Eating in Madison A to Z

Diggity's

In a word: Not much to it.

The specs: #00848  
5441 High Crossing Blvd., 53718
Details at
Official web site, Facebook

Latest Diggity's news and reviews at del.icio.us

JM ate the Italian sausage with fries.
Nichole ate the Chicago dog with fries.
The bill was $16, or $8/person, plus tip.
JM and Nichole both gave Diggity's a C+ (see our grading rubric).

So Diggity's is the name of the operator inside Pooley's. They make sausages & beefs now, but are still mainly bar-positive eats.

It was March Madness when we went and though the parking lot was full, the place is still a barn inside, decorated like House on the Rock for sports memorabilia fans. At first the service was perfunctory, but good.

The Italian sausage tasted more like a brat, despite the cheese and marinara, and it wasn't very spicy. The bun felt more like an obligation and would have likely dissolved under a liquid condiment. The hot dog was fine. The fries were above average: very salty, but also chivey. Huh.

For immediate release:

The fertile minds behind Eating in Madison A to Z are pleased to announce our next creative push.

We here at EiMAtZ are trying to help you eliminate indecision when you log out of the computer and leak out into the real world. It is for this reason that our three-time #2 favorite blog adds a new subdomain: "Pooping in Madison A to Z"!

This blog will focus on Madison-area bathrooms; each post will be tightly packed with the inside scoop. It will provide in-depth evaluations of five aspects: amenities and fixtures, toilet paper quality and supply, cleanliness & upkeep, air temperature, and general ambience. In lieu of letter grades, each core competency will be weighed on a scale from zero to deuce, with the best possible composite score being a perfect ten. For a good restroom, we might say "On a scale of 1 to 10, you're an 8!"

But this project needs your help... unlike restaurants, restrooms have no directories or guides (that we know of). Our post on Cafe Samba and the brainstorm of best restrooms in Madison got people off the pot, and we won't miss the Midwest's largest urinal. But we need your help to relieve ourselves of this duty. Feel free to drop your ideas into the community pool, but please try to keep your comments positive. We don't want to see anyone get dumped on.

New posts should start appearing on "Pooping in Madison A to Z" by the 31st of the month (just to pick a date off the top of our head). We're currently compiling a backlog of content so that once we start, we can stay regular. Eventually we plan to issue a follow-up to our book "A to Z What You Did There" -- which sold really well; even someone who didn't know us bought a copy.

Piles of thanks are due to Madison.com for getting our juices flowing with their two-fer, "Is this Madison's coolest bathroom?" and "Going in Style."

This is as exciting as the last time the Browns made the Super Bowl. We hope it all comes out OK.

More April Foolery: 2006 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012

Diego's

In a word: Go, Diego, go.

The specs: #00847 
118 State St., 53703
Details at
Official web site, Facebook, Twitter

Latest Diego's news and reviews at del.icio.us

JM and Nichole ate the seafood enchiladas.
The bill was $14 plus tip.
JM gave Diego's a C+; Nichole gave Diego's a C- (see our grading rubric).

We were kind of lazy about Diego's, the place in the old Moe's, run by the Frida folks. It was Friday and we'd both been snacking on office junk food all day, so we weren't susceptible to the temptations of Mexican plate lunch on State Street. Diego's menu doesn't look like much anyway.  There are the same kinds of dishes that you'd expect at Casa del Sol or La Mestiza at about the same prices, but this is downtown Madison where you may expect something a little different. 

We split the seafood enchiladas - "corn tortillas with shrimp, salmon, lobster meat and cheese topped with roasted red pepper cream sauce, finished with melted cheeses." They were pretty salty & sloppy. The seafood itself was pretty good although you learn not to expect too much of shrimp in the heart of the Midwest in the heart of cooked Mexican dish. The service was great but those tall tables are still awkward.

We got to go in the skywalk across Dayton Street, though, and saw a super-safe stepstool.

Dickey's

In a word: Slathered in sauce, this works out to be about OK.

The specs: #00846  
4833 Annamark Dr., 53704
Details at
Official web site, Facebook

Latest Dickey's news and reviews at del.icio.us

JM ate the pulled pork sandwich plate with mac & cheese and a soda.
Nichole ate the "quarter plate" with sliced brisket, jalapeño beans, and fried okra.
The bill was $17, or $8.50/person, plus tip.
JM gave Dickey's a B; Nichole gave Dickey's a C+ (see our grading rubric).

Dickey's is a quick-serve BBQ chain by East Towne. It looks like a great place to take kids, and the speedy service model makes for an extra casual but not rushed feel. The staff treated everybody really well, and showed care about each order.

For instance, the okra thing. Fried okra as a side dish is made to order. By the time we picked up our plates at the register, the okra was already down in the fryer and we were given a table tent that said "OKRA." And so it came out, hot, salty & not at all gumb-y-slim-y, just a few seconds after we sat down.

The meats themselves were pretty consistent bite to bite. Pickle and onion were necessary to add some variety, as was the sauce - the hot barbecue was made hot with a hit of red pepper flakes, but the regular sauce was just that, average if anything. The mac and cheese was al dente and a little too salty.

A remedy for the salt & spice was the free soft serve. We loved it for cooling off our tongues, and mulled over DIY orange-and-Coke floats, and cooed over the small-size cake cones in the dispenser. It was decent ice cream, too. At least, it tasted more Dairy than Queen did.

Dickey's model seems a good one even if it is not everyone's favorite BBQ.  A place to go get take-out meat and meat set-ups is as useful in 21st century America as places for burgers, sub sandwiches and kung pao chicken. As with any chain, though, sometimes the quality is a little too unquality. 

Dhaba

In a word: A little Dhaba'll do ya!

The specs: #00845  
8333 Greenway Blvd., Middleton 53562
Details at
Official web site

Latest Dhaba news and reviews at del.icio.us

Aine & Pete shared the vegetarian meal for 2 (vegetable pakora, malai kofta, chana masala, spinach paneer, naan and kheer).
Allen, Liz & Nichole split the spinach aloo, beef biryani, and chicken shahi korma.
JM ate the chicken tikka masala.
We split some ginger & peshawari naan, and had some tea & mango lassi.
The bill was $99, or $16ish/person, plus tip, minus cash discount.
Aine, Liz & Pete gave Dhaba an A; Allen, JM & Nichole gave Dhaba an A- (see our grading rubric).

Dhaba is anything but greasy-spoon subcontintental cuisine. All the other Indian places in Madison (that we know of) do the lunch buffet/dinner menu thing, but here there's always a menu. The tablecloths are spotless and the dining room is bright and airy.

Lucky for us we were a large group, and had Dhaba fans with us to share a bunch of dishes. Tossed salad or dal came with each meal. The soup was light and slightly gritty and packed with spices. The vegetable pakora were perfect. A couple kinds of naan arrived crisp and warm just before our bevy of entrees - appetite-stimulating ginger and sweet peshawari (raisin, cashew and coconut), both delicous.

We got a couple things that required a choice of heat number 1 through 5, and we're here to say that even a 2 is still hot. This was especially true of the beef biryani, which was amazingly flavorful. The spinach got good marks with both paneer and potatoes. Chicken and chickpeas came out in a similar (probably identical) masala sauce. The tikka masala, gratefully a 1, was wonderful with rich flavor and chicken that fell apart under tooth but not fork.

We tried not to, but dribbled turmeric sauce on the pristine tablecloths - how do they get those stains out?

The dinner for 2 came with sweet, milky kheer topped with nutmeg for afters. We liked the tea, too.

In the firmament of Westside places with this kind of cuisine, Dhaba falls just a half-step behind Swagat, which is certainly sayin' somethin'.

Denny's

In a word: You'll forget it's even there.

The specs: #00844  
433 S. Gammon, 53719
Details at
Official web site

Latest Madison Denny's news and reviews at del.icio.us

Diane ate the veggie-cheese omelette with a coffee.
JM ate the fish and chips with a lemonade.
John ate the pot roast dinner with a coffee.
Nichole ate the Grand Slam breakfast with a decaf.
The bill was ??? (thanks, Dad!).
JM gave Denny's a C+; Diane and John gave Denny's a C-; Nichole gave Denny's a C (see our grading rubric).

It had been forever since we'd been to a Denny's. The coffee was good and strong, and the place was pretty clean & well-maintained. The food was better than Perkins and the dining room was less cramped than IHOP's. We had a great server.

JM's dinner was 100% yellow - no extra colors went into his fries, breaded fish and shrimp, mac & cheese, and buttered bread. (Some cocktail sauce would have been good but we thought of it too late.) Diane discovered an odd powdery texture to the shredded cheese in the omelette, which tamped down her enjoyment of the meal. John's pot roast dinner tasted homemade. And the Grand Slam - 2 scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, a bacon, a sausage, and 2 pancakes - earned its dinner bell with an appropriate level of speedy dining breakfast quality.

So, yeah, Denny's!

DelicaTessie's

In a word: Sturdy.

The specs: #00843  
4914 Pflaum Rd., 53718
Details at , Facebook

Latest DelicaTessie's news and reviews at del.icio.us

JM ate the clam chowder with bread, some mac & cheese, a bottle of juice, and a Rice Krispies treat.
Nichole ate the egg salad sub on wheat with sprouts and banana peppers, in  combo with an apple, chips, and a can of soda.
The bill was $15, or $7.50/person, plus tip.
JM gave DelicaTessie's a C+; Nichole gave DelicaTessie's a B- (see our grading rubric).

There's a Subway on the corner of Pflaum & Stoughton that you should drive right past so you can try DelicaTessie's. It's a sweet little spot in an industrial park, going for the same speedy lunch service that Subway does, only with a bigger, better variety of non-sandwich foods. The dining room is kind of dark and drab, though. 

Mid-meal, JM mumbled something like "aftertaste theatre," and Nichole could identify.  The mac & cheese was distinctly metallic with some not-quite-cheese-not-quite-pasta bites. The clam chowder was probably fine at lunch, but suffered from being on low heat a little too long.

It is not so much that any of the food was bad, just a little too automatic in a not particularly interesting way.  The rice krispie treat, for example, was sweet and good but that was because it had far too much marshmallow in it.  It wasn't old or painful from age, just maybe overprepared. 

That said, the staff was friendly and chatty and the service was quick, trying especially hard to get everyone through in a timely manner when there was a line. And maybe that line is the best indication that this place has more going for it than we observed.

Deak's

In a word: Cannot quite bring 'em home.

The specs: #00842  
1017 Nygaard St., Stoughton 53589
Details at
Official web site, Facebook

Latest Deak's news and reviews at del.icio.us

JM ate the pulled pork sandwich with fries.
John ate the Reuben with coleslaw.
Nichole ate the Bronco BLT with wild rice.
Rose ate the black & bleu burger with chips.
We split some onion rings.
The bill was $38, or $9.50/person, plus tip.
JM gave Deak's a B+; John and Rose gave Deak's a B; Nichole gave Deak's a B- (see our grading rubric).

Deak's in Stoughton is a tick above the average sports bar in terms of menu ambition. The food selection might be a little too extensive for what Deak's can execute very well, though. None of our fare was fantastic, and most of it tended to be overdone or dry. The service was stretched a little thin, too. Maybe the two are related.

The Reuben was the best of the bunch. Fine corned beef & sauerkraut came in balanced proportions. The slaw was very good, mayo-based, and diced for easy forking.

We often get onion rings, but these weren't a great value. The onions seemed tired and stressed out. They were crispy & nicely greasy but not very flavorful (table salt fixed that somewhat).

There were some things that sounded good but didn't go over well. The "Bronco BLT" was made wild with a side of wild rice (dryish) and jalapeño bacon. The spicy bacon was the best part; the veggies were not great, and there was a scant stripe of mayo that lost its fight against the dry toast.

The black & bleu burger and the pulled pork were both also too dry. Rose did like the burger seasoning. The pork had blackened bits in it, which can be tasty if there's some sauciness to balance it, but that wasn't the case here. The dryness begged for condiments but this place is no Famous Dave's.

Ultimately, Deak's is a place to watch Badger  and Packer games as a group in Stoughton and maybe pick up a burger at the same time. Us going during World Baseball Classic games may have been the wrong time to see Deak's shine.

FairShare's "Farm-Fresh and Fast" cookbook

FairShare's "Farm-Fresh and Fast" cookbook is available for preorder from the CSA coalition (and possibly sneak-preview at Sunday's CSA Open House). This is a companion cookbook to the well-loved From Asparagus to Zucchini, now in its third edition.    

Dozens of local and far-flung cooks sent in their vegetable-rich recipes for consideration. We were among the many recipe testers. Here are three of our favorites, paraphrased.

• Elote / refrigerator-pickled onions
• Holiday braised brussels sprouts
• Sassy zucchini

We're looking forward to seeing the published results!

DeForest Family Restaurant

In a word: An honest to goodness gem.

The specs: #00841  
505 W. North St., DeForest, 53532
Details at
Official web site

JM ate the French toast with an English muffin and a chocolate milk.
Nichole ate the smelt dinner with a side of clam chowder with a chocolate shake.
The bill was $26, or $13/person, plus tip.
JM gave DeForest Family Restaurant a B+; Nichole gave DeForest Family Restaurant an A- (see our grading rubric).

We admit, we like the "family restaurant" concept more than we probably should and furthermore, we liked DeForest's version quite a bit.  It is a shame it is so far out of the city.

The interior is very clean and the facilities are quite up to date.  There's an actual walk-up-to-it-and-get-a-pretzel-stick salad bar as well a pretty deep menu. This includes a section called "From the Garden" which is salads, sure, but also fruit plates and other simple entrees and sides without any meat.

Down to brass tacks, how was the food?  Again, really good for the style of place.  Nichole's smelt were crisp and supple and among the less greasy of her recent ventures into this fish.  It came served with a nice baked potato and some (canned) corn which also found their way into the nice and hot clam chowder.

JM's brinner of French toast was also nicely sized with smaller than average French toast, which was sadly a wee bit over-eggy.  Also the syrup did not penetrate the toast enough and left a puddle by the end of the meal. The toasts were filling and served warm, however. The English muffin was great.

Our server was really great (we asked whether the cakes & pies were made in house and she didn't try to sugar coat that they weren't) and took care not to seat anyone too closely to anyone else, which was fine because the place was mostly empty when we went at too early:for dinner.  What can we say, raisin toast is standard and prices are reasonable.  It maybe a little too Sysco to justify a trip that far, but if we were there we'd stop.