Cowboy Cantina — Restaurant in Palm Desert

My husband and I went during restaurant week and my goodness, we were so disappointed!! Not only was the live music too raucous to hold a conversation and too loud for our server to hear us, but the food was truly some of the worst we had.

We both ordered a three course meal. My first course was fine, it was a southwestern wedge salad -- and it's really hard to mess that up. My husband ordered the southwest egg rolls and they were cold in the middle and came with EXCESSIVE amounts of guacamole. Usually that'd never be a bad thing... but it actually smothered his plate.

The main course was when things got really bad. We both ordered the skirt steak which came with a demiglace and truffle fries on the side. The steak was a disaster... it was overwhelmingly salty to the point where it became difficult to eat. The menu says it's marinated, which is well and good, but it tasted like nothing but salt by itself!! Then you have the demiglace that was served over the meat which is just ANOTHER overly salted mess slathered on top which made it completely inedible. That was the biggest grievance and the limp, under fried fries really didn't help.

Dessert... nope, sadly I wish I could say it made up for everything and at least ended this poor dining experience on a better note but it was just more mediocre food. I got a peach parfait with whipped cream, fresh peaches, and oats w/ sugar and cinnamon. I really wanted to like it, but the peaches weren't ripe at all -- they were very sour and still rock hard. My husband got the churros which came with a chocolate dipping sauce, and the sauce was weird and clumpy.

It's rare for us to experience a meal we are really this disappointed in, especially for the price, but we wanted to try something new while we were at The River. Sadly, we should have just went to The Cheesecake Factory...

Cowboy Cantina came recommended by mutual friends. we had no difficulty in getting an early reservation at four. We were greeted by a lovely woman. The hostess, a young woman never smiled. She acted like she would rather be anywhere but there. We seated the high level and our server was pleasant did not seem very knowledgeable about the menu. We asked if he had any recommendations and he stated we could look at the menu and decide what we wanted to order. We ordered the ribs and the flank steak with truffle fries. The food arrived timely and the ribs were very good and large portions so we split it. The flank steak and the truffle fries were cold. We didn’t ask to have it reheated we just ate it the way it was. The ribs were messy as you would expect them to be and we were provided with two hand wipes. Hot washcloths would’ve been really appreciated. There was no way that one wipe could take away all the barbecue ha ha we also inquired about any special desserts. He said look at the menu and see if there’s anything you recognize and having been the only time we’ve been here of course we recognized nothing and we did choose something which he said could be fun. The brussels sprouts as an appetizer were epic

The question would we ever go back there maybe with a different server the atmosphere did not appear to be energized. Very very disappointing as it came. Highly recommended as someone who actually knew the owner without. The server appeared condescending and arrogant when we ask for recommendations, which was disappointing. I really really wanted to like this place as we come to Palm Desert. and would we go back. ? Doubtful we can go someplace else higher end or lower end and still have very friendly customer service which is too bad. I really did like those...

We arrived for our 6:30 pm reservation and it was a bit busy, so we waited as our table wasn't ready yet. Not a big deal and about 15 minutes in, they said they were setting up our table (for 6), so we thought we were on our way.

30 minutes later, still hadn't been brought to our table and were told the people hadn't wrapped up yet (but I thought they were setting up our table?). They eventually brought out a free glass of champagne to tide us over, but unfortunately it was so bad (cheap?), it tasted like Martinelli's sparkling apple cider. I couldn't even finish it.

Finally we were seated sometime after this and tbh, all the owner had to do was come over and offer us a round of free margaritas and all would have been forgotten...but instead he offered a free round of drinks to the group of 40 year old ladies seated two minutes after us...who hadn't been there anywhere near the amount of time we had been waiting.

The restaurant business is tough, but walking over and offering those people drinks, but not us, was unfortunately the final straw. It was sort of like saying;"I'd like to see these people back, but you folks, with the grandparents in tow, you don't look as cool, so GTFOH once yer done."

This is a bummer, because my smash burger was good, but the 8 fries they gave each of us won't cut it as they move into the future. They'll need to at least double the french fry count they are serving. The server also tried his best to bring the energy and we tipped him well because it's not his fault the front was mismanaged, but I'm not sure we'll revisit or recommend CC to anyone....