Drago Centro — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I was unbelievably excited to finally try Drago Centro during DineLA last week. Last minute reservations on a Saturday night were easy to come by, the valet parking was free, and the restaurant decor was absolutely gorgeous. So many things going right for Drago already! The wine pairing during DineLA was $22 for all 3 courses, but they also have reasonably priced carafes of which I selected a lone Sangiovese. Probably my favorite dish of the evening was the seafood pasta. Seasoning was spot on, shrimps were bursty, and the calamari had a nice bite. Just from this pasta starter, I can tell their pasta dishes are probably the stars of the menu. The plating of the buffalo mozarella was so artistic, and I loved running the mozza/basil/tomato combo through the balsamic dots. As for the mains, the scallops were huge and plump, and the garlic risotto cake while deep fried managed to taste light and buttery at the same time. I did enjoy my crispy skinned quail, but stuffed with sausage, it was just a little too heavy for my tastebuds. It wasn't a badly executed dish, but having shared 3 plates of food by this time, my friend and I were already too stuffed to stuff ourselves with any sausage-stuffed quail. Miraculously though, my friend and I managed to find a 3rd stomach for dessert, and we were not disappointed. I wish I had a better picture of the panna cotta, because it was also beautifully plated. It's probably the best version of this dessert I've ever had. The rosemary crisps played really well against the sweet panna cotta. Unfortunately, the chocolate and olive oil terrine was a little mushy, and the salted caramel gelato had melted by the time the plate was delivered. I will let that slide though b/c it was DineLA weekend, and while our server was extremely busy, he still managed to be courteous the whole meal. I really loved the whole dining experience at Drago Centro, and I will surely return for a nice lunch, dinner, hot date, birthday, Wednesday,...

Let’s start this by asking yourself if this was worth $350? I was here for Valentines Day dinner. Our first intro to the staff was chicken with their heads cut off. Frantic and staff snippy with each other. We were early so we were asked to to sit at the bar. Awesome! Because we wanted drinks. The bartender was eh. She could have asked us how we were, how the drinks were, have a good night, thank you…. None of that. But ok. People are dressed right? The person that sat us to our table… amazing! Our waiter was not good. Didn’t see us for 40 minutes!!! Literally!!!! Then was rude and not personable as if he was kicking us out! Nope you don’t get to not see us for 40 minutes and be rude and kick us out like we overstayed. Food was AMAZING unfortunately the service was horrific. When we said thank you and have a good night we got “yup”. Possibly because it was two men having Valentines dinner together? I dint know but maybe? I really have never been ignored so this is a first. We told the nice man and hostess that they should get a better waiter and they apologized as if they already knew we had a bad waiter. Lol!!! Weird. I want to come back so bad but not to be treated the way we were for $350. Tip… lol. What would you tip? Update: we wanted coffee and desert wine and could have made the bill to to reach $ 400 and a $100 tip. He got $30. Do we think he cares?...

Great ambiance, great sound design, good food, and a large wine selection.

This has to be one of the few super nice restaurants I've been to that was clearly busy but when you sit at your table you're not distracted by everybody speaking. I could talk to my friends normally across the table and have them hear me without yelling or screaming. This restaurant has fantastic sound design and that really helps make the dinning experience feel a lot more personal even though you're in the middle of a giant room.

Our attentive waiter, the classy ambiance, and fantastic vibe this restaurant has is 5 stars without a doubt. We all ordered pasta while it was really good, cooked to perfection, the overall taste is 3.5 stars. It's delicious, but not good enough to say "Hey, I'm probably going to crave this again." But for the price point I think it is very fair for what you get and you'll be very happy. Pasta dishes ran about $16-$20. They have fancier truffle ones but the normal pasta dishes you won't regret if you do get.

What I crave most is just coming back to this place with friends again and having another fantastic dinning experience. Drago is perfect for dinner with friends, a romantic date, or a business outing. It has the most perfect vibe that will make you want to come back to...