Restaurant Review: Prime & Providence
Is this big, buzzy, high-end venue worth the price?
Review of Prime and Providence
595 S. 60th St., West Des Moines
(515) 644-6805
Cocktail Hour: Daily 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Dining Room: Daily 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
When you’re spending close to $300 for dinner (for two), you’ve got rights. One of them is that when you reserve a table in the swanky dining room, you get to eat in the swanky dining room.
Sadly, this was not the case last week at Prime & Providence. Upon arrival, we noticed the main dining room was set for a private party; the hostess led us to our table in the “overflow room,” which is technically another dining room, but feels more like a party room. It simply couldn’t measure up to the main dining room, which offers dreamy white-leather booths and energetic proximity to the raw bar and the open kitchen.
Even more problematic: there was only one other party of diners in the overflow room, and a loud-talking table at that. You know how that goes: we could hear every word of their conversations and could hardly hear our own. While loud-talkers are not a restaurant’s fault, I doubt such a thing would have happened in the busy main dining room on a normal night. When enough people fill the room, the discussions become part of an ambient energy, not a distracting sideshow.
Obviously, we started off on the wrong foot.
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