Restaurant Review: Providores in London

Readers of this blog will know that I first discovered Turkish eggs (first picture above), in a restaurant owned by Peter Gordon. No, it's not Providores, the object of this review, but it was Kopapa. Since Kopapa is now closed, I decided to take my friend LL to Providores for a birthday brunch...and some Turkish eggs. 

I had tried Peter Gordon's Turkish eggs recipe at home, felt it was inferior to my own recipe, and wanted to try it again at his restaurant in case I had missed a cooking step. My friend's birthday? Well, that was just an excuse to have a good brunch out! 

Long story short - I hadn't missed a cooking step. The Turkish eggs were inferior to my own, and also to the first Turkish eggs I'd ever tried at Kopapa. The dish I ate at Providores was far too bland and disappointing. I'd wanted a really nice dark rye toast to go with it, but nobody in the UK eats pure rye toast, so I had to settle for roasted tomatoes. They were pretty bland too. Last but not least, inspired by my Afghan coffee adventures in Washington DC, I ordered a cortado to drink with brunch. What I received looked like a milky macchiato, and like the eggs, it did not taste good. The waitress offered to change it out for me, but what was I to order instead? I felt it was better to drink the tiny shot-glass size coffee and not tempt fate with another coffee drink. 

One of the key differences between this dish and my own recipe is that Providores uses butter, while I use olive oil. I much prefer the taste with olive oil. Plus, I rather doubt Turkish people are smothering their eggs in butter sauce when they have tons of olive produced in the country. My Turkish eggs also have saffron, garlic, and turmeric on top of chili powder, the only ingredient Providores uses in their butter concoction. So, understandably, I thought their eggs were really bland.

I was also still hungry after eating the eggs, but the service was so inattentive, it didn't seem right to reward the restaurant by spending more money there. I ended up eating another meal less than 3 hours later somewhere else. I'm perplexed, because I've had delicious food at Providores in the past. Either the quality of the cooking has gone down over the years, or my taste buds are far too demanding. My friend LL wasn't impressed either. So much for her birthday brunch. I'm pretty sure neither of us will be returning.