Centonove, Kew – The Age Good Food Guide review

For over twenty years, the staff of this corner trattoria has been welcoming customers as guests and bidding them farewell as friends. This is hospitality with a capital H, from the lemon wedges gently dropped into sparkling glasses of water to the last lick of impossibly light tiramisu.

Sauces come to the fore in the prix-fixe menu, which is offered in two or three varieties. Fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ginger and shrimp mousse benefit from a caviar-speckled biscuit. Bits of sweet crab meat mingle with a generous dollop of pangrattato in an exemplary spaghettini, while miso infuses the pork neck with a gentleman’s delight that takes it from wonderful to magnificent.

The sheets are crisp, the jazz is soft, and the service is meticulous. If the extensive wine list isn’t enough, head to sister venue Bar Alba for more Italian-centric wines.

Food to order: Zucchini flowers, shrimp, seaweed beurre blanc.

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