Provisional Kitchen — Restaurant in San Diego

I am not over-stating that you can do better at a souped-up Denny's. I took my family to the restaurant for Christmas. The bill for three people was $398.00, which is about what we would spend at Georges, or other nice restaurant. HOWEVER, what an absolute disappointment!

First of all, the server was good, and we appreciated him. The manager was not happy or attentive, and walked around like she didn't want to be there, at all.

The Food: Wow, how HORRIBLE. I ordered filet mignon and the two ordered the duck. The filet was old, cold and over-cooked. They do NOT know how to cook a steak, and they ruined that steak...shame! I ordered Med-Rare, and I received two small pieces of steak which were WELL DONE and medium. The filet was obviously old and fished out of some freezer somewhere. I eat a lot at very good steak restaurants, and this was like getting caught hungry at 2am and needing to go to a Denny's. It was supposed to come with potatoes, but I only found a couple of potatoes that were obviously reheated and cooked some time ago. The sauces...no...not good, at all. Before the meals came, we ordered lobster bisque. This was an absolute joke. The lobster was chewy and overcooked, and the bisque was WATERY, unflavored and very thin. It was also LUKE WARM. I mean, what a disgrace.

The duck was oily and too fatty, and was not cooked correctly. The duck was tough and chewy. I have had duck at $45/plate, and it was 10x better than this. They do not know how to prepare duck. All of the food was bland, old and watered down/thinned out. The desserts...LOL. So stupid (the pecan cake was good, the rest was like getting something from a cheap buffet)!

For for more than $130/plate, we expected a great dinner, but this was entirely ridiculous. Do not waste your money, time or corrupt memories with your family by going to a fraud of a restaurant. Skip this restaurant as an idea...it will not work. The chef obviously has...

Provisional is a beautiful, chic new restaurant in Gaslamp helmed by one of San Diego's best and brightest chefs.

Food-loving locals downtown have enjoyed Chef Osbourne's cuisine for many years at Cowboy Star, and were elated when we learned about his new venture, Provisional.

The crown jewel on Provisional's menu is the Hokkido A5 New York Strip Steak ($65), which sits atop a deeply-flavorful and bold bordelaise sauce, and is served with woody maitake mushrooms and braised collard greens, all hidden beneath heaps of dried bonito. This is legit Wagyu beef, my friends. It is so smooth, soft, and luscious that you will stop eating it after your first bite -- you'll pause to savor it, and to appreciate your life, and all of the decisions you've made that led you to eating this perfect piece of beef in your mouth.

Other favorites of mine include the Grilled Local Squid ($17), a shareable plate of scored, char-grilled, glistening Humboldt squid steaks, and the sweet and succulent Bay Scallops ($16) served with cauliflower two ways and hackleback caviar, the hangover-soothing Avocado Toast ($13), as well as the subtlely-restrained Chicken Tortilla Soup ($10) with its cotija cheese and poached egg tamed by refreshing pickled onions.

The dining room is beautiful, spacious, and the entire space is more brightly lit than most restaurants, but not such that it is distracting. They did a great job building this place to look like no other restaurant in San Diego.

This is the kind of restaurant that could potentially get the Michelin Guide's attention in any other...

Review relates specifically to my experiences having brunch and my one (failed) attempt at having dinner here.

Used to come here maybe once a year as a teenager while visiting the city, and brunch was always a highlight of my visits. I’m currently staying in San Diego for a month for work and have come twice for brunch. The first experience was underwhelming and I ate maybe a third of my usual order of chilaquiles (that tasted like Tostitos with pre-made salsa) before deciding to call it quits. Undeterred, I came back again and decided to try something different—cacio e pepe toast—which while delicious, looked like grey slop on toast. It was also difficult to eat, as it was too sloppy to eat with hands, but the bread was too tough to easily cut through. I settled for a combo of those methods and got messy.

My most recent, and decidedly final attempt to eat here was this evening. I’ve never had dinner here, and had been trying to find a time to come in and eat. I made a reservation about half an hour before getting to the restaurant because both times I’ve recently eaten here I’ve had to wait. Got to the restaurant promptly at the requested time, was seated, and then waited…and waited. After ten minutes of waiting to just be greeted in a fairly empty dining room, I ended up leaving. I was going to say something to the host on my way out but she wasn’t there.

Disappointed overall. Three star rating is primarily for drinks and the usually...