Review: Brunch at The Providores and Tapa Room, Marylebone

Style Points: 4/5
Price: £££
Overall: 5/5

The Providores and Tapa Room is a restaurant I’ve been meaning to visit for a while, and I wasn’t disappointed when I did. Run by co-owners Peter Gordon and Michael McGrath, the ever changing menus here are known for the use of prime ingredients, stunning coffee and Europe’s largest selection of premium New Zealand wines.

The restaurant is split into two sections, on the ground floor is the Tapa Room, a causal and always buzzing wine bar/café/restaurant packed full of seats and people. Upstairs is the smaller and more formal Providores restaurant.
We dined in the downstairs space which has a stunning and huge, traditional Rarotongan Tapa cloth that hangs on the wall and it is this cloth that that is honoured with the name. Brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays, from 10:00am until till a leisurely time of 2.45pm.

Would I Want Seconds?

The Providores has an large selection of coffees teas, and healthy smoothies and juices on offer. This include their cold-pressed juices such as the Greenwarrior (£4), made with spinach, kale, apple, ginger lime, cucumber, as well as their Virgin Guava Agua Fresca (£6) made using guava purée, lime juice and sparkling water.

For my brunch I ordered the hot-smoked salmon, two poached eggs and spinach on caraway toast with yuzu hollandaise (£13). This was a deliciously memorable dish served with the just the right amount of yuzu hollandaise so not to overpower the salmon. It was also served in quite a large portion which I could take my time indulging in.
We also tried The Veggie (£9.50) which is composed of sautéed buttered field mushrooms and slow-roasted tomatoes on a bread of choice and to add to the experience we asked for scrambled eggs on top! As well as this we tried a slightly sweeter dish, the French toast stuffed with banana and pecans, grilled smoked streaky bacon and vanilla verjus syrup (£10.50) which was well executed and a delight to eat.

As each of the dishes were served in large portions one brunch plate alongside a cup of coffee or tea was quite enough for us!

Could I Afford Seconds?

The Providores serves scrumptious quality food in the ideal lively atmosphere at a price which is entirely justified for the quality. The main brunch dishes are all between £7 - £13 and are served in large filling portions which means for most diners one dish will be enough. The coffees and teas are also adequately priced at between £2 - £4.

This means that a very satisfying brunch at The Providores can be had for under £20.

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Overall?

I really enjoyed both the food and the atmosphere in the downstairs Tapa room. The Providores is always busy and I can see why as this is a place I will be coming back to as often as I can!