Centrolina

Our server was especially good. His recommendations were spot on.

Overall very good with very good service. Excellent beer and wine phenomenal crispy ravioli appetizer. Flourless chocolate cake for dessert with just okay.

What can I say, always just the perfect experience in every way.

Mains not great, Bransino over cooked dry, and overstuffed with overpowering rosemary.
Apps were better.

This is among my favorite restaurants, and I go there as frequently as possible.
After each visit, I start to think of the next.

Our main courses of branzino and rigatoni were very good. The only rose on the menu was nice. The appetizer of burrata with potato chips was bland. I really didn't get the combination. The noise level was very high. We found ourselves repeating a lot of words over a very short distance. I like this restaurant. I've been before and will go back. But I think outdoor seating might help the noise.

This was my second time dining at Centrolina and it won't be my last. The food was delicious and the service was friendly, if a little slow (it was busy). I loved the crudo, ceasar salad (with an egg on top!) and the Pappardelle that I had. The wine was great too, but I was shocked to see it was $24 a glass (my friend ordered it)! I loved Casa Nonna and was very bummed when it closed, but Centrolina is even better.

Very loud and rushed service for gnocchi that was only edible and not inexpensive.

Our lunch bill for 2 iced teas with 2 small pieces of grilled sea bass over roasted cauliflower and rappini was $100 including tip. This seemed very high for a dish I could easily make at home.

I’m not sure if my standards equate to those who live in DMV, but this place was awful.

I was there with a friend that night. While waiting for our table at the bar, we ordered our drinks. Bartender’s facial expression appeared as though everything was a hassle for him. Not one smile. Felt uncomfortable.

Ordered the seafood pasta (tasted like bad ramen and the portion size was ridiculously small- more like an appetizer instead of an entree, contained 5 pieces of seafood and the rest was mushrooms).

Wanted to order the black halibut but the server told us to get the Branzino as “it has the same white fish, meaty flavor profile” and it is better portioned for two people to share. Even though I alerted him that I cook a lot of Branzino at home and would rather get the black halibut, he disregarded what I said and kept pressing on for the Branzino. When it had come out, it was cooked perfectly however the seasoning was very salty on the outside to the point where I was chugging water immediately after I had arrived back home.

Perhaps that night was a miss but I don’t think I will be back there anytime soon.

excellent food, wine and service- New York prices in DC

Everything was very good but the noise level was way too loud. My companion and I couldn’t hear each other.

Edgar was sublimely excellent as usual. The entire staff was perfect. Food was extraordinary as always—verde salad, papardelle, gnocchi. Unreal! Great chef and food prep team.

Don't normally write reviews, and I know they don't need to hear about it from me, but this kitchen really does a superb job. Everything was cooked just beautifully. We got 2 apps, 3 pastas, one entree and 2 sides—which is to say, just about half the menu—and the execution of every single dish was impressive enough that I feel quite confident saying anything you order at this place is going to 100% transcend what you imagine you're going to get on the basis of its cursory menu description, and the essence of that transcendence is all in the little details everyone else in DC lets slide. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the kitchen is, unlike most, conspicuously (because open & visible to all) run largely by women.

Excellent service & excellent food - great setting

After I brought some issues to the restaurant's attention, they were very gracious in correcting themselves and did a lot to make up for the experience. For that, I believe they deserve a lot of credit. Excellent power lunching spot.

Great food and service. Would recommend as one of best in DC.

Buen lugar, comida bien preparada y servicio bueno aunque pocos meseros cuando el lugar esta completamente lleno.
Recomendable

Centrolina is consistently one of the best restaurants in DC. While the pastas are always yummy, there are wonderful options if you want just want something different. Chicken Paillard for lunch was light and perfect for a spring day.

I really like the food at Centrolina. Very like Italy, it focuses on fairly simple (or apparently simple) plates featuring fresh, quality ingredients and excellent technique. I loved the field greens salad as well as the Branzino main course. Service is very good.

Excellent modern Italian food tastefully prepared with fine ingredients and exquisite flavors. Not only the food was amazing but the dessert was awesome, unlike many restaurants where you get excellent food but average, overly sweet desserts. A little pricey but worth it. Loved the ambiance and the great service. We also enjoyed shopping for unique Mediterranean and Italian high quality products from the market. This restaurant is now on our top 5 list of restaurants in DC!

The food was delicious and authentic. The service was outstanding! I have already referred to my friend who is coming to DC in the fall.

Had a wonderful double date earlier this week where we ordered 3 main dishes (2 pasta, 1 meat dish), plus two appetizers and two sides. It was plenty of food and it was fantastic.

Highly recommend the fried ravioli, as well as the burrata. The ambience is great — even the bathrooms are nice — and the service was outstanding. Will definitely be back!

Sophisticated and serene, excellent dining and conscientious service...a class act in every way.

Centrolina hits all the right notes: warm atmosphere, exceptional service, and a kitchen that really knows what it is doing, from wood-fired whole Bronzino to ‘simple’ banana-passionfruit and chocolate sorbets, so delicious. A special restaurant.

Centrolina is a fabulous place for a nice dinner out. We started with the tiny crispy ravioli with cheese filling that was amazing. The olive oil served with the bread is soooo fresh and the crusty bread is beautiful. I had the swordfish and it was perfectly prepared and the cauliflower was excellently roasted. My companions pasta was the braised beef in pasta that was incredible. The sauce, the pasta, the meat. Wow. We finished with the chocolate torta and it was also terrific. One of my favorite dining experiences in DC in 10+ years, wish I had gone sooner. The staff and service were excellent. The noise was a tad high but that is how most modern style restaurants are to me.

Everything was fine except the waiter. We felt rushed throughout. One example - he gave us a dessert menu and came back twice to take an order. When I said I hadn't yet looked at it, he took it away and I had to practically yell at him to bring it back.

Everything that our party of four ordered was delicious! We had asked for a quiet room (altho we doubted that that request could be honored). And indeed we were seated in a private room, where we could talk comfortably. The service was attentive. The only drawback was the restrooms, which weren't clean enough and which had cheap paper towels. Over all, though, we enjoyed the visit to Centrolina and will certainly recommend it to others.

Good for a lunch in town but pretty noisy. Handmade pasta was excellent as was the signature cocktail.

We waited 30 minutes to be seated for our reservation, then another 60+ minutes between our appetizers and entrees. The chef comped us desserts for the inconvenience, but it was still awful to spend double the time we would have liked to be there. Once we finally got our food it was fine, but not excellent enough to warrant the prolonged wait.

Service hit the perfect note - I was catching up with an old friend and the server got the vibe right off - He offered sharing plates without us having to ask and must have been paying attention to the flow of our conversation because we never had to ask for anything, but never got interrupted at an unfortunate moment. The food and drinks were great as always, but on this night the company was the star and the server let it be.

Seated at the bar. Great service. Verde salad is the best, particularly the overeasy egg. Porchetta was phenomenal. Great olive oil and bread as well.

Highly recommend. The food was delicious, the service was excellent, the atmosphere was the right level of casual vs formal. We lingered for as long as we liked, catching up with old friends over drinks, wine, dinner, and dessert. Everything was excellent and never felt rushed or pressured. We even did a little shopping in the market afterward to take home some of their outstanding lemon ricotta cookies!

The food was great, though my friend found rapini that came with her manzo a little too spicy. The server was fantastic and switched it out for roasted cauliflower, which my friend loved. Super service. My dish was amazing - pappardelle pasta with mushrooms, pears, chestnuts in rosemary butter - earthy, herby with a few punches of sweetness.

I think it’s the best pasta in DC

The meal was overall very good and the atmosphere very nice but unfortunately we became sick during the night after eating something which was not very fresh apparently. Disappointing as the place is worth a visit

Loved everything aside from dessert. I thought it was average. But I would definitely go back. I loved everything else

It was my friends birthday. We sat by window. It was a tad chilly but other than that it was great. We had a fish dish and a pasta dish. For appetizer we had tuna crudo and the blood orange and grapefruit and pomegranate salad. Delicious!

What an incredible find in downtown DC. The ambiance was perfect and our server was one of the best we have ever had! Excellent wine list, although a little pricey. The Triangoli entree was one of the most incredible epicurean experiences we have ever had. The pasta is made from scratch, on site, and the filling of butternut squash and ricotta was full of flavor and literally melted in your mouth! Amaretto based crunch sprinkled on top provided an excellent texture counterpoint that accentuated this dish in an incredibly good way! The salmon entree was perfect! The chef paid attention to a scallop allergy one of us has and and pan seared the fish to avoid any issues; a thoughtful and caring gesture that we have not experienced before. You will not go wrong with an evening here!

This restaurant is a "sleeper." It is a small place with a bar and an open kitchen plus a market that sells Italian delicacies. Ah, but the food it serves is delicious and reasonably priced (not cheap but not extravagant).

My partner and I started with drinks: a Negroni for me (Centrolina does a version of this drink that is less bitter than the typical Negroni). My partner had a Grey Goose Martini.

We thenI split a Caesar salad (which is large) and an octopus appetizer (which is small - unfortunately). I had the Branzino as my entree, which was moist and tasty, while she had the Guinea Hen, which tasted much like chicken but had a more smooth and slight "gamey" flavor. Both dishes were marvelous.

I had a glass of the Chardonnay from Sicily, which had little oak and was more pleasurable than most California Chardonnays. I urge everyone to try this wine.

My partner had a glass of the Argyle Pinot Noir from Oregon, which was offered as a specialty.


The bill was under $200 with tax (before tip). Not bad for a thoroughly enjoyable dinner.