Experienced Eater Review: Capri's Italian Restaurant

Key Takeaways

• Capri's Italian Restaurant (212 Commerce Dr, Elizabethtown) had been open barely nine days when Britten and Michele McDowell visited with a group of four.
• The standout was the veal Parmesan — "good crust, very tender," which Britten called "excellent." Britten's tortellini Bolognese was, in Michele's words, "the best thing on our whole table."
• Softer notes: the sampler plate was "a little underperforming" on portion, and the caprese salad was "a little underwhelming."
• The potato roasted pepper soup ("really creamy, really good") earned a return visit on its own; the menu is large and spans several pages, including a rare run of veal dishes.
• Final grade: B — "a solid score for somebody that's just open." Pro tip: order the cheesy garlic bread, and plan for tricky parking behind the La Quinta.

Summary

The Experienced Eater segment returned after a few weeks off, and Britten and Michele McDowell used it to debut a brand-new review — Capri's Italian Restaurant — making its first airing right here on Hardin Local. The McDowells went in with a group of four, fresh from a Sunday wedding show, to a restaurant that had been open for only about nine days.

Their read was generous but honest: the food was very good, the menu impressively deep, and a couple of dishes — the veal Parmesan and the tortellini Bolognese — genuinely shone. Service was still rounding into form, which Britten framed as exactly what you'd expect from a brand-new kitchen. The final grade landed at a solid B, with a clear invitation to give the place a shot.

Watch this segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNFyW9oSTaU Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNFyW9oSTaU

Full Article

The Experienced Eater — Britten and Michele McDowell, Hardin County's go-to foodie review team — was back this week after a stretch away, and Rachel was clearly glad to have them. "I've lost weight while you guys have been gone, because I haven't been tempted by all this delicious food," she joked, handing off to a review she'd been personally waiting on: Capri's Italian Restaurant.

Britten opened with a note of distinction. "One thing I'll say is, this is not a published review yet. This is the review's debut right here on Hardin Local this week." The McDowells had been down in Elizabethtown for a wedding show at The Haycraft on Sunday, and — per Britten's rule that helping set up earns him a meal — they took off afterward, a group of four, to try Capri's around 4:30. "By five o'clock they had already filled up," he said. "I was very excited for them."

A big menu and a strong start

The taped review walked through the table. "It's a very expansive menu," Britten said. "They even got several veal dishes on there, which is different. You don't see that often." Every meal comes with soup and bread or salad and bread, and Britten was impressed with the value: "I thought the pricing and the portions were very solid."

The potato roasted pepper soup was an early winner — "Oh, that's good. It's really creamy," he said on camera, and back at the table he doubled down: "I did think the soup was very good. I'd go back and get the soup again." The fresh house-made rolls came with butter, and Michele's beloved mozzarella caprese salad made an appearance, though it didn't quite land — Britten later called it "a little underwhelming."

The standouts: veal Parm and tortellini Bolognese

Two dishes carried the night. The veal Parmesan drew the strongest reaction on tape: "Oh, marinara is really good. Good crust. Very tender. That's got a lot of flavor — that's really good." In his wrap-up, Britten was unequivocal: "I thought the veal parm that my brother-in-law got was excellent."

His own pick was the tortellini Bolognese, which he chose deliberately. "I think you judge an Italian place by their — there's always some deep dives in the menu. And that's why I went with the Bolognese, because that's a pretty standard judgment issue." Michele agreed, and then some: "I thought the best thing on our whole table was your tortellini dish, by far. I thought it was fantastic."

Where it fell short

Not everything hit. The sampler plate — manicotti, ravioli, and lasagna baked together — came up short on size. "Georgia's sampler plate was a little underperforming," Britten said, adding he was "a little underwhelmed with the size of the portion… not just in one little bowl baked over like that." Still, "everything we tried had good flavor," and he was clear the kitchen was cooking from scratch: "They weren't cracking plastic bags in the back. They were cooking." Desserts — a gluten-free lemon cream cake and a tiramisu — were pleasant: the tiramisu "pretty stock standard, pretty good," and the lemon cake earning "the lemon is strong, it's really good."

Grace for a new restaurant

The McDowells leaned hard into context. Capri's had been open "less than two weeks" — about nine days — and Britten, who knows the restaurant business, said that matters. "For being at that point in the launching and the evolution of the business, they're ahead of the game," he said. "You can't get that — it takes months to get that process refined." He could tell their server "had never served before," but admired the effort: "I admire somebody hopping in and trying something new in a new place like that."

His parting tips were practical. The cheesy garlic bread "for the win — that's a great way to start." And the parking is genuinely tricky: Capri's sits at the rear of the La Quinta parking lot off Commerce Drive, so "you've got to work your way around" to find it. "But I think people will find it, because they'll be curious to try it. It was worth it."

The verdict

"Overall it was a very good experience — something you need to check out if you're in the Elizabethtown area," Britten said. "The veal parm was excellent, the Bolognese was really good. Service — they're figuring things out. I'll probably come back and try some other stuff. If you get a chance, you need to give these guys a shot." The final grade: a B. As Britten put it, "a B is a solid score for somebody that's just open" — with a promised follow-up visit down the road.