This happens to be one of my favorite places to eat. Centro is located downtown next to the Temple of Performing Arts and I love downtown eateries. The food is delicious, even though I always get the same thing, Chicken Francese. The Centro Salad is balsamic vinaigrette with pecans and crumbles of gorgonzola. The deserts are equally as delicious and the interior is cozy, sophisticated with a splash of modern décor. The beer is brought in from Raccoon River Company and for appetizers we tried the Onion Rings with Jalapeño ketchup and they were good, not spectacular. I heard the Parmesan encrusted Halibut is wonderful, but with a seafood allergy I couldn’t try it. As for the service, I would say out of the numerous times I have eaten at Centro, 1 waitress was deserving of a good tip, the others are forgettable and slightly rude.

However, location is good, food is wonderful and the drinks are locally brewed, try it for yourself.

Great Place!!! I have always enjoyed dinner at Centro. I wish it was pronounced Centro (like the spelling suggests) instead of "Chentro"- that's lame. But, a small price to pay for excellent food and great service. My only caution would be that sometimes the waitstaff in the bar area sucks as$.

I love this place! Great service, great food, and they know how to make a bellini. The pizza is always perfect and their butternut squash soup was the best I've ever had (seasonal).

Centro's warm yet elegant atmosphere is awesome. The music was pleasant and the service was good. I have to say though my favorite parts of the meal were the warm bread and the dessert. Next time I go to Centro, I'am going to order one of the tasty sounding appietizers and desserts.

I disagree with Nick L saying that Centro is only good at pizza. There are a wide variety of dishes that are wonderful. The Chicken Saltimbocca is amazing, and be sure to check out the specials for each day of the week. If you are a regular, these can be a nice switch from the usual. The patio is lovely for brunch, which has a great menu and amazing stuffed french toast with fresh strawberries and mascarpone cheese. The tomato basil soup is to die for. I could have just the soup every time I go to Centro and be totally happy with my experience. Craigs and gringolin's reviews are entirely false. The restaurant is incredibly clean, the pizza is, as Nick L said, very good, and in no way impossible to chew. It is a great place for every day dinner and special occasions.

People really love Centro. I guess there are an abundance of people in Des Moines who love paying for overpriced, inconsistent food and ignorant service as long as the location is "Hip."

I have been to Centro six times over the last year and have been appalled at what has transpired all but once. I have special dietary restrictions which have been violated EVERY single time.

If you are going there as a steak or pizza eater and don't need to make any variations on what the menu states then you might be safe, if your serrver remembers to even put the order in.

I would never allow a friend to go to this place.

Not sure why everyone seems to love Centro. I've been there three times and thought the menu was limited and over-priced and found the servers to be quite rude.

great restaurant, we had a great time on New Years. I think that the food is great and service has always been above and beyond.

Last time we came was a disaster. My date and I were having a great evening out. I wanted to be nice and take her to our favorite locale. We received horrible service to such a degree that I don't want to relive it and were so anxious to escape at the end of the meal, that I didn't notice the waiter gave me the wrong bill until after I had left the building. Ordinarily I notice getting overcharged, but we had a horrendous experience. Will never, ever return!!!

This place is great. I've never found anyone who could make a pizza as close to what I had while in Italy. Combo of coal fire oven and fresh ingredients make all the difference. Great setting and location for a metropolitan feel. Prices seem reasonable.

After dining at Centro on a few different occasions, I've come to the conclusion that the quality of your experience here is based entirely on what you order. It's been very hit or miss for me.

The biggest problem I think diners encounter here is that the atmosphere gives the wrong impression of what kind of food they specialize in. That said, THIS IS A PIZZA PLACE. It's definitely not Domino's, but don't come here if you're not in the mood for a pizza.

Don't get me wrong. It's amazing pizza, cooked in a brick oven, and covered in high-quality ingredients. So good. Add that to the fact that the price isn't a whole lot more than your average mega-chain pizza joint, and I don't understand why ANYONE living in or around downtown would get carry out from those places ever again.

But beyond the pizza, the rest of the food fails to impress me. I ordered a crab cake appetizer one night, and ended up lost, digging through my order trying to find the actual crab meat. WAAAAAAAY too bready, and with huge chunks of red onion (possibly shallot, but I don't think so) that would pop up every so often and overwhelm the entire bite.

The bar is always quick and the drinks are good. The wine list is impressive, and the wines available by the glass are pretty decent, too. This is nice, considering my girlfriend and I have completely different taste in wine, and I don't want to have to slam an entire bottle by myself just so I can get something worth drinking.

The place seems to be enjoying a lot of success, and anything that brings people into the city to enjoy their night instead of rotting away on the westside is definitely a good thing. Just don't forget what this place does best, and don't come expecting anything else. PIZZA.

Food Poisoning is a TERRIBLE thing.My Fiance got food poisoning from centro in des moines, and the haven't paid the doctors bill yet.In fact, they didn't even realize that when shellfish is steamed, if the shells don't open, it means it is BAD! BEWARE! Centro is the dirtiest Place to Eat at in Des Moines.
If you Hate someone, take them there.

Worst place in Des Moines to eat! The Cleanliness is VERY Questionable. Pizza was IMPOSSIBLE to chew, and our Pasta was cold! The waitress was a total snob, like we were putting her out by ordering our food.