Recently, my family and I were craving some good Chinese food. After my parents’ favorite Chinese restaurant in Ithaca closed many years ago, we were at a loss as to where should we go. We might have had to resort to the Wegmans takeout bar (which, in its defense, is not bad), but then I remembered that a good friend of mine and his family run the restaurant Capital Corner on West State Street. Upon looking it up and seeing rave reviews about the steamed dumplings and noodle dishes, we decided that it couldn’t hurt to give it a try. Little did we know that Capital Corner would become a family favorite and that we would be promising ourselves to return many more times.
Capital Corner is located directly down from the State Theatre and on the other side of the road. Although it lies at the corner of two busy streets, one could never know this just from sitting inside: the building blocks out the road noise completely, offering a peaceful ambience. My parents, my younger sister, and I went on a Saturday night at around 5:00 p.m., and although my friend had told me that the restaurant could get busy on weekends, there were only a few patrons there that night, making for a relaxing setting where my family and I could reflect on the day together. This was the first major draw of this restaurant, since nobody enjoys trying to shout over dinner in order to talk to someone sitting only a few feet across the table. We got seated right when we walked in, and received water glasses right away, which is always a bonus for me since I am almost always dehydrated.
Upon opening the menu (a two-sided three-fold brochure, with probably over a hundred options total), I was overwhelmed in a good way by all the choices. I had already planned on getting the Lo Mein Noodles with vegetables, but now I saw so many different options: Dumplings, Chow Mein, various meat dishes, noodle soups, stir fry appetizers, and more. In the end, my sister and I both decided to go with our original order of the Lo Mein, but when I return I plan to try new dishes because there were so many good-looking options. My father ordered a Chow Mein noodle soup with seafood, and my mother ordered a garlic and broccoli chicken entree. Our attendant was very pleasant and came to get our orders right away, which was good because I was hungry after a busy day. We were all excited to try our dishes and see if they lived up to our expectations.
Our food came promptly, after only about 15 minutes total for our four dishes. My family was delighted when we saw that the portions were very big, because coming from an immigrant Italian background in the 1950’s, my father’s family had passed down to my father its love of not only good food, but also big portions, who passed it down to my sister and me. My sister and I took our first bites of the Lo Mein at the same time, and we both exclaimed, “it’s so good!” I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the noodles didn’t taste heavy or greasy, like some I have had from other Chinese places in the past. My mother liked all the dishes she tried, and my father loved his seafood soup.
We had ample time to finish our meals without being rushed by any of the staff, which was nice considering that we had had bad experiences with this in the past at other places. When we were done, my father got the bill, and it came to a very reasonable price for all of our entrees. Our waitress left us some fortune cookies, and with that, we left feeling fully satisfied and ready to go again another night. Our consensus: we all loved Capital Corner and will be returning very soon. I recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes Chinese food. You won’t be disappointed.