The Tropicale: Retro restaurant in Palm Springs

The Tropicale Restaurant is a fun restaurant with neon-lit exterior and tropical interiors in Palm Springs. I came here for dinner with a bachelorette party with 4 other ladies.

We were seated inside, which had kind of a dark lighting but the interior felt very plush and fancy. Seats were very comfortable and had a fun retro vibe to it due to the neon lights.

Food

For drinks, we share a pitcher of sangria and order individual drinks on top. Please note all prices listed in this review are in USD.

The pupu platter ($32)

We order the pupu platter because it seems like a good starter to share and it also has a lot of variety from the menu. This platter includes coconut tiger shrimp, Thai chicken satay, Korean beef skewers, crispy tempura green beans and Shanghai ribs.

Strangely, the platter was the last to arrive so all our other dishes came first but we were fine with that. From the platter, I liked the coconut tiger shrimp (they only give you like 2 though) and the tempura green beans. The chicken satay, beef skewers and Shanghai ribs were too dry my liking.

Crispy goat cheese salad ($19)

This salad was recommended to us by our server. The goat cheese is crispy and served with butter lettuce and salt-roasted beets. It also has candied walnuts, basil and a triple orange vinaigrette.

Now I’m not a fan of salads or goat cheese, but this salad was actually quite decent and had some flavour. I liked the crispy part of the goat cheese and the beets.

Fresh egg spaghetti tossed with marinara & Italian meatballs ($28)

This pasta was actually recommended to us by our Uber driver. It is a simple spaghetti dish with meatballs, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, basil and Reggio parmesan.

This pasta is actually quite good and tasty, but not really unique (I mean it’s a spaghetti). It is also a big portion so I’m not sure if I can finish it as one person.

Crispy boneless southern fried chicken ($30)

We order the fried chicken entree to share as well. The chicken is marinated in buttermilk and paprika and served with mashed potatoes, Country gravy, corn, black-eyed pea and lima bean succotash.

The fried chicken was yummy and even though it’s boneless, the meat wasn’t dry. I usually find bone-in fried chicken is more juicy. Mashed potatoes were decent but I didn’t really care much for the succotash.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐

We had a fun dinner at The Tropicale and enjoyed our dishes. Our favourite dishes were the fried chicken and the salad, and we liked the pasta as well (just not unique, like I mentioned before). We don’t really recommend the pupu platter given most of the meat parts of the platter were dry.

Service was nice. I especially want to give a shoutout to Andy who recommended a bar for us to go to after and got us into VIP guestlist for free – you are awesome Andy!

While we were at the restaurant, there were at least 3 other bachelorette tables (lots of bachelorette groups when we went to Palm Springs in spring break). I think this restaurant has a really cool vibe and is great for photos with your girlfriends. We were seated inside the whole time so I didn’t get to check out the patio.

Sincerely, Loewe