4 Best Restaurants in Providence, Rhode Island

On the city's increasingly gentrified West Side (which fringes Federal Hill), this convivial bar and restaurant occupies a single-story redbrick storefront with a handful of sidewalk tables. A mix of students, artists, and neighborhood locals find their way here nightly for fair-priced, deftly prepared bistro chow and imaginative salads.

A tiny Warren restaurant known for offbeat beers, hot chicken sandwiches, and a burger stacked 10 inches tall has blossomed into this second location with more expansive indoor-outdoor seating and an equally enticing menu of decidedly adult, made-from-scratch comfort grub. Pair zesty Mozambique chicken tenders that are definitely not your kids' chicken nuggets with frozen sangria on a summer's day.

Fun and kitschy Ogie's bar and restaurant fuses trailer-park chic and colorful (maybe even garish) 1950s-style decor. The "Granny Boo's Kitchen" menu emphasizes "gourmet comfort food," which translates into the likes of tater tots with white truffle oil, grilled peanut butter and jelly, and mac 'n' cheese croquettes. The restaurant's backyard is one of Providence's best outdoor dining and drinking spots.

Ben Lloyd, the chef-owner of this "agri-driven" American restaurant, is committed to honoring the origins of the food he prepares. He purchases humanely raised and harvested meat, poultry, and fish whole from local vendors, butchers them in-house, and uses every part from nose to tail—combined with eggs at breakfast, cheese and fries at lunch, and fresh vegetables at dinner. The weekend brunch will fill you up with frittatas, home fries, donuts and more for just $15 per person.