The Capital, Knightsbridge

What-ho! Time for an expensive blow out - the first in quite a while in fact. The Capital is a hotel restaurant behind Harrods in fancy Knightsbridge. We were:

James
Linz
Pete
Sam
Vicki

To be honest I can't remember a great deal about the evening which in entirely due to a few pre-dinner drinks combined with the sommelier wines served alongside each course of the taster menu. Luckily James kept some comprehensive and legible notes from the evening to act as prompts.

I arrived about half an hour before we were due to eat and met Sam at the bar (which I was only allowed into after I'd told them the name the dinner reservation was booked under). Sam was enjoying a glass of champage (£12) and some bar nibbles (olives, boozy cherries, some nuts and stuff). I ordered a bloody mary (£11) which was very good but not necessarily £11 worth. I guess you're paying for the service and environment too. The others soon joined, got some drinks to whack the bill up past the fifty quid mark before we'd even started eating. This was a sign of things to come as I believe The Capital has now taken the all time record for expensive food. More on that later.

So down to business. As usual with these places, we went for the taster menu. (We're not knowledgeable enough to be able to choose a la carte). Including everything from amuse bouches to petits fours there were 10 courses in all. James, Linz and Vicki were true to form in avoiding fishy stuff but these places have no problem in coming up with excellent substitution dishes. I'm not going to go into the details of each one but highlights were the john dory with calamari, lamb, rhubarb crumble, lychee jelly with white chocolate, fois gras (which I don't normally like but it worked well with a pineappale and passion fruit foamy type thing).

Quality wise it was very good of course but I wouldn't say it was any better or more exciting that the meals we'd had at nobu or petrus. Three of us had the matching wines (which were really good) and the bill came to a wallet-busting, faint-inducing £726.08. It's enough to make those of us of an Indian persuasion hang our heads in shame for being so extravagant. Oh well, fuck it.

I'm reading through the notes James has made but I can't really remember what they're all about so maybe it'll be better to leave it to your own imaginations:

- Pete generally can't be bothered
- "Show me your clap" and "Smell my ice cubes"
- Pete is a twat for not bringing his diary to the table
- Lunch plans that blatantly never happen
- Is Sam deaf?
- Sport in France
- Pete stitched up en voiture
- Vicki enjoys the "pumped up" men she does yoga with
- Pete + Sauna + Stinky Cheese = Trouble
- Is James gay?
- Vicki snogged a fit bloke who ate stinky cheese
- Inappropriate massages (labia touching)
- Are expensive sunglasses every permissable? (Sam no; Vicki & Linz yes)
- Maximum acceptable price for a lemoade sparkle (paying £2.50 makes you a mug)
- Smell venn diagrams

Next month is the postponed Sitaaray while the Fat Duck is also being lined up for a visit later this year.