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Home > Restaurants > Centovini

Centovini

Critic's Pick Critics' Pick

25 W. Houston St., New York, NY 10012
nr. Greene St.  See Map | Subway Directions Hopstop Popup
212-219-2113 Send to Phone

  • Price Range:

    Key to Prices and ratings

    Upscale
    • Almost Perfect
    • Exceptional
    • Generally Excellent
    • Very Good
    • Good
    Cheap Eats
    • Best in Category
    • Excellent
    • Delicious
    • Very Good
    • Noteworthy
    • Very Expensive
    • Expensive
    • Moderate
    • Cheap
  • Critics' Rating: **

    Key to Prices and ratings

    Upscale
    • Almost Perfect
    • Exceptional
    • Generally Excellent
    • Very Good
    • Good
    Cheap Eats
    • Best in Category
    • Excellent
    • Delicious
    • Very Good
    • Noteworthy
    • Very Expensive
    • Expensive
    • Moderate
    • Cheap
  • Reader Rating:

    7.7 out of 10

    3 Reviews | Write a Review

  • Cuisine: Italian
Photo by Konstantin Sergeyev

Hours

Mon-Fri, noon-3pm and 5:30pm-11pm; Sat, noon-4pm and 5:30-11pm; Sun, noon-4pm and 5:30-10pm

Nearby Subway Stops

N, R, W at Prince St.; B, D, F, V at Broadway-Lafayette St.

Prices

$18-$32

Payment Methods

American Express, MasterCard, Visa

Special Features

  • Bar Scene
  • Brunch - Weekend
  • Hot Spot
  • Lunch
  • Notable Chef
  • Notable Wine List

Alcohol

  • Full Bar

Reservations

Recommended

Profile

An unobtrusive little place in an unobtrusive, even problematic location, Centovini sits on the bottom floor of a bland redbrick building on the northern fringe of Soho. But as soon you get inside, it's clear that unobtrusiveness is one of this restaurant's particular charms. As the name indicates, Centovini (“100 wines”) isn't even a restaurant, technically. It's a small-size wine bar, with a long white-marble bar for drinking these wines and a glass-enclosed store next door for buying them. The walls are colored in hues of gray and black, and the stools lining the bar are made of white leather. A series of colorful handblown Italian chandeliers hang here and there like oversize sculptural artifacts, and they help to accentuate the feeling that develops, after a glass of Barolo or two, of a kind of intimate, even stylish coziness. It used to be that dinner at the bar consisted of a plate of oysters, possibly, a cheeseburger with pickles, or a boiled egg. But with the arrival of restaurants like Masa and, more recently, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, this long-neglected genre has been undergoing a renaissance all around town. At Centovini (the venture is a collaboration between the owners of the high-end Soho design store Moss and Nicola Marzovilla, owner of the Gramercy Italian restaurant I Trulli), you can enjoy bowls of cialledda (tomato salad with chunks of rustic Tuscan bread) with your glass of '04 Ronco dei Tassi (a medium-bodied Sauvignon Blanc, from Friuli), and slices of pecorino and piave cheese bolstered with ribbons of fresh prosciutto and speck. The chef at Centovini is Patti Jackson, an Alto veteran and devout Greenmarketeer. The menu she and Marzovilla have put together is straightforward Italian, with a few seasonal flourishes, but the restaurant’s modest size, and the focus on wine, give everything an extra, unexpected punch.

Ideal Meal

Italian sausage, $14; mushroom pasta, $20; veal cheeks, $32; chocolate pudding, $10

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7.7 "Recommended"
Average Reader Rating
on a Scale of 10
Write Your Own Review

Not Impressed

mayanyc from 10014 | Posted on 12/2/07

Overall Reader Rating: 3 (Not Recommended)
Food: 3
Service: 5
Décor: 9
Value: 3

I was at Centovini for a dinner with 7 other friends. While the wine was fantastic, the food was extremely poor for the price. We ordered three different appitizers - two cheese dishes and the sausage/pepper dish. One of the cheese...Read More

Beautiful space in an unexpected place

babble from 10012 | Posted on 11/8/07

Overall Reader Rating: 10 (Highly Recommended)
Food: 10
Service: 10
Décor: 10
Value: 10

The restaurant has a beautiful design- the glass fixtures and wall decoration come from the Moss gallery around the corner. The food is amazing here! Patti Smith is a genius with regionally inspired dishes and the waitstaff is knowledgable and incredibly...Read More

Read All 3 Reviews >>

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