Between 2008-2011, we ate at Providence a half-dozen times, and while we enjoyed the food, a couple of service-related frustrations ultimately led us to look elsewhere for special occasions.
Fast forward 15 years and with a family member's upcoming birthday, I decided to make a reservation and hope service issues were a thing of the past. I'm happy to report, from the moment we entered, service was outstanding — friendly, engaging, attentive — and exactly what one hopes for when dining at a three-star Michelin restaurant.
As for the food, we went with the chef's menu and added the salt-roasted spot prawns (wouldn't do that again). Just as we remembered, the food was near-universally great; the cavalcade of introductory bites were particularly delicious, and so, too, was the abalone with asparagus, the bread-encrusted king salmon and the umami-packed wagyu main.
I wouldn't say there were any misses, but the aforementioned salt-roasted spot prawn and the last chocolate dessert didn't quite work for me. Regarding the former — and perhaps you could chalk this up to user error — I had quite a bit of difficulty extracting the crustacean from its shell and also lacked deftness in avoiding remnants of the salt. As for the final chocolate dessert, there was more bitterness from the dark chocolate than I would've preferred and it also had the misfortune of coming after a delightfully palate-cleansing red fruit sorbet.
But overall, those are fairly minor quibbles for what was an otherwise exceptional dinner. I don't know how often the menu changes, but as we drove home, we agreed we don't plan to wait 15 years between visits again.
by sacrunner916