Capital Grille
1338 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA
19107
For the second week of restaurant week this past fall, I
decided to take my girlfriend to a place I had been longing to go to for some
time; the Capital Grille. It happened to coincide with our four year
anniversary, so it was nice to go out to a place that is a little bit more
upscale to celebrate. When we walked inside, I was shocked by the size of the
place. It was huge! There was a gigantic bar, and seating all over the
restaurant. I was really impressed. We were seated right away, and our waitress
was incredibly informative. She explained everything about the menu, wine list,
restaurant week menu and answered all of our questions without fail. She asked
us if we were celebrating anything and we said we were. She returned with a
rose for my girlfriend, and a handwritten note from the Capital Grille telling
us happy anniversary. Unbelievable! We both ordered something different for
each course so that we could try a bunch of different things on the menu. We
started off with a cup of New England Clam Chowder and a Caesar salad. We both
ordered steaks, but two different ones. I ordered the Kona crusted bone in
sirloin, and she ordered the filet mignon. For dessert, I decided to give crème
brûlée
another chance, because I had always thought that I didn’t like it, and she
ordered the chocolate espresso cake.
They also offered a few drink specials, one of which my girlfriend
ordered; the blood orange martini. I ordered a gin, cucumber and lime martini.
Mine was very stiff, but for 12 bucks it had better be. The flavor was really
crisp and clean. Hers was a little sweet for me, but delicious nonetheless.
They definitely could have snuck up on you if you had a few too many.
Soon after our drinks arrived, our appetizers did as well.
The chowder was piping hot and absolutely scrumptious. The chowder was thick,
exactly how I like it, and it had very large chunks of clam and potato in it.
It had the perfect amount of pepper in it as well to give it a really nice bit
of spice to it. I ate about half of my cup and switched with my girlfriend so
that I could dig into her salad. It was really tasty as well. The Caesar
dressing was really acidic, but still very rich. It had a lot of depth of
flavor, but wasn’t overpowering. I liked the shaved parmesan that the salad was
topped with as it added an element of salt and creaminess.
After what seemed like the perfect amount of time had
passed, our steaks came out in a blur of meaty deliciousness. My Kona crusted
bone-in sirloin was absolute perfection. The coffee crust was extremely
crunchy, and the meat inside was warm, juicy and flavorful. I couldn’t get
enough of it, and I definitely agreed with our waitress when she told us it was
the best thing on their menu. My girlfriend's filet was extremely tender and
perfectly cooked. It had a nice crust to it as well.
We were given two sides with our main courses. The two sides
were creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. Both were very delicious
accompaniments to the tender and flavorful steaks. The spinach was creamy and
cooked to tender perfection. The mashed potatoes were also super creamy and
packed with salty, garlic flavor.
I was pretty interested to see if my taste buds felt the
same way about crème brûlée as they had in the past. Luckily for me that was
not the case. I am not sure if it was because my tastes changed or if the crème
brûlée at Capital Grille is just that good, but I was blown away by it. It
wasn’t eggy like a lot of crème brûlées I have had in the past. It had that
crispy sugary crunch on top, and the custard was light and fluffy and super
delicious.
No comments:
Post a Comment