Reviews for Merchant Madison in Madison, WI
When I arrived, the music inside was a little on the loud side so we opted for eating outside. The waitress was attentive and... personable, but I feel like the food missed the mark. I ordered the merchant burger, which was too greasy to finish and thefries were too salty to eat the entire serving. Read more
Newly remodeled Merchant is shining bright. The atmosphere is hip and cool, few plants inside. The menu is extensive with verity... of options feels like would satisfy most peoples cravings. Outdoor seating is available with plenty of space. Read more
We sat outside and the service was extremely slow on a Tuesday night. Appetizers came out before waters and drinks. Waitress... forgot about us towards the end of the meal. That being said, the food was pretty solid. The cheese curds and crab fritters werevery good. The steak frites had a lot of fat on it for what your paying for but did taste great. Read more
I too have to say the post-renovation Merchant is a little disappointing. We used to love going here frequently for drinks and... dinner on any night of the week. Now, I would say this place would just be somewhere good to grab a drink before or afterdinner. It was $123 for 2 cocktails, a date night portion that wasn’t remotely filling (okay a bottle of wine was included inthat, but I’d rather be full than have had that), and a charcuterie board. Before, we would spend $120 easily (and happily!)here as well, but that came with 4 cocktails and we were stuffed leaving - big difference to now. I’ll start with the good: -great cocktail list - this is what made us fall in love with merchant in the first place - great location and atmosphere Butthe not so good: - Date night went up $10 and get way less food than before - it’s $60 for a bottle of wine, a (light) starterto share, and an entree to share. Before we had two separate entrees. Needless to say we were both still hungry afterwards - toend the dinner we did the charcuterie board bc we were still hungry, and boy $26 for a few small pieces of meat was superunderwhelming compared to the giant charcuterie board they used to have. Not sure if there was a cheese option, we weren’tgiven one, but that would have been much preferred, and something you kind of expect with a charcuterie board. - date night menustill mentioned $50 and getting dessert, but it’s now $60 and you get a light starter. Would have much preferred the dessertthan a few sprigs of sprouts and a few beats. Really missing the lamb sliders - those were so good, with a great sauce. Youcould order 3 of those and have leftovers. Now, it seems like all of the portions are really small. We want to see Merchantthrive! But unfortunately it is hard to justify the price value currently. Read more
Great seasonal cocktails. Crab fritters over-fried, aioli needed heat. Perfectly cooked salmon without brown butter or lemon to... speak of, no seasoning and greens drenched in oil. Not worth the $200.00 for two price tag. Read more
After much debating, I have decided that Merchant deserves 2 stars. I visited twice post-renovation and was excited to see the... new space. First, I went for dinner with a couple of friends and had a good time. The service was slow and food took a reallylong time to come out. We liked the cheese curds and the burger. Upon receiving our bill, we noticed that two cocktails wereadded to our bill that were not ordered by us. This was taken care of and we proceeded with the rest of our evening. Then wevisited again for their brunch. The service was disappointing this time as our server did not seem like she wanted to be thereand she acted robotic and unenthusiastic. The brunch was quite overpriced for the underwhelming food and portions. I ordered aside of fruit $6 and received a tiny cup of old pineapple, blueberries, and grapes with seeds that were hard to eat. When mymain dish, the benedict, came out, I was also underwhelmed. Very little ham and the side salads came out without any sort ofdressing and was disappointing. I would have loved a little something more with the salad. Another aspect of the meal thatbothered us was the tap water that came out in the blue bottles. We were served an odd tasting water that was acidic andminerally and were later told that it was because the restaurant has a spout for sparkling water and tap water and that theymix, causing the metallic taste. It wasn't very cold and the water tasted like flat sparkling water and was not enjoyable.Lastly, once again our bill arrived and there were several things added to the check. It was again taken care of but we weredisappointed in our experience because we really wanted to enjoy our time at Merchant. We understand that there are growingpains since the restaurant just reopened but we don't know if/when it would be appropriate to return. Read more
Fabulous experience at Merchant!! We went here on a Thursday night and the place was packed. Reservations ahead of time is... highly recommended. They have both indoor and outdoor dining. The food was excellent and the staff was wonderful and superfriendly. We started with the Virginia oysters and they were exceptional and so fresh. We would have ordered more if theyhadn’t ran out of them for the night. In the apps we got the heirloom tomato and melon, fried cedar grove cheese curds, andlocal wax beans and shishito peppers. I can’t tell you how amazing each of them were. Abundance of flavor and beautifullypresented. For our dinner we had the merchant crispy fried sandwich, braised lamb dumplings, and pan seared faron islandsalmon. Each dish was better than the other. So fresh and delicious. They have an extensive drinks menu as well. Check outMerchant in downtown Madison, you will not be disappointed. Read more
Best pork chop. Plates are not very big, but I go for flavor not size. The dumpling things were great too. Cab Franc wine was... really good. But as good as the food was the smiles on the servers faces. They really made our group of 6 happy, especially thefood runner guy. Also the expo manager when I poked my head into the kitchen trying to decide what to order. He was cool too. Read more