Palmina By Puglia — Restaurant in Palm Springs

EDITED 5/27/2024: My husband and I have dined here twice while on vacation. We had such an excellent experience the first time (see below) that we wanted to have dinner here again. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed the second time around. I think Palmina by Puglia has potential to be a 5 star experience, but their inconsistency and other issues are major detractors.

For starters, we ordered the kitchen carbonara as the carbonara show was not available this time (bummer but we understood staffing and supply were not in our favor). The dish promised to have the “same taste” as the show so we gave it a chance…While the show had plenty of crispy guanciale and flavor from the mixing of the meat grease and fresh Parmesan, the carbonara kitchen was completely lacking in flavor.

We also ordered the same pizza as the first time and were disappointed here as well. The topping portion of the pizza was so salty it was off-putting while the crust portion was sad and bland. The elasticity of the crust was still great quality, just tasteless.

The best part of the meal was the rigatoni bolognese for which I only have positive comments.

Lastly, we ordered a delicious wine at $80/bottle. Unfortunately we found the same bottle at Trader Joe’s for $8.99.

While the service was friendly and quick - I would no longer recommend this as an excellent restaurant.

Spring 2023: Underrated. Had an excellent, authentic Italian meal at Palmina. The flavors and textures were incredible. It was hard to choose a favorite dish; truly there was no weak link. If we had to pick nits, we would say the pizza crust is a litttttle bit salty, but the texture of it was phenomenal. Our servers were attentive, personable, and helpful. If we were locals, we would eat here once a week. Grazie...

I read reviews and saw photos before coming as well as other reviewers and was prepared

When I walked in I was not greeted and when asked where to sit the bartender said “sure” ….. and they weren’t busy so not sure why the response was like that

I am also all about aesthetic and the brick walls and lighting really caught my on the review photos but when I walked in it was the bar first which was a bit messy and more like a casual diner vibe versus above the steps to the right was where the brick was. But this is all preference as I just like an aesthetic dining experience

Anyway, after I sat down I ordered the spaghetti zito (which is basically shrimp scampi). The waiter first brought out the “complimentary” bread which I actually giggled at (you can see in the photo why). I am a lover of bread and butter/oil and vinegar and would pay for it regardless but getting dry pieces of bread, like 5-6 total pieces, that was cut up as if to feed a bird was a little funny to me. I’d rather not get “complimentary” bread than have that

So from that point and the greeting I already thought the food wasn’t going to be good but to my surprise, I really enjoyed the spaghetti - It was Al dente which is my favorite style of spaghetti and the shrimp was chopped up which made it easy to eat

I am leaving 4 stars just because of service and the bread, but otherwise recommend at least stopping by to try the pasta. However, i just tried one and didn’t try the pizza and will look to try others to really get an idea I don’t think not coming to the restaurant because of the service charge is fair, that’s not really a “food” review The owner or chef did stop by which was kind but I still didn’t appreciate the...

The food here is just poorly made, not worth your time; we decided to visit since the menu sounded authentic (no mention of parmigiana, cacciatore or alfredo is a good sign), but everything was disappointing. At the door there was an odd man with a handlebar mustache just sitting there, staring at his phone; I thought we had just walked into a barbershop. The rest of the staff was attentive and cordial; our server took excellent care of us.

We started with the burrata, which was served freezing cold and coated in sugar (balsamic glaze too sweet). Our cocktails were decent although you couldn't detect any alcohol; they recommended a strawberry-flavored gin for the negroni, which was fine but overpowered the Campari, and the espresso martini tasted like a cappuccino left in the refrigerator for a few days. Most of the menu is mysterious...items either had no price or was set by the market, and the servers seemed to purposely avoid talking about it. We ordered the lobster zito, but they accidentally brought the spaghetti version, which was basically 2oz of pasta tossed with soggy tomato & diced frozen shrimp. The truffle gnocchi didn't have truffle on it; instead it was covered in chili flakes and olive oil, so it basically turned out to be spicy potatoes. The lemon cream cake was clearly inspired by IHOP: moist cake covered in syrup and supermarket icing.

The check was highly inflated; expensive cocktails without alcohol, expensive pasta without flavor, expensive experience without satisfaction. Nowhere in Italy or New York have we tasted such underwhelming and unimaginative pasta dishes. The restaurant was totally empty and it should stay that way; you're better off at...