Drago Centro

Drago Centro chosen on this night for a friend’s birthday, Miss M, which is also one of her favorites. In the heart of the city is Drago Centro, an upscale Italian restaurant for the urbanites of Los Angeles.

Dragon Centro has a nice space in DTLA, located off of Figueroa and 6th, with a spacious bar, glass enclosed wine display, high ceilings, and a nice heated outdoor patio, all smack dab in the middle of downtown high-rises. This is the type of place where high powered lawyers, prime time accountants, and smooth talking consultants have their power lunches and wet whistling happy hours. Basically, Drago Centro is your typical DTLA restaurant.

Tonight, our little dinner party ordered the crab pasta, the veal lasagna, chicken, and the ossobuco. I ordered the lasagna, la lasagna alla bolognese – veal bolognese lasagna, parmesan cheese, and was slightly disappointed. I should have listened to my friends and tried something else. I am a bit stubborn in that way. I like the comfort dishes, in which you know what you are getting. I expected great gooey cheese with a savory meat. But I got delicate flavors with a slightly less salty than expected veal.

Miss M got the crab pasta, the i tagliolini con granceola – dungeness crab tagliolini, tomatoes, basil. I had a small bite and thought is was really pretty good. As a general rule, I never thought much of crustaceans in pasta – not a big fan of shrimp, lobster, or crab in pasta. I always thought it is tough to do. Maybe I need to rethink my prejudices. My friends who saw my pics of the pasta, immediately pointed out and recommended this pasta as well.

My other compatriots got the chicken, the il pollo al tartufo – truffle crusted chicken breast, forest mushrooms, and the veal osso buco, the l’ ossobuco di vitella – braised veal ossobuco, endive, parsnips, almonds. I think the osso buco was much better than the chicken, yet the chicken was pretty good.