Restaurant: Capital Seafood Beverly Hills [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 50 N La Cienega Blvd #130, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. (310) 855-1234

Date: November 12, 2021

Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese

Rating: Not their best meal

Sauvages has been on a fantastic (and “sold out”) tear since resuming in 2021. This lunch is a return to Capital Seafood in Beverly Hills with a (fake, AKA American) Chardonnay and Pinot Noir theme.

Capital is the latest SGV place to move west, occupying the Newport Seafood Beverly Hills location that failed to work out. Not that I love even the original Newport, but Capital is fairly straight up banquet / dimsum Cantonese.

The space looks pretty Chinese, even in Beverly Hills.

Coves. Gotta have the coves!

This particular lunch had the annoying 2 table and double wine format. We were set up in the bar area.

Champs to begin:

These were (in my mind) the “real wines” before all that buttery chard came in.
Candied walnuts.

Peanuts.

Our special menu.

The double table wine menu.

Some various sauces.

Smashed garlic cucumbers.

Pickled jellyfish.

Stuffed scallop with shrimp.

Tony, who organized the menu, had them individually plate everything. This looks great and is a bit easier but it just doesn’t work well at Chinese restaurants. They aren’t used to it, and the time it takes them to do it means that everything is a bit cold by the time it hits the table. Plus, I’m a glutton and then I can’t take seconds :-).

Steamed egg and lobster.

Steamed live fish.

Plated.

Dum sum platter. A bun, a little rabbit dumpling (cute!) and a (single) hargow.

So cute!

Whole suckling pig.

Plated. Notice how they have to stick some random vegetables on the plate so it doesn’t look empty. Fortunately, they didn’t plate the whole thing so there were fairly unlimited seconds of it available.

French style filet mignon and String Beans. Tony just can’t resist ordering this dish. It’s tender but boring.

Braised Tofu & Pea Leaves with Garlic.

Fried Rice with Red Chicken Sauce and Shrimp Cream. This is the “classic” yin yang rice.

Macau style egg tart.

Baked Crispy Pastry with Almond milk. Cool but a bit odd.

Fresh fruit.

Overall, Capital Seafood is quite solid SGV-style Cantonese banquet (as well as dimsum). I’d say that the food quality is about on par with middle of the road SGV Cantonese. Price is higher, but still not bad. They lean heavily on the MSG too. But today’s lunch was probably one of my least favorite meals here. The two table and individual plating thing meant that portions were small and the food was a bit cold.

Also, the whole two table thing is just not as fun as a single (even large) table. Having half the wines at one and half at the other is very chaotic.

I didn’t really like the white wine. There were a couple that were decent, but they are so heavy. I’d happily drink $20 2019 Fevre Chablis Villages over almost any of these, so I’m not even gonna bother to write them up. Some of the Pinots are pretty nice. Not like a great red burg, but at least like an enjoyable young red burg.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.