Restaurant/bakery? People do that all the time. Restaurant/bar? Please. Restaurant/Meat Market? Well, that's a little more unusual. That's a little more Madison.
So we've established it's a distinctive place. It occupies the location of a favorite from the past, Cafe Momartre, and it's done well with the space. Inside, it feels like a minimalist restaurant/meat market, with the painted brick and exposed timber.
The menu is small but well conceived. There are meat and cheese boards for a table to sample, though we didn't get either of these. Also there were the pickle platter and pretzel dogs. We didn't get these either. What we did order were the tilapia and cavatelli pasta. Betsy said the cavatelli was amazing. In fact, she asked me to emphasize it, so I might write AMAZING. At any rate, my tilapia was pretty good. PRETTY GOOD.
All in all, I probably should have ordered something a little different. I could have made a dinner out of the pickle platter and the meat board. At any rate, the tilapia was not bad, but I found the whole thing just a little overpriced. It seems like this place should be more casual/upscale, with casual/upscale prices rather than upscale upscale prices. UPSCALE PRICES.
In the end, I'd recommend the Underground Kitchen. IF YOU'RE A MILLIONAIRE. I mean, it's good, but if you're going to spend that kind of money, I think you should go to one of the other fine dining establishments in the Madison area. If you're set on the pickles, there's still Graze.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
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Have you guys tried out Merchant? I thought the drinks were good, but priced for hipster millionaires. And I haven't had the food there (besides sharing a dessert) or shopped from their random assortment of "gourmet" grocery items.
ReplyDelete-Andi
no, we haven't yet! but it's on my radar. i get that same sense though- hipster millionaire. :-)
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