Brasserie Capitale

I must have caught this restaurant on a bad day. Visited during Dine Downtown/​Restaurant Week and we ordered from both the regular menu and dine downtown menu. They were out of salmon but the chef brought out scallops for us which wasn’t bad. The Coq Au Vin though was pretty ordinary. A little too oily and salty. The starters (a salad and french onion soup) weren’t too impressive either. The desserts were probably the highlight although the portions could have been better. We were given a table right next to the bar and by 9pm there were several regulars who showed up that seemed to be really good friends with the servers and bartender. It got a little too loud and rowdy for us. I don’t mind a fun and boisterous bar scene if it were an actual tavern… not a french restaurant. Maybe I’ll be back to give it another chance but I’m not putting anything on the calendar anytime soon.

My company took a group of us here for lunch. We didn’t get to pick this place and I would never purposely go on my own. The salmon had no taste and I left starving afterwards. The menu changes monthly and unfortunately what I had picked out was not available. I would have been happy with a quality sandwich or salad. Overpriced for what you get. The restaurant is beautiful and way better then the old restaurant (The Broiler). The staff seem pretty unhappy and the management team are stuffy and rude… or maybe that is the French way. Either way, bring your wallet, rob a bank, and eat before you come!!!

We had a delicious dinner 12−22−15. I had the scallops and they were succulent and complemented with savory cauliflower buds and sautéed greens. (Oh How I wish I could makes vegetables taste so good) The Sauvignon blanch paired wonderfully. My husband had the cassoulet. It was simply fabulous. The beans were incredibly flavorful and the variety of meats were tasty. The wine from the Cahors region matched perfectly. Our service was great and attentive. We plan on returning and trying other dishes.

Great food! It is about time Sacramento welcomed an authentic French restaurant.
Had the steak frites, lamb, ratatouille, cauliflower soup, and one of their salads (all delicious!)
Wine list is loaded with Old World treats. Their staff will steer you in the right direction without being pushy.
Service is impeccable. Definitely going to put this restaurant into the rotation. Can’t wait to try more on the menu!

I’ve lived a couple blocks off Capitol Park for many years now. I revel in Sacramento’s foodie scene, but I rarely write reviews here on Unilocal.However, I’ve got to report on Brasserie Capitale.
This was not my first visit to Brasserie – I have been once before for dinner and I’ve enjoyed cocktails and appetizers several times. If you have not been and you appreciate great food and excellent service, you must go!
Brasserie Capitale is somewhat expensive French cuisine in a beautifully done and complete redesign of the former Broiler restaurant at 12^th and K. With classic French dishes on the menu and a wine list full of unfamiliar varietals, you might expect a stereotypical stuffy and aloof experience. Instead, staff at the Brasserie shine with a friendly and fun ease that comes when professionals and food-​artists are at the top of their game.
A night at Brasserie must start with cocktails…
Of course before dinner drinks will be to each taste, but you will find classic cocktails done perfectly and some lesser-​known boutique drinks as well. Our foursome had: Manhattan, Rob Roy, Moscow Mule, and Martini. If you are a fan of craft cocktails like at Shady Lady or Hook & Ladder, then Brasserie should be on your list too.
We had made 7:30pm reservations, but a second round of cocktails pushed us a little past our requested time. Staff told us that our table would be waiting whenever we were ready to move from the bar to table.
Appetizers…
After being seated, we started with deviled eggs and crispy oxtail risotto balls. I am a sucker for deviled eggs, so I can report that these are truly a cut above. Four medium-​sized bites were delivered and quickly devoured. The oxtail risotto balls were a revelation. We received five large balls and since none in the party were willing to part with their ¼ ownership of the last ball, we carefully split if four ways.
Wine…
I am a wine person. I’ve had my way with all of the major California varietals and even some of the lesser known ones. On this night, after the cocktails and the appetizers, I just wanted to have a nice bottle of wine selected for us. Our waiter had a favorite French varietal and the bottle was on the affordable side. It was very nice with flavor that worked with the variety of meals that we had.
Pre…
Lyonnaise Salad, one per couple. This salad is amazing and was the sole repeat from the previous visit. Our split each salad and had previously asked if we would like an extra poached egg so that each split of salad would have its own egg – this is a no-​brainer since the warm poached egg is what pushes this salad over the top, but it was nice to be asked since there is a very small extra charge. This may be the perfect salad and Brasserie nails it.
Mains…
Two of us had Filet Mignon cooked to a perfect medium-​rare. The steak had a buttery texture with great flavor. The stars of the night were two nightly special dishes: the casserole of chicken pieces cooked in red wine (coq au vin); and the white beans with duck, pork belly, and lamb sausage (cassoulet). Both of the nightly specials were among the best dishes I have ever tried.
Dessert…
I there was a dish that was only good and not exceptional, it was the Rum Cake Chantilly that we shared as a foursome. It had a great flavor but was maybe just a bit on the dry side. After the oohs and aahs we gave throughout the night, a good dessert needed to be very, very good just to compete.
In all, our party of four had a fantastic meal. Our meal rated among the best we have had in Sacramento including at neighbor Ella, Waterboy, or Mulvaney’s.
The August Sac Bee article said that this place «has promise». Well that was August and soon after Brasserie opened. Today that promise is fulfilled. If you have enjoyed Aïoli Bodega Española, which is the other midtown eatery owned by Aziz and family, you have some idea about what you are in for at its all-​grown-​up sibling, Brasserie Capitale! I really can’t say enough about this place!

Terrible soup, embarrassingly awful dessert, good entrée.
I’ve never been more disappointed by French onion soup until now. It was a bland sludge that wasn’t even hot enough to melt the shredded cheese.
If the profiteroles are pre-​packaged items from the frozen food aisle, they should be embarrassed to sell them in a purportedly authentic French restaurant. If they aren’t then they should be shamed out of the restaurant business. The pastries were rock hard and dry as if they had dried out in a freezer. I’ve never had a puff pastry shatter and break apart when cut into.
The pan roasted chicken was good, though. No complaints there. Tender and juicy with nice sear.
I’ll come back if somebody else pays.

We loved the appetizer menu and couldn’t even get past it to the entrées so we ordered mostly appetizers and shared. Since it was our first time this helped us get a good understanding of the food. We enjoyed the two types of foie grass very much! The sweetbreads were out :(Escargot was marginal. We all preferred to have them in the dish, not shell. Oysters were $ 18 for ½ doz very small but good oysters. The steak tartar was amazing! And finally we enjoyed an order of the mussels which will make me go back for! The two must haves: mussels and foie!

First time trying. We went around 2pm so there were only a few tables. Got seated right away. A lot of choices on the menu. The waiter explained the specials and brought 2 waters and an ice tea. It seems like a long time before he came back to take our order. My daughter ordered the pan sear Foie Gras and Bone Marrow, my wife got the Escargot and the Ham Sandwich special and I also ordered the pan seared Foie Gras and the Steak and Fritz. NO BREAD AND BUTTER WAS OFFERED TO US. Both Foies and the Escargot came out. At first I thought it was a joke how teeny tiny miniscule microscopic the paper thin ¹⁄₅ of an inch Foie was but then I looked at my daughters plate and it was the same! You will see in the photo. Ok, for $ 14 this is all you get. Is the restaurant aware that there is no longer a ban on Foie Gras? The owner should be embarrassed serving something so microscopic! The flavor was good but you really didn’t have to chew it was sooooooooooooo tiny. 2 big pieces of bread came with it but you only need half a slice of bread only! The escargot came out in its shell. Talk about wrestling! The cocktail sized fork was too wide to get the meat out of the shell and of course it came with more bread. After that the main courses came. The bone marrow was good but needed salt and more bread. Oddly enough, 2 of the 4 pieces were darker than the other 2. Looks as if they weren’t cooked at the same time. The Ham Sandwich had a nice presentation with an egg sunny side up on top of it ($ 2 extra for the egg!). The Steak was Flat Iron Steak. I asked for medium rare and it was still blue (raw) so I had to send it back because I can still hear it mooing. The steak came back cooked much better but it had a lot of veins in it and chewy. I’ve had steak and fries many times and it was always served with a Ribeye or Filet Mignon steak never a Flat Iron Steak. Flat Irons are usually cut up in slices at Chinese restaurants to use for beef and broccoli and there’s a reason for that, it’s a tough piece of meat. I was disappointed they used that for a main course dish. The photos will show the vascular part of the meat. I had to spit out many pieces. We had the Profiteroles for desert which was good.
The Service wasn’t good for a place like this. The waiter was nice but on the slow side especially since they weren’t busy. Lunch was $ 103 for 2 adults and 1 Child. It’s very over priced for the quality of ingredients and the quantity of food.

Service was excellent. Water review very on time, order was taken timely.
The reason 2 stars were taken off was because their food.
Appetizer was great Foi Gras, nothing to complain about.
My date ordered the lamb chop Medium and I got steak Medium Rare… Let’s say, when the dish took more than 20 minutes to come out of the kitchen while there wasn’t much people at the place, I was a bit worried. The food did not disappoint me… it was OVER cooked. My medium rare and my date’s Medium came out Well DONE. Oh, did I mention I had a pretty long discussion with the waiter about how the meat should be cooked? I went to too many restaurant that mess up on the temperature. But this one is so far the worst.
On top of that, the food was just… nothing surprising. If I am going to a restaurant and paying more than $ 25 per main dish, I expect something that I can’t cook at home. Nope, I can cook all of them and maybe seasoning it a lot better. String beans and potato are just bland. That wine sauce paired with the steak, no flavor at all. Steak (so called filet mignon)‘s cut was not perfect. Still bits and pieces hard to chew stuff in there. Honesty, I got better cut in Safeway than this.
More towards the disappointment, the dessert we ordered… I can make this at home easy.
So overall, the service was great, but the kitchen really need to catch up.

Ok actually we didn’t know this place existed until we were turned down At Ella’s for wanting to sit down at a table In an empty restaurant. That forced us to look around for a different place to eat low and behold we found this place.
We even got lucky with the french water with a great personality. I will defiantly return

Great service, well crafted cocktails, excellent wine list, delicious regional French cuisine in a intelligently designed dining room. Brasserie C is a sleek addition to a hopefully re-​invigorated upper K Street area. The star of the show is definitely the food.
The duck liver pâté was silky smooth with a delicate buttery foam floating on top apposed by a crispy toasted baguette and le petite cornichons. A classic chicken entrée was a hit with salty crisp skin and moist succulent flesh atop a medley of forest vegetables lightly seasoned in a lovely sauce. Our favorite and most cherished choice was the scallops. Candy from the sea sums it up.

A hot and new place in downtown Sac, Brasserie Capitale is a French restaurant with a rather traditional menu. Located on the first floor of building filled with lawyers and lobbyists, this place is perfect if you want to impress some clients.
The décor (5 stars): beautiful, plush red velvet booths, a gorgeous gold gilded mirror, and a stunning chandelier. The overall impression of the décor is lavish yet comfortably. You don’t feel out of place in casual clothes, but it’s still perfectly fine if you want to dress up.
Beef Tartare (2 stars): the beef tartare was a little weird. It was shaped as a beef patty with one small indentation for a what I assume to be a quail egg. The texture was too smooth and it melted into nothingness on the tongue. The taste was bland which is both a good and bad thing for first time tasters as it doesn’t taste bad, but essentially, you’re only eating the toasted bread it’s on.
Cold English pea soup with crème fraîche (3 stars): the flavour was a little more sweet than I would have wanted, perhaps due to the crème fraîche. Also, the soup came and was made cold. If it was hot, I would have liked it much more and if they added some bacon or ham hock to the stock, the soup would have been more flavourful.
Scallops with corn (4.5 stars): very delicious. Scallops were perfectly cooked and the corn was awesome too. But together, it was heaven in your mouth since the scallops too have a hint of a buttery taste and mixed with the rich, creamy sauce of the corn, it was just good. But there was this brown sauce which I think was chocolate in the cream sauce. A little bizarre. I’m not sure how I feel about it.
Pork shoulder with lardon and golden raisins (4 stars): pork shoulder was tender and perfectly cooked with a moist and juicy texture. The potato purée was delicious and the lardon or Canadian ham was so good. It was a meaty and hearty dish. But the golden raisins were just eh. Too sweet. I picked them out.
Mussels (4 stars): nice and creamy sauce with perfectly cooked mussels. The mussels were moist and plump, not dry or overlooked at all. But mussels is a staple in French cuisine so if they couldn’t make it, I would be disappointed.
Mojito Royale and the beer Mignon (?) were both good according to my friends. So if you want some drinks, this place has it.
Service (4.5 stars): the servers were very prompt in getting us water and cleaning our table. But they provided us with bread and butter before they got our beverages (the mojito and beer). A slight faux pas. Also, no bucket for mussel shells? Where were we supposed to put the shells, on the table or our teeny tiny plates?
Still, a nice 3.5 star place. I enjoyed the taste and I liked the décor and the servers are polite and good. Just, I wasn’t super wowed by anything enough to rave about.

I was desperately looking for a place for dinner on Monday july 6… Café Plan B is closed, so is Formoli’s… poking around Unilocal a bit and I found Brasserie Capitale. Based on the reviews, I thought this is a promising place despite the menu was a bit pompous in appearance.
We arrived and were immediately seated. The place is inside a corporate building, it is well-​lit (unlike other French restaurants) and has available outlets at most tables (electronic device friendly.)
Beef tartare — It’s not something that I would order again, it was too gamey and could use some garlic/​onion.
Mussels — the cream sauce was just a pool of thick heavy cream. The mussels were cooked well but the sauce made it tasted cheap. I was looking forward to a nice plate of mussels but instead all the mussels were drenched in heavy cream. The worst part about this dish is that they did not give us a bowl or a plate to hold the shells, we ended up having to leave the shells on our dinner plates — what a disappointment!
Scallop — Big juicy pieces of scallops over a bed of corn. This was the best part of the meal yet the whole dish was just average. The corn doesn’t seem to go well with scallops, it was too sweet and too crunchy, definitely did not pair well. The scallops were cooked perfectly, with a golden brown burnt on the outside and soft, smooth, delicate finish in the inside.
Pork shoulder — Another average dish, nothing memorable, maybe the raisins on the dish were somewhat tasty but other than that I have nothing nice to say about this dish. Move it to the No list.
English pea soup — it was too sweet, other than that it would have been a fine dish.
I wanted to drown my disappointment in cocktails but our waiter never return after the last plate came, so no second or third Mojito Royale until we paid our bill and left.
Dinner at Brasserie Capitale was just an expensive disappointment.

Came here for a book launch party. It’s a small space for an event, and staff were running in and out in this new venue, but for happy hour or a sit down meal it would probably be less hectic.
The good:
The food bites were good. Deep fried tator balls and pâté were my favorites. Fyi duck pâté beats pork pâté, hands (or webbed feet) down.
The mixed drink menu was impressive and during happy hour are six bucks each (I think).
Good to know:
I had the French 75 drink, but it tasted a little like lemon soap water to me. Would probably get a different drink next time.
Would I return? For happy hour, yes.

This is some of the best foods I’ve had in Sacramento recently. My favorite was the squid stuffed salad. The scallops were delicious and salmon had a nice crispy crust.
My perfect restaurant in Sac would offer food from this restaurant, the ambience of Ella’s and service of Mulvaney’s.

The new restaurant around the corner from where I work seems to be the new hot place to eat dinner.
I had to check it out for my girlfriends’ birthday! I made reservation and they took us in immediately. The server was very pleasant and informative. He served hot fresh bread and olives which is my fave.
I had the steak and frites for $ 26 that was very reasonable and worth the plate and quality. My friend had the chicken leg over artichoke buttered with prosciutto. Very tasty! Will definitely return! Thank you Brasserie!

12^th & K
French cuisine.
Fun Fact: The owner of Aioli owns this spot.
It’s a beautiful restaurant. Great service. The food is pricey but it was worth it. We shared our food and the only thing I didn’t care for is the Escargot. WE both didn’t care for it. I wish it had more Garlic-​Parsley Compound Butter to sop up with the grilled bread. It was the least favorite dish on the table. Everything else was on point– Scallops, Quiche, Duck Liver Pâté. Yum!

My boss and I needed a place to eat lunch and, since he was buying, it sure wasn’t going to be fast food. We walked in and waited a few seconds to get noticed and were promptly given a choice as to where to sit. They had a very casual attitude for a place that looks formal. That’s nice.
So, we get the menu and were slightly surprised in how fish heavy it was. Since we both had fish for dinner the night before (and for the two previous nights) and wanted something different today, our options were limited. That is NOT a complaint as normally I a ton of fish but was craving something different. Found the pork. All is right with the world.
So, we started with the cauliflower soup. That never sounds all that awesome. I mean, it is cauliflower after all. However, it was awesome. I have no idea what they put in it but it must have been heroin or something equally as addicting.
Then came the Manhattans. The bar seemed to be a tad understaffed since drink orders took longer than I expected. They were excellent drinks but each order took a few minutes too long. I might suggest giving the tender a bar back to help speed things along. The place is new and I figure they are still ironing out some kinks.
After getting about halfway into that Manhattan, out came the pork. It was this giant bowl looking plate which made the serving size look small. It wasn’t. After devouring this entire thing down to the last bean that it was served on, I was stuffed. That pork was insanely good. The beans were nice, but that pork stole the show.
And just then my third Manhattan arrived and so did the waiter asking if we would like dessert. Evil man. Couldn’t he tell that I was already about to burst? But, inhibitions are done and he mentioned Crème brûlée and I just stopped listening and started drooling.
OK, now that dessert is staring me in the face, I crack open that wonderful hard shell on top to discover this super soft custard below and I have a new favorite place for Crème brûlée in Sacramento.
Lastly, I walked home in a futile attempt to burn off some of those Calories. It was a very slow walk.

It was a wonderful meal. Service is excellent.
We ordered the monkfish which was just cooked perfectly. Couple of people had the filet which was so good, they licked the plates clean!
We also ordered the cheese plate which was great for our group. Between that wine, coffee and dessert, we left a happy group of people. Can’t wait to go back!

Lunch review only: It’s too early for 5 stars, but it might get there.
In a beautifully revamped space that used to the house The Broiler, French restaurant Brasserie Capitale is serving rich, delicate, delicious food. Top notch service and an elegant atmosphere — this place is a nice lunch option in the area.
The standard menu is on the pricey side — mains in the $ 16-​$ 25 range. But, it feels like the meal is worth it – not like they overcharged you because they are close to the capitol. You walk away feeling like you had a splendid, fancy lunch. And the service is refined, but friendly — the place is more welcoming than Ella, at the same price point.
Additionally, the daily lunch specials are a great deal — dining companion and I each had specials which turned out to be only $ 12 (no prices on the menu for specials). Specials include a risotto of the day, soup of the day, and rotating sandwiches (French dip on Tuesday, Croque Monsieur on Wednesday, delicious-​sounding burger on Thursday, etc.)
I’ll be back!