The Providores

Having been a massive fan of brunch at the Tapa room for 6 years I had always wondered why we had never ventured upstairs. Now that we’ve gone I still wonder why we didn’t do this earlier.

This is the place that defines fusion not as a cuisine to be avoided but rather to be celebrated.  It is fresh, inventive and wholly modern foods and while still quite Southern Hemisphere in tone it still manages to retain a tart London edge.

For the menus Providores doesn’t provide the minimal explanations so in fashion but rather paragraph explanations of the constituent parts of each dish. Some people might be deterred by this but it certainly gets the more food savvy excited, if a little undeceive.

We began with two starters; the freshest of fresh scallops were warmed and comforted by the silky mash and seaweed and capers providing freshness. The tuna tataki was marinated in fragrant, yuzu and was a more strongly Asian dish and hugely flavoursome.

Next we tried the very pretty vegetarian raviolo stuffed with aubergine caviar and topped with shaved beetroot, fried ewes cheese sitting atop some roasted pumpkin. Gorgeous and tasty but somewhat lacking the wow factor of the starter. My friends duck was apparently succulent and sweet and just as good as her starter.

We opted to share the ginger pudding with chai ice cream – dare I say that the cake was a little too dry and a little more ice-cream wouldn’t have hurt? I guess I dare. But overall a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to a top class meal.

My only gripe was that with two cocktails (both £8.50) and two bottles of water and service the bill came to £123. Which is a lot. Now the food was fabulous but I’m not completely sure if it was that fabulous. At that level I would normally expect an amuse bouche or similar. Nevertheless, I’m sure I’ll be back.

The Providores
109 Marylebone High Street, London, England W1U 4RX
tel (+44) 020 7935 6175  fax (+44) 020 7935 6877
anyone@theprovidores.co.uk