I came here with two of my colleagues, and one of them had brought along her daughter. We were four and booked in advance for 1pm.
When we came at 12.50, the staff assisting us seemed to be rather offended that we came early despite the fact that the restaurant was pretty empty for Central's busy lunch hour.
The lunch menu was $125 and one could choose from a big range of pastas. The lunch sets with meat as the main thing cost $165. Alternatively, we could choose from any of the risotto dishes for $132. Since I had the feeling that my colleague would settle the bill, I went for a Porcini risotto even though I was desperately avoiding unhealthy meals that consisted of 99% carbs.
The lunch set could go with soup or salad, and I chose the salad. It's a very small portion with caesar dressing and lettuce, but nothing else. Not even a trace of parmesan. Very convenient for cost cutting and operational efficiency. That being said, the caesar dressing was alright, but not better than Pret's.
The porcini risotto came soaked in a bath of porcini "soup". The rice was less soggy than I initially imagined based on how it looked, but there was really nothing but porcini water and rice. It smelled good, as porcini always does, but I would have hoped to see more mushroom and porcini (none to be seen--just porcini water). I ate about half and gave up.
Then finally the hot coffee came. Not much comment on that. Service overall was alright, but will not return because for pure carbs $150 was simply not reasonable.