Cafe Madison

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Written by Brian

Category: Restaurant Reviews

Cafe Madison is located at the Western / Madison split.  They are only open for breakfast / brunch / lunch (until 2 or 3 depending on the day).  It is always busy, and a well known place for breakfast in the area - for good reason.  Food is cooked perfectly, and they have weekend specials that are well constructed mixing in various flavors that come together perfectly.

Both Josie and I both ordered off their weekend special menu, I got the Pumpkin & Spice Pancakes - Three buttermilk cakes mixed with Kentucky Bourbon and spiced with pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg and stuffed with walnuts, marshmallows and roasted butternut squash with a brûlée finish. Served with pure maple syrup. ($10).  The pancakes were loaded with squash.  Each pancake was individually brûlée'd giving it a nice sweet crunchy top.  The marshmallows and walnuts enhanced the flavor profile with a creamy and crunchy mix.  It came with real maple syrup, which wasn't really needed, but a nice touch.

Josie ordered the NY Style Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast - Homemade cinnamon swirl bread dipped in a Guinness Stout flavored batter and stuffed with cheesecake mascarpone with graham cracker crumbles and a caramel drizzle. Served with real maple syrup.  It was also amazing.  I was afraid the mascarpone would make it too sweet, but it was a nice balance.  the graham crackers on top gave it a nice crunch.

My biggest complaints about Cafe Madison would be there is no parking lot, but generally plenty of nearby street parking and that the place is always so busy you often have to wait for a while to get a seat (today was only 15 minutes, but normally I would plan for at least a half hour), but I can't really take off for that, since it is kind of like punishing someone for being too awesome.  Staff is very friendly and fast.  Our waiter seemed very knowledgeable about the menu and recommended the pumpkin pancakes I ordered.  Cafe Madison deserves the 5 fork rating we gave them.

Pumpkin & Spice Pancakes	NY Style Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast

Sushi Tei

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Written by Brian

Category: Restaurant Reviews

The 'Best Of' page has a category for best sushi, and I have listed Sushi Tei as my best sushi in the capital region.  I have been to dozens of sushi places in the area, and while there are a ton of amazing places (Yoshis, Mr. Wasabi, Mr. Fuji... the list goes on), this place gets my vote.  They have a fusion style of sushi.

Staff is always fast and friendly, and occasionally you get a plate of fruit for dessert.  This particular trip, we got an appetizer of rock shrimp ($8).  They are new to the menu here.  They are small shrimp fried with a spicy mayo on them.  They had a nice kick to them, and came with a sweeter sauce decorating the plate which complimented them well.  The price of $8 for about 20 shrimp was ridiculous.  While the shrimp were good, I wouldn't pay nearly that much for them again.

The rolls I ordered this trip were a spicy yellowtail with crunch roll ($6) and a Sushi Tei roll - shrimp tempera and avacado with a spicy crab mixture on top ($11).  Josie ordered a Spicy Girl Roll - spicy yellowtail and crunch topped with avacado and spicy tuna ($13).  As always, the fish was fresh and the rolls were well prepared.  Presentation was nice on all dishes, although the presentation for the rolls wasn't anything special.  The crunch in the spicy yellowtail was lacking, as was the spicy in the spicy girl roll, but they were still very good rolls.

Rock Shrimp	Spicy Girl Roll	Spicy Yellow tail and Sushi Tei Roll

Daisy Bakers - (closed)

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Written by Brian

Category: Restaurant Reviews

I've been wanting to go to Daisy Bakers since I saw their Fall menu with a dish that had a risotto in it.

We got there late on a Friday night.  The place was about 2/3 full.  There was no hostess there, after waiting for about 10 minutes, a waitress eventually wandered over and sat us.  It took her about 5 minutes to come back to take our drink orders.

I ordered the pan seared filet of scottish salmon, crowned with a cippolini/honey gastrique, and set atop a roasted butternut squash/bacon risotto with crunchy pea shoots ($23).  The salmon was well cooked, but very lightly seasoned.  The risotto had basically no squash or bacon flavor to it.  It was good, but lacked the flavor profile promised.  It also had onions in it, which is annoying because they overpower a risotto and were not listed on the menu (although it did say cippolini gastrique, so the onions weren't a shock).  It had a bunch of vegetables with it, that were also not advertised, so the portion size of the fish and risotto was significantly smaller than I had expected.  The vegetables were fresh, but unseasoned.

Josie had the shrimp dish with jumbo white gulf shrimp, oyster mushroom, fresh mozzarella ciliegine, shaved prosciutto and cherry tomato, tossed in a pinot grigio/garlic/herb butter over linguini ($24).  The flavors in this dish were amazing.  Everything was cooked perfectly and well balanced.

Warm bread was brought out with a very garlicy butter (perfect for us, but may be too garlicy for some).  And we had a slice of salted caramel crunch cake for dessert ($7)  A-maz-ing.  My favorite part of the meal.  Highly recommended.

The place is a nice size, but very open making it loud.  The tables are very close together (just about a foot between my table and the one next to us).  It is hard to have a conversation and there is absolutely no privacy.  The waitress was very slow (with us, but she seemed fine with the table next to us with people she knew) .  I felt very rushed, with the check coming out with the dessert, but it still took her 5 minutes to run my card.

Parking is on the street, and we found a spot easy enough about a block and a half away.

Salmon with squash/bacon risotto	Shrimp pasta dish	Salted Caramel Crunch Cake

Reel Seafood

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Written by Brian

Category: Restaurant Reviews

	Cheddar Crab Dip

2/22/14 - Editors note:  Managment has changed and they have revamped the menu.  This review is out-dated, and none of the food reviewed remains on the menu.

This is an updated review with additional information and pictures:

I have fallen in love with this place the last few months.  If it was just a bit cheaper,  I think I would live here.

I usually get one of the risotto dishes when I'm here.  Most commonly the blackened mahi over a pineapple risotto with a honey ginger reduction (pictured below).  I love the sweet with the spicy (although sometimes there is too much sweet)

I have also ordered the grouper with a lobster risotto (pictured below).  Very good, with big pieces of lobster in the risotto, the fish is prepared well and flaky, but once (out of 4 times) we found a small bone in the fish, and the dish costs almost $26.

And I have had one of their specials, it was some kind of fish with a cinnamon glaze and a squash or pumpkin risotto.  This lacked a bit in flavor, and I wouldn't have ordered it again, but I think it is off the menu now anyway.

I would also recommend the cheddar crab dip as an appetizer (pictured above), good size pieces of crab, and just a nice flavor.  Even the chips are slightly seasoning and the avacado on top of the dip adds a nice creamy contrast.

Bread is always too hot, and a bit too crunchy for my liking, but it is free and there is a lot of it.  I personally don't think the upgrade to a salad is worth it, but that is just me.

Blackened Mahi on a pineapple risotto with a honey ginger reduction	Pan seared grouper on a lobster risotto and crunchy / fried green beans on top