Johnny's Italian Steakhouse — Restaurant in Middleton

I tried to write a detailed review and ran out of room. I have gone here numerous times and it has gradually gone from good to bad over the years. Most of my reviews for places are 4-5 stars! Went here this last Friday because my long time friend was being deployed over seas and wanted to take he and his fiance out before he left. So here we go , I will try to keep it short. We had reservations (were seated in the bar) Most of my issues were with the waitress. Started off by dumping two full waters in my lap and had to use my menu to deflect the rest of the waterfall headed towards me down the slanted table. Suit Pants literally soaked to the point water was running out of my ankles into my shoes as I stood up . Accidents happen , I remained calm and tried to contain the mess best I could as she watched.What upset me was the lack of sympathy from the waitress who barely appoligized and the hostess implying I made the mess.....10 minutes later the mess was cleaned up and the wet towels the waitress layer all over were gone . Then we got our warm old fashions and full price half full martinis that were sitting at the bar during this whole event of being seated and bringing us waters which took 20 minutes. The rest of our evening was filled with the waitress interrupting our conversation with things that were more important in her life ( not work related or topic related) without giving us the opportunity to ask for drinks before walking away still talking and awkward heavy breathing from her , like she was going through it . Our food was OK, I've had worse but seemed like it was sitting for a bit . The bar area smelled like rotting fish ( not cooked fish) Had to ask for utensils, flag her down for refills on drinks , asked us 3 different times in 5 minutes how our food was. 2 hours later pants still wet. Waitress handed my wife the bill and said I'm glad he's not paying the bill looking at me . No one thought it was funny except her. 300.00 bill no discount for ruining our evening , my outfit , or her lack of ability to wait a table. Not sure what her deal was , former tgi Fridays waitress? but I'm leaning towards controlled substances. I've never had anything like this happen at a high end restaurant and if it did happen at places I frequent they would have made it right not joked about it and covered it up with odd comments. Been there at least 10times. Last time I will go there. We are usually 50% tippers at nice restaurants. My wife was a waitress for a long time and we appreciate the work good service takes. We also love to talk with staff but found ourselves avoiding conversation with her due to her awkwardness not the fact that she dumped water on me. I had to leave a lot of stuff out . Good service is just as important as good food. Oh forgot to mention the only special they had at a "steakhouse " was vegetarian soup. And my friend got a free piece of cheesecake for serving our country which was nice but she asked if we should sing happy...

Soojin is a beastly bartender and I love her! The whole staff deserves an A, very friendly and I would come here again if I lived in the area. The rest of this review will be strictly about the food - this is for all my food snobs/tourists out there with keen tastes.

The apps are solid! My favorite was the bruschetta, and I was mindblown how some lemon juice could tie together shrimp, tomatoes and goat cheese into a delicious combination! This was also the cleanest shrimp I've ever had, I was impressed. I could nomnom this bruschetta for days. The calamari came in 2nd: I love calamari, and it was done pretty nicely, but as it cooled off I realized the breading is obnoxiously salty. The sausage bread is delish if you like heavier stuff; it's comforting, reminds me of bolognese and it's cheesy. The ravioli was kind of wierd because it's so thickly breaded, but the filling was pretty good.

Not gonna lie, the steak dish as a whole was a flop for a fancy place that specializes in steak! Let me rip on the sauce before I proceed any further: CLEAN UP YOUR SAUCES! The glaze under the steak tasted like total dirt with a hint of burnt, and I scraped it off so that it wouldn't ruin the steak. I got my steak with au jus on the side because I fricken LOVE au jus, but this one tasted like fish oil + floor spice. Did the chef literally put his blood, sweat and tears into it? Not gonna lie, if this was my first time tasting au jus, I would live the rest of my life thinking that I hate au jus. I have a feeling that the glaze is based off the au jus because they both have the same nasty overtone. Please, for the love of god, improve your sauces ASAP.

The steak itself was fine: the meat was good, very pull-apart tender as a filet mignon should be, but it wasn't that tall medallion you expect when you get a filet mignon. It was a one-inch thick regular steak cut and dare I say it was kind of dry throughout but especially on the edges. I know filet mignon isn't supposed to be juicy like some other cuts, but it sure as hell didn't make me moan on the first bite like similarly-priced filet mignons I've had elsewhere. I got the petite for 28, the full size is 36 and I don't think it quite lives up to its price. Maybe 7-10 dollars less is what I'd pay for it.

I got veggies on the side, they were fine but could use a bigger portion since it's nothing special. The house salad was really good....I was a little tipsy and thought the focaccia bread was a hot towel because it was warm squishy and came on a plate under a linen, I didn't touch it and realized it was my bread once I was in bed later that night. No assumption is a safe assumption, lift that linen! Hahahahaha.

Overall, fantastic place to eat! Just totally missed the mark on...

Everything was wonderful during our visit, I made a reservation online for the one in Middleton but came to the Sun Prairie location on accident, we went in and said we had a reservation but it might be at the other location, they said they didn’t have a reservation for us there, so it was probably at the other location, but said they would be more then happy to take care of us since we were already there. We were sat promptly in the bar area in a nice u-shaped booth. We were greeted in seconds by our server and also the bartender, James. He was very polite and proper. We decided to order a bottle of moscato which he offered us to try first before we committed to the full bottle which was very nice of him. He gave us adequate time to look over our menus and was able to answer any questions we had. He checked on us frequently to insure everything was tasting good and we had everything we needed. He kindly boxed my meal for me and brought over the desert tray for us and explained our choices in detail it was too hard to choose, but we settled on what we knew. Finished with our desert and our wine, James brought over our check and insured there was no rush. We paid partial cash and partial card and he came over to make sure we meant the cash for the bill and the rest to go on the card which I personally appreciated that he didn’t just assume that’s what we wanted. Over all our visit was wonderful from start to finish, no complaints, food and service was above and beyond, we will definitely make the...