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Tom and I wanted to celebrate two things: the rental of our house and the birth of our baby…and we wanted to celebrate in style. We had thought about going to Ruths Chris or Morton’s, but Tivo friends recommended another steak place, The Capital Grille, instead—so that’s where we went. Dad and Linda were here so they babysat while we went to dinner. What follows is the online review I wrote for our experience.

This is what 5-star dining is all about.

We went here for our celebratory “we just had our first baby and this is our first night out alone dinner” and it could not have been better!

Our night started with valet parking (why not?). We entered and the Maître d’ took our coats and seated us. Our waitress greeted us by name and spent quite a bit of time explaining the wine list and the menu (since we had never been there before). We probably could have saved her some time by saying we weren’t interested in any wine, but she was very nice and knowledgeable and it was interesting to hear everything. She then left us alone to agonize over all the delicious menu items.

When she came back to take our order, she also brought over a tiny shaker of their signature drink, the Stolli Doli (sp?), a pineapple-infused vodka, to try and tempt us into a real drink. We just enjoyed the delicious sample.

The appetizers came out very quickly and I was impressed. (I had for some unknown reason imagined that the food would take longer.) I had ordered the calamari (on the waitresses recommendation) and hubby ordered the lobster and crab cakes. We could have made do with just one of the orders, as the calamari was enough for probably four people! One neat thing was that the waitress had stopped by and asked if we wanted her to split/serve the appetizers—putting them on separate plates if we were going to share. We said sure! So when she delivered them, we each had two plates. Very cool. The calamari was a bit spicy but not too bad, and it was very good. I highly recommend those. The lobster and crab cakes were good, but I think I enjoyed the calamari more. (It was so good, we dove in and ate most of it before remembering to take a picture.)

It was about this time that I mentioned why we were there celebrating…and the waitress got very excited! Turns out she was pregnant and loved kids and wanted to hear more about us and our baby, then said she’d have a surprise for us. She came back with two glasses of wine! Then she asked if we had a baby scrapbook and we said yes, so she asked if she could take our picture. We said sure, thinking she would email it to us or something. But she said she would print it out and give it to us! She was back within a few minutes with the picture printed and placed in a Capital Grille cardboard matte. Wow! She also took a picture with our camera (when she noticed it on the table).

The next course was french onion soup, which came out in a crock about the size of your head. And it was absolutely, hands down, the best french onion soup we’ve ever had. It was AMAZING. Unfortunately, we didn’t eat much of it since we figured that would do well reheating at home…and we knew we still had huge steaks coming! Before we could even think twice, it was boxed up and brought to our table in a bag.

Then, the steaks and sides. Wow, the steaks. I had ordered the Filet Oscar and wow, was it buttery. Cooked perfectly medium rare. The bearnaise was smooth and delicious, and the crab–oh, the crab! I have never seen such huge lumps of crabmeat on Oscar-anything, anywhere.

Hubby’s Porcini Rubbed Delmonico was also to-die-for. Sweet and savory, buttery, cooked perfectly rare. He barely made a dent in it, unfortunately, with all the food we’d already eaten plus the sides.

Oh, yes, the sides. The waitress had told us that all the sides were family style (and large portions) so if we wanted, she could do half portions. So we chose to do a half order each of lobster mac and cheese and augratin potatoes? The mac and cheese was so creamy and cheesy and filled with HUGE lobster chunks… I would definitely order that again. The AuGratin potatoes were good, too – but with all the other buttery cheesy food, I think some of the taste was lost on me. We took home leftovers of it all (except my filet, which hubby helped me finish).

Then, another on-the-house celebration surprise! Ricotta cheescake with a creme brulee topping and fresh fruit that was soooooo good. Wow was it good. Hubby, who doesn’t even really like cheesecake, liked it! I would definitely order that one again, as well.

Our waitress gave us her card and said to make sure we ask for her if and when we come in again…and she would love an update on our new baby!

So, overall, 5 stars for the atmosphere, 5 stars for the service, and 5 stars for the food. We just wish it wasn’t quite so expensive so we could go back more often!