Sunday, April 29, 2007

Michael's in East Madison, WI (versus Culver's)

Saturday was a warm, wonderful day to be outdoors and my two companions and I spent a good deal of the afternoon at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. But before we went we decided to eat. What we found just South of the Gardens was Michael Frozen Custard, located at 3826 Atwood Ave, Madison . Being new to the area, all I knew was that I had seen more than one of these places scattered around town but had never tried them. My two companions were in the same boat, so we all said, "Let's try 'em". We spent about $24.00, which was a bit higher than it normally would have been for three to eat here but we wanted to try as many different things as we could. One ordered a cheeseburger basket with cheese curds and a double berry shake (blue and raspberry) made with their custard. The other ordered this month's special, two hot dogs with fries and a drink. Yours truly ordered the patty melt basket and choose onion rings his side. The two regular drinks were Michael's own root beer.

Now, as I understand it, having root beer with your combo basket does not cost extra, however, they do not offer free refills on the root beer as they do with the other soft drinks. The root beer was actually pretty good. Perhaps not quite as biting as A&W *used* to be way back in the days when it was good, but that's OK. I would prefer a little more carbonation in the root beer, but that's perhaps just a personal quirk.

The double berry shake also was quite good. The consensus at our table was that Michael's shakes aren't quite as 'creamy' as the Culver's shakes we've had. For me this was a good thing, but my companions seemed to prefer the creaminess of Culver's.

Both the burger and the patty melt had what appeared to be rather thin meat patties.

The patty melt was served with swiss cheese and grilled onions on a heavy, hearty whole-wheat toasted bread. The over-all effect was very pleasant and not nearly as greasy as the Culver's equivalent.

The onion rings are billed as beer batter and they live up to their billing. One of the best onion rings I've had in Madison so far. Better than most anywhere, really. My only suggestion for improvement would be to use slightly wider cross-sections of onion. I would definitely order these again (despite the $1.00 up-charge to swap them for fries).

The cheeseburger was an over-all good eating experience. The bun was perhaps a little too soft and plain (i.e. no sesame seeds).

The two hot dogs were pretty decent. They were served automatically with yellow mustard, ketchup, and long crescents of onion (think cross sections not perpendicular to the onion's central axis). My companion mentioned that these are similar to the larger chunks of raw onion served on some McDonald's burgers and he does not like them on those, either. I had a bite and thought it was good for a hot dog. I'm not a big fan of regular hot dogs - I'd always prefer an italian or polish sausage, or a brat. If you don't want the mustard or ketchup, be sure to ask them to hold it when you order. I didn't see any brown or deli-style mustard available - maybe somebody should suggest it to them? $5.99 for the two dogs, fries and a drink isn't too bad.

Oh, yeah, the fries. Enjoyable, shoe-string-like. Some still had bits of skin on them (which I like). Cooked well and appropriately crispy. I found myself eating them when I was running out of room (in my stomach) but I had other main course items to eat as well. So, they're good.

Their version of cheese curds. Well, they are a bit larger and a bit more uniform than the curds typically for sale in clear plastic bags in stores all over this area. They looked more like short, fat, mozarrella sticks than curds. Indeed, they cheese inside was white instead of the yellow cheese inside Culver's fried cheese curds (chedder, I assume). But they tasted really great! The batter seemed to be a slightly heavier version of the beer batter found on the onion rings. I want to try them again and soon. I am concerned that I might become addicted to them. Of course, I thought that about Culver's curds at first, but after having them a few times the addiction has passed. I know find Culver's curds to be a bit too greasy (the same goes for their Butter Burgers, which I like but...).

So, over all, I highly recommend Michaels on Atwood. Their other locations can be found at www.ilovemichaels.com. Go check them out and come back to post your comments.

2 comments:

nichole said...

The MIchael's on Schroeder, across from Vitense, makes for a great post-mini-golf treat. Last time I was there I had some sort of specialty sundae with chocolate custard, hot fudge, walnuts, and "chocolate truffle nuggets." The truffles were disappointing (think tough cookie dough lumps) but the rest, esp. the salty walnuts, worked well.

damackay said...

Nichole,

I'm still learning about the area. Can you suggest any other local burger/ice cream 'joint' that is really good? This is dairy land, I was expecting to find some amazing, local ice cream.