The restaurant business is absolutely brutal from an economic standpoint so it’s not often you see a restaurant stay open for more than ten years. Centrolina in CityCenterDC, which is packed with premium luxury brand stores and tourist-friendly restaurants, is one of those stalwarts in the DC dining scene that seems to be around forever (I recently found out from the restaurant’s review of Washington Post’s Tom Sietsema that the restaurant opened in 2015). When a restaurant maintains that enviable level of longevity, there has to be some things it is doing right; I visited Centrolina with my wife Jun recently to find out the secret sauce behind Centrolina’s continued success. Overall, our dinner was a pretty solid experience with one dish that was particularly memorable.

The first part of our meal got off to a shaky start. Jun is pretty sensitive to the freshness of raw fish, and she was definitely not a fan of the Japanese yellowtail crudo. I thought the crudo was just fine although the tamari sauce (a type of sauce from Japan made from a byproduct of miso paste) somewhat overwhelmed the fish. On the other hand, panzanella salad with grilled octopus and heirloom tomato was fresh and delicious. Our consensus best dish of the night was from the tagliolini pasta with pistachio and white Bolognese sauce. I have to say it was one of the best pasta dishes that I had tasted at a DC restaurant. There was just something quite magically addictive about the rich white Bolognese sauce that Jun and I ended up taking the same sauce home from the store next door. The final savory dish, Iberico pork with roasted baby leek and blistered shishito pepper, was more than solid, with chewy texture of the pork meat that I enjoyed (although Jun thought it could’ve been a little softer). For dessert, we chose panna cotta based on crème de menthe (a mint-based alcoholic beverage) flavor with chocolate. I had no idea what crème de menthe is until I saw the greenish color of the panna cotta and mint is not my favorite flavor but somehow the dessert worked quite nicely and I found myself thinking about it after the dinner.

Getting a reservation at Centrolina will not be particularly challenging so long as you book a few days in advance but the dining room was by no means empty, with a nice mix of locals and tourists. There is a full bar with Italian-based cocktails and wine list across diverse regions of the country. The dining room’s atmosphere feels modern without being too touristy, and service was seamless as well. After the meal at the restaurant, I highly recommend checking out the aforementioned store that sells some of the same food items used in the menu. Centrolina is the type of restaurant that gets the job done when it comes to offering a satisfying dining experience. In today’s age of turbulence and volatility in the restaurant world, its durability is a virtue worth celebrating for.  

KenScale: 8.0/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.75/10)

Address: 974 Palmer Alley NW, Washington, DC 20001

Website: https://www.centrolinadc.com/

Reservation via OpenTable