Manzke vs Providence: The Fight for best Fine Dining Restaurant in LA

My Love for Tasting Menus

A little about me, I currently live in Los Angeles and I’m a huge foodie. Lately I’ve been entering my bougie foodie era (*snap* *snap*). Doesn’t help that I’m feverishly obsessed with seafood either. The more raw the better! I swear, for pretty much my whole life, I wouldn’t choose to indulge in some cuisines like italian or indian food because it just “wasn’t my cup of tea” but I’d easily down some slimy, moving tenticles after adding a pinch of lemon juice and soy sauce for good measure. My adventurous, foodie ways had limits I guess (however I’ve recently tried and now obsess over indian food, italian food is still a slow burner but we’re getting there). Anyways, about a month ago I met a fellow nurse at an aesthetics seminar and we immediately hit it off. Come to find out she’s a foodie too with a particular love for seafood. Our hangouts definitely revolved around some bomb ass food. Particularly:

Found oyster – got some seafood platter there. I remember there was a super long line and remember it being sort of expensive but quality seafood is worth it!

—The Ethiopian restaurant Merkato (chill family business vibes) small, intimate restaurant, fresh and well cooked food.

—And CrossRoads Kitchen, truly my favorite vegan restaurant! Their vegan food can honestly trump the actual meat they’re imitating (Not in the case of their seafood like the calamari but it’s still a delicious twist to it!)

But let’s talk about what really made me write this post…

Manzke

So I’ve been dyinnnng to go to Providence which is a Michelin star restaurant located in Hollywood. Just google “the best seafood restaurant in los angeles” or “best fine dining in LA” and Providence finds itself on the top of the list everytime, so I naturally wanted to check it out. Now… it ain’t cheap. For each person the 8 course tasting menu runs a hefty $295… without tax or tip. I cushioned the blow of the cost be convincing myself that “I never do this” “I deserve this!” “This will be a once a year expense!” “the food must be that riveting, it will all be worth it.” As I’m having dinner with my fellow bougie friend, though, and I bring this place up, she says she knows ANOTHER fine dining restaurant that was such an incredible experience for her. Manzke. Apparently Manzke is owned by the same chefs/owners of Republique, an upscale French Bakery/Restaurant in Los Angeles. My friend raved about Manzke but honestly, I googled it and barely found any information on this place. Compared to Providence which is littered throughout the internet with tons of press. The price of Manzke was the same as Providence and I couldn’t imagine risking going to this no-name place and not investing my money in the highly rated Providence. My friend was ultimately convincing though, so we decided to go to Manzke and I just figured I’ll save Providence for a date with my boyfriend.

Entering Manzke

Manzke is located in Pico Robertson on a sloped street, and sorta blends in with the rest of the buildings on it’s side of the street. At this point I’m starving and just excited to eat. Parked in residential parking (food’s already expensive, not adding valet to the bill). Met up with my friend and walked in. When I say I felt like a celebrity, I’m not kidding. As soon as we walked in, all eyes are were on us (and we are not dressed to impress whatsoever). A man opens the doors for us and instantly greets us by name. All the waiters and staff seem to stop what they’re doing and greet us as we walk in. Our waiter walks us to our table which is on the second floor and we’re getting smiles and nods left and right I couldn’t stop cheesing. When we get to our table another man arrives and our chairs are pulled out for us, my jacket removed and placed who knows where! I was so overwhelmed with the attention but I could easily get used to it haha!

Same thing happened when I went to use the bathroom, almost all the staff looked up as if I just let out a scream for help and when I asked to use the bathroom, one of the waiters swiftly yet gently ushered me to the squeaky clean bathroom awaiting for me. I mean when it came to customer service they were A1. Now the food is what blew me away. Truly the best food I’ve ever experienced. And the way all the ingredients/flavors were layered and blended with each other was so fricken cool to me. I can honestly say I had never experienced a medley of flavors so perfect, all waiting for their time to shine after each explosion of pure delectableness. This place had 10 courses on their tasting menu and I was obsessed with EVERY DISH. By the end I was full in the most satisfying way. I got a little taste of what rich people get to experience on the daily and I was not mad at it. They also give you a parting bread gift making you question what you did to deserve all of this love. Soon after that I couldn’t wait to go to Providence and see how they could top this place since Manzke was easily a 10/10 experience.

Long story short, Providence fell flat in every arena. When we arrived, the place was big and hectic, people flying from room to room. We were sent to the bar to wait. And wait. Now we ended up waiting for about 30 mins past our dinner reservation which isn’t crazy but so opposite from the punctuality Manzke portrayed. Also we stood at the bar for the majority of our wait, and I had already had this bougee experience, so the comparisons were going off in my head like crazy. Food, plain and simple, was not worth the price. Not sure if they had an off night but compared to Manzke, there was very little play on flavors and textures. It was giving… any other restaurant. There was some dishes I actually wasn’t fond of at all which I wasn’t expecting since Manzke played on flavors so well that even though, for example, I’m not a fan of mango, the way they integrated it into the food just made everything tasty and mind boggling. Almost like a science experiment. That, in my opinion, was missing from Providence.

Providence was way too busy to have the same service as Manzke. In the most non-weird way, at Manzke I felt I was always being watched after to make sure if I needed something I wouldn’t even have to ask. While I didn’t feel I had to ask too much at Providence, it just felt like a normal restaurant that’s charging an arm and a leg for normal restaurant duties. In short, my vote for favorite fine dining restaurant holds strong with Manzke.

Until the next fine dining venture!

Check out some tasty pics from Manzke. Highly recommend!

**Sadly Manzke has recently closed!**