With a couple of fam­ily birth­days tak­ing place over the hol­i­days, Janu­ary was a good time to assemble for din­ner togeth­er. Hav­ing dined at Cap­it­ol before (in fact, it’s been nom­in­ated for TAWAs mul­tiple times), I was­n’t put off by its Flash web­site or that they don’t take book­ings for groups smal­ler than eight.

As it hap­pens, I was only the second per­son in the res­taur­ant on a Thursday around 6pm. I order a Neg­roni (which comes on the rocks rather than at a mar­tini glass), and per­use the simple menu. The place quickly filled up and the chat­ter makes it quite loud, espe­cially giv­en one group has chosen to bring along a tod­dler who decides to scream for a while (*Insert stand­ard rant about how kids prob­ably don’t belong in small res­taur­ants where mains are over $30*).

Still, the staff are attent­ive, and our water glasses kept nice and full, and brought us our wine pretty quickly. We decided to order four entrees for the six of us – the pea ravi­oli with buttered artichokes (deli­ciously but­tery and per­fect pasta), the fried squid with aioli (crispy and not at all rub­bery) and two servings of the ricotta-stuffed zuchini flowers with smoked egg­plant and pan­cetta. OH. MY. STARS!

These were amaz­ing, crispy, salty, creamy, smokey, so many things going on and work­ing in beau­ti­ful har­mony togeth­er. A little pricey for the amount on the plate at $22.50, but worth every penny. Cap­it­ol por­tions really aren’t large, and the sides aren’t very excit­ing, but it does mean it’s easy to eat three courses. So we moved on to mains.

The pap­par­delle with rab­bit, veal, broad beans and sage ragu was lus­cious, rich with fla­vour and chunks of unc­tu­ous meat that melted in the mouth.The pap­par­delle was cooked per­fectly, and oh, I could just eat plates and plates and plates of this all day. In fact, I was so pre­oc­cu­pied with it that I for­got to steal mouth­fuls of my com­pan­ions’ dishes, but they were well-pleased with their steak (served with len­tils, which made me laugh), duck and pork.

Desserts were hard to choose, but I decided after the rich­ness of the ragu that I would go for some­thing a little light­er than the soft-centred chocol­ate pud­ding. Lem­on mousse was light and zingy, per­fectly con­tras­ted with the berry com­pote served along­side it. Again, por­tions were small for $14.50, but per­fectly formed. All up, our bill was around $540 for drinks, three bottles of wine, five entrees, five mains and six desserts. Not a cheap night, but it was lovely nev­er­the­less!

Cap­it­ol’s food is fairly simple, but put togeth­er beau­ti­fully. The space is small, but the toi­lets smell amaz­ing (like cin­na­mon) and the staff have the right bal­ance between friendly and pro­fes­sion­al. It’d be a great place to have a date, or a fam­ily get-togeth­er – just leave the tod­dlers at home please.