Palm Springs' Meal Deals

Olive Garden: Americanised Italian cuisine

Palm Springs used to be a fun place for seniors to eat, taking advantage of the early bird specials at various restaurants. But post-Covid those days are long gone... unless you are interested in eating dinner at 3pm and finish by 5pm at Pacifica in El Paseo, one of the glitziest shopping areas.

Nevertheless, we managed to find a few delicious deals. One was lunch at Olive Garden, where on weekdays they have the soup and salad and breadsticks deal for US$11.49 where you get unlimited servings of each. 

Fresh salads were the highlight at Olive Garden

My first bowl of soup was the pasta e fagioli, white and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta. But then I made the rookie mistake of ordering the chicken and gnocchi, a creamy soup that filled me up quite quickly. I managed to squeeze in a third bowl of minestrone but was extremely full afterwards.

The unlimited salad is simple but very fresh, featuring chopped cabbage, slices of tomatoes, shredded carrots, black olives, pickled peppers, and chopped red onions in Italian dressing, while the breadsticks are more like pillowy soft wide sticks that are oily and sprinkled with salt.

Another weekday lunch deal is unlimited soup or salad with certain pasta dishes like shrimp scampi, chicken parmigiana, spaghetti or cheese ravioli for between US$12.49 or US$13.49, and the portions are just right.

Minestrone soup was choc full of vegetables

We also went to IHop for breakfast before heading to the airport. The menu looks like it offers a lot of dishes, but many are all combinations of eggs with either bacon or sausage, toast or pancakes. There's a section offering deals for 55+ diners, such as the 1x1x1 -- one egg, one sausage, one bacon and toast or pancakes. 

I had the 2 quick eggs -- two eggs, either sausage or bacon, hash browns and toast for about US$13. The eggs came perfectly cooked over easy, and a rectangular slab of hash browns that was decorated with two skinny (and fatty) slices of bacon, and two slices of wholewheat toast that were further sliced in half and buttered.

While IHop was good value, it was kind of sad to see the sign on the door explaining the hours had changed to Monday to Sunday, 6.30am until 3pm. When we went on a Sunday morning, the place was just over half full; it used to be bustling with customers, and sometimes we had to wait for a table.

IHop's 2 Quick Eggs breakfast

It seems Covid hit Palm Springs hard, and tourism is its biggest industry, other than healthcare services. Fewer tourists are coming, resulting in restaurants closing or downsizing, and the same with shops. Golf courses have noticeably fewer visiting golfers, which has resulted in fewer staff catering to them at the reception desk. Tee times need to be booked online instead of on the phone or in person.

Hard to say if the city will be bustling again... the people are still friendly, but out-of-town visitors are few and far between.