Provisions has left me speechless! Comfortable but top-notch service, creative and solid menu, and some of the best food we’ve had since moving to Utah.
Most of the online reviews for Provisions are about brunch, but we went here for a quiet Sunday night dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Made a note on our OpenTable reservations that it was a special day and the friendly hostess had made note of it and greeted us with “Happy Anniversary” and seated us right away at a quiet table in a little enclosed indoor patio off to the side! Those are little touches but they can make the night, and it did this time.
Our server Ryan was top-notch as well – casual (not stuffy) but on the nose with timing and all the details, well-informed about the menu and happy to make recommendations since we were new. The pacing of the small plates was relaxed and slow, not pushy, which we appreciate when we’ve taken the time to get a babysitter for the evening, but we also weren’t left wondering where the food was. He found the balance between attentiveness and privacy-giving – tough to find these days.
Impressive wine and drinks list that we’d like to try more of sometimes (including sake and plenty of interesting house cocktails). Husband had a Wasatch Polygamy Porter and I ordered the non-alcoholic seasonal press (seasonal herb and fruit with lime and ginger ale) which had a little spice and some basil and was lightly sweet. So refreshing and I was pleasantly surprised to see house-made non-alcoholic drinks on the menu.
Food was amazing and exactly on point – perfect flavors and fresh takes on classics that made it interesting. We tried small plates and they were all fantastic. Some of the small-plates restaurants we’ve tried here are either over-the-top flavors or sometimes just too salty – none of that here. Arrived in the order that made sense – lettuce, steamed buns, meatballs.
The grilled gem lettuce was beautiful and savory with smoked bacon, a tiny sweetness from mild medjool dates, smoked blue cheese, and a divine sesame caesar dressing that I would love to try to recreate. Surprisingly filling. This was my favorite – I know, I would normally never say a salad was my favorite dish. But it was perfect.
The steamed buns with berkshire pork belly (or you can order them vegetarian with organic mushrooms) are very popular and when they arrived we discovered why – three soft pillows of fluffy dough wrapped like a taco around thick slices of pork belly with sticky hoisin, pickled cucumber (the perfect contrast and not too overpowering!), and scallion. Yum.
Tomato braised wagyu beef meatballs with dreamy anson mills creamy polenta and melted burrata was delicious. We fought over the polenta and had to stop ourselves from licking the plate.
Dying to try more of them but we needed room for their creative dessert menu that included beignets (!) We went for the local apple crisp with roasted pistachio, dried cherry, buttermilk ice cream. Delicious and really nice and fresh with the crushed pistachio topping. We were so into the savory small plates that we slightly wished we’d ordered more of those instead but it was a great end to the meal.
We thought about a few other of the nice restaurants in SLC and Park City but the deciding factor was the casual feel of Millcreek (none of the snobbiness of PC or downtown) and the price point – some of these small-plates places now are on par for celebrity chef, big city status and quite honestly we can’t justify paying $50/person before drinks even for good food in Utah.
However, Provisions has perfectly executed, creative dishes with a totally reasonable check for such high-quality food, and we are happy to come back again and again because of it. Chef/owner Tyler Stokes understands food and the dining experience and we are so grateful for that.
– Kelsey Ramos-Conroy
This review was originally written in March 2016.
