Best Restaurants for Solo Dining in Palm Beach 2026
Solo Dining · Palm Beach · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Palm Beach looks like the wrong town for a solo diner — a season island of charity galas, anniversary dinners and two-tops on Worth Avenue — and the assumption costs people good meals. Every serious room on the island runs a bar or a counter, and the bar in a Palm Beach restaurant is not the consolation prize; it is where the regulars eat. The six rooms below are ranked for one cover, not two. One is a sushi counter where the single seat is the format. One is a no-reservations bar where Palm Beach has eaten alone for two decades. The rest are dining rooms whose bars seat a solo cover on a short wait, serving the same menu at the same price as the table. None is a velvet-roped club dinner where a single diner pays the season tariff to sit at the edge of a party. The ranking weights bar and counter seat availability, walk-in tolerance for the single cover, single-cover pricing with no minimum, and how the floor actually treats one diner at the height of the winter season, when the island is full and the dining rooms are booked weeks out.
The ranking
1. Imoto — Japanese · Midtown, South County Road
350 South County Road · $60–$110 a cover · James Beard–nominated chef Clay Conley; opened 2012
Clay Conley's sushi counter, the best solo seat on the island; sit at the itamae and order by the piece. Arrive early.
Clay Conley opened Imoto in 2012 as the Japanese sister to his flagship Buccan, in the same South County Road building, and the sushi counter is the best solo seat in Palm Beach. Conley — a James Beard nominee for Best Chef: South across several years — built Imoto around a sushi bar and an open kitchen, so a single cover sits at the counter in front of the itamae, orders sushi, sashimi, dumplings, tempura and the wood-fired small plates by the piece, and watches the work rather than waiting on a dining-room floor. The format is the point for one diner: there is no tasting menu engineered for two, no sharing minimum, and the counter eats the same card as the tables. Imoto takes reservations but holds counter seats for walk-ups and the Buccan overflow, so a solo cover who arrives at the open or in the early-evening lull usually takes a stool without a booking. Order the sushi first and let the itamae guide the rest.
2. The Palm Beach Grill — American grill · Royal Poinciana Way
340 Royal Poinciana Way · $40–$80 a cover · The Hillstone group's Palm Beach institution
The no-reservations Hillstone bar where Palm Beach has eaten alone for twenty years; ribs, a martini, no waiting. Walk in.
The Palm Beach Grill is the Hillstone group's island institution on Royal Poinciana Way, and it is the room where Palm Beach eats alone. The dining room books out weeks ahead in season, but the bar and the small bar tables are held first-come, first-served every night — which makes the solo cover the single easiest booking in town, because a single diner puts their name down, waits with a drink, and slots into a bar seat faster than any group can. The menu is the Hillstone canon executed at the top of the group's range: the prime rib, the French dip, the spinach-artichoke dip, the hamburger, a proper martini, and the same kitchen the dining room gets. A solo diner at the Palm Beach Grill bar is not a problem the floor manages — it is the room's natural shape, and the bartenders run the bar like a counter. No reservation, no minimum; arrive, give your name, and the bar turns over for one cover quickly even at the season peak.
3. Buccan — American small plates · Midtown, South County Road
350 South County Road · $50–$90 a cover · Chef Clay Conley; opened January 2011
Conley's wood-oven small-plates flagship that reset Palm Beach dining; take the bar for the flatbreads. Sit at the counter.
Clay Conley opened Buccan in January 2011 and is widely credited with resetting what Palm Beach expected from a dining room — a modern American small-plates kitchen built around a wood-burning oven, in a town that had run on clubby continental rooms. For a solo diner, the small-plates format and the bar are the draw: a single cover takes a bar seat, orders three or four wood-oven plates and a flatbread, and builds a meal at their own pace without the two-person tasting math. The crispy octopus, the hamachi, the wood-roasted dishes and the flatbreads are the anchors, and the bar runs the full menu with a serious cocktail list. Buccan's dining room is one of the harder reservations on the island in season, but the bar takes walk-up single covers on a short wait, and it shares a kitchen and a door with Imoto next door — so a solo diner who finds one full can usually slide into the other. Sit at the bar, not a two-top.
4. Café Boulud — Modern French · The Brazilian Court
301 Australian Avenue, The Brazilian Court Hotel · $70–$130 a cover · Daniel Boulud; opened 2003
Daniel Boulud's Palm Beach room since 2003; the bar and the courtyard seat a solo cover with grace. Take a bar seat.
Daniel Boulud opened Café Boulud inside the historic Brazilian Court Hotel in 2003, and it has spent two decades as the island's most coveted French room — modern, seasonal, the four-muse menu structure Boulud built his name on, with a chef de cuisine running the Palm Beach kitchen to the group's standard. For a solo diner, the bar and lounge are the way in: a single cover sits at the bar, orders from the full menu and a glass off a deep list, and is served with the practiced ease of a hotel room that has handled solo travellers for twenty years. The courtyard and the dining room are the romance-and-occasion configuration — a solo cover does better at the bar, where the bartenders treat a single diner as a regular rather than a table to fill. Boulud's room is the refined end of solo dining in Palm Beach: white tablecloth food at a bar seat, with a hotel's discretion. Book the bar in season; walk up in the shoulder months.
5. Café L'Europe — Continental · South County Road
331 South County Road · $70–$150 a cover · A Palm Beach landmark since 1980
The grand 24-seat U-bar of old Palm Beach; caviar and champagne for one, with the piano playing. Sit at the bar.
Café L'Europe has held its landmark corner on South County Road since 1980, and its 24-seat U-shaped bar is the grandest solo seat in Palm Beach — a French-continental piano bar where a single diner orders scrambled eggs and caviar or the Grand Marnier soufflé and watches old-island society play out across the horseshoe. The bar is a destination in its own right, separate from the formal dining room, and a solo cover is its natural occupant: the caviar service, the champagne list and the piano are configured for a diner who wants theatre without a companion. It is the most expensive bar seat on this list once the caviar lands, but a single cover pays the per-plate price with no minimum, and the bartenders have run this bar for decades. Take a stool at the U, order a glass of champagne and the caviar, and let the room do the rest. The dining room is for the anniversary table; the bar is for one.
6. Meat Market — Steakhouse · Bradley Place
191 Bradley Place · $80–$150 a cover · Contemporary steakhouse, the Miami original's island outpost
A modern steakhouse with a proper bar; a single prime cut and the truffled deviled eggs, eaten at the bar. Sit bar-side.
Meat Market brought its contemporary-steakhouse format from Miami's Lincoln Road to 191 Bradley Place, and unlike the old-guard chophouses it runs a real bar and lounge that works for a solo cover. A single diner takes a bar seat, orders one prime cut — the kitchen will plate a single steak without the side-sharing the format usually assumes — and the truffled deviled eggs the room is known for, and eats off the full menu with a cocktail list built for the bar. The steakhouse is the hardest format to do alone, because it is engineered around the shared table and the carving of a large cut, but Meat Market's bar is the exception: the bartenders are used to the single business traveller and the season regular eating alone, and the room paces a bar cover at the cadence of the tables. Sit bar-side, order one cut and one starter, and skip the dining room, where a solo diner reads as the empty chair at a steak table.
Avoid for solo dining
Renato's — Via Mizner. Renato's is the island's hidden-courtyard Italian, a candlelit two-top room down a Worth Avenue passage that exists for the anniversary and the proposal. The seating, the lighting and the pace are all built around the couple, and a solo cover at a courtyard table for two is the one configuration the room cannot make comfortable. Book Renato's for a romantic evening; take the solo dinner to the Palm Beach Grill bar.
Bice — Via Mizner. Bice is the see-and-be-seen Italian on Via Mizner, a high-season scene room where the point is the table, the crowd and the entrance. A solo diner here pays the scene tariff to sit at the edge of other people's parties; the room is configured around the large group and the social table, not the single cover. The food is fine, but the format fights a solo evening — eat at a bar instead.
La Goulue — Royal Poinciana Plaza. La Goulue is the Parisian-brasserie transplant in the Royal Poinciana Plaza, a banquette-and-mirror room built for the lunch crowd and the couple at dinner. The banquette seating and the social register make a solo dinner awkward — the room runs on the two-top and the four-top, and a single cover lands at a banquette meant for company. Go for a glass at the bar; take the meal elsewhere.
Reservation strategy for a Palm Beach solo dinner
The single most useful fact for a solo diner in Palm Beach is that the best bar in town takes no reservation at all. The Palm Beach Grill holds its bar and bar tables first-come, first-served every night, even at the height of the season when its dining room is booked weeks out — so a single cover simply arrives, gives a name at the host stand, waits with a drink, and takes a bar seat that turns over faster for one than for any group. There is no booking to fight for; the only tactic is to come at the open or after the first dining-room turn, when the bar clears.
Imoto and Buccan are the counter-and-bar play. Both take reservations for their dining rooms — which are among the harder bookings on the island in season — but both hold counter and bar seats for walk-ups, and because they share a building and a kitchen, a solo diner who finds one full can usually take a seat at the other. The move is to arrive at the 5:30 open or in the early-evening lull, ask for the Imoto sushi counter or the Buccan bar specifically, and skip the dining-room reservation entirely.
Café Boulud and Café L'Europe are the bar-seat-in-a-grand-room play. Their dining rooms want a reservation, especially in the winter season, but their bars — Boulud's lounge and Café L'Europe's 24-seat U — seat a solo cover off the full menu, on a walk-up in the shoulder months and a short wait in season. Meat Market's bar takes the same approach. The rule for Palm Beach holds across all six: book nothing, take the bar seat, and a single cover eats the same meal as the table without the season's reservation war.
Frequently asked
What is the best Palm Beach restaurant for a solo diner?
Imoto at 350 South County Road. Clay Conley's sushi counter is the single best solo seat on the island — a single cover sits at the bar in front of the itamae, orders sushi and small plates by the piece, and eats the same menu as the four-top. Arrive early for a counter seat without a reservation.
Can I walk into a Palm Beach restaurant alone without a reservation?
Yes — The Palm Beach Grill keeps its bar first-come, first-served every night, even when the dining room is booked out. Imoto's sushi counter and Café L'Europe's U-shaped bar also take walk-up single covers in the off-peak windows. The dining rooms want a booking; the bars do not.
What is the best Palm Beach bar seat for eating alone?
The Palm Beach Grill bar for the Hillstone classics and a martini, or Café L'Europe's 24-seat U-bar for caviar and champagne with the piano playing. The Palm Beach Grill is where the island's regulars eat alone; Café L'Europe is the grander, more theatrical solo seat. Both serve one cover without the wait a table faces.
How much does it cost to eat alone in Palm Beach?
A bar dinner runs $40 to $150 a cover. The Palm Beach Grill is the value end at $40 to $80; Imoto and Buccan land at $50 to $110; Café Boulud is $70 to $130; Café L'Europe runs $70 to $150 with caviar; Meat Market's prime cuts push $80 to $150. A single cover pays the per-plate price with no minimum.
What should I order eating alone at a Palm Beach counter?
The sushi and dumplings at Imoto; the prime rib or French dip at The Palm Beach Grill; the wood-oven small plates at Buccan; the seasonal market menu at Café Boulud; the scrambled eggs and caviar at Café L'Europe; a single prime cut and the truffled deviled eggs at Meat Market. Each is a single-cover order at the bar or counter.
Is Palm Beach good for solo dining?
Better than its reputation. The island reads as a couples-and-clubs town, but every serious room runs a real bar or counter, and a solo diner who sits at the bar eats as well as anyone at a table. Take the bar seat at Imoto, The Palm Beach Grill, Buccan or Café L'Europe rather than booking the dining room.
Related rankings
Featured in
- Palm Beach dining guide
- Best for solo dining worldwide
- Best steakhouses worldwide
- The full RFK rankings index
Affiliate disclosure: RFK earns a commission on bookings made through partner platforms (Tock, Resy, OpenTable, SevenRooms) marked with a "Reserve" link. The Palm Beach Grill takes no reservations and carries no booking partner. Sponsored listings are clearly marked with a Sponsored badge and are not eligible for editorial ranking. The six rooms on this list were ranked editorially and no booking partner influenced the order.