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| - I'm so glad to have discovered this restaurant during my trip to Madison!
First, the ambiance was lovely. It was tastefully decorated - with art by local artists, rich colored walls, and what seemed like handmade beautiful furniture. It felt warm and welcoming, especially contrasting the cold, damp air outside.
We sat at the bar because there was a bit of a wait to get a table. The bartenders were super helpful as we navigated the menu. They even brought out the chef to go over the menu with us. The service was very friendly!
The chef was incredibly accommodating to food allergies. He let us know what he could do and ensured us that he'd make modifications that would not only be accommodating but also be delicious - and he did superb!
We ordered the beet salad, which was served with roasted red and yellow beets, yellow carrots, pistachios, balsamic glaze, sprouts, and corn shoots. The corn shoots were a fine garnish, and made for a great presentation. I loved the roasted beets with the pistachios. I didn't care for the yellow carrots. They had a bit of a vinegar flavor, which usually I would like, but I didn't care for it alongside the other flavors and textures.
Our next dish was the octopus, testa, over mole. The chef prepared the octopus baked versus fried, and it was delicious! Testa is the head of a pig...it was prepared mashed over the mole and underneath the octopus. The combination of flavor from the mole, testa, and octopus was spot on.
For our main dish we shared the scallops - served with pork belly, over a carrot purée, with green beans, roasted fennel and onions, and some balsamic. The scallops were perfectly cooked, and the combination of flavor with the pork belly was delicious.
I don't eat a ton of pork, but the pork additions to the recipes here were great compliments with the other flavors. We left feeling satisfied and enjoyed trying the local farm fresh ingredients.
I highly recommend this restaurant if you like local food, unique flavors, and whether or not you have dietary restrictions or not. They handle allergies really well, and this place is great for farm to table, pales, gluten-free dining. May be hard for vegetarians, but that beet salad is a nice dish suitable for vegetarians. And they had some pasta dishes too. Check it out!
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