Pickerel — Restaurant in Providence

Unfortunately I cannot rate the food as we didn’t not get that far.

My partner and his friends were in town and we heard amazing comments about their food. We were excited because we love ramen. Upon arriving, we opened the front door, and were greeted with a huge curtain with a small standing spot. We didn’t all fit and we had barely walked in. The door was slightly ajar when a worker came up, and rudely told us to shut the door as we were letting their AC escape — understandable because I also pay my electricity bill from AC usage during summer RI. However, there was simply no where to stand.

We proceed to find a table. There were four of us. They didn’t have room which is fine so we sat two to a table instead of sitting together. My partner and I had been outside all day, so we wanted to wash our hands prior to eating. We both got up and went to the restroom to wash our hands. It was a private unisex bathroom, so we just went in together to wash our hands.

Unknowningly, the same worker who greeted us at the door, went to our friends and told them, “that is a single person restroom, no two boys should be in the bathroom together.”

Our friends let us know that he said this comment in more of a demeaning undertone. As all four of us are lgbtq, we became quite uncomfortable and no longer felt welcome in the space.

We proceeded to get up and leave. This happened about two weeks ago, and it continues to bother me. I loved the coffee shop that is there during the day, and I was so excited to know they had ramen as well. The environment itself and the worker just did not do a good job of making us feel welcome at all. I can justify reasonings for why he said the things he did, but ultimately the undertone displayed a lot to us.

I have never felt unwelcome in PVD as a queer person since moving here. And I’m sad this is the first place to make me...

Great food, not so great vibes.

From the moment we sat down it felt like they wanted us to leave. They rushed us through ordering, our appetizers, and our soup course (which, to their credit, was really yummy), and kind of hovered around us until we paid. Mind you, they brought us the check only 45 minutes into our meal. Two separate servers came up to us within the span of three minutes asking us if we "were still working on that"-- bowl half-full, spoons actively ladling ramen into our mouths.

Seconds after we paid (and tipped generously), they asked us to leave saying "I don't mean to be rude, but we have a really long wait list. Could you leave?" ... digression or not, it felt a little rude. We still had unfinished drinks, which we chugged as they watched us with a rag in their hands, waiting to clean out our seats. People who came in before us were still sitting pretty with to-go containers on the table, as we shuffled out.

Admittedly, we are college students-- and we look it-- but we sure did not order like it. We got the cabbage caesar (yum, cheese, awesome!), two drinks, and two different ramens (no, not even the cheapest ones), and would have even considered ordering dessert if we weren't already feeling hassled. In all seriousness, we really don't go out often, so we were a little bummed out that our special occasion dinner felt cut-short.

Maybe if I had a bigger moustache, and a smaller beanie our experience would have been different, but as kind of lame 22 year olds we don't think that we...

I had the Oberon Knows; a gin drink with egg white foam and hibiscus. Amazing. Perfectly sweet. The flavors went SO well together. I just had the Classic Shoyu Ramen with the pork belly chasu. The bamboo was perfectly marinated. Temperature of the egg was exactly what I wanted so the yolk joins in with the broth. Ugh 🤌🏻 💋 The barley brownie ice cream scoop is the perfect dessert and the corn ginger cookie tastes like a freshly grilled corn muffin at a breakfast restaurant. Crispy and crunchy but still soft with almost ginger candy in the middle I could even hear the tables next to me discussing how much they enjoyed everything So much attention to detail. The menu changes so you get to try different things. Every worker here is spectacular. The service is great. Each of them know so much about the items and are so helpful. The place is small but with just enough seats and space. They are able to turn the tables over very quickly as well for the next diners but still do a thorough job cleaning. I liked also that everyone in both the kitchen and the front of house has hats on. Feels more sanitary. Bar seats have great lighting at them and table seats are more romantic I already can’t wait to come back. Such an amazing dining experience. I’ve only been here twice so far but it’s already probably my favorite spot in Providence. I cannot say enough good things...