5-course market menu at Providence

Back in May I got a tip that Providence was going to offer its 5-course prix fixe menu for a special price of $65 during the month of June to celebrate the restaurant's 5-year anniversary. The 5-course prix fixe is normally $85 and so the $20 savings was enough to entice me to finally give this place a try. This is an incredible deal for restaurant that was awarded not one but two Michelin stars last year. Top Chef Masters alum Michael Cimarusti leads the kitchen and is co-owner of the restaurant with Italian-born Donato Poto as the other co-owner. Chef Cimarusti's culinary focus is on serving wild seafood in its purest form, a fact which is definitely noted in the menu with nearly 70% of the items coming from the ocean. Chef Cimarusti worked in several New York kitchens before coming to LA and landing a job as chef de cuisine at Hollywood's Spago. He then jumped across town to Water Grill in downtown LA where was the executive chef.

I pulled up to the restaurant on a Monday night and met with 5 friends. I made our reservation for Monday night because I wanted to take advantage of free corkage on Mondays. With the special prix fixe price and the free corkage I felt like I was stacking discounts or coupons; there's nothing wrong with saving a little money!


Free corkage on Mondays saves you $30 per bottle of wine. Knowing that, we brought in a total of 5 wines and ended up finishing 4 of them by night's end. I brought in the Pacific Rim Riesling, a very dry dessert wine which we started our dinner with, and the Cirque Du Vin, a blended light-bodied red wine from Peachy Canyon vineyards, my favorite winery in Paso Robles. The free corkage does not apply to beers, a fact which I confirmed with the management, so it wouldn't be wise to show up with a 750ml bottle of Chimay Blue.

Our sommelier was incredibly helpful in deciphering our wines and decided for us how to pair them with the 5-course prix fixe. He even tasted our two Reislings to see if one was dry enough to pair with the amuse, and then proceeded to pour the Pacific Rim for each of us. Shortly after, bread is served and our amuse bouche arrives.



Bread service. Focaccia was supple, warm, very earthy in taste. The bacon roll was buttery, savory, and packed with crunchy bacon pieces. Our bread server came by several times throughout the night to replenish our stock; I think I consumed four or five of those bacon rolls.



Salt and butter. Very coarse salt and delicious, velvety butter did wonders to complement the fantastic bread selection. Buttering the bacon roll practically made for a complete meal on its own.



Amuse bouche - gin and tonic, mojito, yellowtail sashimi. The two "cocktails" on the left were very interesting in flavor and texture, like having a sip of a drink in gel form.



Mojito sphere (from amuse bouche). Refreshing and slightly bitter with a subtle lime presence. A fantastic way to cleanse the palate.



Yellowtail sashimi with crème fraîche, salmon roe (from amuse bouche). Gorgeous presentation with the gold leaf on top. Bright flavors from the sashimi held up to the salmon roe and creme fraiche.



Japanese kanpachi, crispy rice crackers, coriander, soy crème fraîche. First course. Kanpachi tasted fresher than most I've had at sushi restaurants. The rice cracker added texture. I loved the presentation with the dark stoneware to contrast the bright pieces of kanpachi. A few sprigs of coriander add visual interest. So simple and yet so elegant.



Santa Barbara spot prawns being prepared table-side. After hearing my friend Daniel rave about Providence's spot prawn dish, we couldn't help but to order these for the table. They're served as an order of 5, but Providence served us 6 so we could each have one. They're cooked under a layer of salt, then unearthed and prepared at your table. It's a somewhat entertaining process and I found myself to be quite immersed in the whole event. Many other tables were ordering the spot prawns.



Salt roasted Santa Barbara spot prawns, served with Spanish olive oil and lemon. The spot prawns presented for us, head and tail portions separated. I don't need to tell you this but the head is the best part :). A few of my friends didn't care for the heads so I was rewarded with eating an extra 2 heads. (OK insert jokes here)



Hokkaido scallop, Japanese eggplant, ramps, reduction of vadouvan and sauternes. Second course. A lone scallop sits on a reduction sauce. The scallop was very good, very fresh tasting, and cooked beautifully with a nice sear on the outside.



Wild Alaskan halibut, smoked paprika, weiser farms potatoes, grilled octopus. Third course. Presentation earns a 10 with the sauce, the halibut, and the little flower all stacked perfectly in the center of the plate, but the fish was overcooked and somewhat dry. The potatoes were creamy and delicious, but ultimately it was the dryness of the halibut that stood out the most :(. Another person at our table had the same impression of the fish, noting its dryness.



Marcho farms veal tenderloin, sweet peas, bacon, almond, and morel mushrooms. Fourth course. Delicious filet of veal tenderloin was cooked to a perfect medium rare and served with earthy, meaty morels. Everything worked well with this hearty dish--the juicy meat, the peas, the bacon, and of course the mushrooms. This had comfort food written all over it, and it turned out to be my favorite dish of the evening.



Yuzu curd, meringue, blackberry sorbet, jasmine. Fifth and final course was this dessert plate with curd, meringues, and sorbet. I was impressed with artful and precise plating, but unfortunately none of the components were particularly memorable. Don't get me wrong, this was a fine dessert, but I was expecting to be blown away by a dessert offering from a Michelin 2-star restaurant, even if was part of their lowest-priced prix fixe. The curd was nice and slightly firm, and the sorbet was fruity and, well, sorbet. I quite liked the meringues, however, and found myself scooping the berry sauce with meringue pieces.



Mignardises - macarons, salty sweet caramel, hazlenut ball. These were provided at the end of our meal. The macarons were good but not great as the shells were a bit soggy. The hazelnut balls had nice textures, but by far the best was the salty sweet caramels.


Overall I enjoyed the prix fixe menu, especially the veal tenderloin and the kanpachi sashimi, and I thought this was indeed an excellent value considering the quality and presentation. The service was outstanding at every level, with our server being very helpful and courteous. For each course, all six of our dishes were brought out at the same time by multiple servers while our main server gave us the dish's description. Our incredibly helpful sommelier completed the overall wonderful experience by pairing our wines and keeping our glass filled at all times.

Providence is offering this $65 special for the month of June, so if you're reading this and you can make it out sometime in the next few days, then by all means make a reservation to experience chef Cimarusti's cooking at a special price.



Providence
5955 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038