Antonello Zito is an award-winning Italian chef, recognized for his skills in pizza making and his participation in culinary competitions.
5
Our dinner at Palmina by Puglia was absolutely incredible! From the moment we arrived, the entire experience felt like we had been transported back to Italy. The food was delicious, authentic, and clearly made with so much care and passion.
The owner was incredibly attentive and kind, which made the evening even more special. You can truly feel how passionate they are about their cuisine and their guests. That level of hospitality is rare and so appreciated.
Every member of the staff took wonderful care of us, and the service was just as impressive as the food. It was a memorable dining experience from start to finish.
We will absolutely be returning the next time we’re in Palm Springs. Thank you for such a fantastic evening!
This is a hidden gem! We brought a dinner party of 18 on a Saturday night and felt absolutely dotted-on. The food was fantastic, the service was if you were visiting family - so kind and attentive. Our party explored a lot of the menu and everyone raved - which is not easy to do w/ a group that big. Go for a birthday and get the Tiramisu - it's amazing! Thank you to Antonello for a fantastic evening!!
I will start my review by saying this is the best pizza I've ever had in my life. I had the Margherita pizza and it was delicious. The basil, the mozzarella, the sauce, the crust- all of it was delicious. Additionally, every member of the staff was amazing, and treated us like members of their family. The restaurant was clean and a nice cool reprieve from the 100° day. Unfortunately, I live 4 hours away and cannot visit on a regular basis, but I will for sure be stopping by again when I'm back in town.
EDITED 5/27/2024:
My husband and I have dined here twice while on vacation. We had such an excellent experience the first time (see below) that we wanted to have dinner here again. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed the second time around. I think Palmina by Puglia has potential to be a 5 star experience, but their inconsistency and other issues are major detractors.
For starters, we ordered the kitchen carbonara as the carbonara show was not available this time (bummer but we understood staffing and supply were not in our favor). The dish promised to have the “same taste” as the show so we gave it a chance…While the show had plenty of crispy guanciale and flavor from the mixing of the meat grease and fresh Parmesan, the carbonara kitchen was completely lacking in flavor.
We also ordered the same pizza as the first time and were disappointed here as well. The topping portion of the pizza was so salty it was off-putting while the crust portion was sad and bland. The elasticity of the crust was still great quality, just tasteless.
The best part of the meal was the rigatoni bolognese for which I only have positive comments.
Lastly, we ordered a delicious wine at $80/bottle. Unfortunately we found the same bottle at Trader Joe’s for $8.99.
While the service was friendly and quick - I would no longer recommend this as an excellent restaurant.
Spring 2023:
Underrated. Had an excellent, authentic Italian meal at Palmina. The flavors and textures were incredible. It was hard to choose a favorite dish; truly there was no weak link. If we had to pick nits, we would say the pizza crust is a litttttle bit salty, but the texture of it was phenomenal. Our servers were attentive, personable, and helpful. If we were locals, we would eat here once a week. Grazie mille, Palmina!
The food is delicious! No question about that. For two people we ordered a pizza as an appetizer and two entrees. The quality and authenticity of the ingredients definitely shows in each plate. The only thing I thought could be improved was service. We didn’t get as much timely attention from our server as we would have liked, and we noticed other tables were having issues with timing of plates as well. Felt like being back in Italy, where 1+ hour dinners are the norm.
