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Restaurant Reviews

Review: Mill's Tavern

An elegant prix fixe experience
When a restaurant has survived eight-plus years on the Providence scene, you know it must be doing something (or several things) right.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | February 08, 2012

Review: Siena

Close your eyes and it's Tuscany
I can't imagine that anyone returning from a visit to Tuscany fails to wax rhapsodic about the cuisine, perhaps as soon as the customs inspection.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 31, 2012

Not just for robber barons
Interesting atmosphere in the lobby. A wealth of surrounding wood paneling, an Art Deco tasseled lamp on the host station, and the pièce de résistance: a tall roulette wheel, beckoningly still.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 25, 2012

Review: Vine Yard East

Come for the wine, stay for the food
The spelling of this six-month-old restaurant's name indicates one of its primary draws: an emphasis on wine.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | January 17, 2012

Review: Ralph’s Bull & Claw Tavern

So much more than pub food
Time was, a place that called itself a tavern purveyed meals as well as drinks to weary travelers. Nowadays at most such places you might snag some buffalo chicken wings at best.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 10, 2012

Review: El Tapatio

Transported to the border
Although El Tapatio is a full-fledged Mexican restaurant, with distinct Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex accents, it has certainly adapted to one Rhode Island tradition: bountiful portions.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 03, 2012

Review: Bella

The taste of Sicily in Glendale
All jokes about Foster/Glocester weather reports aside, the village of Glendale is also very much off-the-beaten-track of the Greater Providence metro area.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | December 27, 2011

Review: Eleven Forty-Nine

In a line of fine restaurants
Four years ago, it was no surprise when a new restaurant opened in the space where Jason's had closed.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 21, 2011

Review: English Muffin

Breakfast worth waiting for
If the five plastic-resin benches lining the sidewalk to English Muffin's entrance don't trigger an image, then the banquettes lining the lobby just might.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | December 13, 2011

Review: Mosaic

A Latin American tapestry
With all the pan-Asian restaurants around, it only makes sense that there would be a pan-Latin restaurant thriving in Providence. Mosaic, a Latin American bistro, is doing a good job of it on the outerskirts of Olneyville.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 07, 2011

Review: Simply Thai

Plain and fancy
The restaurant is named Simply Thai, but the food you can expect to get there is not so simple at all. It's set up like a fast food place but it serves flavorful, complex Thai dishes I wanted to linger over.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 30, 2011

Review: Ed’s Roost

Breakfast worth crowing about
When local East Greenwichers fly the coop in the early morn, they often land at Ed's Roost, with all the other hungry chickens . . . er, customers. I might be forgiven the slip since the chicken — or more specifically, rooster theme — is so prevalent at Ed's.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 22, 2011

Review: Clarke Cooke House

A meal for every mood
Although it looks a lot more welcome in the middle of Newport's Bannister Wharf than the proverbial blind man's elephant, depending on where you sit in this sprawling 18th-century building, the dining atmosphere can impress you as fun or formal or in-between.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 15, 2011

Review: J.P. Spoonem’s

Repeat visits encouraged (and rewarded)
When a friend whose professional office is nearby said, "It's a great little neighborhood joint, with a touch of nouvelle in the menu," and another friend was found sitting at its U-shaped counter, extolling the virtues of their omelets, we knew we'd stumbled upon a diner-style eatery that we should check out . . . more than once.

By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | November 08, 2011

Review: Chopmist Charlie’s

Sea fare and playful decor
Maybe more restaurants should have rich fantasy lives.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 02, 2011

Review: 15 Point Road

Dishes both inherited and original
How is it that seafood at a restaurant located on the water's edge is more appetizing than at one located inland, even a few blocks up the street? I don't recall ever salivating because a steakhouse was next to a cow pasture.

By: BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 25, 2011