CENTO Pasta Bar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I had quite the odd experience last night at Cento. I’d been excited to try this spot since it’s close to home, but I was honestly disappointed.

The first issue was the seating: we were placed at the counter near the kitchen doors, where a constant cold draft blew underneath us throughout the entire meal. I regret not asking to move because that alone made the experience uncomfortable.

We ordered two Cucumber + Basil drinks, a Hendricks martini, Hamachi Crudo, Octopus app, Caesar Salad, Spicy Pomodoro, and the Carbonara. The cucumber basil drinks arrived about 90 seconds after ordering, indicating they were batch cocktails. I don’t mind batch cocktails, but at an $18 price point, I expected a freshly made drink and wouldn’t have ordered it otherwise. Then the martini came (a drink I'm very familiar with) and when we both tasted it, it seemed off. It tasted like there was a lot of vermouth, so I asked our server about it. She immediately cut me off, saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry you don’t like the drink. But we don’t even serve vermouth here, so there’s definitely none in there.” She offered to have the bartender remake it but then insisted it would taste the same. I was so confused—either I was wrong, or she was. I left it alone but couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.

1st Course: The Hamachi Crudo was visually appealing but overpriced for just five small bites. 2nd Course: The octopus was good but not memorable. 3rd Course: The Caesar salad came and no one brought us fresh plates so we ended up eating it on top of the leftover romesco sauce from the octopus dish. Again, for the prices, I expected better service. The salad itself was barely average. 4th Course: The Spicy Pomodoro was not spicy at all and the dish was barely warm. I was looking forward to this dish the most, so it was disappointing. 5th Course: The Carbonara was easily the best dish of the night and the only one I’d consider ordering again.

We skipped dessert, especially after watching the servers struggle to present the Tiramisu to other tables. While I appreciated the effort at a unique presentation, it came off as clumsy, and the plastic over the dessert cheapened the effect.

When the $190 bill came, our same server commented, “Thanks for coming, sorry again about the drink. I was going to have the bartender make another, but since it would have been the same martini with no vermouth, you probably wouldn’t have wanted it.” What an unnecessary comment. This time, I didn’t respond but later looked up the drink menu online and noticed Cento actually lists multiple cocktails with two types of vermouth. The whole interaction left a bad taste in my mouth, literally. I couldn’t let it go, though. I was certain it had vermouth, yet the server doubled down with her lie and I knew she was gaslighting me. So much so that after we left Cento, my partner and I stopped at two liquor stores for Hendricks gin and vermouth to recreate the drink at home. Sure enough, with extra vermouth, our version tasted exactly like the one we’d been served. I was so frustrated—why did she lie??

In the end, I don’t see myself returning to Cento. While some elements of the food were enjoyable, the inconsistencies in service and the strange approach from our server regarding the drink were off-putting. LA has plenty of similar restaurants with better food and much...

Everyone loves Cento...but I don't know why. It has been a few years since I've dined here. A lot has changed for the most part. The Olive trees have grown taller, the patio is now inclosed albeit neutering the streetscape, and they have a new venture next door which seems to be a complete distraction from Cento's original self. There are many positive takeaways here, all obvious to the typical Angeleno who prefers dining out to cooking in, so I'm just going to focus on my short list of disappointments.

So let's start with the food...Fine...3 stars. I don't understand the tequila centric cocktail menu. None of those drinks pair with any food item should your Cucumber + Basil last as long as the first plate landing in front of you. Granted that's not entirely the intent of pre-drinks, but they should nonetheless point you in the direction of what's to follow. What did follow were poorly "coursed" dishes that come out quickly at first then slow down much like the 405 South at the 10 on Thursday night commutes home. Coursing is a dead skill in Los Angeles restaurants under a certain price point. Folks will whisper in your ear that it's more efficient for the kitchen when it fact it's just laziness or lack of training. Instead of "coursing," they're "forcing" you to take it when they're able to give it. So, within minutes out came the salads - no shock at that speedy delivery...it's a salad. The Radicchio was overdressed with too many red onions that stole the show - it was unfinishable. The Gem salad was not that, and Roberta's down the street at The Platform does it better by adding fried cappers. I give higher marks for the Sweet Corn Agnolotti although it's so sweet, it wants to be a dessert and there was barely a char on the charred corn - take it from someone who has hosted his fair share of corn roasts. As for the other pasta dishes, they lean into the heat too much for what I would call Italianesque pasta. Point me to the region that honors the chili the way this Bar does. Capisci cosa intendo?

Service is noteworthy because our waitress was great! Where service falls short is the intermediate support with the tableware. Sometimes dirty plates were swapped for clean ones, sometimes not. Sometimes plates were gently set down and explained, sometimes literally tossed. One toss, 4 stars. Two tosses, 3 stars, and so on - 3 stars for this category.

Atmosphere - We all need it to breathe, right? Another just "fine" element here. I appreciated the covered patio should it ever rain again but now it feels like Anywhere LA. The best vibe is (or at least was) at the pasta bar. That's root of this vision, where really delicious pasta was once made, and there's no room to toss your...

Not going to lie, I used AI to recommend some upscale Italian restaurants with a romantic mood. This one seemed like the best in the area - I scheduled a reservation for this restaurant on the same day that I would be proposing to my now fiancé.

We had a little trouble at first with parking, as we thought there would be free parking in the area besides valet. After 10 minutes of trying to look around, we decided to give it to the valet, which was surprisingly cheap ($12).

After checking in, we were a few minutes early, so they told us to wait a little. Unfortunately, our reservation was for 6:45, but we finally got let into our table at 6:52- not a huge issue.

We had counter seats; when I reserved initially, we had outdoor seats initially, but then we didn't think we were going to make the reservation, thus, I updated the time. Honestly, I think the counter was the best seat in the house - you get to see the chefs cooking the food, as well as crafting desserts.

Our waitress was nice, was helpful with our selections, although it felt like she was not checking up as much the longer we were there.

We ordered the Caesar Salad as our appetizer; the best Caesar we've had in a while! Was very quick to get our appetizer, which was great.

Next, for our entrees, we ordered the Spicy Pomodoro and the Sweet Corn Agnolotti. Both were phenomenal; cheese is mixed in to cancel out a lot of the spice from the Spicy Pomodoro. On the other hand, the Agnolotti was our absolute favorite- the one issue that we had was that they didn't give a lot of the Agnolotti, as it kept us wanting more once finished.

To finish it off, we got a banana pudding tiramisu & peaches and cream. On the reservation, I put a special occasion for the reason we were going, so once they brought the tiramisu out, there was a candle on it. The person who brought it out to us asked the occasion, then congratulated us.

Presentation was perfect for all of the food. Would recommend coming here for a...