John Henry’s

Great restaurant, I recommend! I’ve eaten at John Henry’s about 5 – 6 times over the past 10 years. I’ve always ordered the lamb which is excellent. This last time I ordered the Great lake whitefish with lemon caper sauce. Delicious and perfectly cooked! The fish they serve are large fillets which are big enough to be filling. I substituted potatoes and carrots for the vegetables that normally came with it, no issue.
I’ve always opted to eat outside which has great ambiance with tables scattered under trees. In winter they have heaters so no problem if weather is chilly. When you make reservations (highly needed) ask for outside since the small inside dining room can be noisy.
Again, I recommend for great food, nice and friendly staff and outdoor atmosphere. I’d like to give it 4.5 stars.
Note: John Henry’s closes in June each year for the summer.

Invite your self to what I believe is the best unknown restaurant in Palm Springs
The hardest working owner and the best duck I have ever had never a bad entrée and huge cocktails trust Irwin with the lazy eye…

This place is great. It is hidden, we heard about it when the owner of Frankie’s Old World Italian Bakery recommended it to us. It is really quaint, the staff is extremely kind and attentive, and the food is great. We were there 2 years ago and when we went back to Palm Springs, we decided to visit it again. The day we went, it was about 7:00 pm and it was in the middle of a wind storm. We were just about to be seated but the power got knocked out. Even in the midst of the power outage, they were still just as kind. The power came back on after about 15 minutes and we went on with dinner. When we were done, we were given a free dessert because of any inconvenience the power outage caused. They made it up to us, even though it wasn’t their fault. This place is great.

In town for just one night and wanted a restaurant that’s not too casual but not too formal. Based on Unilocal reviews, we chose John Henry. Good call!
Ambiance: Very hard to find. Even having the address, we drove right by it on the first pass. And then finding the front entrance is even a challenge. You have to walk through the patio to get to the front door. The patio area appeared to be very nice dining. The indoor area is a bit crowded and very noisy. Some would call it energetic. Wednesday night at 7 PM and the place is packed with a 30 minute wait for first available seating without a reservation. We ended up eating indoors. Oh well. Definitely, make a reservation!
Service: Outstanding service. The server came to our table within 2 minutes of our being seated. He took our drink orders and answered questions about the menu. The food runner brought a basket of bread right after that. After that, service continued to be attentive and very friendly. We really felt welcome.
Food: We decided to share a couple of appetizers and a main course. We got the smoked mozzarella with red peppers. Came with a small order of onions on the side. This was an excellent appetizer. We also shared the portobello mushroom with spinach, feta, sundries tomatoes. This dish was okay, but would have been much better with less spinach. Our entrée was the prosciutto wrapped shrimp. 6 large shrimp (I know, I know — oxymoron) with glazed shrimp and asparagus. Delish! The entrée came with chop chop salad. An outstanding salad.
Value: The appetizers were under $ 7, entrees were $ 16 to $ 22, and come with a chop chop salad. Large portions. And delish. Great value. Sorry I’m leaving town tomorrow — otherwise I would come back for more (only with a reservation next time).

Good but not great food. Getting seated was a big problem. When you have a reservation and 25 minutes afterwards no tables are available as reserved, management is to blame, not those pesky customers who won’t leave. I could excuse this issue if this were a new business still working out the kinks but this place has been in business for years and should know better.

It doesn’t always happen that you find an outstanding restaurant that combines food, atmosphere, service and value but that is exactly what this restaurant delivers. We went here with friends to celebrate my birthday and we all had a great time. The rack of lamb is one of the best I’ve ever had and my wife’s duck was to die for. The outdoor dining area is so cozy it made the evening. I would have loved some desert but no room.

Excellent food, excellent service. I highly recommend. I will be returning soon. First time trying escargot, I was pleasantly surprised. The garlic sauce was amazing, my palate was very pleased.

This place is the best kept secret in Palm Springs. Excellent food tried escargot for the first time, AWESOME! I had the New York steak and house merlot, so good, my friend had trout very good as well. The service from Cheryl was Awesome. Everyone was Super friendly. A must go place. Very clean and reasonable prices.

Everyone at our table enjoyed their dinner. Not being from the area we just went by the reviews and were not dissapointed.

This place has been one of the staples on the Palm Springs food scene for decades. Not much changes even the staff. The food here is good but don’t expect to be wowed by culinary magic. That’s not what they do. They offer basic dishes that you would expect to find at any American oriented restaurant. They tend to over sauce and over dress many of the salads and entrees. Quite often you will find your vegetables overcooked. The real hit that most people enjoy on the menu are the desserts. Massively sized and enough for three or four people. They are very good and you should try to save room for one of them.

Exceptional food value here folks! Love the low key atmosphere very reminiscent of days gone by– close your eyes and perhaps the rat pack is at the next table. I love this restaurant and always tell my close friends to go there. FYI– you do need a reservation– this place is popular. The desserts are awesome! Coconut cream cake ala mode– killer!

We’ve dined here many times and last night was the first time that we were very disappointed ! Our server was awesome and very accommodating! The lamb chops and, prouccito wrapped shrimp were over cooked and tough! The crispy duck was very greasy and the osso bucco had no flavor! All of our meals were served with mushy carrots that reminded us of cafeteria food.
Please update your menu!

The whole experience was OK. Nice place. Good ambiance.
Entering the place is like «it’s my own private Place».
There’s no front door. You enter from the back gate and walk through the outside seated guests to «find» your way into the main «lobby»?
It’s all OK.
Once we were seated we kinda got forgotten about.
Somebody finally came and gave us water.
Our waiter eventually came and took out order for drinks.
Came back a few minutes later and took our order.
This is getting too complicated but it boils down to, one of the dinners was totally wrong and the server never came back until the end.
He didn’t really care but he did take that one off the bill. So that makes it all better ?
(He did offer free dessert)

Great all around. Excellent & courteous service. Delicious food. Great outdoor ambiance

excellent service! generous portion, beautiful patio ambiance, very nice/​have the rack of lamb and share an apple pie!

We have been coming here for years. Many times we will drive over and stay the night in Palm Springs just to have dinner here. INCREDIBLE. The best rack of lamb. Great value.
Small restaurant with indoor & outdoor seating. Service is great, prices very reasonable for the portion size. Desserts are HUGE… definitely you should split.

Iove my dinner liver bacon onion delis my wife had the mahi mahi w lemon caper butter sauce exellent my sister had the rack of lamb highly recomende service very profecional great time ill be back…

As transplants going back and forth from Chicago, we are always on the lookout for new options to add to our rotation and this place can now be added. Service was fantastic. Our server Christine was attentive and she had a fun and vibrant personality. I had the baked Meatloaf, other diners had NY Strip Special and Osso Buco. All gave the thumbs up at prices that won’t have you taking out a mortgage to pay the bill. So yes, John Henry is a keeper.
I would also recommend placing reservations well in advance for the dining out option. I didn’t care for the indoor atmosphere nearly as much and the patio definitely does have limited seating.

How did anyone rate this a 4 or 5? Look, I had an ok meal here but honestly it’s a 2.5 star place with a limited menu and average quality food that is more like what you would get in a local diner rather than a white napkin restaurant. And it has terrible art on the walls.
On the plus side it is a nice setting with inside and outside courtyard dining options, white linen tablecloths and napkins, bread provided promptly for free and great (almost overly attentive) service.
But the food is not restaurant quality. I had the rack of lamb which came with mashed potatoes, carrots and mint jelly. The carrots were from a can in sure as they were soggy and sweet. The mash was also instant I think as it was overly creamy with no real taste. The lamb was cooked nicely but the herb crust lacked flavour. The mint jelly as from a bottle.
Go here for a hearty meal but don’t expect quality food.

Went there on a Friday night at 7pm with a group of 7 other friends. Reservations were a breeze and we got a large round table outside. It was perfect. The service was ideal with so many people looking to our every need. This place was casual elegance personified.
I started with the Caesar salad which was $ 1 more than one of the regular salads. It was really nice-​sized and they gave the option of adding an anchovy (whatever happened to that tradition on Caesar salads?).
I ordered a special that wasn’t even printed on the menu: Italian sausages with peppers, onions, sliced carrots, and cheesy polenta. It was very good although the polenta was on the bland side. Others in our group had the beef tenderoin (melt in your mouth) and the escargots which I didn’t try but the «yum» comments from the other side of the table said it all.
Desserts were a major highlight. I had forgotten about the GIANT portions that are served here. The chocolate cake was virtually an entire cake, with a slab of ice cream on top. I split the «Cherry Pi» with my partner and it was plenty big for two people.
It was an ideal evening on all counts. The price was an exceptional value given the quality of the meal, ambiance, and the service.