Central Provisions

8 Reviews on “Central Provisions”

• Malcolm Leigh

  We stumbled into the downstairs on accident and are glad we did! Great open kitchen upstairs, had probably the best fish sandy of my life and a great hamburger as well. Key lime tart also looked great. Gets crowded, be warned.

  January 29, 2020, 7:47 am

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• Michael U.

  Said by some to be the hippest spot in the city, everything from signage and upscale comfort food menu to the Motown Soundtrack and reclaimed wood indicating the rumors to be true, it was only after a 70-minute wait that seats were offered at walk-in only Central Provisions, the service generally more pleasant than the dismissive sort offered at similar spots in larger cities while the cuisine was pretty much exemplary across the board.No doubt a popular spot for Millennials, our table bringing the average age up by a couple years simply by default of all being born before the Nirvana released Bleach, it was with menus in hand that an ordering strategy was pondered, the typical description of a small plates concept suggesting that 2-3 items per person were recommended with everything to be sent out as it was made by the kitchen.Opting to taste a cocktail in addition to water poured in glasses that most can easily swallow in one gulp, prices at Central Provisions trend far lower than one might expect given portion sizes as well as the ingredients included, the meal starting off with Bread and Butter that is worth paying for as the housemade sourdough shines beneath a spread of whipped eggs mixed with green garlic and lemon.True to their word regarding service, sweets and savories arriving temperature appropriate with no particular pattern, Mini Doughnuts dusted in powdered sugar proved to be the meals weakest selection while the housemade Burrata shined beneath a sweet drizzle of honey and apricots with bitter greens and pork cracklins added as a well thought out foil.Happy to see Hush Puppies and Cod Croquettes on the menu, both lightly fried and full of flavor with their respective sauces or butters, a big surprise was presented by a cold soup that tasted like an up[scale Strawberry Julius with Mascarpone and Pomagranate contributing to the balance.Again falling short in sweets, the Cinnamon Roll just fine, but nothing more, two more showstoppers arrived in the meals waning moments, the Foie Gras parfait eating like a pot de crme infused with the unmistakable sapor of liver while the Cornbread with an egg baked inside was by itself a destination sort of dish with bits of bacon adding sharp pockets of salinity to the supple crumb sitting in cast-iron with a rim of caramelized cheese. endoedibles.com

  October 16, 2016, 3:47 am

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• Robyn Renee Gray

  A friend and I stopped here for a drink and small plates, and we agree we should have stayed there for the rest of the evening. We ordered a punch bowl, a cheese plate, the octopus, and the beet salad: all were delicious and beautifully presented. I will be back soon!

  March 7, 2016, 11:34 pm

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• Richie Axelsen

  My wife and I have visited Central Provisions on many of occasions as well has my wife has brought colleagues there as she works for a very large company here in Portland.I approached the owner Chris Gould back in July of 2015 to donate a gift certificate for a annual charity golf tournament that my wife and I put on every year for local non profits that involve children and I got the complete run around and bounced around by a great deal of his staff so I just forgot about it and then went to their Facebook page where it’s a public forum and it gives you the opportunity to rate and review a business and so I basically put on their Facebook page that this restaurant should be more community oriented where most every restaurant in the old port donated a gift card for the tournament but this restaurant just gave me the complete run around.Well today 11/13/15 my wife and I were visiting the old port area looking at various art gallery’s and decided to go to Central Provisions for lunch where we spent $60+ and when we’re finished we left and behind us a women appeared saying she was the owner of the restaurant and said her name was Page Gould and she was raising her voice saying she did not appreciate me posting what I posted on her Facebook page with the picture of her husband and child and that we were not welcomed at her restaurant no more.This is very unprofessional and I encourage you not to go to this restaurant as they are 100% not community driven as well as this kind of a tracking behavior is unacceptable and she had no business in doing this in public on the sidewalk while other people were watching this and one person came up to us and even said they could be a witness of that women harassing us.I plan to take action.Please consider this review before considering this restaurant.

  February 14, 2016, 8:34 am

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• Nadine Mort

  Chef Chris Gould’s Central Provisions provided a MARVELOUS experience from start to finish clearly demonstrating why they were nominated for The James Beard Best New Restaurent of the Year Award!! BRAVO..from the warm greeting as we stepped in off the busy SUMMER IN MAINE sidewalk…to marvelous wine suggested by the staff …attentive but not hovering service….each small plate a unique taste and aromatic treat from the Bread and Butter, Blue Fin, Suckling Pig….to each of the three desserts we shared… the couple next to us were in town for a one week biz trip and stumbled upon CP and were back that evening for the thir time saying each meal had been a marvelous adventure. I look forward to returning very soon to this Portland GEM!!!

  December 8, 2015, 5:58 pm

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• PigTrip

  Appealing little boutique with an open kitchen has a mostly small plates menu with some sandwiches. There doesn’t seem to be much correlation between who arrives first and who gets served first, and the dishes you order come out haphazardly, but they tell you this up front (well, the second part of that, at least). The waits to get in can also be a challenge, but keep trying; while we couldn’t get into Eventide, getting a seat here was no problem. It all comes down to luck and timing. And so it is with the dishes. Hickory smoked, 16 month aged Benton’s ham was a bit of a let down, with the promised smokiness in play but the texture a little off and the overall flavor not so compelling. The bacon cheeseburger gives you two thin patties with cheddar that’s more compelling and a buttered and griddled bun that’s very compelling. Most compelling of all was the beef salad, taken from the Thai playbook. Lots of flavors going on here, from the beef to the citrus to the heat (sriracha, but not a one-note affair) to the herbs to the peanuts. Perfect for a summer afternoon. Cubano was good but more of a ham and cheese panino. pigtrip.net

  October 12, 2015, 8:38 pm

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• Facebook User

  Good but not Amazing. Was thrilled to get in after the Bon Appetite best of list came out. The atmosphere was excellent. We sat in the bar downstairs my wife’s old fashioned was well made but not as good as we get in WI, issue in the bar was we ordered marinated cheese curd but it never showed up. Then the table was ready and waited 10 min to get that check. Once upstairs things turned around, bread and butter was good as well as the chicaronnnes. The shrimp were excellent and my wife really enjoyed the sheep cheese. We closed with the strawberry torte which was also good. Overall, was pleased after we moved upstairs but think my expectations were too high after all the press

  December 24, 2014, 1:20 am

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