Sense

Closed. Is now sasspers

Closed all summer. Phone disconnected. The website is still up, but looks like no one is home. Pity.

Still an incredible piece of heaven with something for everyone. I love the atmosphere, the wine choices and the food. The Chef is a bit of an outlaw and I love that he brings art and creativity to the food. They will accomodate vegan vegetarian gluten free– all you have to do is call. And the best part no pre-​made anything on the menu! Tonight I tried the Halibut and it was EXCEPTIONAL!

please refer to blog link…

Very adventuresome and interesting menu, but pricy and not consistent — for high prices, you must perform at a consistent high quality level — Sense does not meet that criteria. This is our fourth visits and the problems remain. The next thing is the noise. It is very loud; if you like that, great, but for those of us who prefer an atmosphere where you can talk to your guests, Sense does’t work. We were last there with a party of 8 and you had to move around the table in order to talk to anyone. Robby, the Chef/​owner, doesn’t seem to get it — he think noise is part of a successful restaurant. Our waiter made two mistakes with our orders and his explanation was that he couldn’t hear — need I say more… The bottom line is, in the desert, there are several restaurants of equal or better quality, with better prices and better ambiance.

Very pleasant chef who really knows his food.
Heads up… the times listed above are wrong. They are open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 pm until closing.

I was disappointed. The food was good, but not great. And at those prices, it should be great.
Good job on the remodel, though — the interior is very pretty (unlike the restaurant that was there before).

I have only been here once with my 10 yr old daughter. We had such a good time! Wonderful fresh, interesting food. Great wine! Awesome service! It’s my daughter’s absolute favorite restaurant… yes, she has good taste! Can’t wait to go back!

My mom’s been ranting and raving about this place for a while now, so I finally gave it a go. My mom would probably give this place a higher rating if she Unilocaled.
The atmosphere is bright, clean and comfortable. Our server was great. He gave us just the right amount of attention and we were never left waiting for him.
The food? It’s okay, a bit high-​priced. Nothing to write home about. But I like how the menu changes based on whatever is fresh, organic and seasonal at the moment. I left with the feeling of, I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it. Because of that, I don’t know if this would be my first choice for dining out, but I would be open to going back and trying other things on the menu.
I think I’d come more for ambiance and atmosphere than the food.

Our first time… looking forward to returning. we are thrilled to have something new and unique in the desert and Sense fills a void. Their ingredients are organic and extremely fresh. Service is excellent. Pricey but worth it, their menu is innovative and the ownerchef and servers are professional and friendly.

We decided to go to this restaurant for my birthday after driving by it a few weeks ago. I just loved the idea of it. We arrived about 10 minutes before our reservation time. YES, I made reservations. The hostess told us that we would be seated closer to our reservation time and that we should sit at the bar until our table was ready. We look around and there were 4 tables in the back and 3 tables in the front all unoccupied. The people who walked in BEFORE us with no reservations were seated right away. My dad asked why she couldn’t seat us and she responded so rudely that she was managing the restaurant and couldn’t seat us. She didn’t try to recover or say, «Let me see what I can do.» She just didn’t want to seat us.
Then the chef/​owner stepped in and said that my dad shouldn’t be yelling at her. He wasn’t. He was trying to figure out why they couldn’t seat us with all these tables available.
I HAVE NEVER BEEN TREATED SO BADLY BEFORE EVEN SITTING DOWN! THIS HOSTESS NEEDS TO PICK UP HER ATTITUDE BECAUSE SHE’S LITERALLY DRIVING PEOPLE AWAY!!!
They did nothing to difuse the situation or mediate in a positive manner. Especially as the owner, he should have made sure we got seated. ESPECIALLY since we had reservations and it was my birthday.
Needless to say we had to leave without ever trying the food. We are now at Mortons where they sat us right away on a busy night.
Sense makes no sense and probably won’t last long based on my experience and the experience of others. I’m glad I didn’t stay. The food was way overpriced, it has a crappy location and its closer to a Sherman’s than an upscale eatery. Good luck everyone. I hope you don’t get treated the way we did.

As a self-​proclaimed foodie in San Francisco, I was skeptical of Sense’s reputation for producing upscale farm-​to-​table dishes. My friends and I were more than pleasantly surprised with the variety, quality and value of our meals — not to mention the ½ priced wine! I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in search of a quality dining experience in Palm Desert.

My husband and I tried this place over Memorial weekend while staying in Indian Wells. I have mixed reviews on this one. It’s definitely trying to be a cool restaurant more like you would see in Palm Springs as opposed to Palm Desert so I give them credit for that but it’s not consistent. The outside vibe is like a retro maybe mid century coffee shop/​lunch type of place but that vibe does not continue on the inside at all! The interior décor is 2011 modern as opposed to 1960’s modern so I think they need a little help with their identity in that sense. Now, all that would have been totally ignored if I wasn’t paying $ 50 per person to eat here! Being that it’s sooooo pricey for what it is… it deserves a bit more critique because I could have gone to Fleming’s or Ruth Chris for the same price and had a very nice atmosphere and service. So, having said that… I ordered the pork chops which to my surprise tasted like a big slab of baked Ham. Now, I know ham is pork and I shouldn’t be shocked but I never had pork chops taste exactly like a slice of ham? If I knew that, I would have ordered something else. But, it was juicy and tender and the sauce and mash potatoes it came with were good so if you love Ham you will probably love this. My husband ordered the steak with a chipotle cheese sauce over it… it was also good. We have to say that there was a Roma tomato on the top of the steak which was the best tomato we ever tasted and we could have had a whole bowl of just that but unfortunately, you only get one :-(It was great though! There was also a chipotle corn chowder type soup that was really good.
The menu is over complicated and it’s hard to even tell what each dish is… there’s a salad called «Running Squirrel» and there are no regular labels or categories on the menu so it seems like this dish is serving squirrel but it’s actually a salad and even if you read all the ingredients, you can’t tell it’s a salad? I appreciate creativity but you still have to keep your audience in mind when doing this.
We also had our 6 year old son with us and there was absolutely nothing for him here unless I was going to order a $ 19 hamburger… we had to stop at McDonald’s for him on the way home.
Bottom line… I say nice try… food was good but for the money, I’d rather go eat at LG’s or Ruth Chris and feel like I was really out to dinner. Or Flemings even. At Fleming’s, my table is sweeped, my napkin is refolded the moment I get up, and it feels much more elegant. Here, we were seated at a high top table about 1 foot next to the back door with a giant handicap sign on the wall looking into the parking lot across from the bar where a TV was on. This place feels too casual for the money. If it was half the price, I’d try it again but I doubt that’s going to happen.
I do want to say that the server girl (blond hair, pale) was very, very informed about the food and a great sales person so they have that going for them and you can tell the owner and his wife were on hand and they seemed to care about what was going on. They were older so they probably have a hard time with the hip factor but I wish them well.

This was my first experience with Sense. The restaurant has a nice ambience. I know some might think it is a bit loud, I really like having a new place with some life included!
The people who work there seem to really care about the service and experience. They were attentive and friendly, but they miss opportunities to create loyal customers.
The menu was interesting, though I have to agree with other Unilocalers, it is very pricey. The quality is good and their desire to provide organic, quality product is admirable, but when the winter visitors leave, I think they will be hard pressed to serve a $ 25 spinach salad with chicken that doesn’t include a slice of bread or even an offer of pepper. However, their ½ priced wine DID make the entire meal pretty reasonable!
I wish them well, as I always try to support locally-​owned businesses, and I will return for that reason. Hopefully next time I will feel a little more «wow» and be able to bump up my rating!

In a word. Senseless! Only if you’re a fan of the under-​thought, under-​executed and over-​priced so-​called fine cuisine, would Sense make any sense to you. My wife’s mushroom soup was almost completely sans taste and my corn soup was inedible it was so spicy. Note to the chef: chocolate goat cheese on the beet salad that was nothing short of repulsive. Our waitress must have had a Denny’s flashback, as despite our disapproving looks, she kept referring to us (collectively) as «honey» and «sweetie.» It only makes sense to go grocery shopping before going to sense, because I guarantee you’ll be hungry after you leave spending $ 120 (for one drink each and 2 Salads and 2 Small plates total). It makes perfect sense to me to tell you that this place makes no sense at all.

We had dinner at Sense on 3÷24÷11. It was our first visit and we thoroughly enjoyed both the food and ambience. We were immediately made to feel welcome by the entire wait staff.
The food was well prepared, attractively displayed and delicious. Portions were satisfying but not enormous. Our waitress was both informative and accommodating. Sense is definitely a restaurant that deserves to survive (and thrive) and we’ll continue to return.

The Coachella Valley is a desert, and I’m not talking about the rainfall. This is a lousy place for food. And in terms of «fine dining» the primary choices are dinosaurs like Wally’s, Roy’s and Cuistot. What will happen to these places when their clientele «ages out?» And forget about ethnic food. While you can find good Mexican in La Quinta and Indio there isn’t much else worth going out for.
So I really wanted to like Sense. They are clearly trying to do a more modern type of cooking. Unfortunately it is overwrought and poorly executed. It is like an alien saw some late 1990s TV programs about modern fine dining and tried to execute without having ever eaten earth food, much less worked on a competent line.
First, the aesthetics are just weird. Black table cloths… really? Then a lazy Susan bread platter with nondescript, overly complex breads and compound butters. Eeek.
The menu has a weird organization that I could imagine some GREAT chef pulling off, but not here. It is basically broken into «Classics,» «Modern,» and «Tribute.» What are Tribute items? Not sure.
But the real problem is the overreaching. There needs to be a rule that says that a restaurant can’t try something complex until it has mastered something more simple. Basically like school grades. You don’t go to 2^nd grade until you are done with 1^st grade, etc.
What I am saying is that before you mess with putting strawberry sauce on halibut (claimed to be fresh but texture seemed pre-​frozen) you should be forced to show you can cook a decent basic piece of salmon with a light sauce. Before you are allowed to mess around with putting bleu cheese in beef stew… LEARN TO MAKE BEEF STEW. Even the simple beet salad had a bizarre purple dressing but the beets themselves were overcooked, mushy and a bit mealy. Honestly you would do better getting a package of cooked beets at Trader Joe’s and putting some jarred salad dressing on them. The short-​rib entre is actually a sandwich (though not identified as so on the menu) and it was reasonably tasty, though not worth $ 20 or whatever it cost. The salad that went along with the sandwich was massively overdressed, very salty, soggy and had giant chunks of black pepper.
Again, believe it or not I did want to like this place. I’d love to have a good, modern restaurant closer than LA. But Sense makes no sense at all.
1 star for the food, 0 stars for the value, 2 stars for the effort and grade inflation. Now back to school.

Sense has a hip, urban vibe and look that is unusual to the Coachella Valley, and the food is excellent.

Great, great dinner last night at Sense! Andy and his chef know ho to do it. Elegant décor but not too much. You feel comfortable and cozy but are prepared for a special experience. And they live up to it. Three main areas: The bar which is more open, the front which is more formal and intimate or the kitchen seating looking into the action — our favorite.
Started with the salad based on arugula, fava leaves (first time ever –they were great), radishes and raw beets matched with a nicely balanced dressing w strawberries — perfect for a glass of cold rose wine.
My wife is very picky about her salmon — grew up fishing in Alaska but when she heard about the Blackmouth King salmon she was sold. We both caved it and it was amazing. Got a video of chef and the fish that I will upload. It was very fresh and brought my wife back to her days in the northern state. Matched with great mashed potatoes on an bed of spinach and a citrus veuve blanc sauce that complimented the salmon.
The menu is creative, wine list refreshing (not the standard stuff) and the staff is very friendly, knowledgeable and fun. We will be back!

Sense opened up a few weeks back and I couldn’t wait to check it out so i headed there on a Friday night. The décor was modern with high ceilings and dim lighting. The service was good and the food was pretty yummy. I had a white fish over a coconut rice that reminded me of something one would eat in the Caribbean — I would have it again. My friend had the roasted chicken with gnocci which was pretty good, too. There was plenty to choose from the menu for all tastes. After dinner, we headed to the bar area where they were playing music. It was a bit loud, however, so it was difficult to carry on a conversation. There aren’t a lot of places like this in Palm Desert so if you’re not usually in bed by 11pm on a Friday night, this may be the place for you!