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The Providores & Tapa Room
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RUNNER-UP - BEST BREAKFAST
If the test of a good restaurant is a negative answer to ‘could I cook this at home?’ then the Pacific Rim fusion at Providores passes with rocketing colours. It’s not just that Peter Gordon dazzles with such epicurean obscurities as barrel-aged Banyuls vinegar, from a French seaside town better known for its fortified wines; it’s also that some produce is imported from his native New Zealand and is a rarity in London, as is the case with kumara (a uniquely flavoured sweet potato). Factor-in that dishes – even starters – are so complicated their descriptions snake down several lines of the menu, and you could feel overwhelmed. Fortunately, the flavours work in blissful harmony: witness the robust wild hare fillet, accompanied by a creamy cabbage purée with toasted walnuts, goat’s cheese and tangy pomegranate. Cocktails are commendable, the wine list a New Zealand tour de force. In the past, service has been excellent, but this time staff were unsmiling – a small slip, perhaps, yet with mains around £25 and elbow room at a premium, no lapses should be tolerated. The ground-floor Tapa Room, tailored to extravagant breakfasting and exuberant evening drinks, was quieter than usual too.
Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009
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Details
- 109 Marylebone High Street, Marylebone, W1U 4RX
- Area: Marylebone
- Tel: 020 7935 6175
- www.theprovidores.co.uk
- Book online
- Category: International
- Travel: Baker Street or Bond Street tube
- Times: The Providores Lunch served noon-2.45pm daily. Dinner served 6-10.30pm Mon-Sat; 6-10pm Sun. Tapa Room Breakfast served 9-11.30am Mon-Fri; 10am-3pm Sat, Sun. Meals served noon-10.30pm Mon-Fri; 4-10.30pm Sat; 4-10pm Sun
- Price: The Providores Main courses (lunch) £18-£26. Set menu (dinner) £29 2 courses, £42 3 courses, £52 4 courses, £60 5 courses. Cover (lunch Sat, Sun) £1.50. Tapa Room Tapas £2-£14.40
- Credit cards: AmEx, MC, V
- Services:
- Child facilities: Babies and children welcome: high chairs
- Disabled: toilet
- Outdoor tables: 2, pavement
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We went to the upstairs restaurant which is decorated by 4 white walls assorted with a fire exit door. I had the luxury to sit in front of that very door.
This was such a turndown that we almost left straight away but wanted to give the food a try. It lasted 3 dishes... After the oily soup, the scallops with popcorn and the uneatably salty duck we called it a day and cancelled the remaining dishes.
Service was nice but not very professional (no one knew about their winelist).
The good point was that we managed to make it cheap as leaving in the middle of the dinner, the staff kindly did not charge us for the food.
My worst diner experience ever...
A great venue to escape the business of the streets and/or the crowded downstairs.
However the setting of the upstairs floor is refreshingly tranquil, the staff and its service appear anxiously disarming.
A true welcoming is missing, which is a pity as the menu offers a lot to discover..
All in all we will have to rethink to choose this place again as the arts of fine added value seem to be a well-hidden secret to the staff serving deliciously composed food.
Nevertheless it always counts more with whom you are with.
In the upstairs Providores room, the menu was delightfully complex and original, while the food was quite palatable. However, the service was so consistently discourteous and error-prone that it overshadowed the meal. It is not the place you would want to take a date or expect to have a feel-good, welcoming meal at.