Drago Centro

We decided on Drago Centro, a shiny new restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, for New Year's Eve dinner with J's family. Boy, I wish we'd gone to Providence instead. Though I think Providence is a step below Bay Area restaurants which offer tasting menus, I have to say Drago thoroughly disappointed in its price point ($90 for six courses). Maybe it just reinforces the known fact that dining out on holidays is usually a bad idea. Or maybe Drago just needs to shape up.

I didn't even photograph the first course because I could not believe that a tablespoon of boiled lentils topped with a quarter slice of salami could be considered a first course. That's right. It wasn't even an amuse. It was a first course and they had the gall to serve a wine pairing with it.

The foie gras creme caramel was the only course that impressed me with its taste and creativity. I admit it was a little on the sweet side for a savory course. Some at the table said in a blind tasting they would have thought it was flan. But I thought it was pretty incredible that they could get foie gras to be so fluffy and smooth.

A few of the tasting menu courses came with options, and for the second course J got langostine sashimi instead of foie gras. This was a lovely dish. Not too creative but fresh and good.

Everyone had truffle ravioli next. It was fine, but there were no exceptional flavors or even a real punch of truffle. This is the kind of thing I enjoy at the other Drago restaurants, but as a hearty pasta meal. It's not really what I'm looking for in a tasting menu.

The next course was saffron risotto. Again, no distint saffron taste, and just awful presentation. I think our parents wanted to know why we were being served congee at a $90 meal. It was tasty enough, but it was a tiny portion of something that just showed no creativity whatsoever.

We were given choices of meat or fish for our fifth course. What kind of tasting menu doesn't offer you both meat AND fish? It's odd, no? Out of the three steaks at our table two were overcooked. The one that was cooked properly was delicious. The gnocchi were kind of rubbery. You can sense by this point that I was neither full nor particularly pleased with Drago.

John dory was very nice. No points taken off here.

Desserts were a little more interesting. The citrus choice was the winner, especially the lemon curd and the panna cotta. Too bad the panna cotta was about the size of a half dollar. The jelly shot with foam was sort of ambitious but went nowhere. I'm not sure if that description makes sense. It just looked like it was supposed to be very avant garde, but all it tasted like was sugary jelly.

The chocolate desserts were pretty bad overall. The mousse was middling, a little watery. The chocolate cake was flavorless. I'm not even sure what the white tube was supposed to be, but it tasted like rubber enclosed in plastic. I know, that's harsh. I usually find something nice to say about everything but the white tube was just awful. Whatever it was served on seemed like a mound of leftover cookie crumbles. Ick.

As you can tell, I would not recommend a trip to Drago. I did see a la carte dishes at other tables that looked good, so maybe it's just the tasting menu that falls flat. I simply didn't see the creativity and use of interesting ingredients that makes a tasting menu exciting. The servers also did not really explain what the dishes were. From what I could tell, that's because they weren't very interesting. Final gripe: the wine director and chef clearly did not communicate. How can you have a tasting menu, much less a New Year's Eve menu, that is entirely comprised of white wines? It unbalanced and disappointing. The server was kind enough to offer a pour of a red wine when we commented that there had been zero red poured that night, but c'mon. I know this has been a mean review. I just hate taking people to places that end up being really not worth it, especially when my group isn't familiar with a particular cuisine. I think everyone left with a very poor impression of both Italian cuisine and the idea of tasting menus. The idea was to show them that Italian food can be very high end, and that tasting menus are exciting and worth a long meal. Oops. Thanks a lot, Drago.