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.

KFC on Mineral Point, Madison, WI

Hit KFC on Friday afternoon, April 20th, 2007, because of a change in plans to see a movie that left us time to eat. I wasn't thinking about it, but my companion suggested it, probably because I used to like KFC in other towns and it was "right there".

I have not eaten at KFC as much as I used to in years past. I am not sure why this is. Perhaps it's because I have gotten good at making my own fried chicken at home (both traditional and tempura-style "nuggets"). I can cook up 10 legs at home for a total cost of about $8 (not including my time prepping, cooking and cleaning up the mess). How much is a 10 piece bucket these days?

Well, we ordered at the counter. A young man took our order. He seemed to know how to put the order into the register, but he didn't seem to know how to communicate with us. He could speak, but he mostly chose not to. Gruff and not personable I think is how I described him after we walked to our table. His attitude seemed to be that he really didn't want to be doing this for us. Maybe he is just nervous and uncomfortable with the public? Shortly after we ordered, my companion noticed that a female took over the register and she seemed to be pretty good at dealing with the public.

The food came. I had the Popcorn Chicken with a side of Mac & Cheese (my favorite side at KFC) and a Diet Pepsi (not a chance of getting Coke products at KenTacoPepsiHut). My companion had the Twister with Potato Wedges and whatever they had to drink that was NOT Pepsi or Diet Pepsi.

My Popcorn Chicken was a nice, large helping. The coating was a disappointment. Possibly it just sat around too long. It alternated between being doughy and chewy. But it also seemed to be, well, bland. The meat itself was OK - a bit dry but one expects that with nuggets and I didn't mind.

My Mac & Cheese was also bland, but it always has been at KFC. I seldom find a Mac & Cheese that is so amazing that I don't defile it with ketchup. I defiled away. Without the ketchup, it would have been too bland to eat.

Recommendations? If you have the urge for KFC, regardless of which town you are in, and you aren't in too much of a hurry, ask the employees how long it has been since the items were cooked. Better yet, just ask them to "drop" some fresh for you.

Quizno's in Middleton versus Arby's Generally

Three of us wanted sandwiches, so we decided to hit Quizno's at 515 Junction Rd, Madison. We had tried Cousin's sandwich shops a couple weeks before and they don't even deserve a blog entry of their own - just blah blah blah. Don't go to Cousin's.

I have had Quizno's in other cities and they were generally pretty good. Pricey, but good. The service was always good on these previous forays.

Not so earlier this week in Middleton. I ordered the Large Steakhouse Beef Dip, which Quizno's describes as "Roast beef, Swiss, French Onion sauce, Pan Roasted Au Jus". It cost about $8.00.

What I got was a long roll cut in half with appeared to be a mediocre quantity of thin-sliced, seasoned beef. Oh, yeah, there was some kind of cheese on it...I guess it was Swiss, but I'm accustomed to Swiss cheese that let's you it's in there. Maybe this was Swiss Cheese for people with delicate palettes? The roll was bland and just OK. The meat was just OK. The "pan roasted au jus" for dipping was disappointing. Again, bland. I had planned to save the second half for a friend to eat later, but once I finished the first half I felt unsatisfied. So, I ate the second half. I felt more full, but still not satisfied.

The Service: to put it simply, everyone behind the counter involved in taking or making our order seemed to be an out-of-it high school boy who was poorly following a 'sandwiches by numbers' cheat sheet. They also seemed to need a refresher course in customer service... assuming they ever got such a course in the first place.

A companion on this trip asked for no lettuce on his. Quizno's shreds theirs, which is particularly annoying to pick off and it tends to leave more 'lettuce juice' behind even if completely picked off. (can you tell I don't like lettuce, either?) Well, of course, one of the boys dumped a handfull of lettuce on my companion's sandwich. My companion let them know that was wrong and he didn't want ANY of that on his. The boy (yes, I'm using that negatively to emphasis his relative 'youth' in this enterprise) went about picking off the lettuce, which took an annoying couple of minutes. My companion suggested to another boy at the register that he didn't want ANY of it on there, and that for a sandwich shop charging a premium price they really ought to consider making another sandwich. That boy just seemed to hear my companion without really listening, or doing anything constructive with the information. "Blank stare" comes to mind as a description.

I couldn't help but compare this sandwich to the French Dip Sub I frequently have ordered at Arby's all across the U.S. Sorry, haven't tried an Arby's recently enough to write it up here. It is also sliced beef on a roll with Swiss Cheese accompanied by a bowl of au jus to dip into. It usually costs around $6.00 (as I recall). But the Arby's is much better. The roll is wider though not as long. It is a more interesting type of bread, ciabatta-like but not as chewy. The meat is just as tasty if not more so. Though it's been a longer period of time since I had one, I can actually recall that it had Swiss Cheese, so that's saying something. And the dipping sauce was MUCH better, which a little, tangy 'zing' to it.

To be fair, I probably actually got a little but more food by weight for the $8.00 Quizno's than the $6.00 Arby's, but not a third more food despite the third more in price.

Honestly, if I could only eat one of these two sandwiches for dinner tonight, I'd actually pay $8.00 for the Arby's sandwich over $8.00 for the Quizno's.

Vientiane Palace Lao-Thai Restaurant - Madison

Tried this place out on Thursday, April 12th, 2007. We met up with some new friends and they suggested it and I was all for it.

I'm told that the building used to be laundromat, which, in an un-politically correct moment, I thought was appropriate. Walking in, the place definitely felt like a family (asian family, not "gay") operation. We were quickly seated.

My two favorite dishes for 'testing' a new Thai restaurant are Yellow Chicken Curry (Kang Karee) and Coconut Milk Chicken Soup (Tom Kha Gai).

I was told many years ago that "yellow curry" is not an "authentic" Thai dish, but Thai people adopted it from India. I have often wondered how long a food item, or a dish, must be in the cuisine of a culture before it is considered "authentic" to their cuisine? I believe the Italians didn't have tomatoes until after somebody made a few trips to the Americas and brought them back to Italy. What's that, about 500 years. Does anybody say that tomato-based dishes aren't authentically Italian? So, maybe in another 450 years or so I will be able to find Yellow Chicken Curry at all Thai restaurants.

I was not able to find it at Vientiane Palace. They did have their own version of Tom Kha Gai, and the server confirmed that it was the same dish, so I ordered it. The group also ordered Pad Thai and another noodle dish that I believe was called Pad Loh (maybe Pad Lao, since this restaurant is actually Thai and Lao cuisine). Also ordered were spring rolls and the #4 Toast.

We were warned that this restaurant makes dishes on the hot side, so we ordered the soup as a "2" on a scale of 1 to 4. Mild/medium, we said.

Perhaps yours truly is not an "authentic" consumer of Thai food. Perhaps I'm a wimp who only nibbles at the periphery of Thai cuisine. But gosh that soup was HOT. Peppery hot. I believe it had an interesting flavor, and I ate all of my initial serving and the leftovers when nobody else wanted anymore, but it really was TOO HOT for me to really enjoy it. It also did not have mushrooms in it, which another in the party usually enjoys having in it. I usually don't eat many of the mushrooms myself, but I think the soup lacked something without them being present.

The #4 Toast (wish I could recall the name) looked like a Monte Cristo sandwich, or french toast gone wild. It was fried, very eggy, and had bits of ground meat here and there. As I describe it I think it sounds unpleasant, but it actually was quite tasty.

The Pad Thai with Beef and Pad Loh noodle dishes were both tasty enough. I am accustomed to Pad Thai having chunks of chicken, whole shrimps, ground peanuts on top, maybe some sprouts on the side. This just looked like a pile of noodles well coated with sauce. My companion and I don't recall really seeing any beef in it. Again, it had a decent flavor and I certainly ate enough of it, but it seemed a bit plain to me. The Pad Loh was a new dish to me. It was similiar in it's makeup to the Pad Thai but more brownish in color, probably from the heavy use of brown sugar in the sauce. I thought I bit into a piece of glass while eating this, but it turned out to be a chunk of hardened brown sugar. Again, I ate less of this as it was a bit too sweet for me and it also was a favored dish of one of my new friends.

The Spring Rolls were great. Served chilled and wrapped in a soft, pliable thin doughy..well, wrapper! Large and stuffed with veggies and accompanied by a tangy dark sauce with ground peanuts floating in it. I'm not a big fan on lots of veggies, but these were a refreshing change from the deep fried rolls one often gets.

The bill was about $42.00 (pre-tip) for four people to eat and be completely stuffed. No one ordered drinks. I felt it was a little high for the quality of the food and the ambiance, but we were located near the Capital and just off of State Street, so maybe it was reasonable.

Recommendation? Go try it, especially if you enjoy your dishes particularly hot. If you are not into hot, go try it but order everything VERY MILD!

Come back and tell us what you think.

Easter at Imperial Garden, Middleton

Finally made it to Imperial Garden in Middleton, WI. Located on the corner of University Avenue and Allen. If you map it, make sure you state Middleton, since there is also an "Allen" in Madison.

The service was a little slow but very pleasantly delivered. Perhaps we caught a rush. Perhaps they are accustomed to people having drinks (i.e. booze) and chatting a bit before the food arrives. Maybe it was just because it was Easter Sunday. My dinner companion and I arrived very hungry and had already chatted earlier in the day. First course was Egg Drop Soup with Chicken. I was surprised to find a sizable quantity of tiny little bits of chicken floating about. There was a good portion of egg swirled in as well. The broth did not seem watery, but thankfully it also was not gelatinous like so many restaurants serve. The flavor was very light at first but it seemed to build. I did add a dash of pepper to each bowl. One large bowl and two individual bowls were brought. The individual bowls were actually bowls, not little cups. Each of us was able to fill our bowls 3 times from the large bowl - far more than I expected!

The main course was sesame chicken, mu-shu pork, and subgum (combination) fried rice. Again, all three of these had light flavors but they were all enjoyable. The wait staff did not make our first mu-shu pork "burritos", which surprised and slightly disappointed me. The upside was that they left the table sooner, thus allowing us to dig in sooner. The sesame chicken was breaded and fried long, slender pieces of chicken cooked just right. I suspect the dish sat for a bit in back as the crispy coating was not as crisp as it should have been, but crisp enough to be enjoyable. The fried rice was hiding a few perfect shrimp!


The sodas seem to be "bar sodas", poorly mixed and served in tall, slender glasses that probably hold about 8 ounces of liquid. My diet Pepsi tasted awful and I traded it for a regular Pepsi which was not good but not awful. No refill was offered when my glass was taken away, so I assume that additional sodas will be added to the bill. Perhaps it was because of my complaint about the first soda, but they left my drink off the bill - a nice surprise.

I was told that I could pay my waiter or I could pay at the cashier on my way out. I chose the latter. The woman operating the credit card machine was very pleasant and talkative. She invited us to come back and ask for the owner as she enjoyed helping customers find just the right dish.

I plan to go back take them up on that offer.

Unhappy with Hong Kong Cafe on Mineral Point

Got take-out dinner for the second time at Hong Kong Cafe, 7475 Mineral Point Road, Madison, WI 53717. We got home with the meal quickly and started in soon after.

I'll preface my comments with this: I've never eaten in the restaurant and it is possible that would be a different experience.

Okay, this time we got General Tsao's Chicken, Chicken and veggies, and Orange Chicken. The Orange Chicken has an interesting flavor in the sauce, perhaps obtained by using some oil and/or rind in the sauce. It is interesting.

That is where the interest stops. Tsao's and Orange were both coated chicken dishes and both were very soggy, no crispness whatsoever (same impression in the first take-away meal from Hong Kong Cafe a few weeks back). Chicken with Veggies is not coated, but the flavor was just OK, nothing to write home (or here further) about.

I suspected something would be wrong with these meals since they are ready to go in five minutes after ordering. I believe it is very hard to produce good quality Chinese food that quickly (save Panda Express, which has the food ready to go all the time - their secret is that the food sells so quickly it usually doesn't have time to get old and soggy. Of course, I've been disappointed by Panda a few times lately, too...).

I do not plan to go back to Hong Kong Cafe on Mineral Point.

Help! I need to find a good, cheap, Chinese take-away place near Mineral Point and Gammon.

Uno on Mineral Point, Madison, WI

Just had lunch at UNO Pizzeria on Mineral Point in Madison, WI. It's the 4th or 5th time I've eaten there. Always enjoyable. And they have a great, high-up location overlooking the road. Sometime when the weather is right I'd like to dine on their patio.

We ordered the Prima Pepperoni in their signature deep dish crust. Great toppings, great crust.

Also ordered the Gorgonzola Chicken. Pretty good, not as strongly flavored as I had expected but enjoyable. It came with your choice of two sides. The grilled veggies are mostly onions with a little pepper and other things tossed in as an after-thought (this really could use a little less onion and a little more other stuff, but it was still tasty). The mashed red potato side is also milder than you would think but quite tasty.

It was $32+ prior to the tip. This included two soft drinks. The price is a little high for what you get, but it's reliably good food and I didn't feel like taking a chance on an unknown place today.