Earlier this month during the Easter weekend (which also happened to be right before our anniversary), my wife Jun and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia for the first time together. It was just overnight from Saturday through Sunday but we had a fun time in the city navigating some of the standout museums (I had not realized that Philadelphia boasts some of the largest Impressionist collections in the country) and of course a couple of restaurants that I had long wanted to visit with Jun. On our first day in the city, we visited Provenance, a French restaurant with Korean influences from chef Nicholas Bazik (the Korean elements come from the chef’s Korean wife). I was particularly intrigued with how chef Nich would blend different ingredients and techniques from France and Korea, despite our usual trepidations on fusion cuisine that in our experience had been more misses than hits. The tasting menu (currently at $225 per person) leaned more toward French in overall character but there were unmistakably Korean elements in some of the dishes. Overall, we had a delicious meal at Provenance, but some dishes left us wanting a bit more out of the kitchen.

The tasting menu started with a few snacks of oyster, mussel, blue prawn and firefly squid. Among those, I liked the firefly squid (with gochugaru salt) and mussel (stuffed with hazelnut); I wasn’t sure if the strong flavor of ssamjang helped with the oyster. The marinated vegetables that followed were also delicious, especially with saffron aioli, but the sour flavor from the flower vinegar was slightly overpowering the entire dish. One of my favorite dishes of the night was Hokkaido uni with noodles made of gamtae (a type of Korean seaweed that seems to be used in many fine dining restaurants like Atomix these days). I was very fond of the creamy Billi Bi sauce that worked fantastically well with the spot-on texture of the noodles and the fresh sea urchin. On the other hand, the side dish of japchae felt out of place with its aggressive seasoning that was not what we were used to from the japchae dish that Jun’s mom would make for us. Another dish that Jun and I really liked was wild tai (or red sea bream) with smoky fish sauce and soft tofu; the fish was expertly cooked and the sauce had the sophisticated richness that would fit at another top French restaurant.

Compared to these bright spots, other dishes didn’t leave as lasting an impression, starting with the steelhead trout wrapped in seaweed in two different versions, or the scallop with green garlic and seafood-based Cancalaise sauce (I was actually more impressed with the side dish of stuffed morel mushroom). And we initially struggled to identify kimchi flavor from the butter that accompanied the delicious sourdough milk bread. The final savory course was Navarin of Lamb, accompanied by rice, mushroom-based soup and daikon kimchi. The lamb itself was stellar in texture, but the overall flavor was a tad aggressive that I had to neutralize with rice and kimchi. Among the desserts, I very much enjoyed the cheese course of brie and date molasses accompanied by delightful brie ice cream that I wished I could have more of. The main bread and chocolate dessert of chocolate tart with custard, baguette caramel and toasted yeast ice cream was very delicious as well.

Provenance is certainly one of the more popular restaurants in Philadelphia, so getting a reservation will require advance planning, especially if you want to secure a seating at the kitchen counter where you get to see chef Nich and his staff in action. We were too late in our reservation to make it to the counter space so had to settle for a more sedate dining room at the back. Jun and I also did a wine pairing (there are two options, and we went with the cheaper $175 one) to complement the menu. The pairing, consisting entirely of French wines from producers I had not tried before across different regions of France, was smart, thoughtful and well-designed to complement the food. The service overall was very friendly and attentive. Toward the end of our meal, we also briefly chatted with chef Nich who was friendly and shared his passion about incorporating various elements from his wife’s mother country into Provenance’s culinary identity. I liked the creativity and thoughtfulness behind Provenance’s menu, but we both felt the execution fell a little short in some of the dishes, especially on bringing the Korean ingredients forward in a more seamless manner with the base French techniques. Time again and again, we find that fusion cuisine mixing different culinary influences is more difficult than it sounds.

KenScale: 8.0/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.0/10)

Address: 408 S 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Website: https://provenancephl.com/

Reservation via OpenTable