Broadway Bistro - dark and noisy but still good food

ribs 'n grits - yeah!

Fish night at Broadway Bistro

We missed out on a long-overdue dinner at Chez Pascal thanks to Nemo and then missed a special Valentine's Day dinner at the Duck and Bunny compliments of a raging infecttion following a root canal.

So, last evening we picked ourselves up and drove over to Broadway Bistro to see what Pat had on the menu for the evening.

Now, we usually spring for the ribs n' grits at the very least, but this time we were both feeling a need for something aquatic. Starting off with a brace of proseccos, Susie and I split an app of seared sea scallops (from New Bedford) and found ourselves sopping up the residue with bread to get every last bit of flavor into our mouths.

I had the Hake with roasted fennel over a bed of pea tendrils and oregano mashies.

Susie had the special for the evening: seared salmon on a bed of garlic mashies.

Susie washed her fish down with a Gavi and I had a backup prosecco with mine.

The menu may sound pedestrian but believe me, if anything, the food was, as always, tasty, with robust flavors and hands-down simply superb. It's a broken record by now, but with Ama's gone, Broadway Bistro is the best value around: great food at a decent price. You can't beat that.

Broadway Bistro

olive oil with spices and herbs

ribs n' grits

ribs n' grits

salmon with white bean puree

salmon closeup

bluefish with fingerling potatoes

chocolate truffles

Broadway Bistro and Tini's

Within the last week and a half we've returned (for the umpteenth time) to a couple of our favorite local eateries.

Broadway Bistro, on Broadways (surprise!)

Sauteed green beans with bacon -



Sweet potato croquettes -



Our standard ribs 'n grits - now this is comfort food!



Tini's on Washington Street downtown

Zucchini fries with basil and lemon -



Puree of country turnip (so sweet!) with "farmer pesto (made with kale) and drops of luscious olive oil -



Fresh pea and ricotta ravioli -



Bread gnocchi with rabbit -

Three great places to eat in Providence

For a week or so in early March we hit three of our favorite eateries here in Rubetown: Ama's on Luongo Square near home, Duck and Bunny on Wickenden Street in the Fox Point area and Broadway Bistro on, you got it, Broadway at the corner of Pallas Street.

Ama's is small and intimate, what one reviewer on Chowhound styled as a "jewel of a place," right across from one the city's more popular watering holes: The Avery. Run by Mike Sears, one of the most underrated restauranteurs in Providence ("Lili Marlene" to "Loie Fuller" to "Ama" and coming soon an honest-to-God diner one block from our home), with some of the best tasting and best priced food in the city, this was our umpteenth visit to Ama's and, as always, a pleasure.

Three of us started out with a new app, lightly fried edamame pods with a scrumptious dipping sauce. While I love the succulent peas themselves, edamame pods have never been one of my favorite foods, I usually find them tough and barely edible. But these were tender, tasty and cooked to perfection. We also ordered our standard app, the house green beans.

As usual, Susie and Andrea each had the Bento boxes while I went for the fish and chips. A bottle of sparkling accompanied us throughout.

After a long Friday at work for one and an even longer day at home for another we were feeling an urge for a taste of crepes in a cozy setting. And crepes here in Greater Gritworld pretty much meant Duck and Bunny. Billed as a "snuggery," Susie and I had recently gone there for the first time for Valentine's Day dinner and were eager to return and try their regular menu on for size. We weren't disappointed.

For an aperitif, we each had the "mojitoph," a delicious concoction of fresh mint, sugar, lime juice with a splash of fruit puree, topped with champagne. The salads are fresh, flavorful and huge -- Susie and Andrea split one as an app leaving enough to take home. The crepes were equally substantial and equally delicious. Susie had the "Distinguished Lincoln" crepe, ham & Gruyere with caramel mustard; Andrea had one of her favorites, the Mazzy Star, with Portobello, Fontina with rosemary and truffle oil. I had "Creperito", stuffed with brown rice, black beans, cheddar, onions, spinach, and house made salsa and guacamole with sour cream. Whoa! What a meal!

Service was friendly, attentive and the ambience cozy and inviting -- at least in the fireplace room near the bar.

http://www.theduckandbunny.com/

This past Monday evening Susie and were in need of comfort food (trust me on this), and that meant our neighborhood favorite: Broadway Bistro for ribs 'n grits. It was quiet when we arrived so we picked out a choice spot in front overlooking the street life. We started with two glasses of Italian prosecco, followed by celery puree soup for Susie and a bean stew for me. Although billed as an appetizer, we each had ribs n' grits for the entree -- plenty of food believe me, washed down with a nice, comfortable palate-pleasing Montepulciano d'Abruzzo.

Once again, and again and again, great food sensibly priced.

http://broadwaybistrori.com/

Some great dinners out in Providence but beware of the high-priced drinks

This past spring we've returned to Ama's, Cook and Brown, Broadway Bistro and, just last week, Chez Pascal where we both enjoyed the bistro menu. Any of these will serve delectable food just about any day of the week, with fairly consistently good service. But I suppose if we had to rank them would be BB, Ama's, Chez Pascal and C & B, in that order -- the best value in our mind still is BB with Ama's following a close second (although their menus are radically different). Also, the last time we at C & B we felt the aperitifs were a bit steep (comparatively speaking.

And speaking of steep, it would appear that the local "cocktail culture" here in greater Providence is sliding out of control. We recently had an aperitif at Loie Fuller, right across the street from our condo. We like to pop over there from time-to-time, mainly for an early evening drink, saving their menu for Sunday Brunch (incredible food).

Anyway, we ordered what was a custom drink consisting of Campari and dry Vermouth topped off with a splash of prosecco, in a champagne flute for $14 apiece! The better cocktail value is still to be found at The Avery -- also in our neighborhood -- with the added benefit of letting you walk 30m across the street for dinner at Ama's.

Now THAT's value.

Broadway Bistro for a family outing

Friday night, August 1, Susie and I met up with six members of her large and very extended family for an early dinner at the Broadway Bistro. (They were coming up from OCS graduation in Newport on their way back to CT.)

Service was very good -- although the place filled up nicely by the time we left, we were never left feeling unattended. Food, as always, was delicious -- I had the gnocchi, which were quite large, in a scrumptious meat sauce. Most of the group had the Fish fry on risotto that evening -- lightly battered and fried they were a really big hit.

Again, you can go wrong here. 205 Broadway. Go tonight.

Loïe Fuller in Providence

The wine flights at Gracie's on Wednesday evening has become, for us at any rate, a great way to break the week up, and occasionally we will grab a bite to eat somewhere afterwards.

So it was this last Wednesday. when we finally walked across the street from our condo and ate . After tasting three wines at Gracie's, along with a chef's pairing to match, we went home, parked the car and then just walked a few meters cross Westminster and . . . Voila! There we were at Loïe Fuller, a small but cozy restaurant with an incredible art nouveau style that would make any Paris bistro green (or brown) with envy. If you must know Loïe Fuller, pronouced Louie or Loh-ahy or whatever makes you feel comfortable, is named after an American dancer who lived, loved and died of breast cancer in 1928 in Paris. (Her ashes were placed in niche no. 5382 in the Columbarium at Pere Lachaise.)

Anyway, there's been plenty of press about this place recently, in the Providence Phoenix and Rhode Island Monthly to name just two, and all of it good. Plus, everybody we've spoken with also gave it high marks as well so what could go wrong?

More than we bargained for, I'm afraid.

The ambiance is incredible to be sure -- and frankly it's worth the trip just to ogle the art nouveau decor and fantastic paintings on the walls. The numerous mirrored murals also give the dining room a greater sense of space and don't forget to look up -- the ceiling and central light is not to be missed either.

The servers, all women dressed in casually elegant black, were friendly, courteous and attentive; and the service prompt.

But two things marred the evening for us.

The food first. I ordered the steak frites and while the meat was a bit overcooked, it was tender, flavorful and the dipping sauce quite tasty. The frites were equally delicious and the portion substantial. Susie ordered a cheese-pistachio ravioli in balsamic vinegar. The dish came out with a large number of ravioli swimming in several tablespoons of oily balsamic vinegar. As if that wasn't off-putting enough, the ravioli filling was overly cheesy with a greasy texture and not terribly enjoyable. (We both agreed on these points.)

I flagged the hostess down -- not our server -- and described our concern with the ravioli. She was pleasant enough but informed us "that's the way it always comes out." I'm not sure if we were supposed to say, "Oh, well in that case I'll go ahead and eat it even though I find it quite unpleasant." Anyway, the server came by and asked if there was something else Susan would like. She thought for a moment and then ordered a simple side of the sauteed green beans. What could go wrong?

Now for anyone who goes to the grocery store around Providence, you know that the green beans are, well let's just say, far from being optimal for eating. Anyway, that's pretty much what we thought about the second dish. The preparation was quite good we observed but the beans were lacking in flavor and seemed rather tough. When our server came by to ask about the beans we of course had to break the news to her.

By this time an interesting dynamic had taken hold of the staff. When we first entered the restaurant we were upbeat and, I thought, had some very friendly banter going with the wait staff. By this time, however, they were still pleasant to be sure, but seemed aloof, distant and perfunctory.

Nevertheless, as we neared the end of the meal we agreed that aside from this evening's food hiccups -- and hey, it can happen to the best of restaurants -- we would come back.

Until we got the bill that is.

The server came by and explained that the "owner only charged you half price for the ravioli and we're sorry it didn't work out." She then hurried off.

Half-price?! In our opinion, we shouldn't have been charged for the ravioli at all. Stranger still, they took the ravioli away and said "do you want something else?" and subsequently charged us for that as well! We should have been informed that we were going to be charged for the original dish.

We concluded that even though it's right across the street from our home, we'd rather walk to Nick's on Broadway or drive to Broadway Bistro or MuMu's on Atwell's Ave. There are simply too many other places "hungry" for our dining dollar.

I don't think we'll be going back to Loïe Fuller anytime soon.