One of our favourite restaurants in Wellington was Field & Green, which sadly closed down a couple of years ago (due to the lease running out…they made the right move…the building has since been pulled down…) Chef Laura Greenfield has since done a number of pop ups/visiting chefs around the region, and it was great to see her and her partner take over another favourite place of ours, Capitol, for two months while the owners go on a research trip to the UK. Naturally, I booked us to go, and off we went on Friday evening.
The special menu is based on Lyonnaise cuisine traditionally found in a bouchon-style restaurant (read a fun article on this from The Guardian here). The menu had a lot of things I would have like to try, but in the end I started with Moelle et escargots en persillade, that is, roasted bone marrow and pan-fried snails in parsley and garlic butter, served with toasted bread. This was so good…and so fun to be served a giant bone on a plate. The snails were just perfect (soft and garlicky) and the bone marrow delicious. Karl had the pâté en croûte, a chicken, pork, peppercorns, prunes and pistachio pâté baked in pastry served with cornichons and Dijon mustard. This also got a big ‘thumbs up’. We both drank Verizet chardonnay with our first course.
For our main dish, I opted for the volaille truffée demi-deuil, chicken in ‘half-mourning’, with truffle and cream sauce. I don’t normally order chicken in a restaurant but this sounded so good, and it was. The sauce was amazing and the chicken so moist and tasty. Karl naturally opted for the Filet de Bœuf au poivre, that is the fillet steak with peppercorn sauce. We had pommes de terre à la Lyonnaise on the side. There was silence as we both ate as both dishes were just so good. We drank a Côtes du Rhone with our main dish.
There was no room for dessert, but we left very happy and full of good food. The restaurant was full, a combination of Capitol and Laura Greenfield’s combined reputation pulling in regulars and fans. A 9/10 from us.
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer and good food. Thistles and Kiwis can be found on Facebook and Instagram @thistlesandkiwis
