The Capital Grille

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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 11:30am

This by far has had to be one of the worse dinning experiences I have had in an upscale establishment. We were in town for the USA Triathlon National Championships and wanted to enjoy a nice meal so we made reservations at the Capital Grill for Saturday August 10th at 7:00 pm. Having dine at other Capital Grilles (through out the US) we thought this would be a great place to celebrate.
We arrived 5 minutes early and were greeted in a pleasant manor and were told "our table was ready" or "we could wait to be seated". We didn't realize that telling the host sitting now was a kiss of death giving us the table that was "an after thought" that was shoved INTO the EXIT door. It was the type of table that you sit the kids at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Now, mind you there were other tables they could have sat us but we were a party of 2. They knew we were from out of town. So guess they send the people from Dallas who will not be back (wink, wink) into the corner.
We were served water quickly (with the bread already on the table) and our waitress did greet my husband by his last name. But for an establishment that is charging customers as much as they are I couldn't get over how her outfit looked more like something you would see at Luby's and it didn't even fit her which was so distracting the whole time (well whenever we did see her). After she introduced herself it was as if she disappeared. We didn't see her again for 15 minutes before she even asked us what drinks we wanted.
For appetizers, We had oysters on the half shell and the smoked salmon. The sauces for the oysters were so bland lacking in taste. The cocktail sauce was such, there are better ones you can buy at the store.
Our next course my husband had the mozzarella tomato salad. I had the soup of the day lobster bisque. Considering the mozzarella is made every two hours the salad was flat. lacking seasoning,the tomatoes were not fresh. The soup was pleasant with large pieces of lobster.
My husband had the fillet special with the lobster mac n cheese side. Mine the parmesan sole with a crab and avocado salad with a side of cream spinach. His meat was cooked to medium rare as he requested. The waitress did check on us only at that time, after he had cut into his meat. The mac and cheese, didn't have that greasy look that even some gourmet mac and cheeses can. Well the lobster was rubber to the point it made you wonder what were you eating. The noodles and cheese left one of those fur feelings on your tongue. As soon as I cut the outer edge of my fish the edge was luke warm. Only the left outside edge of my fish was even close to feeling like it had been cooked. When I tried to cut the middle to take a bite it was so horrible, I thought I was going to get sick right in the restaurant. We were mortified! What is worse. we NEVER saw our waitress. She only came by the one time to check on us when my husband CUT HIS MEAT. I couldn't even tell her "My fish is not COOK!"
Obviously they must have known because our waitress did tell us they were going to pay for our desserts. Yet a manager never came to ask "How was our meal".
My husband had the creme brulee and I had the cheese cake. His brulee, which he is a connoisseur (having dined on all over the world), was just OK per him. Again, nothing special. Given it was free oh well. They put a twist on the cheese cake with burning the top like a creme brulee which was different but not a traditional cheese cake. It was also round as it was made it a ramekin. Never again will we dine here!

Excellent food, excellent service, excellent atmosphere. Perfect steak every time - sides are delicious. The best place for a nice dinner in Milwaukee.