May 11, 2011
We're downtown this week, checking out the Capital State Kitchen Japanese restaurant. They're right alongside the relocated Capital Corner Chinese restaurant, and under the same ownership. Until last year, Capital Corner occupied the space a few doors down the block that for decades had housed Asiatic Garden.
A new addition to the menu here is an all-you-can-eat option, $13.99 at lunchtime or $20.99 for dinner, that allows diners to satisfy their cravings for Japanese food with plenty of variety at a reasonable price.
The all-you-can-eat menu includes a variety of appetizers such as miso soup, seaweed salad, and shumai; most of the restaurant's sashimi and sushi options; and entrees ranging from salmon or beef teriyaki to noodle and rice dishes; plus a choice of ice cream flavors for dessert.
For those with modest appetites, it's easy to spend less than the all-you-can-eat price by ordering off the still-available regular menu, but those who love a big dinner and don't mind a slightly limited menu will find the $20.99 a bargain. The menu warns of a 15% surcharge for "excessive food waste," which we suspect means you shouldn't order food you won't be able to eat. (We'd bet doggie bags are not an option.)
An à la carte dinner on a cool and drizzly fall evening started with a welcoming warm bowl of miso soup. Then my dining companion and I split some sushi rolls -- a crazy tuna roll, with pepper tuna, avocado, and spicy tuna. A happy roll, spicy tuna and yellowtail with green seaweed. And the evening's special, a volcano roll, a beautifully assembled deep-fried shrimp, crabmeat, and avocado roll topped with a mountain of spicy fish.
All of the sushi was tasty and attractively presented, but we wish they had more of their own creations instead of mostly parroting the menus of other local eateries. They'll gladly make the sushi with brown rice instead of white.
My salmon teriyaki entree was tender and delicious, with a glaze of teriyaki rather than the sweet, gloppy sauce you get in some places. The accompanying fresh vegetables were nice and crisp, and the entree also came with a bowl of white rice.
Capital State Kitchen's lunch specials seem well worth a visit, soup with any two sushi rolls for $10 or any three rolls for $12, plus a variety of bento lunch boxes around $8-10. The prices are all just a tad higher than other downtown Japanese eateries, but the food quality seems to be top-notch as well.
Naturally, there are lots of vegetarian dishes, including vegetable and tofu versions of many of the entrees, and sushi without fish.
We wouldn't have thought Ithaca needed another Japanese restaurant, but have no objection to a successful business expanding its space and expanding its offerings.
Plan on spending 10-15 bucks on lunch, 15-30 per person on dinner. You can find Capital State Kitchen downtown at the corner of West State and Geneva Street sharing a bright, yellow awning with the new Capital Corner, order from Campusfood.com, or give them a call at 607-272-1388, and tell them you heard about them here.
