Am taking a motorcycle trip in a few weeks.

Would like to know good eats (no italian, no steakhouses) in the areas I'm travelling to.

I'll start in Phoenix, then travel to Yuma, up to Lake Havasu, over to Palm Springs, then up to Death Valley and back to Phoenix.

Best meal we've had in Phoenix was at Vincent's on Cameback Ave. Both times it was excellent.

In PHX, try Lon's at the Hermosa Inn in the Paradise Valley area.

For the Palm Springs, CA area, try El Mirasol.

Had a great meal at El Mirasol, located 140 East Palm Canyon Drive (HWY 111) , Palm Springs, CA. Phone: 760.323.0721

Started out w/the Guacamole and Chile Relleno. Guacamole was velvety w/small chunks of avocado (EXCELLENT). The Chile Relleno had a very thin coating and peppers were great.

Then had a dish I have never had before and I of course have forgotten the name. The dish was cubes of pork that have been fried so they are very crispy, the cubes are then served in a rich sauce of tomatoes, peppers and onions. Of course served w/the obligatory refried beans and rice. TREMENDOUS!!!!! I put this on warm flour tortillas that they make at the restaurant w/a little of the guacamole I had left over (heaven).

There was no room for desert, so I headed off to my resort to laze around.

I’ve read that the following are good dining options in the Palm Springs area, hoping someone who’s been can confirm:

St. James at the Vineyard
Riccio's on north palm canyon

These or any other recommendations?

[This message has been edited by Sweet Willie (edited 02-01-2003).]

bump.....

Found a second location for El Mirasol Restaurant.

El Mirasol, 149 E. Palm Canyon, Palm Springs, Ca. (760) 323-0721; El Mirasol, 73325 Highway III, Palm Desert, CA. (760) 836-9028.

Both have been good.

This time I had the carnitas and they were outstanding.

Wife had the carne asada which was just OK. I must admit that in Chicago which has the 3rd largest Hispanic population in the US, a good carne asada is easy to find, so El Mirasol had some tough competition.

I will be in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area soon. Any places that I have to try?

Thanks,

G

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Gandalf:
I will be in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area soon.</font>


Cafe Lalibela (Ethiopian) or Cafe Istanbul (Turkish) - in Tempe

I have heard great things about the Mex food at San Diego
Bay restaurant in Guadalupe, but have not been myself, hope to in a few months for a motorcycle vaca.

In Rancho Mirage we ate lunch at the Desert Deli, located 69930 Hwy 111.

Desert Deli is a deli restaurant, not a deli where they are slicing your order in front of you, looks like a venue out of Vegas.

I had a combination corned beef/pastrami sandwich, both meats were quite good.

Wife had the egg salad / chicken liver served open faced. Egg salad so-so, chicken liver was very good.

We split the latkes, wife really liked them, just so-so IMO.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Sweet Willie:
I’ve read that the following are good dining options in the Palm Springs area, hoping someone who’s been can confirm:

St. James at the Vineyard
Riccio's on north palm canyon

</font>

Bump to confirm that we just (Saturday 8/30) had a fantastic meal at St James. I highly recommend it - but try to have a reservation, especially on a busy night.

I know you said no italian, but you have to try Castelli's in Palm Desert. The pork chops are a house specialty and they are unbelievable. They are glazed and grilled on a superflame with cubes of apple. The texture is like the best filet mignon you ever tried. The pasta they make is fettuccini Andreino and is creamy wonderful Parma flavor. Outside Rome there is none to compare. Another favorite there is the chopped cobb salad at lunch at the Cedar Creek Inn, and Sammy's for pizza or salad.

While we're entertaining PHX suggestions...

My girlfriend and I will be in PHX next weekend...I lived there for 2 years, she's never been. There are indeed a number of nice places to take her, but was thinking of 'A Different Pointe of View' at the Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs...Never eaten there, but had drinks on the terrace there once...

Thinking it might be romantic, and the view is top-notch...Anyone know how the food is? Would that be a good place to take her? (In town 2 nights, other night is a wedding).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JerryFF:
Bump to confirm that we just (Saturday 8/30) had a fantastic meal at St James. I highly recommend it - but try to have a reservation, especially on a busy night.</font>

good to know, thanks. We are headed there in January.

St James is indeed good. The bar area gets packed with friendly locals late at night.

El Mirasol is my favorite PS restaurant. Haven't found another place anywhere in the world that serves better carnitas.

For Palm Springs, two picks:

le Vallauris. Excellent all around.

Wally's Desert Turtle. The decor is in a realm of its own. (This is in greater Palm Springs, IIRC at the corner of Gerald Ford and Dinah Shore).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Nado:
El Mirasol is my favorite PS restaurant. Haven't found another place anywhere in the world that serves better carnitas.</font>

the TRUTH!!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Nado:
St James is indeed good. The bar area gets packed with friendly locals late at night.</font>

Finally made it to St. James on the Vineyard.

Very unique atmosphere. A local artist created curved, molded areas in various parts of the restaurant. There are also numerous Asian artifacts. If warm enough there is a small outdoor seating area with a couple fountains to drown out the possible traffic noise from the nearby Palm Canyon Drive.

We started out ordering a bottle of Saint Magherita a Pinot Grigio. At $42 a nice crisp white that went well with the dining choices we made.

Wife started with the Ahi Tartare. A little heavy on the wonton crisps that sat atop the circular mold of small cube Ahi. Fresh and good.

I had the eggplant enchiladas. Italian eggplant sauteed and rolled into three small corn tortillas with Italian Cheeses and surrounded by a nice marianara sauce. Good, not great.

For the entrée, my wife had the duck breast medium rare with a fois gras reduction. Duck was terrific but the fois gras was not really present in flavor.

I had a lamb curry one of a few “famous” curry dishes. Plenty of raisins, sliced bananas, cashews, a mango chutney with succulent lamb cubes made for a wonderful dish, I had asked for medium spice level and was only dissappointed that it did not have enough kick. My own fault really as the average diner in Palm Springs I’m assuming is not very gung ho when it comes to spice.

St. James was a very good restaurant, perhaps overly ambitious at times but our dishes were well executed. As one might expect in Palm Springs, if the restaurant has a nice atmosphere the bill goes up. Our dinner for two plus one bottle of wine was $125 without tip. St. James has a wonderful bar area that opens 30 minutes before the restaurant does.

St. James on the Vineyard
265 S. Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs
619.320.8041
menu & additional detail:
http://stjamesrestaurant.com/home.html

A friend of ours drove out from LA to join us in the Palm Springs area.

We waited for him at a place called The Beer Hunter on the corner of Washington Avenue and Highway 111 in La Quinta, not too far from the Renaissance. He showed up about 9:30pm and we closed the place down. Man it sure was nice that CA has the no smoking rule. It was a pleasure to be in a bar and not stink when we got back to the hotel. There are two other Beer Hunter locations, one each in Rancho Cucamonga and Catherdral City.

We are not really sports bar type people but I wanted to recommend it for those who like the ciders that one finds on tap in Europe, The Beer Hunter serves a cider on tap called BlackThorn. Quite delicious, it was my drink of choice the whole evening.

Duc Le’s – Vietnamese – Rancho Mirage

Duc Le’s I believe used to be called Le Basil as the bill holder still had this title on it and some of the smaller direction signage in the parking lot still mentioned Le Basil. The large red neon proclaims that this place is now called Duc Le’s.

Thankfully we were with a friend who likes to try new cuisine and he was not really familiar with Vietnamese.

We started out slowly with shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce, for those not familiar with the term spring roll, think unfried rice paper stuffed with vermicelli noodles, mint, shrimp, and some bean sprouts, SOOOOO much better than an eggroll

Seeing as he dug into those and was ready for more, we ordered the Bahn Xeo. This was the finest Bahn Xeo I have ever had bar none. Just incredible. It is a large pan fried Vietnamese crepe with pork, shrimp, cilantro and bean sprouts.

For main courses I had Bo Goi a beef salad over thinly sliced onion, celery, bean sprouts, cilantro and peanuts. Beef could have been not grilled for as long as it was as it was semi tough to chew, but still a good dish.

Buddy had a chicken curry. Again, low on the heat scale but still wonderfly full flavored. Wife had wide rice noodles with chicken and mushrooms, another very good dish.

While I can find better Vietnamese, it rarely is in such a nice setting, and I doubt there is better Vietnamese in Palm Springs. As stated the Bahn Xeo is the finest I’ve ever had, a must order for sure.

Duc Le’s
69-620 Highway 111
Rancho Mirage
760.324.4120

Best meal we've had in Phoenix was at Vincent's on Cameback Ave. Both times it was excellent.

Having just come back from a 5-day stay in Phoenix, I would have to amend the above comment. Not taking anything away from Vincent's, I must say that we had a really excellent meal at T. Cook's, located inside the Royal Palms Hotel. It had been recommended to us by the maitre d' at one of the restaurants at the Phoenician and it definitely lived up to its billing. The atmosphere and decor are very pleasant as well.

By the way our dinner at Windows on the Green at the Phoenician was also excellent, and I would definitely recommend this restaurant as well.

Cowboy Chao in Phoenix is worth the trip. The food and attitude at Medizona was great.