The Ski Inn in Bombay Beach: What to Expect

There is one bar in Bombay Beach and it has been there since the 1950s. The walls are covered in signed dollar bills. So is the ceiling. So are the blades of the ceiling fan. Anthony Bourdain sat in it and ate a patty melt, and the town around it has been slowly coming apart and then slowly turning into an art colony ever since.

It is a 45-minute drive from the nearest anything. Here is what to know before you make it.

Quick Links

• The basics
• The room
• The food
• Before you drive out

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The Basics

The Ski Inn

The only bar and the only restaurant in Bombay Beach.

9596 Avenue A, Bombay Beach, CA 92257 · (760) 354-1285

Mail for Bombay Beach goes to a Niland ZIP code, so listings often file this place under Niland. It is in Bombay Beach.

Hours: generally reported as late morning through late night, with the kitchen shutting earlier than the bar. Sources disagree on the specifics and nobody publishes anything authoritative. Call before you drive out. That is not boilerplate — this is a one-room bar in a town of a couple hundred people and the hours are what they are on the day.

Payment: bring cash. Reports are split on whether cards are accepted and there is no bank in town.

Time needed: an hour, longer on a weekend when it is busy.

Is it actually open? Yes. Visitors ate there in March and April of 2026, and the March report describes it as “super busy.”

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The Room

The dollar bills are the thing, and they are still there — people have been signing them and sticking them up since the fifties, and by now they cover the walls, the doors, the ceiling and the fan. Recent visitors still describe walking into a room papered in money.

The bar bills itself as the lowest bar in the Western Hemisphere, at 223 feet below sea level. Bombay Beach is the lowest community in the United States, so the claim is at least in the right neighbourhood, though no authoritative survey appears to back the superlative. Take it in the spirit it is offered.

There are pool tables and patio seating. On a busy night you order at the bar and wait for your number to be called, which catches people out who are expecting table service.

It has had its screen time. Bourdain came through for No Reservations. The Mentalist used it as a filming location, renamed as a diner in a fictional town.

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The Food

Burgers, mostly. The patty melt is the signature — it is the one Bourdain ordered and it is what people come in asking for. Beyond that: cheeseburgers, grilled cheese, fries, tots, onion rings.

Reviews are honestly mixed. A 2024 visitor found the patty melt overcooked and the bread burnt. A 2026 visitor ate there twice in one day and had no complaints. It is a small kitchen in a remote town and it has good days.

Go for the room. The food is the reason you can stay a while, not the reason you drove out.

The kitchen reportedly closes before the bar does, so an evening arrival can find drinks available and nothing to eat. Another reason to call.

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Before You Drive Out

• Call first. (760) 354-1285. It is the single most useful thing on this page.
• Bring cash.
• Expect a wait on weekends. One visitor reported waits of up to two hours at a busy time; another described the place as packed in March 2026.
• There is no gas in Bombay Beach. The nearest fuel is the 76 station in Niland, about twenty miles south, open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
• There is a market next door. New Bombay Market sits four doors down at 9592 Avenue A and sells water and basics. Worth knowing it exists; I would not plan a meal around it.
• Do not count on buying anything in Bombay Beach. Between the market’s limited stock and the Ski Inn’s movable hours, the safe play is to arrive with water and snacks in the car regardless.

The Ski Inn is the only sit-down option in town. There is an American Legion post, which is a veterans’ club rather than a restaurant. That is the whole of it.

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Bottom line: Call, bring cash, go for the room. It is the last piece of old Bombay Beach still doing what it always did, and it sits in the middle of a town worth spending an afternoon in. If you are making a day of it, Slab City and Salvation Mountain are half an hour south, and the rest of the Salton Sea is on the way.