Blue Marlin

In a word: Good news for foodies, bad news for fishies.

The specs: #0038
Isthmus Eats info; a nice picture of Blue Marlin from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation; reviews at WiSJ (6/19/05), Yelp, Madison Dining Online, and Chilimuffin's; Madison Originals profile;

Latest Blue Marlin news and reviews at del.icio.us

JM ate the seafood fettucine and a lemonade.
Nichole ate the shrimp and scallops with a side of hash browns and a Coke.
The bill was $59, or $29.50/person, plus tip.
JM gave Blue Marlin an A; Nichole gave Blue Marlin a B+ (see our grading rubric).

JM quipped that Blue Marlin was his first exposure to real seafood. And what a good setting for it. We foolishly neglected to make a reservation on an early Friday night, but we were graciously seated in the front window and had a delicious, relaxed meal.

Though the yellow snapper special and other menu offerings were tempting, neither of us actually had fish. On the one hand, many of the choices were a bit too high on the food chain for (paranoid) women of a certain age to indulge in; on the other, exotic veggies proved to be intimidating. In both cases our little spineless brethren - shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, and calamari - served quite well.

Nichole wanted to try the key lime pie or flourless chocolate cake, but we were pretty full and it had just gone 7 and the people with real reservations were starting to stream in.

Oh and speaking of fish... did we mention the seating arrangement and sardines?

Comments

[Tracy]

A little Blue Marlin followup: we ate there on a recent Friday at 6:15 and had no trouble getting a table (whereas a nearby eatery had a 1.5 hour wait). We had crab cakes for an appetizer that were AMAZING: about 90% crab, as opposed to 75% breadcrumbs, like everywhere else. Everything we ate, in fact, was inventive (giant prawns with gnocchi?) and delicious. And the server did not brain us with a menu for asking if they were a Food Fight restaurant (answer: no).