The Capital Grille — Restaurant in Hartford

It was my husband's birthday and our first visit to a Capital Grille in CT. I have been to the Capital Grille in Boston near the Colonnade and enjoyed the meal, but this location's service and excellent preparation of our meal was superb, "made me say I have to return". The valet parking occurred quick and was appreciated as parking downtown can be a pain. Hostess was courteous and while walking to our table every employee we passed greeted us. Nick Nusso was our waiter and made my experience even better. He was attentive, made excellent recommendations and was very patient with my hard to please guest. I truly appreciated how Nick handled everything that was thrown at him. Hats off to Chef Fred and his line staff. We started our meal by having oysters, calamari and steak tartare for appetizers. The steak tartare was okay, a little too mushy/wet for our liking (I think it was brushed with an egg wash too), calamari was good, but the oysters were the best I have had since hubby and I went to Abe and Louie's. They were perfect and fresh with just the right amount of that salty ocean flavor, I loved the pepper, garlic, red wine vinegar mix that came on the side too. I had to order a drink I enjoyed the oysters so much, and decided to order their signature drink which is the Stoli Doli, I ended up getting two, lol. Our ribeye steaks were seared and cooked to perfection, medium rare. The picture of mine with the shallot butter doesn't do it justice, It was soooo good and was kind of a combo with the Kona rub and shallot butter. It was recommended by our waiter Nick because I liked the description for the preparation of the NY strip but I'm a ribeye girl and I wasn't in the mood for a strip that night. For sides, we ordered the mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and lobster mac n cheese. The mashed potatoes shocked me with the freshness and flavors, hard to get great mashed potatoes nowadays, I enjoyed the butter and garlic they incorporated, it was a perfect amount of flavor. The asparagus was roasted and seasoned well, the lobster mac n cheese had visible lobster pieces but didn't provide a wow factor. We also had dessert and coffee, I had a cappuccino, excellent cappuccino Nick. From the valet service to the end of our meal the service and food was impeccable. We will definitely be back, my mom has a birthday soon, lol. Thank you for a very memorable night and the best meal I have had in a while. Well worth...

Lovely and delicious dinner with a party of six last night. Table was perfect - set up, location, and wait staff that tended to us were truly terrific! Our waitress was attentive, with a good sense of humor!

My husband and I brought our college-aged son along with three of his teammates. It was terrific to see these young men dress up!

I ordered starters: lump crab, shrimp cocktail, Korean BBQ bacon, and tuna tartare. Excellent 😋 those of us that didn’t have alcoholic drinks had our thirst-needs frequently tended to throughout the nearly three-hour experience (sometimes I feel overlooked when not drinking alcohol but not last night).

The French onion soup was visually interesting and the three who ordered it reported it was tasty. I had the mixed greens salad as did another member of the party. Plentiful and appetizing. Our son had a Caesar salad and the plate was clean when it was removed!

Steak was a hit with four in our party. Each person ordered a different steak. All of the feedback was very positive. My husband ordered the lamb and I ordered the seared tuna. Sauces were enhancing, proteins superior. The sides: asparagus, gratin, and mushrooms were seasoned appropriately and enhanced our meals. These days, the sign of an all-around excellent restaurant are the small details. The bread service was delivered hot table side with a truly inspiring variety of options with cold, whipped butter. The waitress removed one of the small table lamps to make more room at the table (and she placed it back when there was more room).

We ended the meal with a variety of desserts. The berries with crème anglaise the best I’ve ever had. A member of our party closest to me ordered Crème brûlée for the first time ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ some of our party finished the evening with cognac with big ice. All around, it was an...

I love to spend money on luxurious dining experiences but Capital Grille was an unpleasant experience. Firstly, my friend and I were sat in the back of the restaurant, in a separate room completely alone. There seemed to be a party going on in the room next to us but we weren’t in it obviously and we’re by ourselves in a dining room that wasn’t set up. It was a pretty depressing atmosphere. We ordered like $300 worth of food. My friend ordered the lamb and it was SEVERELY undercooked. The waiters apologized and sent it back but cmon?? I had a filet and it was so bad I couldn’t finish it. Ended up picking at appetizers for the night and when I brought the filet home I fed it to the animals outside… it was really not good. There are much better restaurants in the area. I gave them another star because since it was my birthday, they gave a little happy birthday card, as well as a free dessert option but the letters that said happy birthday on the dessert were smudged… I couldn’t even take a nice photo of it. The food at chain restaurants tends to be frozen and the capital grille doesn’t seem to be an exception. there is nothing exceptional about it. Truly don’t know why people rave about it. It’s just a “boujee” experience with inexpensive and gross food—yes inexpensive. I don’t know why there are 4 dollar signs next to this restaurant. Most decent restaurants in hartford area have food that is priced very similarly except the quality is much higher. The boujee experience is not worth it at all. I’d rather go to burtons grill or zohara. The filet at Burton’s and Zohara are both...