I originally had this in my post about our trip to Madison, but I got a little carried away (as I often do when it comes to food), so I thought it would be better to make this a separate post. As you know from the previous post, we loved our culinary experience in Madison, and here are reviews of every restaurant we ate at while there.
- The Weary Traveler- It had the feel of a neighborhood place, and even though we were there at an odd time (3pm), it was pretty crowded, with a nice cross-section of people there. The beer selection, like most places in Madison, was spectacular and had many Wisconsin favorites like Great Dane, Lake Louie’s, New Glarus, Capital, and a good selection of other microbrews. I had the Grilled Walleye Sandwich, served with potatoes and curiously, lettuce (no other veggies or dressing, just lettuce). While the potatoes were tasty, they were super greasy, but the walleye made up for the disappointing sides. Perfectly seasoned and cooked, with a very tasty poblano tartar sauce, the walleye sandwich was fantastic. The wife had the Mediterranean Plate, which was a massive platter of hummus, tabouli, lettuce, feta, olives, artichoke hearts, and pita. Everything on her plate was top notch except the dry pita bread, particularly the tabouli. We also split a cup of Hungarian Goulash, which was seasoned beautifully and had tons of flavor. The menu was very interesting and had everything from the Bad Breath Burger to a Thai tofu dish to vegan chili. I definitely recommend a trip here.
- The Great Dane- Another glorified pub, we visited the Great Dane about 9pm on Friday night, and it was PACKED. We decided to pull up a seat at the bar instead of getting a table, and the tour of Wisconsin beer commenced. The Great Dane brews its own beer, so we had to partake. Megan had a few Belgian Ales while I tried their APA and Stout. All were quite tasty. I wasn’t as impressed with the food here. Being in Wisconsin, we had to try to some fried cheese curds, which would have been better, in my opinion, with a lighter batter. But fried cheese is fried cheese, which is always welcome in my belly. We had a late lunch and did some snacking at the hotel, so we split a cuban sandwich that was pretty good. Nothing spectacular, just good. I would have loved to come back and try some of the other menu items, but we were only there for 3+ days, so we’ll hit it up again on our next visit.
- Ian’s Pizza- The perfect restaurant for a college town, Ian’s is a New York style pizza place that puts a Wisconsin spin on their slices. You can order by the slice, and we had to go with their top seller, the mac and cheese pizza. Oh yeah, mac and cheese on top of a pizza. It tasted exactly how it sounds-DELICIOUS. We also had a slice of the barbecue steak and fries pizza, which had ground beef and crinkle cut french fries with a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. Quite unique and tasty. The location near campus does not serve beer, unfortunately, but the one on State Street does, so keep that in mind.
- The Old Fashioned- This place was right on the main square near in front of the Capital Building, and it was ALWAYS packed. The wait on Saturday night was over an hour, so we inched our way towards the bar and eventually just got a seat there. The bartender was a professional and very good, and the beer and cocktail choices were the best of any place we went. I had to stick with beer, and I started off with some Bitter Woman IPA, which was delicious. It was also here where I had my first taste of the Ale Asylum Hopalicious, a brilliant and hoppy beer for those who like APA’s and IPA’s. Before coming home, I stocked up at the liquor store. Megan had the drinks the place was named for, the Old Fashioned, which she seemed to enjoy thoroughly. We had been eating our Farmer’s Market goodies all day long, so we decided to get an appetizer and sandwich and split them. The beer cheese soup was a bit disappointing as I didn’t even taste the beer, but the sandwich made up for it. Walleye is popular up in Wisconsin, so we decided to have it again, this time fried. The batter was perfect, not too light yet not too heavy, the fish was great, and all put together as a sandwich, it was wonderful. Some onion straws that came with it were also very tasty, and it was the perfect bar meal in a fun atmosphere.
- The Cooper’s Tavern- We stumbled into this place after trying to go back to The Old Fashioned on Sunday night. We didn’t want to wait, so we walked around the plaza before ending up at Cooper’s. And I am personally glad we did. This was a bit fancier, but still really laid back and had a great ambience to it. The service was fantastic, and I thought the food was equally as good. Surprise, surprise, another great beer selection with a few new ones I hadn’t seen, like Lick your Lips IPA (can you tell I’m an IPA fan?). We again had an afternoon of cheese curd eating and snacking, so we stuck with the appetizer/one entree combo. This time we kept it really local, going with the Poutine for an appetizer, which are french fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy. What’s that sound you hear? Oh, don’t worry, that’s just my heart fluttering along as my arteries are still trying to clear out. If that wasn’t enough, we just had to go with the pork belly mac and cheese. The wife wasn’t a big fan, but I thought it was delicious. The mac and cheese itself was quite tasty and had great flavor. The only knock was that it was just a tad dry, but after the weekend’s festival of eating poorly, it hit the spot with me. The pork belly is where our opinions differed. Being a massive fan of all things pig, I enjoyed the hell out of the crispy, fatty goodness of a nice chunk of pork belly mixed in with the cheesy goodness of the mac and cheese. Megan, not so much, and since I’m not a fan of being wasteful, I got a double serving.
- Marigold Kitchen- The consensus best spot for breakfast in Madison was Mickies Dairy Bar, so the plan was to go there our final morning before getting back to the hotel for check out and the drive home. One problem though. They’re closed on Mondays. Already starving, being none-too-happy about this development, and running low on time, we quickly checked Yelp and arrived at the Marigold Kitchen right off the main plaza. And boy are we glad we did. Looking like nothing more than your standard coffee shop that also serves hot breakfasts, this place exceeded any expectations I had for a fabulous breakfast. Being a huge breakfast person, I ordered the breakfast sandwich, which consisted of a fried egg, cheddar-spiked boursin, applewood smoked bacon, tomato and green onion on toasted ciabatta. Hell yeah. Add a delicious pancake that was more crepe-like than pancake like, served with an orange almond butter (this butter was KILLER) and syrup, and I was a happy, happy man. After this final meal, I really didn’t want to leave.
- The Farmer’s Market- Everyone knows that one of my favorite parts of travel is markets. Whether it’s a local farmer’s market like the one here, in Kansas City, or in my hometown of St. Louis, or the massive Asian markets like Bangkok’s weekend market or the plethora of interesting ones throughout SE Asia, I love them all. Madison had a fantastic one, one of the largest in the country, in fact. If you’re going to head there during your trip to Madison, don’t eat breakfast first, because there’s plenty of delicious food to be had. The smells of baked goods wafted through the air everywhere you walked, with apple turnovers, cinnamon rolls, donuts, and a myriad of other hot, yummy breakfast foods. Taking a cue from South America, one stand had wonderfully done empanadas. A coffee stand provided some great coffee and one of the best chai’s I’ve had since being in India. And being in Wisconsin, obviously there was plenty of cheese available for tasting, and we had to take advantage and buy plenty to come home with. We could have spent all morning and afternoon at the Madison Farmer’s Market, and it was a major culinary highlight of our trip.
