Centovini

Recently, I went to Centovini in Soho for dinner with my gfs prior to our girl-movie-night-out. Centovini is currently serving a 3-course pre-fix menu for $38, which is great for value but I was more in awe of the restaurant decor more than the food. I believe they get some of their furnitures & fixtures from Moss, which means, we were staring at some pretty expensive chandelier.


For appetizers, nothing really stood out but I thought the Fried Duck Egg with Asparagus Salad and House-Cured Duck Prosciutto was quite good. The Rolled Braised Pork Belly in Ragù wasn't as fatty as I expected but it tasted like meatballs, very homey.

For entree, my favorite was the Seared Sea Scallops with Fava Beans, Spring Onions and Castelvetrano Olives. The scallops were fresh and all the vegetables went really well with the scallops. The Lobster Filled Ravioli, with Herbed Butter Sauce and Corn Shoots was decent, but nothing earth-shattering. I later read that their Cavatelli (Apulian Flour Dumplings with Broccoli Rabe) is the star on the menu but we didn't try.


I had the Espresso Granita for dessert, and it was delicious. It was basically shaved espresso ice with panna on top. The other one I liked was the Steamed Chocolate Pudding with Crème Fraiche and White Chocolate Tuille, you can never go wrong with chocolate. :)


Worthy of a mention is the movie we watched - Departures (Okuribito), which won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars last year. I loved the fluidity of the movie similar to the hand gestures/mannerism of the main actor in the movie), and what I find unrivaled in a lot of Japanese films is their success in creating subtlety, without sacrificing the message they are trying to deliver. There is an aspect of the movie that is slightly morbid, but not in a scary way, and I highly recommend bringing tissue. It wasn't a pretty sight with four girls sobbing and none of us had a tissue!


All Centovini Pictures
Address: Centovini, 25 West Houston Street (Between Greene & Mercer), New York, NY 10012