DL Madison Restaurant Review

The Cabana Room: Sat, Feb 2nd 2008

2008-03-11T20:48:00.005-05:00

We dined as two on our visit to the Cabana Room, which is 1 of two restaurants owned by the same woman in the building. The ambiance was contemporary and fairly casual. There were two other tables seated in the dining room with us and several guests at the bar.

Our waitress was a young girl who was very pleasant, not overly seasoned at her current profession, but that was okay. We started with drinks: bloody mary (only okay) and a mojito (fabulous). We ordered the Ceviche as an appetizer and wished we hadn't. It was rubbery and had an overly acidic aftertaste that was actually quite bad. We left much of it behind-unheard of for us when it comes to ceviche...

Our entrees were quite the opposite. I ordered the Mango Shrimp Salad which was very tasty. The salad dressing was a bit on the heavy side and the mango was a tad mushy and on the bottom of the salad bowl. The shrimp were grilled and done very well. If anything, they could have used a touch of salt or flavor before grilling, otherwise they were very good. I would recommend this salad despite the assembly I received that evening.

The other entree ordered was the Beef with Cabrales sandwich. It was very, very good. The bread was not overly grilled and had plenty of moisture. The ingredients were proportioned properly and had very good flavor.

(This was our second visit, and both times we had very good meals, and very good drinks. I would also recommend the upstairs restaurant, Samba Room, as well. We visited it once and liked the ambiance a lot.)

We will return!

Restaurant Magnus: Feb 22nd, 2008

2008-03-11T18:48:00.002-05:00

Wow! What a great place! We've been here many, many times and each time I have great food and great (sometimes "interesting") waitstaff. I was here with my family and friends celebrating a b-day and had the Kobe Sirloin. I sampled everyone else's meal that night as well; I had to! That included the scallops, Seared Wild Striped Sea Bass, Tamarind-Miso Glazed Ahi Tuna, Argentinean Diablo Steak (the weakest of all the entrees but still very good) and the Xinxim which a friend ate as her entree.

This place was incredible, as usual. (The cheese plate that we shared as an after dinner course was not presented in it's usual manner and was kind of set in front of us and she did not go over the cheeses with us very well.)

I was given a free dessert (Tres Leches) and we also ordered the flan, both wonderful.

I did not "pop" when we left, but maybe I should have after all that food!

Once again, great food, great waitstaff and a great ambiance! Well done Restaurant Magnus!

Byrds Pub & Grill: Monday, March 10th 2008

2008-03-11T18:22:00.003-05:00

All these fancy expensive places, it's time to list one that's not so foo-foo...

3 of us went to Byrd's last night to eat the nachos! I had had them once before a while ago and had a taste for them again. I remembered them being HUGE. (Last time we were told to order a 1/2 order because we'd NEVER finish it and she was right). The waitress took our order (after quite a long wait) and did not offer the same advice to us as the last waitress which I was glad about because I was excited to see how much bigger they were- I was hungry! We ordered it with ground beef and had them add shredded lettuce and diced white onions to the pile. (It was all-you-can-eat taco night, we knew the ingredients were on hand!) We added 2 bloody mary's and some wings (1/2 BBQ and 1/2 hot) to the order.

When the nachos arrived, they looked really good. However, once we got into them, we realized that there was hardly any meat on them and had to ask our waitress for more! Where was she!? I had to get up, and go look for her...she walked by us but never stopped back. We also needed more salsa, guacamole and napkins!! (I had given up on a water refill...) When she brought the meat it was in a soup cup and was enough to top off what we had left of the nachos.

But now we had a brand new problem...they had been cooked on a layer of very delicate tin foil and this made it impossible to get any of the cheese (most of it had either fallen off or melted off onto the tin foil, the nachos could have used more). To the cooks in the kitchen- not a very good idea.

I thought I had remembered the nachos having the fake runny cheese at one point. I was actually looking for that last night. I was a bit disappointed when I learned that it was shredded. I was most disappointed with the lack of difference in size between the 1/2 and full order and the very poor ratio of meat to nachos.

The worst part of last night was our (sorry, I have to say it) lazy waitress. She never cleared away any glasses and never stopped back for any reason. We would have drunk more, and likely would have stayed once we were done eating for a few cold ones. Instead, we left to go drink way more expensive beer down the road.

My advise? Sure go there, she can't be working every night, and just get the 1/2 order of nachos. It's cheaper and the exact same size. Hell, the all-you-can-eat tacos were only $6.95 and seemed to have plenty of ingredients... They had really good drink specials (Lite beer taps) and the bloody mary's were a BIG improvement from the last few times we visited early on in the establishments lifetime.

The atmosphere was nicely lit, non-smoking and looked clean. The clientele there were mostly men (great for 2 out of 3 of us!) and the place looked to be doing alright.

Del-Bar, WI Dells: 9pm Sat, Feb 16th 2008

2008-03-11T18:06:00.005-05:00

Oh God, where do we start? This review will be quick-

We decided to eat at this place because the menu looked great. They had a ton of seafood listed and although it was pricey, we were on vacation and we were ready to drop a little cash-ola. Bad idea here.

To start off with, we called the place hours before arriving to set a reservation time for 9pm, which we were assured that would be just fine as long as we were not over a 1/2 hour late. No problem. Even the 5 of us could manage that one! Once we arrived, the tone of the hostess had changed 180 degrees. we were rushed to our table and told that the kitchen was closing and we would need to hurry and order within the next 10 minutes. What!?

From that point on we were given not 1, not 2, but 3 wait staff to hurry us into making quick decisions about what we would be ordering. We placed our orders and were served the food (appetizer, salads, bread basket and entree- drinks for some reason took quite a long time considering) almost all at once. We were still working on one thing when they brought out the next. YUCK!

But that's really not the worst of it all. The tuna, which a friend and I both ordered, was dry, flavorless and $30. The plate had a pile of PLAIN white rice and a pile of over cooked spinach (the spinach was the best part of our meal because it had flavor). My Fiance had the scallops, which were swimming in a brandy reduction sauce, except they forgot to cook the sauce long enough to evaporate any of the alcohol and it was overpowering to say the least. Our other friend ordered the fried shrimp (the best meal on the table) and the last friend ordered the salmon- fishy and overcooked.

What a mess. Avoid this place at all costs. I guess we are partly responsible since it was the off season to begin with. I imagine the seafood is all frozen and none of it fresh. We learned a very expensive lesson that night.

Do not go to the Del-Bar no matter how "nice" it looks. It cannot match it's menu titles to it's food/service quality. The pinnacle of it's reputation has passed.

Cloud 9

2008-02-11T22:44:00.000-06:00

Pride of the Eastside, eh?

Well, let me start by saying that may only be true in some aspects of that term. In all fairness, when we visited the establishment, it was a Saturday night (Saturday, Feb. 9th at 8pm) and the place looked to be doing pretty decent business.

The atmosphere was interesting (in a good way, not the way some Mothers use the word) and got us in the mood to party right away. It looked like a cross between a disco tech and a supper club. We liked it right away. It was spacious and appropriatly lit.

The service was attentive, and polite (for the first 3/4 of the meal, once our meals were served it was like she cashed in her bank and left for the night!). However, our party of 10 did ask to have several seperate checks (a waitresses nightmare!) and she managed to get them all right and without sneers (another huge feat!).

The funniest part of the meal was the food. Unfortunate. We had great expectations (except once we looked at the enormous menu we knew right away that there was no way they could have any specialties. They had way too many options and had no focus) of what they may have had to offer. We opted for the flatbread-how could that go wrong?

Well, let me start by saying that the flatbread itself was premade, and stale, the chicken was dry and practically needed water just to get it down and the "melted" cheese had hardened and driedup. (This, by the way, was the nights "special.")

Our friend ordered the crabcakes and steak. Yikes. Let me be the first to tell you that those were no crabcakes, more like crab bon-bons. They were the size of a half dollar (almost) and were an enormous dissapointment. (The same can be said for the bacon wrapped shrimp on the other combo meal ordered that same night.) The crab cakes are pictured (side by side) on his plate above. The prongs on his fork were longer then they were individually. (And about as thick.)

Final review: Go there for drinks if it's close to your home. The drinks are reasonably priced ($7 Martini's, $5 Mixers) and made well. There are far too many other restaurants in town that can offer what they do - and do it much better.

About us:

2008-02-10T12:22:00.000-06:00

This blog was created because of our love of restaurant dining in the Madison, Wisconsin area.

We are giant 'foodies' and know good food, good service and recommendable atmospheres when we see them!

Do not be surprised if we visit your restaurant soon-if we haven't already!