Report Card: Cap City Fine Diner & Bar

Cap City, Gahanna

http://www.capcityfinediner.com/

Overall GrubGrade A-

 

The Breakdown:

Atmosphere:  Grade A:  We’ve been to Cap City a few times in the past and enjoyed our visits, but on this visit we had an agenda…we needed to grubgrade this place.  You might pass right by Cap City without knowing what you were passing, and that would be a shame.  Because of its location (shopping plaza – blech!) you really cannot get a good feel for the place from the outside.  If, however, you happened to wander inside, you’d probably like what you saw.  The appearance of Cap City Fine Diner and Bar will definitely remind you of an old school diner with a little twist.  Think “Al’s” from Happy Days but with a more modern flair.  The interior was clean and relatively quiet, although arriving at 4:00pm might have put us ahead of the dinner crowd.

High marks:   Clean, quiet, and nicely decorated

Low marks:   No Fonzie

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Service:  Grade B:  Our server, Candie, did a commendable job in fulfilling our needs during the dinner service.  There were no mistakes made with our order, and our drinks and entrees came out without too much of a delay.  But those of you who follow this blog know us, so probably know what I am about to say.  There was just nothing about the service to set it apart – we just could not find anything about the service that was noteworthy.  Katina summed it up best when she described it as pretty “basic.”

High marks:  Accurate, minimal wait

Low marks:   Nothing noteworthy about the service

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Food/Spirits:  Grade A-:  We decided to skip the appetizer on this occasion and went straight for the booze.  Katina ordered a Strawberry Lemonade (this one has some liquor in it) and I sipped on a couple of Rogue Dead Guy ales.  Katina really enjoyed the smoothness of the Strawberry Lemonade.  She said you could barely taste any alcohol and felt the drink was very well balanced.  The Rogue Dead Guy ales were extremely smooth with a real distinct malty finish and just the right amount of hop notes.  This is definitely a beer you could lose track of yourself with since it is so drinkable.  For our entrees, Katina went with the Crab Crusted Tilapia and I decided to go with the Chicken Romano.  The tilapia was very well prepared.  Katina found it to be moist and not dry, and a nice sized portion with plenty of crab.  She did feel like there needed to be more lemon-butter sauce.  A nice sized portion of delicious sticky rice accompanied the tilapia.  The Chicken Romano was nicely prepared.  The breading on the chicken cutlets was nice and light, and the cutlets themselves were pounded nice and thin.  The dish was a little out of balance because the dish was a little skimpy with the pasta – which is completely backwards from what I expected.  Usually with a dish like this (pasta and meat) you get a ton of pasta with a couple of kitten-sized portions of meat.  I ran out of pasta way before I ran out of chicken.

High marks:  Good drinks, delicious rice and tilapia, nicely breaded and thin chicken cutlets         

Low marks:   Too light on both the lemon-butter sauce and the pasta

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Value:  Grade A-:  We had some very nice food for a fairly reasonable price.  Portion size was good to  generous, and we left full but didn’t need any doggy bags.  With the good quality of food, nice portion size, and reasonable price, Cap City Fine Diner & Bar racked up a very respectable “A-.”  If you’re out and about in Gahanna, you should definitely stop by and give Cap City a try.

High marks:   Reasonable price, good quality

Low marks:  No doggy bags needed

Report Card: Bravo Cucina Italiana

http://www.bravoitalian.com/index.html

Overall Grade A-

 

The Breakdown:

Atmosphere:  Grade B:  Once upon a time, we considered Bravo Cucina Italiana the benchmark for Italian restaurants.  I remember taking Katina to Bravo’s when we first started dating, when we were both young and naïve, and thinking how amazing the food tasted.  We returned recently to Bravo with the intent of grading it and as soon as we walked in the door, it hit us – Bravo Cucina Italiana looks exactly the same as it did 15 years ago when we first visited it.  On the surface, that sounds like a negative comment, and while we won’t argue that the décor of Bravo could use a touch of updating, it was and still is a really nice restaurant.  Despite the age of the interior, Bravo is still well maintained and clean.  Tables are spaced appropriately, and we visited during non-peak hours, so there were few diners and little noise.

High marks:  Clean, nice décor

Low marks:   Could use some updating

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Service:  Grade A-:  Over the years, we’ve been to Bravo Cucina Italiana many, many times.  On this occasion, as with all of the previous occasions, we received very good service.  The service is always straight forward and competent.  Food and drinks move at very nice pace, and rarely do you need to ask for anything twice.  Bravo gets an “A-“ on this occasion (which is slightly higher than I would normally give it) because our server went the extra mile in getting Katina her Veal Marsala.  The Veal Marsala used to be on the menu, and now it is gone, but our server was able to still get it for Katina.  That extra little effort lifted Bravo’s grade.  Well done.

High marks:  Server obtained dish no longer on menu for Katina

Low marks:   Service really good – not spectacular

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Food/Spirits:  Grade A:  We are finding excellent Italian food harder and harder to find.  Brava Cucina Italiana has really good Italian food.  While we might no longer consider it the gold standard for Italian cuisine, you won’t find many places slinging better pasta.  Katina had Sangria for her drink and I once again settled for a Guinness.  We’ve done both of these drinks before, so there’s really no reason to keep flogging that dead horse.  As previously mentioned, Katina ordered the veal marsala.  Katina has always maintained that Bravo’s veal marsala was the best she’s had.  This held true for on this visit as well.  The veal was tender and was pounded nice and thin.  The sauce had a really good flavor, and there was plenty of it.  The herbed pasta that came with the veal marsala was cooked to perfection as well.  I settled on the sausage tortelloni, which was really well prepared.  The Italian sausage had just enough kick without overwhelming the rest of the dish.  The sauce had HUGE chunks of tomato in it.  While I am a fan of the flavor of tomato, I am not really in love with its texture.  So, I usually prefer any tomato in a dish to be diced or chopped into tiny pieces.  I know…how old am I?  My biggest complaint, though,  was definitely not Bravo giving me too much of a good thing.  Portion size on the sausage tortelloni was small.  I never like leaving a restaurant feeling as hungry as I did when I entered it.  Maybe the massive chunks of tomato were supposed to be a filler.  So, even though I enjoyed the taste, I was overall disappointed with the dish.  However, because the veal marsala gave Katina joy, and based on previous performance, we settled on a food/spirits grade of “A.”

High marks:  Still the best veal marsala out there, according to Katina

Low marks:  Portion size on sausage tortelloni too small

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Value:  Grade B:  Portion size is what kept Bravo Cucina Italiana from scoring an A in this category.  While Katina left with a doggie bag, I felt I had only eaten a few bites of my dish when I realized my dish was done.  Food is of really good quality and price is not overwhelming.  If Bravo can get the portion size more consistent, we can bring the grade up to “A.”

High marks:  Really good food at a reasonable price

Low marks:  Inconsistent portion size