The Coopers Tavern — Restaurant in Madison

Update: owner contacted me to make the situation right. He apologized and offered a meal on him. Now that’s someone who sticks by their business!

$14+tax for this??? I was pumped to return to Madison after being stationed in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona (active duty military). I met up with my family and tried out HopCat down the street for a drink before we did the "well whatda you wanna do" dinner discussion. We traipsed around the square before choosing Coopers Tavern. I ordered the Cooper's Tavern's "herbivore" listed on their menu as "market" price. Market price was declared by the price gods of Coopers to be $14 (up from their usual 11-12. $14 for the scanty assortment of celery, potato, and zucchini slices garnishing the center of the rectangle, white plate. I asked the waiter if there was a scarcity of zucchini or some other devastation of the local vegetables to drive the "market" price so high. He was very helpful and offered to ask the manager if that was an accurate price. Maybe he was wondering at my $14 hedge clippings at well... The manager confirmed the sum and so I asked to speak to him- Mr Coffee. It was Thursday night busy but he made time to chat with me about how he couldn't do anything about the price and was unable to tell why it was the same as their much more expansive plates. He was able to direct me to the business card for the operations manager, Ms Trost, but her mailbox rejected me and all my heartfelt words with "postmaster undeliverable." I gave a solid effort to just figure out why my meal that looked like it belonged on top of my sister's boyfriend's frites and steak was $14. I just looked ridiculous... I mean I even took a picture because I couldn't believe it!!! They didn't offer to make me anything different, to allow me to reorder, give me any answers... It was just: 'here's your food, sorry it's so small, $14 please.' At least my sister had plenty of her $14 pasta and chicken to...

"They do it right" was the first thing that I thought once I sat down in this quaint pub. The atmosphere was bustling and the energy was positive. It's hard to describe, but I loved the simple yet effective decorating that made this place not too dark, but still tavern-like. The big chalk board behind the bar is a perfect touch that highlights one of the best things about the place - the beer selection. The beer selection was it's own book of choices with a lot of unique options.

The menu was perfectly diverse and offered home style pub food. BIG fish and chips, comforting Bavarian Beer Stew, and so many other options. The food was just as good as the menu options. Had the Sconnie Egg which I fully expected to be a big grease ball when in fact it was perfectly done. I still can't quite understand how they did that! The mustard definitely makes that dish. Then I had the Coopers Burger since of course I gotta have a burger with my beer! I was completely satisfied with my choice of that and the homemade chips.

Service was top notch, especially when someone other than our waitress delivered our food and managed to give the right dish to the right person without even asking. Nice!

Location is perfect with it being right next to Capital square so if you are eating outside the view is great. Also, just a good stop for beers after work or to grab food before heading to the next place.

Only negative I would have to say would be the noise and how crowded it gets. We were there on a Friday evening so that is definitely their prime time. Since it was so crowded they had the air cranked (even though it was cold out) and it was blowing on me the whole time we ate which was...

The food was great, once it arrived. The service was some of the worst I've ever experienced.

My husband and I went for lunch and were seated immediately, with no indication of any delays. Our waiter came to take our drink orders and to inform us that they were out of a few dishes on the menu. When he returned, he told us they were also out of the drinks we had ordered, so we just had water. He left and returned quite a while later to take our food order. We ordered food, which was a salad for me, an appetizer for my husband, and an appetizer for us to share. We proceeded to wait well over an hour for our food. The waiter returned once to refill our waters (not often enough for an entire hour of sitting with nothing but water) and to tell us that the kitchen was behind and apologize for the wait. After the hour wait, he came back to tell us that the salad was ready but the appetizers weren't, and ask if we wanted the salad. We said yes because we were starving. The salad that was "ready" took another ten minutes to get to us. Five minutes later the appetizers came out. The waiter never returned to refill waters while we ate, we had to go to the bar to ask for more water. I can't think what the waiter was doing instead of serving us, as there were about 15 waiters for 20 tables and our waiter seemed to be serving only one other table, who finished and left about 15 minutes into our time there and were not replaced by other customers. When he brought the bill, he didn't bother to apologize or to take any money off the bill, offer a coupon, nothing.

Five stars for the food, zero stars for the service. Food quality was not...