Chinese New Year is THIS weekend! What better way to celebrate the Year of the Dragon than with a traditional Chinese banquet style feast! MMM feastttt! Capital Seafood-Irvine Spectrum opened a few months ago and they definitely bring it when it comes to a delicious Chinese banquet meal. You can enjoy the food and exchange those nice red envelopes without all of the hard work of cooking and washing dishes. You can just sit down and enjoy your meal. :p
I went to a blogger dinner not too long ago and we feasted on 11 courses! Here’s what we had…
Whole Winter Melon Soup (w/ assorted seafood): Fresh Whole winter melon, shrimp, scallops, squid, crabmeat, mushroom. This was light and extremely delicious! They make this specific soup only if you do their banquet meal or if you tell them ahead of time. I haven’t had this in years (since I was living in China) and was pleasantly surprised when they brought this out. 
Filet Mignon Satay Skewers: Filet Mignon cubes, lemongrass. Easy to eat and very tender
Assorted Dim Sum Platter: Sui Mai, Vegetable Eggrolls, Shrimp w/sugar cane, Crab wontons, Chicken Potstickers, Butterfly Shrimp. They offer traditional dim sum every day from 11am-3pm but they also have this platter on their dinner menu for people who still want to enjoy dim sum in the evening.
Roasted Peking Duck: I love this! Every time I go to dinner at Capital with my family, we always order this. The crispy duck skin is the best part.
Capital’s Filet Mignon Cubes: Filet Mignon, butter, garlic, spices. One of my favorites because it’s very similar to the Vietnamese dish Bo Luc Lac.
House Special Lobster: Lobster, scallions, spices, jalepenos, garlic, fresh noodles. Sooo flavorful! You can see all of the spices in this dish. You have to get your hands dirty for this because there is no way you can get all that lobster meat with any utensils.
Honey Glazed Walnut Shrimps: Shrimp, Honey glazed walnuts, honey dew, cantaloupe. This dish is very popular. Not for those on a diet, that’s for sure, unless all you eat is the honey dew and cantaloupes lol!
House String Beans: This is packed with flavor. I can order just this and mix it with plain white rice and I’m good to go.
Pan Seared Sea Bass: Soft and buttery, sea bass is one of my favorite fishes to cook along with Halibut and Black Cod. This was one of the healthier dishes served during this dinner. I couldn’t get enough of it!
Chef’s Fried Rice: Shrimp, scallops, squid, crabmeat, eggwhites, dried scallops, japanese seaweed. Rice or noodles is always served last at a traditional Chinese banquet dinner so that if you are still hungry after everything else is served, this should fill you up.
Dessert was Almond Cream Souffle: Almond, Ginko Nuts, Water chestnut. Light and a nice way to end our very filling dinner.
James, the GM and one of the owners of Capital Seafood, showed us the Macallan Ice Ball maker they have. If you buy any of their single malt scotched or whiskeys that is 18 years of higher, you get an the ice ball.
It starts off as this block of ice then they cover it. The heavy cover slowly falls and creates the perfect circlular ice ball.
To see all of mouthwatering pics from our 11 course dinner click HERE.
This was an incredible dinner and better than other Chinese banquet dinners I’ve had at other Chinese weddings and parties. You can get these dishes individually too if you want. So next time you want to have a gathering of friends, family, coworkers, etc. celebrate it here! They have private rooms in the Irvine Spectrum location (not the Diamond Jamboree one) for private events and parties (accommodates parties of 10-100).
They have specialty cocktails as well (many of the other people at dinner enjoyed them) but I didn’t drink any since I was enjoying my Chivas 18 (with the ice ball of course!) the whole night. Capital Seafood has a full bar and Happy Hour every night! I recommend their chicken wings! OMG those things have crack in them I swear! Non-greasy, flavorful, crispy… MMMM!
For those of you that know me, I already dine at Capital Seafood (both locations) on a regular basis for their dim sum and for dinners. This was the first time I enjoyed a sit down banquet style dinner here and I have to say I was very impressed. It gives me another reason to go back! And because I’ve been asked before, no I do not work for Capital Seafood. :p I recommend them a lot to people because I truly love their food and friendly service. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Check them out for yourselves.
Capital Seafood-Irvine Spectrum: 85 Fortune Drive, Ste 329 Irvine, CA 92620
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* This was a sponsored media dinner.
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