Monday, July 1, 2013

Anniversary Celebrations...



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.

4 pints for the Capital Grille. Obviously the price point is high, but you pay for what you get, and that really rings true here. Capital Grille was definitely one of the best restaurant experiences I have had in recent memory. The service was beyond fantastic, and the food matched the service in every way. I cannot think of a better place to spend an anniversary with my girlfriend. Go try it any chance you get because you will love it! Cheers!

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
I am a food lover living in Philadelphia.

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