The Divine Dish

Cafe Amuse Provides A Bit of France in Palm Springs

The smell of fresh baked scones hits you before you enter the patio at Cafe Amuse.  This casual restaurant serves simple dishes with a French flair.  The decor and music also lend a Parisian ambiance, with indoor and outdoor seating.  I visited the restaurant last weekend while doing a story on the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Here are some pics:

Pan Roasted Alaskan Halibut

I ordered the Pan Roasted Alaskan Halibut, with came with a saffron risotto, sauteed spinach, asparagus and a champagne beurre blanc.  Very tasty.

Amuse Veggie Napoleon

My dad had the Amuse Veggie Napoleon which featured portobella mushrooms, pequillo pepper, eggplant, herbs de provance, mozzarella and a port onion reduction.  Also yummy.

Mom's Carrot Cake

We ended with the carrot cake – Chef Wilker’s mom makes this fresh daily.  It is really good and it doesn’t last long, so if you visit Cafe Amuse make sure to request it early.  I didn’t include any family pics here because unfortunately we were all still under the weather with nasty colds.

The food was so good that I met my friends Chris and Paul (owners of Palm Spring’s The Green Guys) for breakfast the next day.  Here are some pics:

House Cured Salmon Lox

Chef Wilker gave us this lovely plate of house cured salmon with huge caperberries, tarragon cream cheese and regular size capers.  So good I had to also include a close up of the caperberries:

caperberries up close

Chris ordered the French Scramble, three eggs with Borsin Cheese served with breakfast potatoes.

French Scramble

Paul ordered the poached eggs on toast which came with some nice heirloom tomatoes.

Poached Eggs on Toast

I ordered the Sunny Side Up-Town, a corn pancake with munster cheese, black forest ham, vermont maple syrup and two sunny side up eggs on top.  Delicious!

Sunny Side Up-Town

Yes, we ate all of that food and also had the beignets (we didn’t order these, Chef Wilken brought them over so we had to finish them off – they were yummy).  The beignets came with a cardamom creme anglaise and granny smith apples

Beignets

Cafe Amuse is located at 241 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way and is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Friday from 11 am to 9 pm, Open Saturday for brunch, lunch and dinner, 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday open for brunch and lunch, 9 am to 3 pm.  Reservations are recommended at 760/322-8880.