Centro

Centro is a restaurant whose reputation preceeds it.  It's become known as the go-to place when the national press corps descends on Des Moines once every four years for the caucuses.  It, at one time, was considered the most sophisticated restaurant in the city and continues to receive plaudits to this day - some 8 years after it opened.

The atmosphere certainly reinforces the restaurant's image.  Tables close together, flattering lighting, smartly dressed waiters and the difficulty of getting a Saturday night reservation are representative of the "it" restaurant in any city in America.  I just think it's too bad Centro's kitchen isn't turning out food deserving of the buzz.

I've never understood criticism of large portions.  After all, if you're full and don't want to eat anymore, you CAN stop eating - regardless of how high the kitchen has piled the food on the plate.  I, for one, would rather stop eating when I'm full and have leftovers to take home, than reach the end of my meal only to stop at Pizza Hut on the way home.

Then I met Centro's Crab Cake Benedict on the brunch menu.

The benedict comes with a very large south union english muffin half, topped with a mound of shaved ham, a large crab cake, boiled egg, all slathered in hollandaise sauce and served with your choice of fruit or seasoned potatoes.  Call the cardiologist.

This was a HUGE portion, which also led to a problem of proportion.  There was only one small egg, drowned in hollandaise, that sat, shielded from the ham and english muffin, by the hamburger-sized crab cake.  The result was a deconstruction of sorts - 1st the egg, then the hollandaise covered crab cake (which any self respecting Marylander would have balked at the amount of filler, but hey, we aren't in Maryland), then the open-faced ham sandwich beneath.  It just didn't work.  Add in the overly-seasoned potatoes, and I waved the white flag of surrender.  Even not finishing half the food on the plate, I felt like I'd swallowed a bowling ball for an hour.

Granted, if I had gotten the fruit it would have improved the overall heft, but my +1 did, and the fruit that came was dull and not yet ripe.

A similar theme has run through previous attempts at dinner.  Cream sauces, pork fat and butter are perfectly fine kitchen ingredients, but a bit of restraint in their use would go a long way toward making individual dishes "pop" rathat than join a monotonal parade of after dinner regrets.  Even the steak salad was over-dressed and heavy.

Knowing this to be the case, with some deft ordering and self-restraint, a couple can get a fine meal at Centro.  Split one of the mammoth entrees after hitting the treadmill before you go.