Cento Pasta - Los Angeles

One of the top dining experiences of Los Angeles, Cento Pasta Bar brings it all. While the menu may be concise, there are no wrong choices.Centro delivers excellent service, creative dishes, and a thoughtful wine program.It’s the nuances that separates Centro pasta from a great Italian restaurant to an excellent and memorable dining experience. Our server Jeffery, was thoughtful and seemed to always be 2 steps ahead. The table was properly reset between course, and we were guided to order the right amount of food.The Pasta Bar, and Al Fresco table service each bring their own unique energies with equally great service. The Pasta Bar is brightly lit, and feels fast paced without the rush. al Fresco is romantic with outdoor white Christmas lights filling the space with enough soft lighting to make it easy to read the menu, but dim enough to feel relaxed and at ease.Cento Pasta Bar is a great representation of what West Adams has to offer.

I am a bit saddened writing this not too positive review but want to be honest.Cento Bar definitely did not meet the expectations that we went with.The moment we entered, we were wowed by the ambiance. It is definitely a great place for a date night. Beautiful setting and bright,romantic vibe.But that is where the wow factor ended for us.The food.....well, it was good, beautifully presented but definitely not something to write home about. While the infamous pasta Pomodora was flavorful, it wasn 't anything to rave about. The so-called mint sauce was bland and didn 't add anything to the taste. In fact, half our party didn 't even think that it was a good dish.The Brocolli Buccatini was perhaps the best dish of the evening for me. It had a mild, sweet anchovy flavor, pasta was perfectly cooked and sauce well seasoned.Farro salad again was good but not exceptional.Coming to the desserts, the Banana Pudding Tiramisu is highly overrated. The banana completely took over the Tiramisu, and all you taste is the banana. Didn 't like it.The date cake had so much salt in it. Each time we took a bite, the top of the cake was completely salty... maybe the ice cream or the creme freche or the foam... every bite that any of us took ..it was just salt.The most disappointing was the response of our server when we told her about the date cake saltiness. She just said, Oh ya..its a sweet and savory dish, so maybe you tasted the salt. Come on now, we might not be food crtics, but we do know salt, and you don 't expect that response at a restaurant like Cento Bar. All she could have said is ... sorry you didn 't enjoy it. ...that would have been enough !

This place is a must! Absolutely loved their spicy pomodoro pasta, charred octopus, gem ceasar salad and banana pudding tiramisu. We also tried the hamachi crudo and carbonara pasta but were not impressed, so wouldn’t order those again. The hamachi crudo was microscopic and a little on the sweet side. The carbonara pasta was unnecessarily spicy; would tone that down a bit. Also tried their cocktails (espresso date rice rose), which were interesting and creative, but nothing special. Overall, great food, service and ambiance, and while it’s in the middle of nowhere, I’d still absolutely recommend it.

Excellent restaurant yummy food great service definitely going back again

One of LAs best restaurants and best pasta in the city