I have been going to Madison Magazine’s Restaurant Week for four years now and love the concept! It makes eating at nice restaurants a set price (usually cheaper) and some of the restaurants even make special menus for Restaurant Week. I’ve gone to a dozen or so restaurants during Restaurant Week that I regularly wouldn’t have been able to afford. Last year I squeezed in five dinners and had a blast! This year I’m doing two dinners and a lunch. Yesterday was the first day of Restaurant Week, and I went to the Old Feed Mill in Mazomanie.
The Mazo Old Feel Mill is actually in an old feed mill with beautiful wood floors, huge barn doors and massive antiques! I didn’t actually get to see the dining room because we sat outside on the patio under a huge metal-roof-covered patio! It was pouring rain and probably the best seat in the house. They made it seem like they were too busy to seat us outside but then let us sit out there anyways. I’m not sure if it actually was busy, the parking lot wasn’t full and less than a dozen tables walked in or out while we were eating, but the service was terrible. We barely saw our waitress, she had the bartender bring most of our food, and we had to ask multiple times to get water refills, a to-go box and even our desserts. Then after some awful service she felt the need to fight me on our bill and the manager had to come over to apologize.
Everything on their Restaurant Week menu is also on their regular menu, which is good because it doesn’t disappear after Restaurant Week! There were two appetizers, stuffed mushrooms and fried artichoke hearts with dill dip. We got one of each and they were both very good. The mushrooms were a good size, and were stuffed with a lot of cheese and something spicy. It was the perfect amount of spice, and good ratio of mushroom to cheese. The artichoke hearts were lightly battered and the dill dip was a good accompaniment. We were both very happy with the appetizers.
For entrees they were offering a chicken, pork or beef dish. I got the pot roast that came with mashed potatoes and veggies. The mashed potatoes and veggies were nothing spectacular but the pot roast was flavorful and very tender. My mom got the cashew-crusted pork that came with veggies and mashed sweet potatoes. I don’t like cashews but the pork itself and the mashed sweet potatoes were good. My mom liked it all!
For dessert I got the bread pudding and my mom got the berry cobbler (turned out to be blueberry). I’m allergic to coconut so was pretty sad to see coconut on my bread pudding when it arrived. So basically my mom got two desserts and thought they were fine. The tiny bit of the cobber I ate was alright.
FOODNOTES: If the service had been better I would definitely say I’d go back but the service will probably deter me from going back. Especially since the quality of the food wasn’t extraordinary to make me forget the bad service. The appetizers were the best of the meal and then it slowly went downhill from there. I would only suggest going there if you are looking for a nice place in the Mazo area. If I ever go back to Mazomanie I will probably go to the old drive-in diner on the main road. It looks fun and a lot cheaper than the Old Feed Mill.
Small Town Tourist 