the old fashioned

i'd like to move in.. the service was almost as great as the food. we had an incredible server who made great recommendations and suggested specials. good thing because everything was the best. there was an amazing sunday special of impecibly seasoned chicken, stuffing and potatoes. yum! we also had fried cheese curds. duh, it's wi. and a house brew beer to accompany. will be backtimeandtimeagain!

service 3.5
environment 4
food. 3.5
cost. 3.5
it's allways crowded and full we were waiting to be seated nearly 1/2 hr .
this is my 4 thtimevisit to old fashioned
3 times for dinner n 1timefor breakfast.
we ordered cheese curd with garlic sause and no 35 eggplant sandwiche
cheese curd were awsum very tasty do sure try cheese curd over yere .
eggplant sandwiche was not that great i think the eggplant was not properly cooked.
lasttimewe have tried for breakfast grilled cheese that was gud in taste . though my husband love the burger over yere according to him they serve best burger in madison
but very less options for vegetarians.

great cheese curds the best in wisconsin. the drinks are also great i would suggest the old fashioned it's the best i've ever had. we come here everytimewe are in madison.

hospitality?. the food is good, a little pricy, but good. what got to me was the lack of hospitality. we started off poorly with our driver searching for a parking place while we walked in the cold. when we got to the restaurant, they would not seat is until the final person in our party arrived, despite having a young child with us. between our arrival and our fifth person arriving, people streamed into the restaurant and were seated. once our fifth person arrived, there were no tables and our granddaughter was very upset. we waited where we were told to wait, being jostled by wait staff and patrons. by not seating us, the restaurant missed out on our order of drinks that we would have ordered while waiting. i just didn't feel that my patronage was valued.

also beware that if you arrive in winter, do not take a table in the front half. we literally saw our breath eachtimethe door opened.

its the old fashioned, like a poster child for wisconsin heritage foods. the old fashioned is simply the best. it is where wisconsin is king and he reigns kingdom with delicious cheese curds and a kick a** friday night fish fry (i like the perch). the old fashioned burger (the one with the egg "pronounced agg in wi") has been called th ebest burger i've ever eaten by multiple out of town guests that i have brought there.

its great, usually a long wait, but if you put your name in and walk around the capitol, by thetimeyou are back you should have a seat.

this is a top 5 place for me

if it says "house" and you like things meaty, robust and delicious, get it. the house brew, a bock from a wi brewery, is one of my malty favorites of alltimeand is potent stuff. the cheese curds are the best in the center part of the cheese state and the "house" burger is like sex in your mouth...dirty, but so satisfying. i vote yes.

i will question friendship if you don't like the old fashioned.. i like the old fashioned so much that if i met someone who didn't like it, i would question whether or not i could be friends with that person. there's a common theme to the bad reviews: "we waited so long." i'm really baffled by the negative review that says "without a lot of flavor." there's a reason why this place is packed and the wait for a table is so long. that doesn't happen by having flavorless food. nexttimebe a little more adventurous. maybe ask, "what's good here?" instead of ordering a burger with nothing on it after waiting 2 hours.

great menu and food quality - probably "comfort food" for people from wi. i'd skip the cheese curds as a side dish nexttimeas they're not really my thing - a bit salty. great beer selection! was crowded on a weeknight, but we got seated a lot sooner than expected. place can be quite loud. will go back nexttimei'm in madison.

if you're in a hurry, don't go there. decent food. . . . i've tried other food in the surrounding area. . . it compares to the rest. . nothing drastically good. . . but if you're hungry and havetimeto waste you probably wont be disappointed. i was there on a friday night and that was a nightmare!!! was told it was going to be like 45 minutes and it was 2 hours waiting. thats why i say only go if you have some extratimecause its a little off there.

burgerific!. on a saturday evening my 4 dining companions and i made a visit (firsttimemy myself) to the old fashioned at 5pm. the place was not too busy yet but a decent crowed had begun to make its way in by this time. we were seated upstairs where its a bit more quiet. i was not aware they had an upstairs until this visit. our waiter was very informative and knowledgeable of the menu items and the preparation of the foods and sauces, and the way several drinks were made and how they taste. the others in my group all got either beer or an old fashioned of their choosing, i passed on drinks to save room for what i had been reading reviews on over the past weeks on urbanspoon.com both gave the menu overwhelming positive reviews across the board so i was pretty sure i was going to have an easytimefinding something both filling, tasty and affordable on this visit. lets take a quick walk through this visit so prep your senses for some teasing because that’s just what your in for!

my appetizer was the soup of the day($3). i got the bowl sized serving of spicy black bean and pork with corn. this was a beef broth based soup with a slight peppery note to it. the pork was shaved and very tasty. the black beans could have been cooked a little bit softer but a great soup none the less.

my main course was the no 30. old fashioned house burger. ($9.95) a 6 oz burger (ordered mine medium) with fried onions, hickory smoked bacon, aged cheddar, garlic sauce, a soft cooked egg and a buttered, toasted roll. i upgraded my side item to the very highly recommended (urbanspoon) beer battered cheese curds ($3 extra). the burger was absolutely phenomenal! messy but not like sloppy-joe messy, simply so much substance to the burger that it becomes hard to handle. but worth it of course! my only comment here is that my burger was cooked well done (i checked after a couple bites in) vs the medium i had asked for. outside of that, a hit for sure! the cheese curds were so good i could feel myself becoming more and more connected with all things wisconsin on every bite i took i swear! like small peaces of golden softness that melted in your mouth. the nice part about them is that they use a very light and thin breading leaving mostly pure wisconsin cheese to hit your pallet! these are a must if you have not had cheese curds before or have not had them in a longtime(such as my case).

if that was not enough read on…..i did go and ask to see a dessert menu (the only one in my party with room to dare ask for more). the waiter told me that the fruit crisp with vanilla spice ice cream ($4.95) was currently stawberry-rhubarb. that sold me right there! the ice cream was spiced with cinnamon and was good but not amazing. i was expecting a cold ice cream topping with a warm pie underneath and perhaps a crust at the bottom. instead the fruit portion of the pie was also cold as well. not a bad thing just not the contrast i expected. nor did i find the crusty top or bottom i would have liked either but still, a very sweet, fruity and satisfying end to a great meal indeed!

my bill which came to just under $24 was a fair price to pay for the portions, quality and service my group and i received on this visit. i will be looking to make a return to the old fashioned soon to try several of their other burger listing but also to try what looks to be (and has been reviewed as) a fantastic brunch menu which for this food blogger always gets my attention!

nothing better. went to old fashioned on a rainy saturday morning and had their bloody mary's with morel mushroom scrambled eggs. absolutely no better way to spend the morning. the morel mushrooms were not bits and pieces, but whole morels. great place that we will come back, everytimewe visit!

my kind of place!. it sits in the shadow of the capital building in madison and is a great "old fashioned" kind of place. there is oldtimemusic playing, the tables are set up to encourage talking to your neighbors and the food is pretty good. if you want quiet, this isn't the bar for you!

the beer list is huge, more taps then you could imagine.

the grilled cheese sandwich is fabulous - get the home made chips with it, a pint of beer and you are there!

comfortable setting, run of the mill food. the old fashioned has a cozy pub atmosphere and a great selection of local beers. the food was a little forgettable, so nexttimei'll try one of their burgers or the mac and cheese. at lunch, you order for yourself at the counter. prices are fair.
i started with a cup of the day's soup, potato and leeks, which was nice on this cold autumn afternoon. the leeks were a little overwhelming and i wish there were chunks of potato in the soup, but it was still pretty good. the grilled cheese was buttery to the point that my cholesterol jumped after picking it up. i was hoping that the bacon and roasted peppers would provide a little zip, but the flavor was still somewhat bland.
grade: c+

what's up there?. although i do like the old fashioned i wanted to ask the host what he were looking at on the ceiling since his nose was pointed so high in the air. best thing about this place? the beer selection. worst thing? the attitude of 90% of its staff. the food is alright but the menu is to expansive. pick a handful of things and do them very, very well instead of failing at half of them. one of these days i'll finish my beer cup tour but i'm in no hurry since most of thetimethe bitterness of the staff end up tainting the taste of my wisconsin brew.

excellent food, great service, throw out the drunk guy and you're golden!. the food was well worth the hour wait on a saturday night. we killedtimeby walking around the capitol, where we saw some veterans on a hunger strike, drinking beer (does that even count?). the food was delicious and our waiter successfully recommended the cheeseburger and the cheese spreads. delicious. the only sour note was that the staff seemed to be oblivious to the drunk man literally yelling in the outside seating area. but who wants to deal with that anyway? perhaps we should have called the local police. at any rate, i'd eat here anytime i'm in the area. excellent.