First: I love that you can see us in this photo, it was a strange surprise.

Josie and I were very excited to dine at Drago Centro for lunch on Friday. Celestino Drago is an amazing chef who recently had Stefan, of Top Chef fame, working under him at his other restaurant, Enoteca Drago. Drago Centro opened the end of November with a $7 million dollar budget. It just received a very creditable 2.5 stars from the LAT. The LAT warns that the restaurant is nearly impossible to park at and find. Josie found this out the hard way by parking across the street and paying $58 for less than 2 hours. I, luckily, valeted for $5 with validation.

Anyway, on to the important part of the day…the food.

These were are Dine LA lunch choices for $28 a person:

Josie:

first course
rigatoni, smoked pork jowl, onions, tomatoes, pecorino

second course
veal milanese, lentil ragout, caper berries

third course
ricotta cheesecake

Carina:

first course
rigatoni, smoked pork jowl, onions, tomatoes, pecorino

second course
wild mushroom risotto

third course
chocolate mousse, pistachios

We also added the venison carpaccio appetizer which was easily the best part of the meal. Service was fantastic, the food was good, we are sure that if we looked through the whole menu we could have ordered far better mind blowing food. Unfortunately, the rigatoni was one of two pasta made not on site and it was sadly noticeable. However, we were thoroughly impressed by the wine cellar in the middle of the restaurant and the private dining room which was an old bank vault.

Uncouth Moment: When I arrived at the restaurant 5 minutes after the reservation and went straight to the hostess and said “Ost, party of 2″ she then pointed to Josie, who was in sweats with a Hef in the bar. She waved to me and I as I walked over an eager woman arose and said, “Hi, I am Vanessa”. I nervously shook her hand and said, “pleasure to meet you”. Josie was in the back laughing and the woman embarrassed said, “Oh, I thought you were my blind date”.

Gourmand Moment: Having one of the managers act as our sommelier for the meal and our very own private tour of the vault room.