Jac's-- thank you for holding up the reputation on this stretch of Monroe Street. We all know the Laurel Tavern and Bluephies weren't helping much! (ok Michael's - thank you too).
I've only been here a couple times, but I've always walked away happy. I'm not sure how long ago they first opened, but within the last two years I've noticed they've started to work their way into "Madison's good restaurants" conversations.
My most recent experience was for a dinner with my parents. It was a busy Friday night and we had about a 45 minute wait. It's a smaller place, and I expected nothing shorter than that. It's a nice neighborhood --- so we took a walk over to Lake Wingra to kill some time.
I had the Mole Pork Loin. Mole- the chocolate sauce topping common in some Mexican dishes. Check out my attached picture. It was served over some cooked "matchstick root vegetables" I recommend!
My mom really enjoyed her fish fry, my girlfriend got the Moules et frites which were served in a garlic wine pesto type sauce. Those were very tasty... and the aioli for the frites was great. My Dad had the brewbarb burger and he was really impressed with the rhubarb ketchup on it.
Overall, we were really happy. My Dad was really skeptical that the service was going to be lacking due to how busy it was. Service ended up being excellent. I'll definitely be back.