The restaurant formerly known as Libertine has swapped its delicate lobster choux farci for a lobster roll, and its pricey duck deux façons for a burger with duck-fat fries. A Serge Gainsbourg poster is gone, replaced by additional booth seating under darker, wood-paneled walls. If Capitaine’s Instagram bio reads a tiny bit defeatist (“A Seafood Tavern, of sorts…”), the restaurant’s if-you-can’t-beat-’em pivot makes it the approachable, far-West Village neighborhood spot for martinis and fries that it was, perhaps, always destined to become.
photo credit: Sonal Shah
The crowds are here: people of all ages sipping cocktails while eating oysters or hiramasa tonnato. And those cocktails are interesting without doing summersaults and cartwheels—most are under $20, with three house martinis available as $11 minis. There is a $50 caviar toast that screams “Look at me!” on the menu, but you can safely ignore it. At Capitaine there’s no pressure to stray from the basic formula of a night out with a three-drink buzz: Pair your first cocktail with a plateau or a seafood snack; your second (a glass of wine perhaps) with a wagyu burger, lobster roll, or steak; and your final drink with a slab of ice cream cake.
Food RundownSeafood Plateaux
You could have a very nice evening here with nothing but a martini and a seafood plateau for company. The Capitaine ($105) comes with 12 oysters, 12 plump shrimp, and sea scallop crudo (the Cadet, $65, has half as much seafood). Also, though Capitaine’s menu is pretty straightforward, most things have little twists that keep the food interesting. The cocktail sauce tastes more like a cumin-laced tomato jam spiked with sambal than the usual horseradish-heavy condiment. And the scallop crudo is topped with crunchy pistachios and thinly sliced bird’s-eye chiles.
Hiramasa Tonnato
The thickly sliced hiramasa is a great, meaty vehicle for a kicky tonnato with frizzled capers and hits of sourness from mini segments of lemon.
Razor Clams Casino
A great snack, with just enough bacon to crank up the savory level without overpowering the sweet razor clams.
Caviar Sandwich
This sandwich is packed with so much caviar that it oozes out when you go in for the bite. But the overall effect is not unlike eating a dryish Marmite toast—an absolutely silly thing to order.
Burger & Fries
The double patty burger could be juicier (the wagyu sort of approaches the texture of cheese), with less of an onslaught of salty caramelized onions, but it’s still a satisfying thing to eat. So are the fries, served with a sauce so sharply garlicky it almost tastes like toum.
Lobster Roll
A splurgy but pretty great roll, on toasted brioche, served hot with a light, almost frothy sunset-colored lobster hollandaise on top. Comes with chips so crunchy they practically roll their Rs.
Ice Cream Cake
With alternating stripes of malt ice cream and brownie-like cake, this dessert pairs very well with a whisky or digestif from behind the bar.
Capitaine Cookie
This chocolate chip cookie variant is baked in a ring mold, so it can’t expand and the inside stays gooey. That’s a smart innovation, but there’s a background note of bitterness that’s a little off-putting.
Dining and Cooking