The Reef — Restaurant in Palm Springs

Let me start by saying that I have years of experience as a hotel front desk staff member as well as years working the food service industry, so I respect how much stress these employees encounter and understand how busy high volume restaurants can get. Personally, the evening women waitress (a shorter, middle aged women with black hair, if I remember her name was Lupita) and staff completely ruined by stay at the Caliente Tropics Hotel. Before anything, my family ordered drinks from the evening waitress and her attitude seemed to be like we were bothering her, even though we tip well above 30% per order. The service was slow, unfriendly, and impersonal. The Reef's hours on google are until 1AM, but upon arrival tell my family that closing will be at 10PM, which is understandable for a Thursday evening. Around 7PM, the staff says that they are closing at 9PM- no problem. At 8:20PM, my family stands outside the patio to order dinner, easily going to spend $160 or more since our family is large. Our waitress ignores us and keeps avoiding making eye contact. At 8:40PM tells my father and husband that kitchen is CLOSED! Not only is that bad customer service, but this waitress was OVERLY rude. We felt very upset since this waitress knew we needed service and had told her we would order in an hour at 7PM since almost all places in Palm Springs was closed due to Covid 19. I decide to go and ask the waitress, in a friendly manner, if we could at least do drink orders or some water and she told me word for word, "I can't deal with you. I need to go back" and turned her back in front of other hotel guests. Not only was I embarrassed but my family and I complained to the Caliente Tropics front desk right away. Upon finding out this restaurant and hotel are separate entities, their response was that this happens often and they will talk to the manager in the morning. I felt that both the hotel and The Reef gave horrible customer service and my family and I will NOT...

The Reef is a small hidden tiki bar in the old Tiki Caliente hotel. We stopped by for drinks and lunch during a Palm Springs overnight and really enjoyed it. The indoor space is small and loaded with plenty of tiki decor with the bar side having the darker tiki vibe and side opposite the bar lit by large windows. The outdoor seating is pool adjacent and it was 100+ degrees out, so we chose a cozy booth in the dark by the bar. We had the ham and cheese sandwich with onion rings and the coconut shrimp with fries. Portion are generous and it was a good lunch for the three of us to share. The dishes were all very good, but the onion rings were the star. I love onion rings and these were some of the best I've had. My wife had the Hemingway Daiquiri and I had the The Treasure of La Amadarita and a Three Dots and a Dash. The "tiki purist" in me might quibble with some of the drinks, like the Three Dots using Smith and Cross and El Dorado instead of a good agricole...but I won't. 😁 The drinks were all tasty and well balanced and our bartender was excellent. She has been working the tiki bar for just a few months and we had fun discussing the complexities of tiki drinks and rum selection. Favorite drink? Probably the Treasure of La Amadarita although all the drinks were nice. Looking forward to coming...

Update: as a mixologist, you shouldn't serve a 3 dots and a dash without the 3 cherries. The honey and allspice dram are not enough sweetness to balance out the drink.

We went here 2 days in a row, same bartender. First day my drinks were perfect. Had a 3 dots and a dash and a couple others. The second day, the only drink I ordered was a 3 dots and a dash. This time the drink was totally off. It tasted like watered down orange juice and maybe a little lime. I kept tasting it to see if I was mistaken or maybe it wasn't mixed well. Nope, it was plain out wrong. The barback "Cody" was great and politely took the drink back and told me he will have the bartender remake it. I waited but the bartender refused to replace the drink and didn't even have to courtesy to say anything. He had plenty of opportunities when it wasn't busy to say something or remake the drink. I finally got the check and I had to have them remove the bad drink from the check which Cody was graciously obliged. The bartender that looks like a generic version of John Candy thinks he never makes a drink wrong and was also being rude to other customers. I've been to a lot of tiki bars and even have a full bar at home. I know how a 3 dots and a dash tastes like and this has been the worst experience...