A little while ago Jess, Laura and I had a nice dinner at The Providores on Marylebone High Street, a restaurant that has been on my ‘To Eat’ list quite a while and now finally I got to try it. Restaurateur Peter Gordon who runs The Providores (and the Tapa Room on the ground floor as well as Kopapa in Covent Garden) is from New Zealand and therefore the menu is (in my Northern European context) quite eclectic with lots of Asian influences.

We all had three courses each, all savoury as I (and I guess the other ladies too) find it more exciting than sweets. Laura’s first course was the crab and coconut laksa with quail’s eggs and coriander (above) which she really enjoyed!

Jess had the dahl tempura inari pocket (basically a tempura parcel) with aubergine, spinach and ginger dressing which was also a delight.

My twice baked blue cheese soufflé with almond dukkah was rather large for a first course, but nice and airy in texture.

Both Jess and I then had the pan-fried scallops with celeriac puré, fennel, apple and radish salad and yuzu and Manuka honey dressing. Great flavours and my favourite dish of the evening!

While we enjoyed the scallops Laura had the seared yellowtail tuna with papaya, carrot, coriander, lime and chilli dressing and toasted nori sauce. Another great dish!

She (and Jess to I think…) then had the pan-fried gild-head bream with clams, coconut, tofu, aubergine, curry and coriander which also was lovely.

The smoked eel with samphire, sesam and nori salad, chilli furikake and ponzu tapioca I had as my last course was really nice although I was sceptic to the tapioca pearls to begin with, but they were nice and added little burts of flavour. 

It was such a lovely evening that we ended up closing the restaurant and the High Street was empty by the time we stepped outside.

We really enjoyed the food and I like the concept of having more than one starter and although all dishes weren’t amazing they were all executed and interesting in their composition. The Providores is well worth a visit!

The Providores and Tapa Room,109 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4RX