I went recently to The Capital Grille, for lunch. It was a first time. I guess I always thought that this was a big chain where quantity would be the priority over quality. I was wrong...entering the restaurant, you can immediately feel it is a fancy steakhouse!
As a proof, they have lockers on both sides of the entrance that regulars can rent for $350 a year to store their wine.
On the left is the giant bar:
In the front is the dining room, that kept the feel that steakhouses use to be places for men, with darker colors and leather. Good light though, not as dimmed as in most of the steakhouses I visited, although it was lunch time and not dinner.
Then the main dining room that is huge! It is on two floors with very high ceilings giving incredible dimension to the place. What I liked were the booths, accommodating two people. I love booths: we do not have that in France and at first, I discovered them in movies and TV series. Love it!
An interesting thing they do is changing the color of the napkin depending on the color of you outfit: white napkins are linty so if you wear dark colors, they will replace them with black ones! Very thoughtful.
After they brought us some bread and butter with a bit of salt, I was ready to order!
There are couple of dishes I love in steakhouses. For appetizer, crab cakes are my favorite! At The Capital Grill, they have lobster and crab cakes!
Nice presentation! There are two cakes, served with a refreshing corn salad and a tartare sauce that seemed to be homemade. I could immediately see that they were not using too much breading, that is a good starting point! The pieces of crab were kind of small, however, you could see pieces of lobster. It was a decent lobster and crab cake, but not as good as Ruth's Chris or Del Fresco.
Then, I got my filet mignon, ordered medium rare:
This piece of meat was gorgeous and perfectly cooked, with a bit of salt all around, accentuating the taste of the meat. Unfortunately, they served the steak with a sauce made of beef stock, butter and herbs that was overpowering.
I was able to try their filet mignon served with Cipollini Onions and Wild Mushrooms:
This one, cooked medium, was perfect: juicy and tender.
With the meat, I asked if they had any sauce and ended up with a delicious bearnaise sauce:
As a side, I tried the truffled fries:
When they arrived, I could immediately smell the truffle oil. These fries were very good: crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Last was dessert...I could not resist the chocolate hazelnut cake:
It was huge but so good! The chocolate cake was moist and the chocolate hazelnut cream was divine. In fact, I was mainly eating it!
Needless to say that I was full when I left The Capital Grille. It was good, but not to the point where I would recommend it strongly if you are looking for a steakhouse. Ruth's Chris, the Old Homestead or Dino and Harry are still the best for me!
Enjoy (I did)!
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And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!
