11/03/09

Amazing Food, Annoying Service

by Goldie M

For the record, the food at Providence is truly incredible. There’s a dish featuring these ginormous langostino shrimp cooked under a mound of piping hot rock salt tableside that truly has to be tasted/seen before your life expires. Too bad the humans who make up the waiter and maitre’d staff aren’t 1/5 as appealing as the crustaceans they’re serving. The best way to sum up our EXTREMELY expensive dinner at Providence – one that we anticipated with excitement for weeks leading up to the meal as friends and family talked up their encounters with the salt shrimp and other delicacies – is to quickly quote an exchange my Grandpa (the nicest gentleman you are apt to encounter this of Gandhi) and our waiter had regarding a menu heading entitled “Hand Corked Beers”. Grandpa: “I’m wondering, what exactly is a ‘Hand Corked Beer’?” Waiter: “Exactly what it sounds like.” Not exactly the kind of ingratiating dialogue you expect when a restaurant is asking you to pay $40+ for a plate of food – and lets just say it set the mood for the type of service that followed. Really really a shame since it was such a culinary delight. But, sadly, not the type of treatment I ever care to have the privilege to pay for again.

• Pros: Best Shrimp You Will Ever Put in Your Mouth
• Cons: Worst Attitude You Will Ever Pay $120 For

11/02/09

Number one in tasting menu

by jrizal

If you've got the money, this is the place to go for tasting menus. Period.

• Pros: the food
• Cons: the price

08/07/09

Great experience

by yat221

My fiancee and I went to Providence to celebrate our engagement, and it was the perfect spot for a special occasion. Great service from friendly, knowledgable wait staff, and the food (i had the prawns and chowder) was amazing. It's definitely pricey but well worth it for a special occasion.

• Pros: great food and service
• Cons: pricey

07/29/09

Great ambiance, terrible food

by chaparyan

The place looks great, but the food had almost no flavor. My fiancée got the lobster and I got the steak. Neither had any flavor. My steak tasted boiled and wasn't cooked to my liking. I spent $220 and went home hungry.

• Pros: Ambiance is beautiful and very quiet
• Cons: Food had almost no flavor, not worth the price

06/24/09

The Best Ever

by SaraFischer

Pretty pricey but worth a special occasion! We did the full tasting menu and we're delighted with every single bite! Amazing!

• Pros: The bar and cocktails!
• Cons: Nothing

05/11/09

FANTASTIC

by pasquale

They have the most creative food and best ingredients in town.Professional, friendly and well organized service.Hands down the best service in L.A.

This restaurant is constantely improving.

I'm very impressed.Bravo!!!

• Pros: best service, incredible food
• Cons: none

03/24/09

where's the flavor?

by sfgordo

Recently had date night at providence. Servers not recommending dishes because they say our palates may be different and there for there opinion is irrelevant is seriously annoying. other than that the food is all beautiful but completely lacking in depth of flavor. If you were to eat dinner with your eyes closed I think more people would be dissapointed. Also desserts while stunning were kind of gross.

• Pros: beautiful presentation
• Cons: light on flavor

03/07/09

#1 Restaurant in LA, NYC, Chicago, London - pick any city...

by yumseeker2009

This is my favorite restaurant in the world. I travel to NYC, Chicago, London, Paris and am lucky to get to eat at many top fine dining restaurants. Providence is #1. Cirramusti (sp?) is a true artist and this is our only special occasion restaurant in LA. On a recent visit, my favorite was an oyster chowder so foamy and light, with hot crunchy buckwheat on top --- how to describe the incredible feel of every bite, the amazing flavor. Also, the mixologist is awesome (I am sadly allergic to wine, so finding great specialy cocktails is a real treat for me). Some people try to compare Sona to Providence, but there is no competition. Also, the service at Providence is some of the best you will get in LA, helpful and not at all stuffy help make the food even more enjoyable.

• Pros: Best food in the world - an art show for your mouth

03/02/09

Excellent Food / Exquisite Service

by betterChef

Searching for decent fine dining in Los Angeles has been hard lately - until now. Providence was one of the best dinner experiences I have had in years - since back in New York more than 5 years ago. Every course tasted was delicious and plated with such artful care. My two dining companions had glowing comments after dining here - and they usually have only negative remarks for reataurants. I highly recommend Providence for anyone who wants a truly high class and 5 star experience.

02/22/09

If you like crappy service, and food with no soul, you will love this restaurant.

by aussiechef

The food was generally good, not outstanding but not awful either, and it certainly was not worth the price. A lot of foams, molecular gastronomy, sous-vide, and at over $100 per person (we did the 5-course tasting menu and two of us had the wine pairing), we still left the restaurant hungry.

I ate at Gordon Ramsay at The London in West Hollywood. The food was perfectly cooked, perfectly executed, and presented beautifully. It was too prefect. It had no soul, there was no passion. That was exactly what the food at Providence was like.

Unless you're someone important, the service is very "snooty", slow and not very welcoming. We were made to feel like second-class citizens, like we should be honored to eat there.

Then to top off the evening, chef Michael Cimarusti decided to grace us with his presence. He asked how everything was, we lied and said it was wonderful, then I said I had met him briefly when I went to his kitchen with a colleague of mine, while I was working as a sales rep for one of his food suppliers. I told him I didn't do that anymore, he asked what I was doing now, I told him I was a private chef. He gave me a look of disdain, and promptly left our table without even saying "goodbye", "good luck", "enjoy the rest of your evening", "nice meeting you" or anything. Just walked away without a word.

I don't get it. This is supposed to be the number three restaurant in Los Angeles??? Maybe L.A. restaurant goers like being treated badly, and eating very expensive, fairly ordinary, under-seasoned food.

At least the dear friend who treated my wife and I to dinner that evening is an absolute delight, and helped to make up for an otherwise lackluster evening.