This, I expect, will be the last in a series of posts about eating out in Madison and reviews of various restaurants in the Madison area. This post will concentrate on some cuisines not covered by the previous three posts.
Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern
Casbah located on E. Main St on the Capitol square is high-end Mediterranean. I went with King Cullen and Chimpoo to this fairly high-end place and had to wait quite a bit on a Saturday evening over Commencement day this past spring since tables and later waiting staff were in short supply. We finally got a table in their sub-terranean dining room with walls decorated as walls of Pharaoh's tombs and tables set on diases such that one had to sit crosslegged or reclining behind curtained off individual dining areas. The seating arrangement would have been more appropriate for a date or a double date, but the three of us guys nevertheless fit in (uncomfortably). The bar at the front of the restaurant was very well decorated and seemed well stocked and the bartender was attentive to the extent that we were drinkers (only King Cullen) as we waited for our table.
Lulu's on University Ave is also high-end Mediterranean. Seating was much more comfortable and they served hot black diluted sweet tea to everyone ahead of the dinner and the tea was good.
Shish Cafe, again on University Ave, but far from Downtown on the way to Middleton, is easily overlooked by many Madison newcomers and visitors because it sits quietly in a small unpretentious strip mall. The restaurant is owned and run by a family of three or four and doesn't have a large seating area, so sometimes you might have to wait for a table and almost always need to wait a little bit longer than usual for the food to arrive after you have ordered it. The first time I went there was for Maruti's fairwell party and later again with Chimpoo and Prada. The latter time we went was on a Saturday evening and they had their regular belly-dancer performing through the restaurant. Prada had been enthusiastic about the prospect before but later felt sorry for the bellydancer. I didn't care one way or the other. Shish Cafe, like the previous two mentioned, is expensive and in fact feels more so, probably because of its location.
In all of the three places and indeed probably in many Mediterranean restaurants, the menu for me is restricted to the Vegetarian platter - Hummus, Baba Ghanouj, Falafel, Tabouli, etc. Standard Mediterranean stuff at each place indistinguishable from the others.
King of Falafel located on W. Gilman St Downtown is actually accesible only from westbound University Avenue (I am guessing at that point it is not called U. Ave at all in the first place), near the intersection with N Frances St. diagonally opposite to the Fluno center. KOF has been open and closed intermittently due to some issues with authorities that it didn't meet fire safety regulations. The place seems very run down and small but the seating area has been spruced up adequately. I usually order for a take-out and their Falafel sandwich is good and cheap and makes for a good lunch or a light dinner. Their turkish coffee is good too. Parking is a hassle and one runs the risk of having one's car towed away if not careful. So far, I have been lucky. It is interesting to note that their cooks seem to be Mexican and are more conversant in Spanish than Arabic. The waiter used to be the owner and Middle-Eastern but lately it looks like the waiter is also Latino. A good segway to the next cuisine.
Mexican
Pedro's Mexican Restaurante has 2 locations - one on the Eastside and one on the Westside and I have been only to the Westside location near West Towne mall. As good a sit-down mexican restaurant as it gets. It has consistently been voted Best Mexican restaurant of Madison and it lives up to its reputation. The food is good and it has ample seating both inside and outside. Their Vegetable Fajitas arrive sizzling with sauteed vegetables and you can order from a variety of sides to complete a very filling and satisfying dinner. The mexican sweet corn cake reminds me of the South Indian dessert "Kesari(bath)" and at Pedro's comes in a crispy corn-based lightly sweet crispy shell.
Qdoba Mexican Grill is a chain and has many locations in Madison and the one on Mineral Point Rd is located conveniently close to my workplace and is a natural choice for many who work at my company when going out for a quick (or not-so-quick) lunch or for just grabbing something for take-out. It is similar to a fast food place (self-service) and I believe is owned by one of the more popular "American" (burger) fastfood chains. The servers at the counter who "compile" (for lack of a better word) the food are minimum pay workers and carry on with their service with a level of disinterest unmatched anywhere except in the fastfood business. Food as expected is OK and cheap.
I have been to Chi Chi's Mexican Restaurant in the near west side only once early in my tenure at Madison with Anush and Manush and found the tortillas and fried rolls to be carrying the slight odour of fish oil even though the menu announced them to be Vegetarian dishes. Needless to say, I never went back.
Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy is one of a chain of Mexican restaurants in the American heartland. The one I went to a while back, again with KC, is located near Greenway Station in Middleton close to PF Chang's. The interior is well-decorated and a small inner courtyard has a celing lighted and painted like the sky, much like that of the now closed Griglia Tuscany. Abuelo's has virtually no food suitable for a vegetarian and so I will not be going back anytime. Even the black and pinto beans and the rice are cooked in chicken broth. Worse, the waiter didn't seem to understand what I wanted when I requested the sweet corn cake.
Ethiopian
Yirgalem on Monroe St was the first Ethiopian restaurant I have ever been to and the dinner structure is very different. Everyone eats off of a single large plate. The main course is Injera bread which is very very similar to the South Indian Dosai except that it is dark brown in color suggesting high iron content in the grain used to prepare it. You order the side dishes to go with it and those as well as the standard side dishes are also served on to the same plate. Even disregarding the fact that everyone was eating off of the same plate (it was just 2 of us during the visit, but in this regard, even two is one too many), I didn't much relish the overall taste of the dishes and most probably wouln't go back.
You might want to take a look at this post by my friend and my comments on it that refer to my eating out experience at Yirgalem:
http://kaalam.blogspot.com/2006/01/vadai-and-doughnut.html
I ackowledge some might find eating out at a Ethiopian restaurant a bit incredulous.
[Update 10/15/2006] Yirgalem has closed and has been replaced by an Indian restaurant (Taste of India) which has been reviewed in this Blog as well - see Post on Madison Dining I.
