Rating: ★★★☆☆

The foie gras: an absurdly small portion on a huge plate.

Provision No. 14 is a New American restaurant and bar located at 2100 14th St NW. I am very conflicted about this place. The food and drinks are delicious, but the portions are inconsistent- ranging from sizeable to absurdly tiny, and the prices are high. For my drink, I ordered the Pinju Tiki (Beefeater, Lyon Dark Rum, Martell Cognac, pineapple, juniper, citrus, absinthe and bitters), which was delicious but a bit pricey at $14. The draft cocktails also sounded excellent but they weren’t able to make them because the draft equipment was malfunctioning.  Our friendly waiter explained to us

The Pinju Tiki

that Provision No. 14’s shtick is that it’s a “communal dining restaurant” with large shareable dishes and small plates. The shareable plates did not sound all that appealing so we each ordered two of the small plates. As is typical of small plates places, you end up paying almost as much (if not as much) as you would for an entree at many other places. Take the fois gras, for example. It was an absurdly small portion on a massive place. The plating was pretty and all, but it was as if a casual spot like this was trying to be Le Bernardin or something. It was accompanied by rhubarb and mustard, which were both tasty on their own but which made an odd combo. Don’t get me

The duck.

wrong; the fois gras itself was fantastic but it was way too small to be shared and was completely out of proportion with the mustard and rhubarb that accompanied it. I also ordered the duck which was also small, but not as absurdly tiny as the fois gras. It was delicious, but these two dishes combined set me back $30 ($18 for the absurdly small fois gras and $12 for the duck), and I still considered supplementing my meal with McDonald’s. In contrast, one of the other people with me ordered the burger and the brussels sprouts, which were both big portions. She ended up having way too much food. Of course, I don’t expect all of the dishes to be exactly the same amount of food, but it would have been nice if they had categorized their menu based on size. My overall impression of Provision No. 14 is that it’s a cool place to go on a date for drinks, but dinner here burns a huge hole in your wallet without filling the hole in your stomach.