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Mozzarella amuse bouche

I’ve been to downtown Los Angeles’ Drago Centro many times before, but I had only partaken of the bar menu, which is one of the best deals in town (everything is less than $10 all the time — no need to wait for happy hour!). But I hadn’t had a real meal at the restaurant until last month, when my friends very generously took me for my birthday. And it was one of my favorite meals of the last month.

We let the chef choose our food, and choose well he did. We started with the baby octopus with blood orange and wild greens. While it didn’t look like much, it tasted great — a perfectly light and flavorful way to start a meal.

Baby octopus salad

We also had the burrata with endive, basil pesto and crostini. The portion of cheese was very generous and went nicely with the basil.

Burrata

Course No. 3 was my favorite dish of the night — potato gnocchi with lobster and English peas and tendrils. I’m normally not a big fan of gnocchi, but this version was incredibly light. And who doesn’t love lobster?

Potato gnocchi

For our main course we had the crispy jidori chicken breast served over tomato panzanella, or bread salad. This dish was wonderfully light — perfect for a summer day. The chicken breast was surprisingly juicy, too.

Jidori chicken

For dessert, pastry chef Jashmine Corpuz sent out three — yes, one for each of us! — portions of bomboloni, or Italian doughnuts dusted in sugar. Each serving came with chocolate sauce, pistachio gelato and cherries. The gelato and other accoutrements change periodically, so there’s always something new to try. Delicious.

Doughnuts

Special thanks to sommelier and beverage director Michael Shearin, who helped out with service and even sat us at our table!