Escena Grill — Restaurant in Palm Springs

Stopped in for Lunch today. Everything went very well. The service was excellent the food came out quickly and was delicious. We were very happy!

Since my last review below, I have now had the opportunity to go here twice for breakfast in the recent weeks. I can finally report that they do an excellent job at Breakfast. The menu items all exceeded expectations. Food came out quickly and Josh, our server was delightful. Hopefully they can figure out and improve their dinner service/menu. I feel good recommending this venue for breakfast.... dinner, not so much.

Recently reopened and have a new menu. I shared the persimmon and arugula salad. It was very good although the persimmons could have been a bit more ripe and cutting them so they were bite size would be nice. One ongoing problem here is that the tables inside, although new, are flimsy and unstable. When you go to cut your food, the whole table top is likely to shake and spill your martini or coffee. Bad choice of tables. I hope they figure out a way to make them more rigid. I had the BBQ Ribs. While good, I am not sure why they serve them with a big bowl of mayonnaise. Maybe this is something I'm unaware of. Personally, I would say ditch the bowl of mayonnaise and give me a piece of jalapeno cornbread. The coleslaw is basically tasteless. I personally would prefer a vinegar based slaw instead of the mayonnaise based one. My husband ordered the meat pizza. Carlos recommended going with the gluten free crust since it was more crispy. I think that was a good recommendation. However, with all the meat on the pizza, it came out very greasy. In addition, it was lukewarm at best. Finally I ordered a martini. I know this may be picky, but if you are going to put yourself out there as a fine dining establishment, get some decent queen olives. The olives they served were tiny...

Two weeks on, still stunned this actually happened. My party and I were thrown out (forcibly asked to leave while our not-empty drinks were removed from the table over our objections) - all because our server wanted to go home early. Yes, you read that right. We had 1:30 reservations for brunch. Arrived, had some issues finding a table where the seat cushions were clean, but ultimately we didn't care. We came for the views (which are lovely) and the brunch (which was ok). But just as the last guest other than ourselves made their way out, we were told, not asked, told to leave because "the kitchen closes at 2:00". Why yes that's nice, but the posted closing time is 3:00?

Basically, every other restaurant operates in one way, but Escena operates in another way. If a waiter wants to go home early, despite what the posted times say, he can just up and decide to force you to leave without...you know...telling you ahead of time.

The view is nice to be fair, but this is Palm Springs. There are way better views, and you won't ever have the horror of being thrown out for someone else's...

Very comfortable and relaxed, mid-century designed resturant with beautiful views. Extensive patio seating at both the front and back of the resturant, although a bit too hot to sit outside when we were there in mid-August for lunch. The lunch menu was pretty standard with the typical American Grill favorites but portions were large and reasonably priced.

The indoor seating was in a large open room with a high ceiling which could have easily included additional tables if necessary. There was also a large circular bar with various types of lounge seating available including both long curving bar height communal tables and curved couches for more intimate seating. I imagine the two fireplaces would enhance the atmosphere during the winter months.

Unfortunately the resturant closes at 3PM Sunday through Tuesday and is only open until 9PM the other days of the week. I guess no late night happy...