Spats

Spats
182 Angell St.
Providence, RI

If you're looking for a fun sports bar or just a place to have a meal near Brown, you might want to try Spats at 182 Angell Street. Now, I'm not from Providence so I'm a little confused with the names of the streets. Is it Angel or Angell? I've seen it spelled both ways. In any case, I think they are same place.

Spats has that sports bar feel with monitors everywhere and a dark decor. The service was very good and people seemed friendly. I'm not sure how crowded and smokey (do they allow smoking in pubs in Rhode Island?) it would get if the place were packed with hungry and sports-crazed college students but when I was there, it was a bit early for the dinner crowd and everything was nice except for the overeager patrons at the bar. The Mariners were playing on the monitors and that passed the time well as I was waiting for my food.

I was in the mood for seafood and ended up ordering the "Clams Zuppa," which was angel hair pasta covered with a wonderful tomato sauce (they claimed it was spicy but it really wasn't), littleneck clams, chorizo, and garlic. The meal was very tasty. The clams were fresh and I really liked how the chorizo complimented the rest of the flavors. A great dish overall.

For dessert, I tried the apple crisp, which was just perfect. The crust as nice and gooey and went well with the wonderfully tender apples. The vanilla ice cream may have been too much but it was very good along with the whipped cream. I think the crisp would have been fine on its own but if you're going to go all out in Providence, why not just have the complete meal?

Overall, this was a fine place to dine.

As it turns out, there is this blog about Providence area restaurants ("Eating Providence"), which is interesting. Check it out.

Roba!Dolce

Roba!Dolce
178 Angel Street (corner of Thayer St. and Angel St.)
Providence, RI
(Visit their website for other locations)

This is a fun little place near Brown University. I didn't realize that this was a chain store because it was so much like just a little cafe that catered to the college and tourist crowd. At least in the case of the Providence store, the service was very good. Enter the cafe and you are greeted by "Welcome to Roba!Dolce!"

The store offers a wide variety of drinks, meals, and desserts although it is primarily a cafe so you're going to get the most choice in the drink realm. For lunch though, they had a special Penini with turkey (or ham), American cheese, tomatoes, red onion, and Balsamic vinaigrette. My dining companion and I topped that off with some coffee, espresso, and two desserts: a raspberry pie and a chocolate covered (and lathered) cream puff. Pretty good overall. I would say the atmosphere in this store makes it worth the visit.

Kabob and Curry

Kabob and Curry
261 Thayer Street
Providence, RI
(Visit their website)

This is a nice two story restaurant right near Brown University. I had the lamb barba kabob salad, which consisted of lamb kabobs over lettuce, diced cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes. The salad also included walnuts and cranberries. I had it with balsamic vinaigrette but this dressing tasted different than the regular variety. I'm not sure if they added some sort of Indian spices to it or something but it was very tasty.

The seating was a bit crowded but the food was decent and the service wasn't bad when we first got there. Lunch hour is a busy time though but it looked like the wait staff worked well together.

The mango chicken was also very tasty but the portion seemed a bit small.