Tinto

Sad to report that Tinto has officially closed!
We dined here about a week ago and had heard rumors that Tinto was closing. The service staff confirmed that February 21, 2016 would be their last day.
Apparently Jose Garces has decided to close up shop. A new company by the name of Sydell will be taking over.
The new restaurant has been rumored to be some sort of American, Mexican Bistro named ‘Rocco’s set to re-​open March 4, 2016.
We will definitely stop by and check it out on our next visit to Palm Springs.
Really, really going to miss the tapas, atmosphere and great service!

I enjoyed early dinner with my husband.
Good place for light meals and a drink!
Every meal was good and devised well.

Went tonight for the New Year’s Eve tasting menu. Nice space though an annoying door to patio often left us chilly. Attentive large staff couldn’t remember which course we had received but we reminded them. Six stars for the food. Each of the four courses and dessert were flavor filled, interesting and paired well together. My favorites were scallops and acorn fed Spanish pork. My wife loved the flat iron steak and the flan.
A bottle of wine brought the total with tax and tip to $ 285.
We were not rushed on a busy night and thoroughly enjoyed the original and well prepared foods.

Mediocre at best. My friends and I went last night for dinner for the first time. We mistakenly had the «holiday» chef’s special, which included 9 tapas dishes for EACH person plus desert. Given that usually people only eat a few plates each, we were concerned that it would be too much food. We were assured that they were small portions. Unfortunately, that was a lie, and we left feeling overfed and underwhelmed with our overpriced meal.
Other than the rabbit stew (which was interesting), the lamb chops (which were decent), and the brussel sprouts (which were good), the rest of the meal was pretty mediocre. I have had better cheeses in pre-​packaged cheese offerings from the local grocery store, the fish in the piailla was, for me, too fishy to eat; the shrimp was not very good at all in either form we got it; and the bacon wrapped dates were super greasy. The desert, which was completely unnecessary was a pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin ice cream. Way too heavy for such an intense meal.
In all, I suppose I am most disappointed that we could have spent our $ 100 per person on a meal at a really great restaurant that would have been more memorable. Shame on us for not saying no at the beginning, but shame on them for not serving food that lived up to the price tag.
The atmosphere was not great either. The lighting was strange and I felt cold the whole time.
As others have said, this place may have been good once, but don’t waste your restaurant dollars here when there are so many other great options in Palm Springs.

Been here a couple times now. I really like this place from the atmosphere, food and service. Fun place to come with friends love the tapas. Chris was great!!!

Great place to stop in and have a drink! The bartender was super friendly and I thoroughly enjoyed my sangria. The atmosphere is dark and cozy, the service is great, but the menu is somewhat limited.

Me and my fiancé are having our (small) wedding reception dinner at Tinto, so we stayed at the Saguaro and tried the restaurant out with a couple of friends. My waiter (s) were very nice but a little space-​y and really pushy for my and my party to try the pri-​fixe dinner. They kept on mentioning it after a few times of us kindly denying. One of our drink orders got messed up. It was supposed to be a gin and tonic but we received a gin and soda. Honest mistake. They corrected it and comped the drink. But, the food was really good. In between a 3 and 4 star review.

Tinto is vey special, just like being in Spain. The managers Lea and Todd will do everything to make their customers Happy. The tapas are very tasty, we love going to this place. We are very impressed with the service.

Awful. We came here two years ago and it was great. Fast forward: remodel, new management, bad food, bad lighting … you get the idea. We planned a nice long anniversary dinner there and couldn’t leave fast enough. Will not be back. Good restaurants go bad, bad restaurants (eventually) go out of business. Sangria tastes like vinegar? Puke!

I have such mixed feelings about this restaurant so I’ll break it down:
Food: What we tried was very savory– pork belly, shrimp in a garlic butter sauce, chorizo (those aren’t the exact names on the menu but you get the gist). Pork belly comes on a small piece of bread topped with green apple– the table next to me described it as fat and greasy and that’s why they weren’t ordering it– but yes, it is all those things and it’s DELICIOUSSS. I liked it so much we ordered more (they never brought us the second order though).
Service: This part is such a huge factor for me. Like the food could be mediocre, but if service is stellar– I’ll leave happy. Not the case at Tinto. We weren’t offered that free bread bowl that they give– I know it because I saw other tables get it– and last time I went, they did give it to our table and we used it to dip the bread in our leftover garlic sauce from our shrimp bowl. So that annoyed me. Our server left the menus and drink menu on our tiny little table– I looked around and everyone else’s was picked up. I had to ask him to take ours. And lastly, we ordered a second pork belly and it never came. Much later, he came by to ask if we received it– we said no, and to cancel it. He said «oh I’ll check it. It might be ready. I’ll expedite it. And I’ll take it off the check.» Well we still never got it-​instead we got some quick excuse of why we never got it.
I am still trying to understand why we tipped him. But regardless, we made sure to tip the bare minimum. We live by the tip mantra of taking care of our servers if they take care of us– but this guy was a big fail.
Sorry Tinto. You have a great ambiance and good food but your server… how do I put this kindly? – SUCKED.

Short and not so sweet review — Don’t waste your time and money with this formerly-​great restaurant. It’s clear that Chef Garces is not longer a strong daily influence. The food is lackluster and lacks the innovative pleasure that we enjoyed in the early days. The dining room is getting long in the tooth as well — super white LEDs in the dining room dispelled any semblance of fine dining (think IHOP) and seeing the wiring hanging down under the bar tells me that no one is paying attention to the details.
Meh…sorry, but it’s clear why they scaled back the dinner hours. Somebody ring in the death knell.

This place was a blast. Delicious food. A great style of formal/​informal service, and a cool ambiance. The server, Allan took great care of our large group. He perfectly managed the timing and quantity of dishes and while they didn’t have the wine we wanted, his substitute selection was excellent.
Definitely eat here. You’ll have a great time.

Had breakfast here before we checked out of the hotel. I ordered the chorizo benedict, which came out sliced like pepperoni on the side. The food was tasty and the black truffle sauce was amazing, but I would probably head out to the downtown area if I had more time for more a selection. My husband’s food was delicious so if this is your only choice, it’s not a horrible one.

We were staying down the street and came here because the menu looked promising. Turned out it was Restaurant Week and the prix fixe menu was the only thing available. We were very hungry so decided to go for it, even though we weren’t thrilled by the menu. We should have left. The food was mediocre at best, didn’t taste fresh at all, and the service was not the best, even though the restaurant was maybe 30% full. We were charged $ 9 for sparkling water, which is higher than any restaurant in Los Angeles. We will never go back.
The thing about Restaurant Week is, the restaurant should showcase their best items so you want to come back, right? If this was their best, then everything else must be worse than this was!

Everything we had for dinner was delicious– do not understand how Tinto only has 3.5 stars! The vegetarian special was top notch. Chicken brochettes were interesting yet extremely delightful. I would give the mussels 3.9 stars– broth could use a little more pizzazz. Chocolate torte to finish our dining experience was exquisite– just the right amount for two people to share without feeling glutinous.
Only negative /​disappointment was that the patio was closed due to a private event.
Will definitely be back next time we’re in Palm Springs. Tasty tasty!

This is the first of Iron Chef Jose Garces’s restaurants I tried on the night of my visit to The Saguaro Hotel in Palm Springs and thought the food was decent, some flavorful but small in portion.
I visited with a couple of my good friends with a mission of trying both of Jose Garces’s restaurants inside the hotel within the same night so we ordered four plates to share while having a drink at the bar before moving to the next restaurant. The ambiance of the restaurant was chill, dimmed lighted and had the décor of an establish that caters to wines. The bartender was nice, had good knowledge of the dishes but however didn’t have good knowledge as far as drinks. My friend is a former bartender so it was a shock to him to see the bartender didn’t know the ingredients to two of the drinks that were asked to be made nor had he ever heard of them.
The food had arrived and for the most part, I was satisfied with our choices. One in terms of cleanliness and others in terms of ingredients that brought out more flavor than the main focus of the dish. For example, the sauteed shrimp wasn’t much to rave over but however had a very clean taste that assured the shrimp was fresh. Another example is the chicken brochettes, they were OK if I’m only to go off the flavor of the chicken & purée but it was the grapes that’s added to the dish that stands out and brings much more flavor to the chicken. The highlights were the pork belly and the chorizo mac n cheese. The pork belly and the green apples balanced perfectly creating a great taste. The chorizo mac n cheese was just awesome with tons of flavor. However, I wasn’t sure why the dish was considered mac n cheese when only the top had cheese where the rest is pasta, chorizo, bell peppers, and a red sauce. Now this isn’t anything big to complain about but wish it could have been called anything but mac n cheese since there was no cheese all throughout. It was very delicious though nonetheless.
Tinto is a restaurant that I’d recommend for a nice birthday occasion, anniversary or business meeting within the area as that’s the vibe and feel of the restaurants atmosphere. Judging from the décor of the wines, this would be a wine lovers dream and I’m sure they’d make great pairings for many of the dishes on the menu.

Me: Vacationing solo for the first time ever; wanted a slow dinner to savor without feeling awkward for dining alone. Vegetarian. Looking for good atmosphere as much as good food.
Tinto: Beautiful atmosphere on their terrace, seated at a glowing fire pit. My server, Victor, made sure I relaxed and enjoyed myself, and even created my meal by thoughtfully serving a series of three small plates of his choice (one off-​menu), and never a moment too soon. The food, every dish of it, was delicious.
My menu:
Gin tonic
Pimientos De Padrón — Salbitxada, Sea Salt
Idiazábal — Sheep’s Milk Cheese, Navarre
Off-​menu mixed vegetable dish
Chocolate torte
Bottom line: Victor and the rest of the staff made my night! This was the perfect choice for a comfortable, warm, tasty, lingering solo dining experience. I can’t wait to come back with my partner next time we actually get to travel together.
Thank you!

Came here for brunch yesterday before checking into the Saguaro, and we really enjoyed our meal on the outside patio. My BF and I got the bottomless mimosa, sangria and Bloody Mary option, which was only $ 15 and our server definitely kept the drinks coming. Before we could finish our current drink, he was already coming by asking us what we wanted next. This is usually not the case at these bottomless places where you have to hunt down your servers for the next drink. They even gave us a round of drinks to take to the pool area, since our rooms weren’t quite ready yet, when they say check in is at 4pm, they mean it.
For food, we both got the burgers which were delicious! High quality big slab of meat and I had them sub the Le peral cheese for cheddar since I’m not so into blue cheese. The burger came with fries, which doesn’t say on the menu and we were about to order a side of fries then our server said they came with it so that saved us some money. For $ 14, this is a generous order esp at such a trendy place. We finished our brunch with their homemade coffee malt ice cream, so delicious! This wasn’t on the menu but I asked about dessert options since I was craving something sweet.
I’ll definitely be back here if I’m in the area and recommend this place if you’re in Palm Springs. You really do feel like you’re on vacation when you’re enjoying their bottomless sangria, mimosas and bloody Mary’s and delicious food on their outside patio!

We stayed at the Saguaro for a night. After a long drive and chilly weather, we were too lazy to go far for food.
The décor is beautiful — a lot of different types of seating. We got wine as I was figuring out what to eat on Unilocal.I’ve been to Spain and a number of tapas restaurants recently and wanted more traditional dishes, not fusion (that looked like they had small portion sizes).
We got:
1) Smoked almonds. I’m typically not someone who would order nuts as a dish but listened to the reviews and they were right. These were amazing. We ordered extra to go.
2) Jamon iberico. Buttery and comes with some bread.
3) Octupus with potato. Very tasty and good for dipping.
4) Kale salad. This was the other big standout and balanced out the meal. Highly recommend. It’s light and has great texture.
5) Padron peppers. Came with a dip. Good as expected.
6) Bunuelos donuts. These were just ok. They were overhyped on Unilocal.There was too much going on. The donuts were too cakey vs yeasty and oversugared. There was also a drizzle and honey. Just too much going on.
4 stars for the kale salad, smoked almonds, and service!

I don’t know what’s worse; a restaurant that tacks on a breakfast program that AM staff doesn’t care about or the social media that doesn’t communicate with management.
I’ve had two great dinner experiences here. And just last week we had a lovely time in the bar and were really taken care of by Christian.
This Morning? Without hesitation I responded to @Tinto_PS after a Sunday tweet, complete with beautiful photo of a French Press and croissants. Perfect for a Sunday, I thought. They Do Breakfast!
But the absolute worst for me is seeing @JAdexter go from happy breakfast wife to sad about the overall rudeness throughout this disaster.
Upon arrival, we seem to confuse everyone. Yes, we were interested in a French Press. Yes, you have one. Yes, you have a «Tweet Account». Yes, we were interested in food but you didn’t offer. Yes, we paid cash because we weren’t going to wait another 15 minutes to have a card run. Yes, your price differential on menu is $ 2 but in guest’s favor (no real complaint with that, obviously!).
No, I am no longer interested in further discussion with Matt about being associated with this venue. We both made that clear to each other once he wasn’t hearing anymore of this morning’s experience.
Bye Tinto.