Our waiter screwed up, and made a decent attempt making up for it, but forgetting an entree is unforgivable.
The food was delicious, but extremely expensive for essentially "Tommy Bahama-fied" American cuisine. I had the tuna, and the sauce was delicious. I also got to sample some of my mother in law's ribs; they were tasty, and peeled off the bone with a fork, they did. All told, the food rates 4 stars. And at $35 per entree, it damn well better.
The staff was extremely tolerant of our son's need to walk around the restaurant, and the steel drum player added a layer of noise that helped not make our table the loudest thing on the outdoor patio.
But the waiter simply forgot an entree at our table, and couldn't make it happen quickly enough for the person to eat dinner with the rest of us. They tried to make up for it with a slew of free desserts (which were similarly delicious, yet unoriginal) but messing up that major brings the whole meal down.
Wouldnt wear any Tommy Bahama clothes but the restaurant was a good place to go. Was here for lunch this past Sunday and it was pretty good. First and foremost, they have an excellent drink menu. Lots of great choices and they seem to be done well. I had a Millionaire Mojito and it was very tasty I must say. The food choices for lunch were not that plentiful, but what we had was very good and delicious. I had a Chicken Salad sandwich and the woman had a Cuban pulled pork sandwich...and both choices were very good. Prices were ok for lunch. Service was something to be desired though...they were a little slow and our server just seemed to be working and not really interested in helping talk about the food or answer questions. Patio area is very nice to eat on though especially when its nice outside.
Ya gotta go upstairs for this one...the food is generally good...nice decor and plenty of out door seating. However, not my favorite place to go.
People thought this was:
I love this place! What better way to take a break from shopping all day. The food is good (not great), service is a bit slow, but hey, you're in palm desert. Things are suppose to be slow and more relaxed. Chill out and enjoy your drink and meal.
I love the cool outdoor patio seating (just watch out for the birds because they will grab your food off the table).
People thought this was:
This is a great restaurant - in a store no less. Has that Tommy Bahama smell. Makes me want to wear silk pants. Wait - I'm already wearing silk pants! Damn I can't wait to retire to Rancho Mirage and just hang out at this bar and drink $8 beers and $14 goat cheese platters. Oh yeah, the prices are OUTRAGEOUS. Still good though.
People thought this was:
When I first entered this restaurant I was a little concerned about the type of place it might be. I mean, come on, a Tommy Bahama's-themed restaurant? The first patron I saw at the maitre d's table was wearing a pair of Maui Jims and a Tommy Bahama's polo. I was pleasantly surprised, however, by the service and the food. Both were outstanding, and I'd go back in a heartbeat. To tell you the truth, even the cheesy '40s Polynesian decor had grown on me by the time I left.
People thought this was:
This isn't generally my kind of place. I mean who the hell puts a restaurant in the middle of a clothing store? Or did they put the clothing store in the restaurant? Whatevah. Bottom line is the food is terrific. The flavors are fresh, it's great asian fusion and creative. The tropical drinks are strong and it's a fun and festive place.
People thought this was:
Whenever I come to Palm Desert, I have to make a stop at Tommy Bahama's. Whenever I enter the restaurant I feel like I am in Jamaica (or what I think Jamaica would be like since I have never been there). Its really airy with tiki furniture and lights and drinks with umbrellas finding their way through the island drums playing outside. The food is excellent especially the coconut shrimp and crab cakes. Our waiter was also excellent and didn't mind taking a 100 pictures of my friend and I on our spring break.
People thought this was:
Always packed, reservations is a must! Food is by far excellent! Pulled pork sandwich is highly recommended and their seared ahi is well prepared. Its like transforming Islands into a formal dining place.
Ok, Ok. It serves me right for choosing to eat dinner at a place that is better known as a retailer that sells pretty cheesy resort-wear for older men and women. I know. Strike one. Secondly, it serves me right for ordering the entree that even the waitress told me wasn't that great. Strike two. But seriously, what is the deal here? The food was mediocre, the prices extreme and the atmosphere was not all that amazing (could be that the mist sprayers were spraying RIGHT on me and i ended up damp-to-wet by the end of dinner). The stars are for the waitress (who was right, by the way, and ended up comping my entree even though I ordered against her recommendation) and for the fact that it is a nice place to sit on a hot summer night. Go only for the cocktails. And bring your wallet.
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