CBD Provisions — Restaurant in Dallas

Upscale downtown eatery with rustic feel, innovative cocktails, but a menu somewhat limited in its main course selections.

Located in the Joule hotel, as you can see from other reviewers, this is a hard restaurant to find unless you know exactly where it is. We drove around the block and didn't notice the sign until we parked, got out and walked by the door, only noticing it was a restaurant by the people seated within. We had a reservation for 6:15 (the last available on OpenTable) and were perplexed when we arrived to find the restaurant mostly empty. It did fill in though, as we were enjoying our cocktails and first course.

The cocktail menu had some great offerings that would please a variety of tastes. Drinks were around $12-15 each. There were an abundance of appetizer choices, but a limited selection of mains. At $55 (or Fifty Five American Dollars, as the waitress told us) we felt the butcher's steak, a cowboy ribeye with pom frittes, to be a bit of a ripoff.

Our first round of cocktails came out on time, but when I ordered a second during the appetizer round, it didn't come out until I was practically finished with my entree. Because the restaurant uses food runners to deliver the food, the waitress only checks in to ensure that everything was presented correctly, but not again to ensure that everything is okay. I had ordered the Amberjack (the Gulf Catch that night) and was expecting a nice flaky, buttery filet. Instead, I got an petite slice of very overcooked fish. The outside had a promising golden brown texture which seemed to have been broiled, but the inside was cooked to a temperature that made it hardly flaky and alarmingly dry.

Another unsettling experience was the ambiguity of the menu. One of the people at our table (3 of us in total) ordered their cheeseburger (a take on In-n-Out's classic double-double). The menu did not specify that the burger came with fries, however fries were listed under the "side items" menu at $6, so when ordering the burger, she specified, "I'd like to get the burger with a side of fries for the table." Instead of saying, "Oh sweetheart, I'm sorry, the menu is misleading, the burger comes with fries," the waitress said nothing, and brought out our mains with fries both on her plate and on an additional plate for the table, with no explanation. When I informed her of the misunderstanding, she graciously told us to enjoy the fries at no cost, which could have been easily avoided by either better menu design, or more informative service.

All-in-all, our experience was okay. I feel that restaurants such as this aim to please business travelers using their per diem and salespeople entertaining clients. As a common layman, trying to enjoy dinner with friends, you might feel pressured to spend more than you came prepared to. Resist, I say, and have a good time.

Why the long rant on Google Reviews and not directly to the website? Their Contact page has no way to contact them. Another oversight that just detracts from what could be a fantastic place to eat and enjoy an evening...

Years ago, I enjoyed coming here. Unfortunately, the food and service has drastically declined.

Occasion: birthday. Made reservation for party of 5 online on it's website. Only times available were 9:00 pm and 9:15 pm. I booked 9:00 pm.

Arrived at the Joule Hotel where it's located. Valet guy said valet is free for the first 90 minutes then $15 after.

Upon arrival inside the restaurant, I noticed a reservation was not needed because there were only a few customers eating. Mostly couples, and there was one party of 4. I don't understand why the earliest time available for reservation was 9:00 pm. 🤔 Note: restaurant closes at 11:00 pm.

Ambience was still dim and lovely as I remember it. And the food arrived fairly quickly with there only being 2 employees working the kitchen. There was a card on the table with a birthday greeting and a banana pudding with a lit candle was given at the end. Honestly, these are only positive notes I can give CBD Provisions.

1. We ordered about 6 dishes family style. Each arrived room temperature or cold.

2. You will not get what you pay for. Prices are not justified. Average taste. Expensive price. Nothing stood out.

3. Our server was Ben. Maybe he had a bad day. He seemed dismissive. He didn't make eye contact. It's not like they were incredibly busy packed with customers. He wasn't rude or overly nice. It just seemed like he didn't want to be there. Maybe it's my fault for having higher standards of customer service, especially since I'm paying at least $30 a dish. Total was over $200. Not bad for a party of 5, but none of us were full and satisfied.

4. Remember the valet guy said valet is $15 after 90 minutes? Our server Ben validated our valet ticket and said it would be free for the whole night. We approach the valet stand and another valet guy is working there. He said he doesn't know why Ben told us that, valet is $15. At this point, I'm thinking, one of them is lying or doesn't know the rules. 😒 Fortunately, we entered on the other entrance to the hotel. We approached another valet guy who said valet is free with restaurant validation! Good man! The other guy just wanted extra cash that night. Took about 15-20 for the runner to get our car. Luckily, it wasn't very cold and we didn't mind waiting outside.

Was it worth it? Disappointingly, no. Again, the best thing was the dimly lit ambience. Don't have high expectations. Don't get played by the valet guys. Get your ticket validated by the restaurant if you still choose to come here after reading this review. Only way to know for yourself...

I've never written any type of review in my life before until the experience I had here at CBD Provisions. And I have now posted this here and on Yelp.

I came here yesterday for brunch with a large group of friend's (party of 12) for my birthday. Knowing that it would probably be busy, I called 20 min ahead to put us on the waiting list. While on the phone with the hostess she asked if it would all be on one check or if we were going to pay separately and I told her separately. She told me that they don't do separate checks, but we could all pay individually by writing on the receipt who is paying for what

When we finally were seated the service was good and the server was friendly (minus having to wait a while for a coffee cup because they had no clean ones). The food came out in a timely manner and looked very presentable, however the food was rather bland and mediocre. None of this bothered me though until this next part.

We then got our check and split it how the hostess said would be fine over the phone. 20 minutes had gone by and we still hadn't gotten our cards back, so a friend went and checked and they told him that they were working on it. Another 20 min went by and a different friend went and they told her the same thing. Shortly after that, a server came by and said that we needed to "be patient" and to "calm down" and that they don't split checks and that our server was "helping us out" by doing this, all said in a very rude tone. Our server then came with the cards and told us that they don't split checks and that's why it took so long and I told him the hostess said we could do what we did. He then told us "well I don't know why she said that" then threw our cards on the table and walked off. If there wasn't already an automatic 20% tip on the bill I would not have tipped a penny with that kind of rude service.

If you plan on paying on one bill and like mediocre food that looks good for an Instagram post, then this place may be the one for you. If not, I highly advise you...