Cheeky's

Cheeky's Is Worth Booking; Here's Who It's Leading For

If you're eating on Palm Canyon Drive and want something that earns its place without demanding a splurge, Cheeky's is the clearest answer on the strip. Two consecutive Michelin Plates (2024 and 2025) at a $$ price point is a genuine signal: this is well-executed American cooking that punches above its bracket. Book it with confidence, especially if you've been once and are wondering whether to return; the answer is yes.

Why Cheeky's Matters on Palm Canyon Drive

Palm Canyon Drive is Palm Springs' main artery, high foot traffic, tourist pressure, the constant temptation for restaurants to coast on location. Cheeky's doesn't. In a corridor where many spots rely on ambience and desert novelty to carry the room, Cheeky's earns repeat visits on food alone.

A Michelin Plate doesn't carry the weight of a star, but it does mean Michelin's inspectors ate here and found the food worth flagging. For a casual American spot in a mid-size California desert city, that's a meaningful credential. Compare that to Le Bernardin in New York City or The French Laundry in Napa, both operate in a different universe of formality and price, but the Michelin imprimatur, at any level, filters out mediocrity.

For Palm Springs specifically, Cheeky's fills a gap that matters: quality-driven, everyday-accessible dining that locals and returning visitors can rely on. It's the kind of anchor restaurant a neighbourhood needs, not the occasion spot you save for a birthday, but the place you build a Palm Springs trip around and come back to on the last morning before checkout. If you want to understand how the restaurant fits into the wider Palm Springs dining picture, see our full Palm Springs restaurants guide.

What to Expect If You've Already Been

If this is a return visit, the practical frame shifts. Cheeky's is American cuisine at a $$ price point, broadly approachable, not a high-wire act of technical ambition. The cooking is consistent enough that you're not gambling on a night off from the kitchen. The 4.2 rating held across nearly two thousand reviews tells you the variance is low. That's useful information: you're booking a known quantity, not a high-ceiling high-variance bet.

On a return visit, the priority is going deeper into whatever format you skipped last time. If you came for brunch, try the dinner service. The American category at this price tier typically rewards revisiting when the kitchen has a defined point of view, the Michelin recognition suggests there's one here. Compared to Hilda and Jesse in San Francisco or Selby's in Atherton, both American, both accessible, Cheeky's holds its own on value but benefits from the Palm Springs setting, where the pace is slower and the dining experience less pressured.

The booking difficulty here is low. This is not a room you need to plan weeks in advance to secure. That makes it a practical anchor for Palm Springs trips: book it a few days out, use it to structure the rest of your itinerary around. For the broader scene, our Palm Springs bars guide and Bar Cecil are worth pairing with a Cheeky's dinner if you want a full evening on the north end of Palm Canyon.

Know Before You Go

How It Compares to Other Palm Springs Restaurants

Cheeky's sits comfortably in the $$ tier of Palm Springs' dining options, which is actually its competitive advantage. Colony Club operates at $$$ with an American menu that's more ambitious in scope and price, worth the step up if you're celebrating or want a more structured dining experience, but Cheeky's Michelin recognition makes it the smarter everyday call. If you're watching spend, Cheeky's delivers more credentialed cooking per dollar than Colony Club for a casual night out.

Tac/Quila is the closest price peer at $$, but it's a different cuisine category, Mexican versus American, so the comparison depends on what you're after. If the choice is between them for a fun, low-cost dinner, Tac/Quila wins on atmosphere and cuisine specificity; Cheeky's wins on Michelin-validated consistency. The Barn Kitchen at Sparrows Lodge is also $$ and Californian in orientation, a strong alternative if you want a more resort-integrated setting, but it lacks the same independent credentialing that Cheeky's has accumulated.

For the full splurge in Palm Springs, Le Vallauris is the reference point, French, formal, operating in a different register entirely. The Steakhouse at Agua Caliente covers a different need: a dedicated protein-forward occasion dinner in a resort setting. Neither competes directly with Cheeky's. If you're putting together a multi-night Palm Springs itinerary, a useful sequence is Cheeky's for a casual dinner or weekend brunch, Birba for a relaxed pizza night, Le Vallauris when the occasion warrants it.

Explore More of Palm Springs

• Our full Palm Springs restaurants guide
• Our full Palm Springs hotels guide
• Our full Palm Springs bars guide
• Our full Palm Springs wineries guide
• Our full Palm Springs experiences guide
• Boozehounds, a reliable Palm Springs bar pairing for after dinner