Best Restaurants for Solo Dining in Palm Springs 2026
Solo dining · Palm Springs · 6 bars and counters ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 10, 2026 · Updated June 10, 2026
Palm Springs is a town of romantic patios and power tables, which is exactly why the bar seat is the smartest move here for one. The desert’s best kitchens—Workshop’s fire-cooking, Bar Cecil’s bistro, Mr. Lyons’ steakhouse—all run bars where a solo diner gets the full menu, a serious cocktail, and none of the “just one?” energy of a candlelit two-top. These six are ranked for how good the food is and how naturally a party of one pulls up to the bar.
1.Workshop Kitchen + Bar
Farm-to-fire American · Uptown · mains ~$30–55
Chef Michael Beckman runs Workshop Kitchen + Bar at 800 North Palm Canyon Drive in Uptown, the first Palm Springs kitchen to earn James Beard recognition and still the desert’s wood-fire benchmark. The dramatic concrete room is built around a long bar, which is where a solo diner wants to be: the full farm-to-fire menu, an excellent cocktail list, and a clear view of the kitchen. It is the rare desert room where eating alone at the bar feels like the insider move, not the consolation.
Reserve a bar seat on Resy, or walk up for a single stool; the bar is the most available inventory midweek and seats solo diners fastest.
Sit at the bar for the desert’s best solo dinner. | Skip it if you want patio breeze; the drama here is the indoor room.
2.Bar Cecil
French bistro · South Palm Canyon · pork chop ~$48, caviar martini $50
Bar Cecil at 1555 South Palm Canyon Drive is the hardest reservation in the California desert: maximalist art on every wall, a $50 tableside caviar martini, and a pork chop that reset what the city expects from a bistro. The tables book out weeks ahead, but the bar is the solo diner’s loophole—walk up, take a stool, and order the same menu in the same room without the wait. It is the most stylish bar seat in town.
Walk in for a bar seat (the bar is largely first-come), or book a table on Resy well ahead; single diners do best at the bar.
Take a bar stool for the best solo seat at the desert’s hottest room. | Skip it if you need a guaranteed table; the bar runs walk-in and busy.
3.Mr. Lyons
Steakhouse · South Palm Canyon · king-cut ribeye ~$62
Mr. Lyons at 233 East Palm Canyon Drive is the desert’s original power steakhouse, renovated but undiminished, where the king-cut ribeye and a stiff martini are the whole point. The bar is a destination in its own right—dark, clubby, made for a solo diner who wants a serious steak and a serious drink without a white-tablecloth table. A party of one at this bar reads as a regular, not a straggler.
Walk in for a bar seat, or book a table on Resy; the bar takes walk-up single diners all evening.
Sit at the bar for a solo steak-and-martini night. | Skip it if you want light or cheap; this is a rich, classic steakhouse.
4.Bar Issi
Coastal Italian · Uptown · pastas ~$24–34, pizza ~$22
Bar Issi sits inside the Thompson Palm Springs at 414 North Palm Canyon Drive, a 180-seat coastal-Italian room with house-made pastas, wood-fired pizzas, a raw bar and hibiscus cosmos in coupe glasses. The bar and raw bar are the solo seats: order the radiatori in lamb bolognese or a few oysters, a cocktail, and let the hotel-bar buzz carry the evening. It is the most relaxed of the polished solo options in town.
Walk in for a bar or raw-bar seat, or book a table on OpenTable; single diners are placed at the bar quickly.
Take the raw bar for a breezy solo Italian dinner. | Skip it if you want intimacy; the hotel room is big and lively.
5.Rooster and the Pig
Vietnamese · Downtown · shaking beef ~$28
Rooster and the Pig is the family-run Vietnamese room at 356 South Indian Canyon Drive that USA Today named among the top 47 restaurants in America, and lines form before the 5pm opening for the shaking beef and turmeric black cod. It is casual, counter-friendly and built for fast turnover, which makes it the easiest serious solo dinner in Palm Springs: a single diner is seated quickly and treated exactly like everyone else.
No reservations: arrive before the 5pm open to be near the front of the line; single diners are seated fastest.
Come for the best-value great solo dinner in town. | Skip it if you hate a wait; the line is part of the deal.
6.Birba
Italian · Uptown · wood-fired pizza ~$18–24
Birba at 622 North Palm Canyon Drive has run a twinkly Uptown patio since 2011, with wood-fired Milanese-style pizza, handmade pastas and creative cocktails. The patio is famously romantic, but the bar is the solo seat: a thin-crust pizza, a well-made drink, and a front-row view of one of the liveliest corners in town. A party of one at the Birba bar is never the odd one out—the bar is its own scene.
Walk up for a bar seat (the bar holds walk-ins), or book the patio on Resy; single diners do best at the bar.
Sit at the bar for a lively solo pizza-and-cocktail night. | Skip it if you want the romantic patio; that’s a two-top affair.
Avoid for solo dining
Skip 4 Saints alone: the Michelin-recommended rooftop on the seventh floor of the Kimpton Rowan is a 270-degree-view power table with prices as lofty as the address, choreographed to close deals and mark occasions; there is a bar, but the whole room is built around the celebratory two-top a solo diner isn’t bringing.
And skip Johannes for eating solo. Chef Johannes Bacher’s Austrian-Californian fine dining at 196 South Indian Canyon is white-tablecloth, classically plated and table-service throughout; there is no bar to fall back on, and the format is built for a seated, multi-course dinner shared with company.
Booking a solo seat in Palm Springs
The desert’s structural quirk is that its hottest rooms keep their bars largely walk-in. Bar Cecil and Mr. Lyons book out their tables weeks ahead but seat solo diners at the bar on the night, and Birba and Bar Issi hold bar and raw-bar seats for walk-ups. Workshop takes bar reservations on Resy where single seats clear latest, and Rooster and the Pig is no-reservations with a line before opening. The citywide rule: ask for the bar, not a table, and arrive at opening or after 9pm to beat the crowd.
Frequently asked
What is the best restaurant for eating alone in Palm Springs?
Workshop Kitchen + Bar, for the bar seat: chef Michael Beckman’s James Beard-honoured fire kitchen at 800 North Palm Canyon Drive is the desert’s best cooking, and its long concrete bar is built for a solo diner with the full menu and a great cocktail. For the most stylish solo seat the same night, Bar Cecil’s bar is the walk-in way into the hardest reservation in town.
Is it weird to eat at a nice restaurant alone in Palm Springs?
Not at the bars on this list. Workshop, Bar Cecil, Mr. Lyons and Bar Issi all run bars where a solo diner orders the full menu and fits right in, and Rooster and the Pig is casual enough that a party of one never stands out. The rooms that feel awkward solo are the rooftop power table and the white-tablecloth fine-dining ones, which we list above.
How much does solo dining cost in Palm Springs?
The range is wide. A counter dinner at Rooster and the Pig or a Birba pizza runs roughly $20–40, Bar Issi’s pastas land near $24–34, and Workshop’s mains sit around $30–55. At the top, Bar Cecil’s pork chop is about $48 (the caviar martini adds $50) and Mr. Lyons’ king-cut ribeye runs near $62. A solo diner can eat well here for under $40 or trade up at the steakhouse bar.
Which Palm Springs restaurants take walk-ins for one?
Bar Cecil and Mr. Lyons keep their bars largely walk-in even when the tables are booked, Birba and Bar Issi hold bar and raw-bar seats for walk-ups, and Rooster and the Pig takes no reservations at all. Workshop is best with a bar reservation on Resy, though single seats clear latest.
Does Palm Springs have bar seating for solo diners?
Yes, and it is the smart play here. Workshop has a long concrete bar, Mr. Lyons a clubby steakhouse bar, Bar Issi a raw bar, and Bar Cecil and Birba both run bars that double as the city’s best people-watching. In a town built on patios and power tables, the bar is where a party of one eats best.
Keep planning: Palm Springs dining guide · best restaurants for solo dining · solo dining in Perth · solo dining in Atlanta · solo dining in San Antonio · the full RFK rankings index
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team. Reader-supported: some reservation links are affiliate links with no cost to you, and a link never buys a place on a ranking. See our ranking methodology.