Palm Springs: Massive Portions and Good Value Dining Out

The memorably large signature chicken pot pie at Lulu's

During our trip to Palm Springs I was overwhelmed by the American portions -- the giant plates of food were really scary and to know that the people sitting at the next table were able to polish them off while we shared and still struggled to finish. Needless to say we took a lot of takeaway boxes of leftover food home.

Pastrami sandwich with coleslaw at Manhattan

Most memorable was the chicken pot pie we had a Lulu's, a restaurant serving Californian cuisine. On the weekends Lulu's makes its signature chicken pot pie, so four of us thought we'd try one each. When they arrived, we didn't think the pastry covering the giant bowl would be as big as our faces!

The filling was actually quite good, not too salty, but we could not finish. We all ate half of what was served to us and took the rest home.

We also ate a lot deli food, as we frequented two places in particular, Sherman's and Manhattan in the Desert. Both have extensive menus with every combination you can think of in terms of smoked meat sandwiches
, chopped liver, latkes, sandwiches, hot sandwiches, soups, salads and yes even desserts. Sadly we were so full each time we could not even attempt to eat dessert without the fear of exploding.

Rack of ribs, sweet potato at Babe's

Although Sherman's is probably a few notches better than Manhattan in terms of quality, but we liked the convenience of the latter and ended up going there three times. The corned beef sandwich and pastrami sandwiches are great, love the coleslaw, and tried the chicken-in-a-pot -- a massive see-through pot and lid arrives at the table, choc full of noodles, half a chicken chopped into three pieces, carrots, a matzo ball and a kreplach, which is a dumpling filled with ground meat and potatoes. 

This menu item is big enough for three people to share, two of us struggled to finally finish it, though the chicken broth was fantastic, flavourful and not salty. The chicken meat on the bone was not overcooked, and was nice to chew on bones for once! The servers must have been surprised to see clean bones on the plate!

Sherman's has cabbage rolls that are better the next day, and giant plates of thinly sliced corned beef on top of a wedge of boiled cabbage, and baked potato. 

One place we had a sophisticated Italian dinner at Il Corso, next to the Rowan hotel. As soon as we stepped in we like the warm ambience, high ceilings, the waiters not too snobby. Two of us shared the special of Dover Sole that was filleted tableside, two slices each with some yellow zucchini. A bit boring of a presentation, but portion-wise it was just perfect after having just shared two salads with three people.

We made room for this wet tiramisu at Il Corso

The branzino with a tomato-based sauce and olives was a winner too; the cioppino looked good, but the lobster was not fresh. 

We also had enough room to try the tiramisu, again, good to share, though it was on the wet side and not creamy enough.

Babe's BBQ and Brewery is a favourite and it's not hard to see why, again with the massive portions. There are giant sculptures of bronze pigs out front. They look very cute -- just don't associate them with food!

Three of us tackled a full rack of ribs and almost managed to finish them with difficulty. The side of sweet potato was actually better than the ribs, probably boiled before it was baked as it was not dry at all. The corn bread was disappointing -- crumbly and dry. Everyone took home leftovers that night.

Pumpkin pie was the special dessert at Billy Reed

Another place which is an institution is Billy Reed's which opened in 1975. It's a massive restaurant and yet the Friday night we went it was packed full of locals. It has an old school look with antiques and bric brac displayed all around the place, but people come here for the food.

The prime rib (10oz Billy cut) included cooked vegetables, a salad, a baked potato and corn bread. It was pretty darn good, and same with the special of halibut fillet that was breaded and fried perfectly with sliced almonds on top. 

When we came in (6.30pm), we saw other people already eating dessert, and the lemon meringue pie was very tall, two-thirds of it was the whipped egg whites with sugar, the rest lemon curd. Two elderly women polished off hot fudge sundaes in another booth.

Four of us (I ate the most) managed to finish a slice of pumpkin pie, the special dessert that day. It was spiced with cinnamon and surprisingly not too sweet.

Noodles, kreplach, matzo ball, and chicken soup

Our one and only taste of Asian food was after our tram ride and we each had a bowl of beef pho. It hit the spot and was so nice to use chopsticks! Mine had lots of tendon in it, and it was delicious.

Just before we went to the airport this morning we had breakfast at IHop. We were surprised to wait a few minutes for a table on a 9am on Sunday, but we were soon seated. Four seniors ordered the 55+ breakfast which is two eggs, one bacon, one sausage and one small slice of ham with hash browns and a pancake.

I had the quick breakfast of two eggs over easy, hash browns, two pieces of bacon and wholewheat toast.

I tried the pancakes and they are so fluffy. The hash browns are great with runny egg yolk on them...

Thank goodness we were able to polish off our last meal there.

Quick breakfast at IHop with toast

After we checked in at the airport, WestJet revealed there would be an hour delay. Good thing we had a really big breakfast!