REFORMA: THIS NEW PALM SPRINGS RESTAURANT IS NOT STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
The Cost -$39 per person
The Atmosphere – One of the largest, if not the largest, restaurants in Palm Springs, Reforma is unique in that it turns into a bar and club late in the evenings and hosts live DJ and music performances. The restaurant has multiple rooms in which you can eat, including a front room that looks and operates like a bar with plenty of bar counter seating, a long shared table in the middle of the space, and some individual high tables along the walls, as well as a back room which is a lounge with a full-on DJ station. The décor of the place is more typical of a bar and club and not so much a high-end restaurant, with very unattractive floors and furniture. Reforma does take reservations online though at the moment, you can get a table upon walking in.
Palm Springs was not known for its food scene in the past but it recently has experienced a gastronomic boom, seeing an influx of new, high-end eateries and significant overall increase in the average price of a meal. One of the newest additions to the desert town is Reforma which opened in February of 2023, serving food from Spain and different Latin American countries including Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and Argentina. The restaurant’s menu is a bit all over the place with some more traditional Latin American comfort foods like arepas and a Spanish-style slow-cooked pork shank to dishes like pan-seared fish and a 48 oz. Argentinian-style tomahawk steak. To get a first-hand taste of what Reforma has to offer, we went for dinner during its opening month.
The Order – TJ Caesar Salad, Beer Steamed Mussels, and a Bone-In Shortrib Mole.
The Good – The best of the three dishes ordered was easily the Beer Steamed Mussels, though it wasn’t anything that will knock your socks off. The average-sized portion of mussels was served with three toasted bread slices and was sitting in a broth made from Spanish beer and saffron. There were pickled fresno chiles, chorizo, fennel, and baby heirloom tomatoes that were cooked in with the mussels and which all added to the flavor of the broth. While the mussels and the chorizo were good, the best part of this dish was the chiles which had a really great flavor to them. The beer-based broth was solid and went nicely with the chorizo and the fennel, a natural combination, but those flavors didn’t come together as well with the mussels themselves. Despite that, it was a tasty appetizer that I did not regret ordering.
The TJ Caesar Salad was the other dish that earned our Good rating but if you are going to name your salad after the birthplace of the dish (Tijuana), you have to do better than that. Reforma’s Caesar salad, unfortunately, did not come close to the taste and quality of the dish at Caesar’s in Tijuana, where it was invented. The best part of the salad, which was otherwise totally ordinary, was the homemade croutons, which were buttery with a crispy outside that still retained some softness on the inside. Otherwise, the only other ingredients were the lettuce, shaved parmesan, and the very average-tasting dressing, all of which did nothing to leave an impression, good or bad. To sum it up, Reforma’s Caesar was enjoyable but was nothing special.
The Not So Good – The Bone-In Short Rib Mole is a dish that the restaurant promotes as a “Featured” item and the pictures of it looked delicious, so I ordered it. The dish arrived at the table nicely presented with the short rib covered in a brown mole sauce with sesame seeds and crema artistically drizzled over it. That pretty plating is the only positive thing that can be said about the dish though. After arriving at the table following a long wait, the short rib was lukewarm at best and the mole’s texture and flavor were off – it was not thick, bold or flavorful enough. For a $38 entrée that doesn’t come with any sides and wasn’t even a large portion, the short rib mole was a huge disappointment.
The Verdict – Going into my dinner at Reforma, I wasn’t sure that any place that converts into a full-on nightclub after the end of dinner should be serving entrees in the $30-$60 price range, and after this meal, my opinion has not changed. The restaurant lacks an identity, is overpriced, and is not in the same league as many other Palm Springs restaurants with respect to taste, quality, or ambiance for the amount you pay. Let’s hope this brand new restaurant can turn things around and find an identity that works.