05.14.08
Review of Capital Grille, Wednesday April 2008
155 E.42nd & Lexington/3rd Ave., 212-953-2000
Great for: business meals, wine, seafood, meat gluttony, padding yourself with fat
I’ve been hearing about this place for years and never managed to go. One random Wednesday we just decided to pay a visit. I’m so glad we did. It’s fantastic. I probably gained 5 pounds, but it was worth it.
We only had to wait about 15 minutes for a table, during which time I enjoyed a delicious Stoli Doly pineapple martini (not as girly as it sounds). They sat us close to the absolutely lovely glass atrium. The food certainly lived up to the beauty of the surroundings. My lobster and crab cakes were great, with huge chunks of lobster and hardly any filler, accompanied by lovely peppery corn salsa to counteract the near-sweetness of the seafood. The tangy horseradish sauce on the sauce rounded out the dish nicely. The Boyfriend’s shrimp cocktail was terrific too.
At our waiter’s suggestion, I got sirloin Oscar, which is steak covered in crab, asparagus and béarnaise sauce. (I’d had very little for lunch.) He had suggested the sirloin as a nice balance between the flavor of ribeye and the tenderness of filet mignon. It was juicy and fantastic. Everything else was incredibly well done, too; the crab was tender and the asparagus crisp without those nasty stringy bits I sometimes find. B’s porcini-rubbed Delmonico with 12-year-old balsamic vinaigrette was a perfectly cooked medium rare. It doesn’t actually have mushrooms in the final dish, and I couldn’t taste them anyway. It was just wonderful.
We tried not to go overboard with the sides, as is so easy to do at steakhouses – we got half portions of two things. The creamed spinach was great, not too creamy; Sam’s mashed potatoes was creamy but with lumps and skin so it still had the texture of potatoes. B said they were his favorite version ever, and he is a mashed potato fanatic.
Finally we couldn’t stuff any more food in, and had time to look around. There were lots of fat old white men and business clientele. Oddly enough, there were deer heads gracing the bar area. The rest of the decor was good though; very corporate but nice. I was impressed by the enormous wine cellar, and also liked the old-fashioned menus as giant as the restaurant. We had a great, attentive, knowledgeable waiter, too. I can’t wait to go back.
Rating: 9/10 (just as good in June 2010)
Our cost: $168 (a cocktail each) + 40 (waiter was great)
Noise level: civilized hum
Chance of walking in: low. Though they have two more Manhattan locations, so your chances might be better.
I came back with a friend in June 2010 and it was still terrific. She tried the seafood cocktail with crab and three giant shrimp; I happily reordered the lobster and crab cake. We both got special steaks. Her bone-in Kona crusted sirloin with shallot butter had amazing flavors, somehow like an au poivre without the pepper. The sauce was a revelation. I got the slightly lighter Fiorentina New York strip, which was also wonderful. It came with a puréed herb sauce and apparently they marinate the meat overnight in olive oil. We loved the enormous, crispy onion rings and the creamed spinach again. And I can’t praise the courtly, old world service enough.
