Maple Tree Supper Club — Restaurant in McFarland

Our experience was quite underwhelming. I am not sure how this place is pulling a 4.3 star average rating.

We arrived on a Saturday evening at about 5:30 pm. Place was pretty busy so I thought that was a good sign (plus the 4.3 star average score for Google reviews). We were sat at a table and the first thing I noticed was the table was wobbly, like really wobbly. Next thing I noticed was the 'high end' paper napkins on the table. I started to get the feeling that this was a low end supper club/dive. But, we went ahead and ordered our steaks as the price was quite good compared to other steak places in the area (this should have also been a sign of things to come).

Appetizers: We got the appetizer platter so we could try their different appetizers (cheese curds, onion rings, and chicken wings). Cheese curds were good. Onion rings were blah, and chicken wings were embarrassed to be called chicken wings.

Salad Bar: The salad bar was, well, pretty unimpressive. The cucumbers had clearly been frozen at some point and most of the options didn't seem all that fresh. The dressings were clearly from a bottle and not house-made. They had that tangy 'preserved' flavor. Both the ranch and blue cheese were pretty bad. I would not pay for the salad bar. Although, the beef vegetable soup was good and probably the highlight of the evening outside of the fresh baked bread and butter.

Entrees: My entree was a ribeye steak with green beans. My dates entree was the Filet Mignon with baked fish and garlic mashed potatoes. We both ordered our steak cooked medium. My steak was cooked correctly but the cut of meat was low grade. It had grizzle on the edges and was rather flavorless. The green beans were pretty flavorless, too. My dates filet mignon was way over cooked and bordering on shoe leather. Her fish was also very dry. The garlic mashed potatoes were pretty good so we took those home and gave them to my daughter.

Service: The service was not great. The biggest complaint is that the wait staff never came back and checked on us after bringing our entrees. We would've told her at the time that the filet was not cooked right and the fish was dry. But, they didn't come by until it was time to drop the check off and noticed my date hadn't eaten but two bites of her steak. It was too late to fix anything by then, dinner was over. I gave the restaurant an overall score of two stars instead of one, because at least the owner had the decency to remove the steak from the check. So, we didn't have to pay for it, but we didn't really get dinner after all was said and done.

Final Summary: There are better places in the area to get a nice dinner out on a Friday or Saturday evening. Fiel's (near Randolph), Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Sun Prairie, Cimarolli's near Portage, Fitz's on the Lake near Lodi. And, these places are a little pricier than the Maple Tree, but at least you get something edible! I would not go back to Maple Tree.

P.S. Thanks to the owner for at least refunding the steak. I suggest a whole new cooking staff...the menu and food is in dire need...

If you prefer your prime rib very rare and specify, more than once, to the waitress “red, not pink, please” and she says “yes”, she understands, then it comes out pink, the Maple Tree is not for you.

Furthermore, if you question the doneness and wonder if it had been left under the heat lamp for too long and waitress runs to the kitchen to drag out some poor dude, in front of the whole restaurant, to ask him if that’s the rarest they have, only for him to look super embarrassed and say “yes”, then this is not the restaurant for you.

Then, when your husband (very politely) asks about the drink he’s been waiting on for quite some time and the waitress says, sarcastically, “I’ll check and if it’s not, I’ll go behind the bar and make it myself”, then this restaurant isn’t for you.

Bonus points if she takes your salad away before you’ve barely started eating, then this restaurant isn’t for you.

Mind you, I’ve been going to Maple Tree for well over 50 years, even before it was Maple Tree (Conrad’s). It hit a slump in quality during the very early 2000s, so we avoided it for a few years. Then, it made a solidly decent comeback the last 15 years or so. It was our “go to” with consistently delicious food at a reasonable price in the years before Covid. It was seriously a diamond in the rough and we rarely, if ever, had a bad meal.

Unfortunately, since reopening after the fire, the quality and customer service has been iffy, at best. After 3-4 bad experiences during the year after it reopening, we finally quit going around 8 months ago.

Craving a delicious prime rib dinner tonight, we decided to give it another try. Needless to say, we left even more disappointed than before and will never be going back again.

The lack of wait time or crowd on a Saturday night, including open seats at the bar at peak time, should have been our first clue of how far my beloved Maple Tree has fallen. I’m so sad to have lost a supper club that was so reliable for so many decades and holds many memories.

Does anyone have any recommendations for something similar within 25 minutes...

I was in the Madison area for a few days, and had seen an Instagram post about the Maple Tree Supper Club (shout-out to @midwestmunchers), so I stopped in for dinner. Boy, am I glad I did! 🤤

Each entrée comes along with the soup/salad bar, and honestly, I could've gotten completely full off just that! The salad bar items were all very fresh... no browned lettuce or dried out vegetables that I could find.

I ordered the fried shrimp as my entrée, along with a baked potato with sour cream and butter. I helped myself to some grated cheddar and bacon bits from the salad bar to make it a loaded baked potato. It was delicious! I'm often surprised at just how many restaurants fail at cooking baked potatoes properly. There's a key... get it to the correct temperature (~210°F.) so that the starch molecules burst in the potato, making it soft and fluffy inside... well, they did it the right way!

Each meal comes with a warm, freshly baked mini loaf of bread. That's always welcome, especially when paired with some butter which melts down into it. 🤤

They open at 4pm, and when I got there around 4:45, the parking lot was nearly full!

When I walked inside, the bar was packed full of patrons, and I asked the hostess at the counter if I needed a reservation. Luckily, I didn't!

Some of the tables seemed to be dimly lit. Maybe they were going for more ambiance, but I found it a bit difficult to read the menu in the lighting.

My server was great! Very personable, and explained everything about the soup and salad bar. She checked on me a few times during my meal to insure that I had everything I needed, and if everything was to my liking. 👍🏽

I don't get to the Madison area very often, but the next time I do, you can bet that I'll be visiting the Maple Tree...