I went to The Providores & Tapa Room on Marylebone High Street last weekend. Everyone always raves about this place but I wanted to find out if this was genuine excitement or that London thing everyone does when a restaurant doesn't let you book so if you've managed to queue long enough to get to taste the food, you feel like a VIP. The first wonderful thing I discovered about The Providores is that you CAN book. This seems to be a recent change - you can even book through their website now which you couldn't before. We did and so we were upstairs - same menu, same coffee but a quieter room with white tablecloths and room to breathe (downstairs is quite 'buzzy' - sometimes that's not what you need first thing in the morning).
This is one of their Tapa Room Fry Ups:
Grilled smoked streaky bacon, sautéed buttered field mushrooms and slow-roasted tomatoes with a choice of toast (granary or sourdough) and a choice of eggs (£8.80). REALLY GOOD. In the middle of the table you can see the the Roast Stornoway black-pudding (£4.20) which I could live off forever it's so crispily, juicily, perfectly-spiced (edly) beautiful. Over the other side of the table you can just about see the Thai basil and lime waffles with tomato, sweetcorn, rocket and avocado salad and jalapeno chutney (£9.00). The waffles were much lighter than the fry up, fresh and really tasty, fragrant in fact. If I'd had any more room I would have had the brown rice, apple, maple syrup and miso porridge with tamarillo compote (£6.00) and their signature dish, the Turkish eggs from changa in Istanbul – two poached eggs with whipped yoghurt and hot chilli butter with sourdough or seeded granary toast (£8.90) - see below (image borrowed from www.starsandcloves.wordpress.com)
The Providores has a newly opened sister restaurant - Kopapa in Seven Dials and I also went there last weekend (what a pig). It was so excellent I forgot to take pictures so I'll just have to go back.
www.theprovidores.co.uk
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