A Tale of Two Dinners at Provenance - CLOSED

Provenance

2531 Eastbluff Dr.

Newport Beach, CA 92660

I get excited when the calendar turns from one year to the next. Not only did I make it through another holiday season, but the new year meant a slew of Restaurant weeks happening all over OC. The first part of the year for restaurants is slow. People dieting and trying to save money are the reasons for this. So, the restaurant industry has come up with weeks to lure people to ditch those New Year resolutions and get in their doors. This is excellent news for food lovers, such as myself.

Those of you who need to learn how restaurant weeks work primarily happen in one specific city for a week and are at numerous restaurants within the city. The restaurants offer set menus for a designated price. Most of the time, there are three courses, with two to three selections per course. I really enjoy doing the research on finding the restaurants that offer the most bang for your buck. Sometimes, though, I just picked this restaurant like this night because I have had it on my list of places forever. That's why we spent our Newport Beach Restaurant Week experience at Provenance.

Provenance comes from the great Cathy Pavlos of LUCCA in Irvine. She opened that restaurant in 2005 and has won tons of awards and accolades at that location. This is her second OC venture, which opened in the spring of 2014 and has gained some good praise from local foodies and some of my favorite food bloggers.

Provenance takes over the beloved Sage Restaurant, which was in this spot for many years. They are going for a Napa Valley feel to this restaurant, and based on our experience as we walked in, they nailed it. Sandwiched between a Ralph's supermarket and a CVS Pharmacy, you lose that strip mall kind of feel once you are inside the space. Helping in this is a 1,300-square-foot garden in the back of the restaurant, which yields its bountiful offerings to that day's menu.

We had reservations at 6pm and were seated promptly by a lovely hostess. My hurried count of tables was 12 each inside and outside, most of which were filled during our visit. Our waiter told us they were twice as busy as usual due to the Newport Restaurant Week promotion. The restaurant has a nice, clean look, with lots of exposed, lighter woods present and a sizeable glimmering wine case as a focal point of the restaurant. The chairs were uncomfortable, as they did not allow for slouching, which would make my elementary school teachers very happy, as I was told to sit up about a thousand times during my school days. We quickly made our selections off the $40 pre-fixed menu and waited anxiously for our food. This is how it all unfolded for us.

Starting things off for us were these House-Made Yogurt Biscuits. These had a great balance of not being too light while also not being too dense—a very delicate balance to achieve. A bigger burst of flavor than what I was expecting, these were made even better with the generous serving of honey butter that accompanied them. We made these disappear rather quickly.

Dining off of the restaurant week menu, Katie and I always choose differently so we can get a good cross-section of what a restaurant has to offer. She selected this Cauliflower and Quinoa Soup to start. Katie really enjoyed this soup. It had a heartiness to it, but it was not so heavy that it bogged her down. She also loved the drizzle of creme fraiche on top of it.

To be honest, Katie had made my first choice of the appetizer portion of the menu, so I went with my second choice, the Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad. This salad came with a whole lot of items involved in it. Included with the Brussels sprouts were crispy prosciutto, walnuts, dried apricots, arugula, scallions, shaved Parmesan, celery, and a champagne-dijon vinaigrette. This salad was a miss for me. Yes, a lot of this salad was fresh, probably from their garden, but it was boring for as many things as went into this salad. The arugula took over here, while there were only a few Brussels sprouts in my portion. The crispy prosciutto was hard to get through, and the light touch of the dressing was not enough to awaken my taste buds.

We've been to many restaurants during restaurant weeks, and they almost always put a short rib on the menu, and that was the case here at Provenance. This Angus Beef Boneless Short Rib was placed on top of cheesy grits, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, roasted shallots, a veal demi-glace, and citrus gremolata. I learned that gremolata is a herb condiment of lemon, parsley, and garlic. Thanks, Google. Katie loved the tenderness of this short rib, as it just fell apart as her fork went near the meat. The wonderful flavor of the beef went very well with the cheesy grits. She would have a hard time ordering anything else here.

It's likely not surprising that I ordered a menu item named the Turf and Turf, consisting of a Certified Angus Beef Ribeye and Mongolian BBQ Spiced New Zealand Lamb Chops. I enjoy my fair share of meat, and if I can get two kinds on the same plate, I could not pass that opportunity up. We'll start with the ribeye. It was average. I liked the look of this steak more than the actual taste of it. The meat tasted fine but needed more sauce or seasoning to make it more interesting. The grill marks were evident, but it was cooked medium well rather than my preferred medium rare. In fact, they did not even ask me how I wanted this prepared, which I thought was weird when I think about it now. The steak was plopped on top of some good hand-cut fries but cut a little too thin and almost resembled potato chips. The two lamb chops that came nicely seasoned with plenty of meat were much more to my liking. I could have eaten a lot more of these. It was not too gamey, like many lamb dishes can be, and these were tender and juicy. A big highlight of the night for me.

Dessert was up next, and Katie tried the Dark Chocolate Crème Brulee. I know what you're thinking—that doesn't look like creme brulee. That's what I thought, too. There was no caramelized top; it was more like a chocolate mousse. It was not overly sweet, and it was not something Katie was thrilled with. She would opt for one of their fruit-based desserts on her next visit.

I'll preface this part of my meal by stating that I'm not a big fan of deconstructed desserts, especially when there's no mention of them being deconstructed on the menu. Luckily, I had researched before coming here, so I knew what I was getting into when I ordered this. I love carrot cake, but this Old Fashioned Carrot Cake differs from my favorite version of this classic dessert. Because this was deconstructed, trying to get the perfect bite here was really hard. The cake needed to be more moist and needed more icing than was provided. Disappointing end to the meal.

Leaving Provenance, I felt like Katie and I had two different experiences based on what we ordered. Her short rib and soup were good, but my steak, salad, and dessert were disappointing. I can see what they are trying to do here. They try to be experimental, but you want to avoid misguiding people. The food is fresh, but some are misrepresented on their menu. The carrot cake, chocolate creme brulee, and Brussels sprout salad need to be described a little better or renamed altogether. It's definitely lighter food, and you can leave here after eating a three course meal like us and not go home with that heavy feeling in your gut. Yes, I ordered the wrong things, but thanks to Newport Beach Restaurant Week, I did not pay the full price for my meal. We'd definitely come back, as their brunch is pretty stellar. For now, we are looking forward to Orange County Restaurant Week, which begins the first week of March. A great time of the year to be a foodie.

Out of five easels (because the word provenance is the origin or history of an object, usually concerning a work of art, many of which are created using easels), five being best to zero being worst, and Provenance gets 3 easels.

For more information about Provenance, go to their website here: http://www.provenanceoc.com/