Dawg House

Update: Dawg House is closed.

In a word: Why pay less for more variety?

The specs: #0399
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Isthmus, Badger Herald, Daily Cardinal, Decider, 77 Square, Fearful Symmetries; official web site.

JM ate the corn dog and the Badger Dog with a fountain drink.
Nichole ate the cheeseburger.
Victor ate the burger basket with a fountain drink.
The bill was about $20, or $6.67/person.
JM gave Dawg House an A-; Nichole gave Dawg House a B+; Victor gave Dawg House a B- (see our grading rubric).

Aaah... the 3-D Day.  We started our adventure with a lunch at The Dawg House, which unseated Mad Dog's as State Street's premier tube steak dispensary.

JM's corn dog was good in its class, but nothing special or worth a special trip. The badger dog (a cheese dog, essentially) was OK but the cheese sauce should have been warmed (read: it was cold).The hot dog quality itself was top shelf.

The burger, as minced through Kate's burger rating guide:

• Bun: white, lightly toasted, not buttered.
• Meat: machine formed, decent, well done.
• Bun/meat ratio: perfect.
• Cheese: whizzy. Ew.
• Misc.: served with fried onions, a lot of leafy lettuce, and a slice of translucent tomato. About a 6 of 10 overall.

Victor wasn't raving about his burger, either, though the fries were good: plentiful, served very hot, and of the skin-on variety.

The service/owner (we're not sure?) is nice, the grub decent, but we're guessing prices on each menu item should be about $1 lower to draw the kind of lunch crowd that would fit the Dawg House's style.  Also, Madison celebrates diversity -- the Dawg House menu does not.  Between the three of us, we ate about half the menu.  More depth, please. 

Comments

[Nate]

This doesn't seem like a very glowing review for having earned an A- and a B+ from you. But perhaps this is just another example of previously mentioned grade inflation..

[Jordan]

Love the Milwaukee location, but I wouldn't go there for anything but a straight-up Chicago dog (in fact I'm pretty sure the Mke only has dogs and polish sausages, no burgers or fries?).

[Heather]

I miss Mad Dog's - we now have Mad Dog night at our house. I've been to the Milwaukee Dawg House - they have good Chicago dogs. But I'm still grudging the State Street one for bumping Mad Dog's.

[JmSR]

That's probably the reason for the disparity between the tone of the review and the grades, too. The Dawg House is fine, but it is no Mad Dog's. So we're bummed about the bump, too.