Prime & Provisions Awards

Prime & Provisions Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant & décor: After 7 p.m., the Financial District can feel starved for nightlife. In spite of this location, Prime & Provisions manages to be a destination. Enter and immediately notice the smell of cigars; a dedicated tented lounge teems with off-the-clock executives enjoying a few puffs with their highballs. Indoors, the scene is modern Chicago steakhouse with an open plan, tufted booths, heavy woods and dramatic arches. Servers are attentive, helpful and jovial.

Likes: Informed, timely servers; fresh seafood and juicy, dry-aged steaks.
Dislikes: Overdressed wedge salad.

Food & Drinks: Prime & Provisions benefits from steaks dry-aged in-house for 45 days, and seafood flown in daily. Trade up from an order of oysters and shrimp cocktail to the more-than-generous seafood tower tiered with meaty shrimp, oysters from both coasts, lobster and crab legs on a bed of ice. The classic wedge salad overpowers with too much Gorgonzola dressing, taking away from the other ingredients (thick cut bacon, tomatoes, cucumber, purple onion, charred red endive and baby iceberg lettuce). Substantial sides are designed to be shared. The bruléed sweet potato is moist and sweet with cinnamon and cajeta butter, and the purple cauliflower au gratin’s by-the-spoonful richness complements the lighter fare (broiled wild salmon or Chilean sea bass). Go bone-in for steak; the Kansas City strip arrives sizzling and sliced, while the rib-eye is marbled and tender. Many diners will order the tableside s’mores for the show (chocolate ganache melts a hollow bomb of chocolate), but the banana cream cake is a winner in its delicate fluffiness. The wine list is deep in selections at all price points, from the Opus One to a velvety Round Pond Kith and Kin Cab.