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Gracie's

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

We came to this restaurant with no expectations - we were just walking by on the street and the menu looked good. We were very pleasantly surprised. The restaurant had top notch food quality, taste, and presentation. The service was high class, and the atmosphere was romantic. The restauant features local foods including herbs from their rooftop garden.

Dress

Smart Casual or Business Casual

Cost

Items on the menu are available a-la-carte. They recommend you go with the 3-course fixe prix menu for $40. There was also a 5 and a 7-course tasting menu.

Reservations

Reservations are recommended. We were able to walk in and get a table by walking in at 6pm on a Saturday, but the restaurant soon filled up.

Items Ordered

Complimentary Items

Someone came with a basket of 4 in-house baked breads to choose from. We tried two and they were both excellent. We were served an amuse bouche consisting of pureed carrot, toasted pine nut, and a dried sweet fruit, possibly a raisin or dried cranberry. It had a really great flavor. After the first course, we were brought a small scoop of peach and passion fruit sorbet. It had a great intense flavor. At the end of the meal, we were brought two small sunflower seed and honey macaroons.

Heirloom Tomato Salad

Stracciatella cheese, cucumber pearls, garden basil, focaccia crisp

The tomato salad had 6 slices of tomato, 3 red and 3 yellow. They were very sweet tasting tomatoes. There were a couple of pieces of soft mozzarella cheese, and pearled pieces of cucumber. The sauce was a bit of balsamic vinegar, some of which was in little pearl forms.

Handmade Russet Potato Gnocchi

Chicken confit, ratatouille vegetables, pecorino Toscano, garden herbs

The potato gnocchi was served in a bowl with little pieces of shredded chicken and a small number of finely diced ratatouile. The gnocchi were fried and had a nice golden exterior. The dish was a little bit greasy, but quite tastey.

Pat's pastured Chicken Ballotine

Toasted walnut butter, braised celery root, salsify, pearl onions, apricot-savory reduction

The chicken consisted of a flattened chicken breast rolled around a mix of chicken thigh meat and prociouto. It was covered in panko and fried. It was a delicious way to have chicken. There was a slightly sweet sauce around it, and a few pieces of cooked root vegetables. It was a very flavorful and rich dish.

Tasting of Summer Vegetables

Chef's preparation, inspired daily

The summer vegetable dish consisted of three separate plates. The first was a bowl of cream of potato soup. It had a very rich rich creamy potato flavor. The second plate was a roasted beet, fig and goat cheese salad. I always love that combination. The last dish was a fettuccine topped with pureed vegetables. That was probably my least favorite of the 3 dishes, but it was still pretty good.

Summer Fruit Tart

Lavender cream, toasted almonds, oatmeal ice cream

The fruit tart was a bit of a disappointing dessert. It had a couple of unusual fruits ontop that didn't seem to fit with the rest of the dessert. The pastry and tart filling were both really good though. It came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that was really creamy.

Peanut Chiffon

Housemade nutella, peanut-cocoa nib brittle, toasted marshmallow, verjus sorbet

The peanut chiffon was a layer of peanut cake topped with melted chocolate balls and then a peanut chocolate brittle ontop. There was a side of lemon sorbet, and a roasted marshmallow on top. It was a great dessert, it was very chocolatey. I thought the lemon sorbet was a nice fresh counter balance to the sweet cake, although other members of the group did not agree.