. "3"^^ . "2"^^ . . "1"^^ . . "I've been coming to this Perkins since I was a kid (popcorn chicken and Where's Waldo? activity books FTW) and while my last visit was not so great, they're generally a reliable location. Most days the food is tasty if unimaginative, they can accommodate groups, and they usually can get you in and out pretty quick despite the lobby being packed to the gills on weekend mornings. \n\nFor the last few years I've avoided Perkins on the whole because of sub-par food and service from another location (an annual stop after a camping music festival due to their being open on holidays and ability to seat 10-12 of us with no reservation), but my man friend really likes their breakfast and, more specifically, not having to wait for breakfast like you do at most places downtown. Over the summer I had an avocado/queso/english muffin creation that actually really surprised me with how good it was and breakfast potatoes that were clearly deep fried but similarly surprising in how much I enjoyed them. The breakfast combo price was right ($8ish dollars), and for some reason one of the available sides was a muffin, so I came away with breakfast the next day, too. \n\nFast forward to a couple weeks ago when we stopped back in. Sadly, my breakfast find had disappeared from the menu and they appear to have done away with the bonkers muffin side. Nothing was really striking my fancy on the most recent menu, so I decided to pick one of the most ridiculous offerings, an apple cinnamon muffin that was sliced into thirds and turned into french toast. I'm sure it was terrible for me, and while the flavor was surprisingly good, muffins just aren't stable enough to hold up to being battered and so it was kind of mushy mess. Compounding my meh meal was the fact that it took close to 40 minutes for our food to arrive, tracking down our server was difficult, and my appetite was put off by how dirty the ledge under our booth was. We were seated in one of their tiny (but cool) two-person booths along the window and with the morning sun pouring in I could see all the crumbs, bits of paper, and rusty bobby pins on the window sill. If anyone from Perkins happens to read this, please, please clean that up. The fact that the pins were rusty tells me it's been awhile since a vacuum has made its way to that area. Yuck. \n\nWhile my most recent visit was definitely a two-star experience, they've been just fine on other visits so I'll leave my overall rating at a three. Not the best choice in Madison, but a reliable stand-by\u00A0on the whole."^^ . "3"^^ . "2015-11-10T00:00:00"^^ .