Provost Restaurant — Restaurant in Washington

Edit to respond to owner: It was not communicated on your website or while making the reservation that indoor seating is not guaranteed. The customer should know that prior to visiting your establishment, especially knowing that DC can have excessive heat days. Simply providing shade is not enough for 90+ degrees. You should have closed for the duration of that event.

Additionally, it would be beneficial for your servers to be better educated on the menu & perhaps some customer service training too. Maybe they weren’t at their best since it was so busy with the event? It was clear you all didn’t have the capacity to host both the event AND serve regular patrons at the same time.

— I am incredibly disappointed in this spot. We had a reservation for brunch at 2:15pm on Sunday, June 22. When my boyfriend and I walked in, there was an event going on, it was overly crowded. No one came up to us to greet us. We walked through the crowd to check in with a woman at the bar, she might have been the manager. She proceeds to take us upstairs, to the outside patio. Mind you it is literally 95 degrees outside (photo attached for proof). And there are no fans outside. I ask if there are any seats left inside? She says no, sorry.. Ok. My boyfriend and I decide ok we won’t eat here but maybe we can get a drink to still try to support and just deal with the heat. But then it took a while for a waitress to come over and once she did she was not welcoming whatsoever. The menu online says “all day happy hour” so I ordered a lemon drop and she tells me the happy hour is 5-7pm.. So the menu is not accurate. We still order a drink but 10 mins passed by and we don’t have a drink. The bar was SUPER busy (with only one bartender) since there’s an event, meaning it’ll be a while to get a drink, while waiting in 95 degree weather. So we decide to leave. Another couple who arrived after us left before us, they couldn’t stand the heat either. It would have been smarter for them to close business for the event and open back up once it was over?. Or maybe close for the day period. Someone had to know how hot it was going to be. Who would want to sit outside in nearly 100 degree weather? No one’s food is that good. Honestly this makes me not want to come back, it’s so out of the way and far...

I took my partner here for date night and we ordered 2 apps (jerk chicken wings, bang bang shrimp), 2 entrees (chicken pasta, and chicken and waffles) as well as a bottle of wine.

Good: The service was top notch. The waitress there was attentive and she let us try the different wines they had before letting us decide on which bottle we wanted. There was good variety on the happy hour menu. The jerk wings were good, not extremely crispy, but good flavor nonetheless. The music was a nice touch to the ambiance.

Bad: Ambiance: the music was good, but it kept cutting off consistently and they seem to play the same songs over and over. Food: The chicken pasta was okay. The flavor were somewhat there but needed an extra kick of some sort. It was also very oily at the bottom of the dish. The chicken was burnt on the chicken and waffles, and the waffle was almost waffle-house like (if that’s your preference you may like it, but for the price it wasn’t what we were looking for), however, the flavors did come together and it was pretty good.

Ugly: Ambiance: there were flies EVERYWHERE. We were the first people there (as it had just opened), and we were sitting there just swatting flies even before the food came. Also, the rooftop looked at bit run down. I think a touch of TLC on the rooftop furniture would go a long way.

Food: the bang bang shrimp were EXTREMELY TOUGH and had no spice. (See photo attached)

Overall, I think my hopes were a little higher given I made a reservation to this place and the photos looked more high-class online. I think if you’re looking for a place for brunch/happy hour, this would be the spot for you. If you’re looking to have a nice candlelit dinner, this place...

the only reason i’m giving this restaurant 2 stars and not 1 is because the food is delicious. the service, especially from the MANAGER was terrible. I called this establishment and instead of being greeted and informed that i was calling Provost, the manager just said hello. I asked if I was calling the right place and she just said “yeah”. As I made my reservation, she has an attitude over the phone. I still decided to give this place a chance. My group of 7 arrived on time @1:30pm. The manager did not greet us at all when we arrived. We simply just sat us down. Our waitress was very pleasant and took care of us right away. We ordered juice and coffee and it was served rather quickly. She took our food order and we all just enjoyed each other’s company. Around 2:30, we still had no food what so ever. There were multiple people who walked in after us who were served right away. I was getting physically sick because we waited for so long and I rightfully frustrated. The food came out at 3:10, and everyone had their food but me. The wrong food was also brought out multiple times. Mind you this was my BIRTHDAY BRUNCH! I also had an ice cream cake and cupcakes that were planning to be served after brunch. This ridiculously rude manager tried to charge me $35 to CUT MY CAKE!!! I explained after our long wait that I was not paying that and I ended up not cutting my cake there at all. Once again, the food was delicious and our server was a sweetheart, but the manager is flat out rude. It’s a shame that you try to support black businesses and you get slapped in the face by...