The Gossiping Gourmet: A capital idea when it comes to seafood

A few months ago, I had such a delicious dinner at the new Capital Noodle Bar in Irvine that I wanted to try the earlier restaurant, which is called Capital Seafood and is located in the Diamond Jamboree shopping center.

This center has a plethora of Asian restaurants — Thai, Japanese, Korean, Sushi, Chinese, Vietnamese and more — and I highly recommend it.

Capitol Seafood is primarily Chinese, but it has some other Asian dishes as well. You can begin your meal with “small bites” or “Asian tapas,” or you might try something from the large selection of soups. This large menu also includes seafood, meats and items from the headings of Fresh Green and Tofu, Oven Roasted, Fried Rice, Sizzling, Clay Pot, and Congee.

In the soup department are tempting items that include Vietnamese Style Hot and Sour Seafood Soup with pineapple, Thai basil and garlic; the chef’s special seafood soup with shrimp squid, fish, clams and baby Napa cabbage; and a wor wonton soup with pork and shrimp wontons, shrimp, barbecue pork, chicken, sugar peas, carrots and water chestnuts.

Among the oven roasted listings are Peking duck, Canton-style barbecue pork and the chefs combination platter for a crowd.

It took my dining companion and me a bit of time to limit our selections. We also had to decide if we wanted the special Maine lobster, but it comes in 3- and 4-pound sizes, at $14 a pound. We couldn’t do it justice and still have room to try other things.

I thought the dim sum platter would give us some different things to try. It looked delicious. The plate was loaded with pork sui mai, vegetable egg rolls, juicy pork dumplings, shrimp with sugar cane, fried crab wontons and butterfly shrimp. The dish was very nicely presented, but the food was kind of blah.

It was hard to taste the butterfly shrimp because the breading was so thick. The juicy pork dumpling was quite good and so was the pork sui mai, but the vegetable egg roll was mostly roll and not much else. We did enjoy the shrimp with sugar cane, which was a battered ball of shrimp stuck on a stick of sugar cane.

The seafood offerings include Maine lobster with a selection of sauces, Alaskan king crab and Chilean sea bass.

We were quite pleased with our entrees. I ordered a half of a roasted duck with Asian spices. The duck meat was flavorful and moist, and the spices added yet another dimension of goodness. The best part was the very crispy skin. It is a bit messy to eat but very tasty.

The house-special shrimp was also very good. The plate of crispy fried shrimp was augmented with scallions, black pepper, chili peppers and special lobster sauce. It had a perfect amount of heat, and the shrimp was juicy. We shared a plate of house string beans that were perfectly cooked and seasoned with garlic and chilies.

Capital Seafood has only three desserts, and the almond soufflé takes 20 minutes to prepare.

But we couldn’t eat a bite more.

The room is large and attractive with lots of glass, which gives the space an open feeling. Accents of black and white marble and beautiful Oriental scalloped light fixtures add to the beauty of the area. The atmosphere is quite buzzy, with folks of all ages, and a friendly staff.

Food comes out when it is ready, so think about the timing of the dishes you choose.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at m_markowitz@cox.net.

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CAPITAL SEAFOOD

Location: 2700 Alton Pky., Irvine

Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Prices:

Appetizers: $ 5.50 to $17.95

Entrees: $9.95 to $32

Desserts: $3.95 to $14.95

Wine:

Bottles: $42 to $305

By the glass: $8 to $10

Corkage: $15

Information: capital-seafood.com; (949) 252-8188