Dayton Street Cafe

Update: Now Dayton Street Grille.

In a word: The upscale downtown salad bar.

The specs: #0122
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Isthmus, 77 Square once and twice, Onion AV Club, Taste Test Madison; official web site.

JM ate the The Mushroom Swiss Burger.
Kayla, Marco, and Nichole ate at the salad bar.
The bill was about $32, or $8/person, plus tip.
JM gave Dayton Street Cafe an A; Nichole and Kayla gave Dayton Street Cafe an A-; Marco gave Dayton Street Cafe a B+ (see our grading rubric).

We were pleasantly surprised by the Dayton Street Cafe inside the Concourse Hotel. It turned out to be the Platonic ideal of a salad bar, and JM's burger was near perfect, too.

Kayla had this to say: "It's the best salad bar I've ever had." She praised its freshness, variety, and bean sprouts. Marco especially appreciated the vegtarian chili, which was tasty even to non-vegetarians. At $7 for 6 kinds of soup, croissants and deli cuts, and a myriad of salad toppings, the salad bar was very affordable for the quality.

JM: Raves! Great service, great cake, great burger; decent fries, just filling enough; good price.

We all noticed the background music, which refused to fade into the background. "California Girls" just didn't fit the feel of the room. We also noticed - in a good way - the waitstaff. Our waiter was very attentive and helpful, and had a very subtle sense of humor.

So, yeah, not a bad destination for an inexpensive lunch downtown.