Brownies and Zucchini

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

It seems like new restaurants are coming and going like crazy in Madison! Sometimes, I am sad the the restaurant is gone, and anxiously hope that it will not be replaced with a chain restaurant.  Other times, it is a restaurant that I wasn’t so fond of that goes out of business, and an exciting new local restaurant takes their place.  This was one of the latter.

One day while I was on my way to Costco, I noticed something different.  The small strip mall that used to contain an Arbys, Subway and Applebee’s had changed.  The Applebee’s had been replaced with a restaurant called Monk’s.  The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place where I had heard it before.  Was it a chain?  It didn’t seem like a chain….

Then I remembered where I had heard it.  The original Monk’s is located in Wisconsin Dells – somewhere where I frequently go for mini weekend vacations.  Located about an hour away from Madison, “the Dells” as its often called, is a popular tourist destination for lots of people in the midwest.  It is the Waterpark Capital of the World after all. 🙂

I have never been to the Monks in the Dells, but I have always heard good things.  We decided to try the Monk’s in Madison (well technically Middleton) last weekend.

The menu there is HUGE!  Many different kinds of burgers, sandwiches, salads, and more.  It actually was hard for me to decide what to get – which is always a good sign. Usually when I go to a bar and grill type restaurant, my option is chicken fingers or chicken sandwich.

I ended up getting the grilled chicken sandwich and a side salad.

The sandwich was good!  Don’t be fooled, I actually ordered my sandwich with only cheese on it – it normally comes with a lot more on it than that – I am just picky about what is on my sandwich.  The bread was particularly good .  It was soft and fresh tasting – but not too soft that the bun gets soggy and falls apart when you eat it.

The salad was really good!  It was probably the fanciest “side salad” that I’ve ever had.  Aside from the mixed greens it had tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cucumbers and black olives.

The husband had the Southwest Burger with fries: burger with a heaping scoop of Monk’s signature zesty baked beans, two strips of crispy jalapeno bacon, cheddar cheese and onion straws, on a fresh sourdough bun.

I realize it is kind of hard to tell what is the burger in the photo, but the burger/fries/toppings/onion rings all kind of merged together, but it is there on the right underneath the cheese.  He said the burger was good – and quite filling with all of the toppings!

I did steal a couple of fries and they were delicious as well! 🙂

Overall I thought this place was a definitely a great change from the Applebees that used to be there.  (seriously, how did I like Applebees so much when I was a kid?!)  Good food, good service, and good atmosphere.

Oh, I should also mention that there were numerous TV’s – each one playing a different local sporting event.  When we were there, in our view was the Brewers game on one TV and the Blackhawks game on another.  I can only imagine this would be a great place to watch a Badger Football game!

Taste: A, definitely good, and a step up from your typical chain bar and grill type food.
Cost: A+, I was actually surprised when we got the bill.  It was definitely reasonably priced – especially for the quality of the food!  The bill for two of us including tip (we did only order water to drink) was less than $30!

Would I go there again?  Definitely.  There are many other things on the menu that I want to try

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Filed under: Restaurant Review Tagged: | madison, monks bar and grill, restaurant review