Since its July 2007 opening, I have heard so much buzz about the West Village’s Centro Vinoteca that I felt like I had already been there. But I hadn’t. So after making a reservation, I re-read some reviews, to see what professional foodies had been saying about Chef Anne Burrell’s innovative take on an Italian restaurant.
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Centro Vinoteca
I was particularly intrigued by a review by Danyelle Freeman, aka Restaurant Girl, the Daily News’ resident food critic. I tend to read Ms. Freeman’s reviews with a combination of amusement and horror. In describing food, her use of the English language is confusing and sometimes cringe-worthy. I knew that when she described Centro’s menu as “fearless,” this three-out-of-four-stars review would be no exception.
Short of eating live crickets, I would call few things in the food world “fearless.” But Chef Anne’s approach to a traditional Italian meal is indeed creative. Her menu begins a section called “piccolini.” Served on mismatched dishes, 
these tiny, inexpensive plates work as either bar snacks or as part of a full meal. I tried the eggplant cakes ($5), bite-sized fritters topped with a dollop of ricotta, with red pepper flakes providing the perfect amount of heat. Ms. Freeman found these tidbits “deceptively straightforward.” If you could explain to me what “deceptively straightforward” means, I will treat you to your own plate of eggplant cakes.
Moving on to antipasti, I second Ms. Freeman’s enthusiasm towards the calamari “noodles” ($12). The squids are cut in half and vaguely resemble some form of pasta, and are served along with flavorful potatoes, black olives and arugula in a white wine broth. Although the calamari tasted delicious in the broth, I doubt they “basked” in it, as Ms. Freeman dramatized.
Chef Anne’s primi section contains several traditional Italian pasta dishes presented in unconventional ways. Her wild boar ragu (a fixture on every Umbrian menu) is served with fried gnocchi, garnished with thin slices of crispy onions ($18). Rather than shower this dish with complimentary adjectives, I will say only this: there are no words. Freeman found this dish too heavy, writing that it was “suffocated by a rich Bolognese sauce.” Lighten up, Restaurant Girl.
Ms. Freeman found one of Centro’s main courses, a red snapper dish, “unremarkable,” although she didn’t explain why. The snapper was not on the menu during my visit, but I tried a few other fish offerings instead. I was unsatisfied with the monkfish, which was served in a tomato-saffron broth ($27). While the fish itself was delicious, the broth was overwhelmingly lemony. But a mellow striped bass ($26) was the perfect foil to the strong tastes of spaetzle, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, pine nuts and raisins that accompanied it.
My favorite of Ms. Freeman’s lexical gymnastics was her description of the rabbit involtino ($26). “Impeccably 
supple,” it “gets a spirited awakening” from a stuffing of sausage and pine nuts, she wrote. I am quite sure I would have sent my rabbit back if it had awoken spiritedly on my plate. Quibbles aside, the rabbit, its stuffing and additional sides of chanterelles, onions and beans were rich and lovely. However, the rabbit was wrapped in some kind of cured meat that tasted too gamey for me. At least it didn’t wake up.
I find Restaurant Girl’s persistent personification of inanimate foodstuffs to be… interesting. But this is a food column, not a grammar blog. All in all, my meal at Centro Vinoteca was immensely enjoyable. The food was delicious, the atmosphere luxurious, and the waiters knowledgeable and friendly. Also, the wide variety of prices makes Centro a good option for a casual dinner or classy date. Centro is a straightforward hit—nothing deceptive about it.
Link to Centro Vinoteca’s website: centrovinoteca.com
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