The sample combination with all the seafood is amazing. The best fish I've ever tasted. The pastas are also fantastic

I was not super impressed. I brought my dad there when he came up from Texas. Seating is really uncomfortable if your butt is bigger than two apples. Good wine and sake. I wouldn't be able to give a good review of the food besides that it really didn't appeal to my tastes. My dad liked the food and he is a man of "finer taste." Our server was a bit snooty or maybe just tired, the latter of which I can totally understand. At the end of the day, I prefer different. read more

I don't usually give harsh reviews but this one was a bust for me. I went there before a show and most of the tables were empty. There was a group of four in front of me and they were told something about there no tables and the guy argued with the hostess who was pretty rude to them but she wouldn't let them have one of the tables. Now, they told me they don't take reservations when I called. After the party of four left angrily, I was next and asked for a table for two. She said they didn't have anything but the bar was available. I said, "How about that table right there and she said it was for parties of three or more?" It was a table that could barely seat two. They had a LOT of empty tables. Needless, to say, I am not sure, if they were looking for a particular clientele and didn't like my looks or they were just being rude but I won't be back. read more

We went to celebrate our 18th anniversary the other night. We love Birch, so this visit was very much anticipated event for us. We loved what we had except my husband ordered Tempura and they were too oily and batter was not done right. Possibly the batter wasn't cold enough or the oil temp was not hot enough, or the flour they used wasn't for tempura. Everything else was delicious! The waiter was very friendly and professional. Serving size was typical tapas portion. Each of us ordered 3 plates and shared a dessert. And we had 3 glasses of rosé wine. They split one serving into two when we were indecisive over ordering another glass or not. It worked out perfect! Great to have a new restaurant in town! I will give 5 stars if tempura was better. read more

Loved my first experience at Oberlin. It's cozy, we sat at the bar. Everyone of the staff were so friendly and attentive. The menu is eclectic, I went with the raw fish menu, each one was amazing. They have a good wine selection too. I had a great red. I will definitely be back! read more

I ate at the bar last night and enjoyed the experience immensely. Both bartenders were very naturally welcoming and friendly. I ordered two dishes that were fantastic and a glass of the Sangiovese. The first dish was the fish and lobster dumplings--a knockout! They reminded me of the pike quenelles of Lyon. The beans and brodo they were served with were so delicious I wanted to pick up the bowl and slurp the last drop. Then came the cavatelli with pork ragu, deep flavors, nice variety of textures. I was in Bologna two months ago and I'd hold up this ragu to the best I had there. When it came time for dessert, I turned it down only because I wanted to leave with the taste of the ragu on my lips. I'm new to Providence and swiftly introducing myself to it's great restaurant scene. This was one of my best meals in the city by far. read more

Best gluten free pasta in RI!! We had 7 different dishes and I would say only 1 didn't resonate (the lobster dumplings). 3 were good and 3 were great! My favorites were the kohlrabi Ceaser, the pesto pasta, the pork ragout, and the hush puppies. Really cool to see a wine list that consisted entirely of natural, organic, and biodynamic wines. Gluten free beer would be a nice addition but my negroni was very nice. read more

The food and atmosphere were good BUT I've never paid more attention to the bottom of my bowl. I paid $14 for pasta and was brought half a first worth of food; this wouldn't have been enough food to feed my cat so I made a bee-line to the convenience store Gourmet Heaven next door for a real meal. Don't know how they can market themselves as anything but overpriced tapas. Don't go here unless you're planning on just getting drinks or plan to go out for another meal after. read more

It's the second time I've eaten at Oberlin. While the food is tasty, I found the portion sizes to very stingy. The service was a bit on the slow side. Based mostly on the pricing and the very small portion sizes, I won't be back. There are other please in Providence that are putting out better food at fairer prices. read more

We went for a special occasion based on the great reviews. Very disappointing. The service was terrible. The table next to us got dessert before we got our second course. No explanation or apology. Menu is remarkably pretentious given how mediocre the food was, especially the pasta. Dense and flavorlesss read more

Amazing quality, but a little pricey for small portions. Beautiful space, wines by the glass need some work, maybe a complete over-hall. Pasta is delicious. Dessert was not good. read more

My partner and I had dinner at Oberlin on Saturday night after being encouraged to do so by friends. We arrived around 6:30pm and though very busy we were seating immediately. The space was a bit crowded and the noise level was a bit distracting. The lighting was and a bit bright my my partner and i and she noted that the bench seat along the wall where she sat was not particularly comfortable as the slant on the wall bench did not provide much back support. Our server was very attentive and friendly and provide us with professional and attentive service. She gets high marks for sure. Now on to the food: I order the steamed muscle app and found it to be quite delicious. The muscle were shelled and served with a tasty creamy type sauce and though quite non-traditional manner of serving muscles, it was very yummy. My partner order two dishes, a squash dish which came first along with my app. She really enjoyed it as well. She also ordered the gnocchi and report it to be fair to good( i had a taste and agreed with her assessment) She felt that the gnocchi was a little bit overcooked as the consistency was more like mashed potatoes as opposed to a more al dente consistency. I ordered the bass plate and the presentation was very dramatic as they served the entire fish on a plate(head and tail included). The tasty of the fish was excellent along with some beans, almonds and onions. Overall my dish was good but not out of this world. Given the miss on the gnocchi and the ambiance, Oberlin won't be a first choice given the many dining options we are spoiled with in Providence. Service: 5/5 Ambiance: 3/5 Food: 4/5 Salud! read more

Absolutely extraordinary food, amazing service from all the staff. Couldn't ask for a better experience.

I do agree with some of the reviewers before me. Although the food is well prepared, the prices can be a little steep. I do understand that they are small tapas type dishes, but they should be priced accordingly. My friend commented on how on a previous visit her fish was significantly larger. Maybe that should be a factor in the pricing? All in all I would go back on a day that I'm not completely starved, as I am a bit of an animal. I love hearty meals. I'd definitely go back for the pork gnocchi again. read more

I'll start with the good... DELICIOUS, perfectly cooked pastas, super fresh food and ingredients and the kitchen seems to function tip-top with the head chef (maybe owner) overseeing and tasting all the dishes to ensure the standards of quality and consistency are met. The whole fish dishes looked large and mouthwatering and would definitely recommend those. The not so good...I will preface this by saying that I still recommend this restaurant, just know what to expect. Long wait time for the food since it is busy. The pasta portions, which we were told was a good-sized plate for one person, was toy-size for the pappardelle! It was literally, count them, 4 strips of pasta. We are small women, but come ON. The fusilli pasta was a more decent sized portion but way too spicy. Yes chili flakes are listed on the menu but please waitress, don't say it's only got a "kick" when I ask you if it's very spicy. Be honest and say it's spicy as hell and your ears, mouth and throat will itch! The pappardelle was also served with those spicy chili flakes, which was not listed on the menu. I also didn't appreciate being charged for BREAD when we told the waitress our dishes were too strong and needed some bread to neutralize it. I'm surprised we didn't get charged for tap water. Nickel and dime. Overall, it's a nice place to dine and certainly worth checking out, but probably just wasn't the best place for us and our preferences. read more

DELICIOUS food and great wine!!!!! Potions are very small so plan on ordering at least six dishes for two people. It is a sensory journey for the pallet for sure. read more

Bold and vivid flavors.. Excellent food.. they are not afraid to season their food well.. Raw Scup, mussels, tuna, winter fluke, and tuna were amazing. We loved the mushroom and egg yolk plate. Potato gnocchi was excellent. Their bees wax ice-cream with freshly baked pear tart was to die for. Would highly recommend this place!! read more

This was a near perfect meal. Mussels with chili and little sweet potato chips was in an incredible marinade. Black bass was just superb with delicate flavor enhanced by a really high quality olive oil and lovely, crunchy seasalt. The gnocchi with crab and rosemary were the fluffiest tenderest bits of pasta imaginable. Excellent though short wine list. Brown butter ice cream apple tart was surprisingly good, with the pastry just slightly charred (in a good way) and the ice cream nicely salted. Good unobtrusive service. Loud but enjoyable 70s and 80s music. Some might find servings a bit small, but I thought they were just the right size to allow for experimentation. Full on a Saturday evening but not too difficult to get seated. read more

My girlfriend and I went here on date night on a friday night. The place is cozy with an open kitchen, a great vibe. The staff is awesome, and very attentive. We each had a glass of wine, and split 5 small plates (they are small). The food was amazing. The ingredients were so fresh and their take on dishes were really great. Its not "value dining" but its probably a value over a similar concept in nyc. read more

Loved the vibe. Loved the creativity of the menus....that being said, we sat at the bar and felt like outsiders. They have a really cool eclectic wine selection. There was no one who could or was willing to with help in wine selection. Food was average...attitude of staff average...... read more

Amazing service, food was awesome .highly recommend! got the lobster dumplings and chicken fuscilli, they gave us 2 extra dishes on the house and all the servers and staff were super friendly. Will definitely come back . read more

Went here for my birthday dinner last night. About an hour before a staff member called me to ask my preference on tables for my party. Then when I needed to add extra seats they complied with no problem. Upon arrival we were immediately seated and our drink orders were taken (multiple servers also wished me a happy birthday which was nice that they remembered after I only told the staff member on the phone once). Our party decided to order the entire menu minus dessert. The kitchen served us in three courses with the last course including a whole fish. Overall the food was amazing and ordering the entire menu was just enough for ten people. Customer service here is beyond expectation. I would definitely recommend Oberlin to a friend - it is truly a unique and satisfying experience. read more

Took my fiancé there for our 1 year since being engaged Anniversary- perfect spot. Plates were shareable and the food was great. Fresh and local seafood and ingredients from RI coast read more

Delicious food, great atmosphere, friendly and helpful waiter... too expensive and very limited and expensive beer and wine menu. Plus: several vegetarian options. Overall it was a nice splurge. read more

Really great atmosphere, really great food and quite a few gluten free options. The one down fall is I find the menu pretty hard to describer. It took me a few times before I realized it was separated by raw bar, cheese and charcuterie, pasta, main entrees, etc. regardless though, whatever I end up ordering is always excellent. read more

Great drink selection. Raw seafood unique. Awesome atmosphere.

So after being in the restaurant last night sitting at the bar for 15 min then at a table for 15 min with no offer of a drink, no hello, no eye contact from staff, just some water and menus tossed at us, we left and went to Persimmon and had an amazing dinner. The space is way too loud and the staff is way too inattentive. I also don't want to eat dinner and watch Saving Private Ryan. Great movie but not great on the stomach. Will not go back. read more

One of the best restaurants in the northeast. Amazing food and a well edited cocktail and wine list. Each dish is prepared with care - complex and unique but not fussy. read more

Perfectly nice spot for a decent meal. Confused by all the recent hyperbole in the press....wondering if we're all talking about the same restaurant.... read more

Disappointing! Heard that the food was top notch but due to the service had to leave restaurant. The bartender had time to pour us water and grab menus but never asked if we wanted a drink or if he could explain anything on the menu. As it was busy, never indicated he would return. Noticed that it took him 20 minutes to go to one table. When seated, waitress placed menus on table and never offered to explain a menu that for someone new needed clarification. Moved back into the bar area because of loud noise, no one came over. We finally left and the table then had immediate service to wipe it down. Very unfortunate as wanted to try food! Very inattentive young staff who seemed more interested in choosing who they wanted to attend to. Went to anther restaurant with the total opposite environment. read more

Our first visit to O was not what I expected, It was late evening and the barmaid looked up and said we could sit anywhere. We sat at the bar and seemed more of a nuisance then paying customers. We had beet salad and a dessert, both delicious but the experience was tainted by a less than inviting staff. The third time she came to us was to give us the bill. No thank you, no good night...nothing. We went again after the BonAppetite accolade and were totally delighted. Our waiter was as good as it gets! Food superb! Atmosphere and music were perfect. Our evening was topped off by meeting the talented chef/owner Ben Sukle! Can't wait to go back! read more

We were in town for the weekend and wanted to go to a nice spot after our show. We ended up here and no regrets. Very cute spot for a date. Food is your average price (although small portions compared to most places nowadays) and pretty tasty. We got the fettuccine with pork meatballs and marinara, sweet potato ravioli and sourdough bread with olive oil and nice roasted garlic. The bread was ok with the garlic and olive oil, soft on the inside and crunchy crust. For our main meal I enjoyed the fettuccine very much. The sauce was perfect and not too acidic like some places. The meatballs although not awesome were still good compared to most restaurants that give you chewy balls or with way too much breadcrumbs. I was pleasantly surprised to be eating a good meatball with very nice sauce. The sweet potato ravioli were very good. One thing we both felt was that the portions were small. We don't want Olive Garden portions but slightly more would've been perfect. read more

Went on a Sunday evening and the environment was perfect; laid back but not super casual. The beer was great & the food was amazing. I really enjoy eating small plates because I can order so many different ones and get a good feel for the menu. read more

enjoyed every dish and the service was fantastic, a gem in the area, the pastas are out of this world (especially the gnocchi)

Love Birch? Then you should try Oberlin. The menu is more extensive and more elbow room, No... a lot more elbow room! The place is separated in to two separate and different rooms. The entrance leads into a bar with some high tops and the second room is a more traditional dinning table experience. The decor is minimalist and thats not why you eat at Birch and Oberlin. What makes their dishes stand out, is the use of texture. Something as simple as crunchy bread crumbs in the pork ragu, gave the dish another layer of depth. I found this with many of the other dishes we ordered too. The level of detail in the food here is amazing. The pace is perfect too. Slower than many and in a good way. I can't stand looking at my watch after a meal and saying I can't believe we were in and out that fast... One last thing to note is the place only offers beer and wine, not a drawback when the selection is as unique as theirs. The choice of French cider was nice and the best I've had since my trip to Normandy. read more

I'll buck the trend too, but in large part on the basis of service. Now I hate it when people give bad reviews due to service, without really covering the food (this is unfair: service can be off night to night and may not be the restaurant's fault so much, but bad cheffery tends to stick around and is cause for real concern): so let me start with the food. It's fine - even good. But it's not all-caps-worthy GREAT! Here is a rundown of what I mean. I had raw tuna with orange and fennel - very professionally prepared but pretty unoriginal, anyone with good knife skills and access to a real nice piece of tuna would make the same thing at home. I then had the olives with mojama. Great flavors altogether, this was a nice dish. I expect a lot of Americans, who have an absurdly ambivalent relation to the olive, are going to find this a bit much - it's a LOT of olives, like a whole course of olives. However I could eat olives three meals a day and such a course is a score in my book. Cavatelli with ragu, also pretty decent, but again in a town crammed with pasta I'm not sure this was out of the park. My wife's brandade was quite well done, not over-fishy like brandade often is in the US: just as it should be, basically a garlicky, savory dip with a tang of coddy flavor. What sucked was the check process. This is a small place, and it still took us a full fifteen minutes to get the server's attention to ask for our check. A lot of huddling around the machine seems to have prevented attention to the clientele. (Can't say for sure, but the neighboring table seemed to have a similar problem, waiting forever on I think a dessert.) After asking for it finally, another fifteen minutes of huddling, no check, and suddenly a complimentary wine arrives. OK, this is an effort being made I guess, but guess what? Our show isn't waiting on our arrival to begin, and this glass of complimentary wine will not mollify it while the "computer is being slow." This ain't 1996, you're not using dialup, what the what is going on, why aren't you telling us, we are now late for our show (hey restaurateurs, a tip: a lot of people dine and then go to a show - getting them out when they ask for the check might be a thing to keep in mind). Finally it's 6:57 - been 27 minutes since we asked for the check, 40-45 since we've been trying - and we can leave at a decidedly unpleasant run. Not a cool experience. So I get that a place might have to work out kinks, but this place has been open a month, is supposed to be run by experienced people, and this was just subpar client care. Even if the food were stellar I wouldn't have called this a good experience. But the food wasn't - it certainly wasn't a good or as exciting as Birch is. When I'm thinking of going to a place like this, I'll think Birch (where the same owners have never given me such a bad experience), or North, or north to Boston. Also, what's with the art? Seriously, those are three of the ugliest things I've ever seen in frames. Hate to sound like a total jerk, but the idea that someone would want to spend time looking at those three posters is sincerely baffling to me. read more

I've been multiple times since it opened a few months back and I can't say enough good things about this place. Disclaimer: I absolutely LOVE Birch, its ingenuity, and commitment to sourcing locally. Oberlin is a dressed-down version of Birch. Some would say less pretentious, although there's nothing pretentious about interesting and insanely tasty plates, no matter what they look like. Aka: BRING ON THE TWEEZERS! But I digress, their raw bar is unparalleled: with lots of raw seafood options, but also raw lamb/beef plates which are equally as yummy for those adventurous enough to try them. Seasonal menu that changes frequently. I'm not going to go into detail on specific dishes because literally everything I have tried has been wonderful. Really wonderful beer menu with some European and Japanese IPAs (my heart melted) along with very unique/thorough but not overwhelming wine and sake menus, and of course full bar. Overall, for the price, this place is a casual, home-y feeling spot with the quality and ingenuity of fine dining. Quite a unique dining experience that will keep me coming back time and time again. read more

Oberlin came highly recommended to me from a friend. We had to wait a bit at the bar- it's pretty cramped in there but still a cute space. I was a little disappointed they did not carry any vodka. When we sat down for the meal I was a little confused on the menu- it's tapas style but they don't like calling it that. We ordered a few small plates - one of which was grilled bread. The bread was very burned and I was a little surprised that they would serve it to us like that. The salad I had was just meh. However the gnocchi was delicious. I think for the money they could have done much better. Not sure if I would return again. read more

This place definitely lives up to the hype! We came here for an early Valentine's dinner and were not disappointed! The place wasn't too crowded and we didn't end up waiting at all, but that might have been due to the snowy weather. We started off with the Surprise Combo with 3 different preparations of their seafood dishes. I'm glad we picked the surprise combo because everything was fantastic and we got to try some types of fish that I had never had before and probably wouldn't have ordered. The sourdough was fantastic, still warm from the oven, with fresh roasted garlic. The ragu pasta dish was super tasty and with fresh pasta and a flavorful sauce. The aged Wagyu beef dish with mustard greens was incredible. My husband wanted to order another serving of it before we had even finished the first! The wine was tasty, the service was excellent, and the decor was cozy, especially on a snowy evening! I look forward to revisiting Oberlin through the seasons to see what they do with different types of ingredients! Another fantastic addition to the Providence dining scene! read more

After returning to Oberlin several times, have found the wine experience to be inconsistent, and am dropping my rating to 3 instead of 4. The wait staff doesn't appear to have an accurate understanding of the wines, and more than twice I have found myself with a TERRIBLE glass of wine despite the high price tag. A bad wine can ruin the experience of the food (especially in a wine bar)... For example, we asked for wine recommendations and ended up with a "sauvignon blanc" like italian white and a "nice" pinot noir. The pinot noir tasted fermented (like when you leave a bottle of opened red out for a week) and when we asked the waitress about it she just said "well that one is a little funky." Um, okay? The white was the worst I've had at a nice restaurant in the past 10 years and didn't match the explanation the waitress provided- but I didn't I didn't even mention it to the waitress (and she didn't care to ask) because of her comment about the red. Whatever, not sure I'll be back. read more