Brownies and Zucchini

Full Disclosure: I paid for this meal with my own money, the opinions are my own and I am not being compensated for this post.

I don’t often go to restaurants that are downtown.  It isn’t all that far from where I live, but for some reason it always feels like an extra hassle to find somewhere to park, and then inevitably wait for a table for a long time before getting our food.  There are many,many, great local restaurants downtown, but because they are so great (and many of them don’t take reservations) they are often very crowded.   For a person like me who gets impatient when they are hungry, this is usually a problem.  Last weekend, however, I braved the crowds for a brunch date with Carly – the blogger and lovely lady behind CarlyBananas!  Carly was in town for the weekend for a wedding (at the Children’s Museum, how cool is that?!) so we managed to squeeze in some time to get together.  Brunch was a perfect idea since I don’t make it down there often and there are many restaurants that I’d like to try! To combat the no-reservations and having to wait for a table problem, I got to our location of choice a bit ahead of time and put my name in so that we wouldn’t end up waiting for too long to get a table. Our brunch restaurant of choice: Marigold Kitchen.

My plan to get there early to get a table in a more timely fashion worked perfectly.  I didn’t realize before getting there that Marigold Kitchen is not a typical sit down restaurant. You order at the counter and then they deliver your food to you instead of being seated and waited on.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, just thought it would be worth mentioning because it was not what I expected. The line to order ended up being pretty long, but it went quickly.  I ordered some tea to tide me over while I waited for my food.

For my meal I got two eggs scrambled with Marigold Potatoes and sourdough toast.  Eggs, potatoes, and toast are pretty much my standard brunch/breakfast out meal.  This version of that meal was delicious, maybe the best I’ve had.  The eggs were pretty standard but well cooked, it was the other two items really were what made the meal stand out.  The sourdough bread was a nice change from the normal choice of white or wheat, and the potatoes were really delicious.  They were sliced as opposed to traditional breakfast potatoes that are generally small cubes and I think that was one reason why I really liked them – more potato!  They were also seasoned well and cooked perfectly.  The meal was really delicious and I can see why they are always so busy!!

Carly and her boyfriend seemed to enjoy their meals as well. Really, every meal that we saw coming out looked pretty great! All of the employees were very friendly and attentive.  Even though it is a pretty small place, and the tables are pretty tightly packed, things seemed to move quickly and the waitstaff was quick to get the people waiting seated right away once tables opened up.

Taste: A+, possibly my new favorite breakfast/brunch spot.
Cost: A+, without the tea, my meal was $5.25.  I think that is a very good price considering the great taste and large portion.
Would I go there again? Definitely.  As I said before, I don’t get downtown often, but if I am ever in mood for brunch this will definitely be towards the top of my list!  Also worth noting: the items in their bakery case look amazing.  I didn’t have room for them during this trip, but hopefully I will get to try some next time!

Buffer

Filed under: Restaurant Review Tagged: | madison, Marigold Kitchen, restaurant review