Quantcast Washington Square News

April 2nd, 2008

Straightforward hit at Centro Vinoteca in West Village

By Ali Weinberg

Back for Seconds

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.

Tiny Media Badge

Centro Vinoteca video thumb

Watch Ali’s Video from
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, eggplant centro vinotecathese 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 rabbit centro vinotecasupple,” 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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Food, Back for Seconds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

45 Responses to “Straightforward hit at Centro Vinoteca in West Village”

  1. Online Poker…

    Online Poker Top Online Casinos…

  2. Online Poker Sites…

    Online Poker Sites
    Casino Games
    Play Poker
    Online Gambling
    Keno
    Free Slots
    Top Online Casinos…

  3. Silent Ringtone…

    Ringtone

    Ringtone converter

    Ringtones for motorola cell phones

    Ringtones free

    Ringtone creator

    Ringtone maker

    Ringtones

    Ringtones for a samsung

    Ringtones for motorola

    Ringtones mp3

    Ringtone software

    Samsung Ringtones

  4. Music Ringtones…

    Mobile Ringtones

    Mosquito Ringtone

    Motorola Ringtones

  5. Us cellular Ringtones…

    Real Ringtones

    Ringtone

    Ringtone converter

  6. Adult Ringtones…

    Verizon Ringtones

    Verizon wireless Ringtones

    Voice Ringtones

  7. Cell phone Ringtones…

    Create Ringtones

    Cricket Ringtones

    Ctu Ringtone

  8. Shut up Ringtone…

    Final fantasy Ringtones

    Funny Ringtone

    Funny Ringtones

  9. Polyphonic Ringtones free…

    Ringtone creator

    Ringtone maker

    Ringtones

  10. Elvis Ringtones…

    School Ringtones

    Shut up Ringtone

    Silent Ringtone

  11. 100 free Ringtones…

    Tracfone Ringtones

    Turkey Ringtones

    Us cellular Ringtones

  12. Ringtone creator…

    24 Ringtone

    100 free Ringtones

    Adult Ringtones

  13. Iphone Ringtones…

    Blackberry Ringtones

    Bruce springsteen Ringtones

    Cell phone Ringtones

  14. Bruce springsteen Ringtones…

    College Ringtones

    Crank Ringtone

    Crazy frog Ringtone

  15. School Ringtones…

    Download free Ringtones

    Download Ringtones

    Elvis Ringtones

  16. Movie Ringtones…

    Hot Ringtones�

    Idol Ringtones�

    Iphone Ringtones

  17. Crank Ringtone…

    Motorola Ringtones

    Motorola Ringtones free

    Movie Ringtones

  18. Tracfone Ringtones…

    Nokia Ringtones

    Paul van dyk Ringtones

    Polyphonic Ringtones

  19. Polyphonic Ringtones…

    Ringtone converter

    Ringtones for motorola cell phones

    Ringtones free

  20. Download Ringtones…

    Ringtones mp3

    Ringtone software

    Samsung Ringtones

  21. Free real ringtones…

    Free boost mobile ringtones

    Free boost mobile ringtone

    Free alltel ringtones

    Free alltel ringtone

    Final fantasy ringtones

    Elvis ringtones

    Download ringtones

    Download ringtone

    Download free verizon ringtones

    Download free veri…

  22. Free composer ringtone…

    Crank ringtone

    Complimentary right ringtones

    Complimentary right ringtone

  23. Download cingular ringtones…

    Free music ringtones

    Free music ringtone

    Free mp3 ringtones

  24. Blackberry ringtones…

    24 ctu ringtone

    2 pac ringtones

    2 pac ringtone

  25. Get free ringtones…

    Download free sprint ringtones

    Download free sprint ringtone

    Download free ringtones

  26. Free real music ringtones for nextel…

    Free t mobile ringtone

    Free sprint ringtones

    Free sprint ringtone

  27. Free cingular cell phone ringtones…

    Cheap ringtones

    Cellular ringtones

    Cell phone ringtones

  28. Dave matthews band ringtones…

    Free metro pcs ringtone

    Free download mobile ringtones

    Free download mobile ringtone

  29. American idol ringtones…

    Hotlink caller ringtone

    Hot ringtones

    High school musical ringtones

  30. Funny ringtone…

    Download free cingular ringtone

    Download free alltel ringtones

    Download free alltel ringtone

  31. Free polyphonic ringtones…

    Free real ringtones

    Free real ringtone

    Free real music ringtones sprint

  32. Free cell phone ringtone…

    Blackberry ringtones

    Blackberry ringtone

    At t ringtones

  33. Cricket ringtones…

    Free cingular cell phone ringtones

    Free cingular cell phone ringtone

    Free cell phone ringtones

  34. Akon ringtones…

    Funny ringtone

    Free virgin mobile ringtones

    Free virgin mobile ringtone

  35. Free verizon wireless ringtones…

    Cricket ringtones

    Cricket ringtone

    Create ringtones

  36. Free phone ringtone…

    Free phone ringtone

    Free nokia ringtones

    Free nokia ringtone

  37. Free alltel ringtones…

    50 cent ringtones

    50 cent ringtone

    24 ringtones

  38. Crazy frog ringtones…

    Elvis ringtones

    Download ringtones

    Download ringtone

  39. 50 cent ringtones…

    Free us cellular ringtones

    Free us cellular ringtone

    Free tracfone ringtones

  40. us friendly sportsbooks…

    sweetapples

    swingingheaven

    swinglifestyle

    tahitian noni international http

    tai chi

    talambuhay ng mga bayani

    talambuhay ng mga presidente

    talambuhay ni andres bonifacio

    talambuhay ni apolinario mabini

    talambuhay ni emilio agui…

  41. culcha candela hamma…

    seventies hairstyle

    sewing patterns

    sex video clips

  42. mindy vega…

    reverse telephone directory

    reverse white pages

    review of sportsbooks

  43. cafe bianca bbs…

    mojito

    mommygotboobs

    moms teaching teens

  44. lamp shades…

    lands end

    larry birkhead

    laser eye surgery cost

  45. shop…

    hyip made easy

    hyip pays well

    hyip wealth

Leave a Reply

Advertisement

Poll

What are you doing this summer?
Submit Vote

View Results

Advertisement