Buck & Honey's - Monona — Restaurant in Monona

My boyfriend and I went for Restaurant Week today. I made a reservation for tonight at the beginning of the week, and there were plenty of open time slots.

First, we are taken to the downstairs area to what looked like a great table, only to see another host seating 2 middle aged women at our table because they'd complained about theirs. Their host told our host to "deal with it" and take their table. Which was there tiniest table at the top of the stairs in the main passthrough so literally everyone and their mother ate walking past us. It was next to impossible to hear each other talk because of how loud everything was. I understand why the other group complained, but if it wasn't good enough for them, what made it good enough for us?

The food was awful. The appetizer I tried was jalapeno and crab dip with tortilla chips. The dip was not in any way spicy, and I'm not sure what those chips were, but definitely not tortilla. It's like someone described pita and tortilla chips to someone and that person made the worst of both. The short rib was mush. Everything was the consistency of the mashed potatoes, and it all tasted the same.

And the gluten free chocolate cake. When it came out, I started laughing because the pieces were so tiny. But it makes sense based on how disgusting it was. I couldn't eat more than 2 bites. It tasted like (and had the consistency of) a chocolate keto protein bar. It was rich, but gross.

And our server. She must have been busy at other tables because she was never at ours. She did drive by "how's the food? Great? Perfect!" And never actually stuck around after we ordered. She came by after we tried our "cake" and saw that we'd only taken 2 bites. She asked if we wanted a box, we said no, and then she didn't ask if it was okay or anything. We said it was bad, and her response was "okay, anything else you need?" When we asked for the check, we had to wait 10 minutes after getting it for her to come back and run the card, and that's only after we flagged down someone else.

I will never...

We just had our daughter & son-in-law’s Night Before the Wedding event this past weekend at Buck & Honey’s Monona. It was a complete success!!! We worked with event coordinator, Alex Murtha, and she was so accommodating and helpful. We live in Michigan and had researched places for the event months before. Alex is very professional, easy to work with, communicative and every detail we spoke about was in place when we got there. We had the Inland Room which was perfect for our approximately 70 people. We had use of the AV for a slide show and our own music, Billy was on top of every request that we made and helped make that part very special. The staffing we had were superb!!! Bea was the event lead and Nicole and Ishmael were our bartenders. We could not have asked for better service. Bea made sure that as one of the host, I had a drink in hand (even water) whenever she came to update us. She made sure to communicate when all of our food was out (we had staggered appetizers), she updated us on the special drink requests before filling them and she kept us updated on the bar tab throughout the night. She made the event so personal by offering to take a group photo on the outside deck that was such a hoot!!! Now to the food…five star!!! We had a very hard time deciding which options to offer - they are all so good. The Thai Chicken Skewers and the Sassy Cheese Curds were the obvious favorites but everything was scrumptious. The presentation was as beautiful as any I have seen since being at a resort! Our overall experience was just perfect!! We had so many compliments on the venue. I would definitely use them for a special event again. My husband and I went back for a date night after all of the weekend activities and before heading back to Michigan… (the mushroom risotto is the bomb!!!). Buck & Honey’s is undoubtedly our new...

We went to Buck and Honeys (Honey's?) in Monona last night. My partner was mostly interested in it because it overlooks the river, honestly, but the menu looked good. We got there a little before our 7:15 reservation and were seated immediately. I asked about sitting outside, but the only table available was right next to the musician they had playing (if there was a way to request an outside table on the online reservation form I missed it). Our experience was a mix of really good, and not-as-good, but not bad. The really good was the food, which surprised me. We had the curds (excellent) and the chips and "eggomole" - which is guac with chopped harbolied eggs mixed in. I didn't like the eggomole - it tasted like bland egg salad to me, but my partner and kids liked it. Our entrees were all excellent - the wagyu burger for my 15 year old, and chicken pasta for my 13 year old. They both enjoyed them. I had a red snapper special over Cajun rice with andouille and vegetables and a Dijon cream sauce. The Dijon sauce was unnecessary, but overall the dish was great. The highlight was my partner's "Veggie Centricity" - roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprouts with polenta and a Parmesan cream sauce and balsamic reduction. She said it was one of the best dishes she ever had. Our only complaints were that the AC was on full blast to the point that it was pretty cold, and the place is loud. That might have been the six top next to us that insisted on shrieking at each other rather than speaking. They were also understaffed and our server was hard to flag down - it was t her fault and she did great under the circumstances, but a couple less tables for her would have helped. It wasn't cheap, probably more of a celebration spot than an I don't feel like cooking tonight spot, but we'll...