MIDWEST
Madison’s Best Restaurants: Fried Chicken, Laotian Heat, and a Biscuit That Slays
By Jamie Dutton | May 19, 2025
Ahan
AUTHOR BIO: With family spread across the Midwest and a job that has her in airports regularly, Jamie Dutton finds herself across the center of the U.S. regularly. She’s partial to BPTs and a Bell's Lager.
I’ve been to Madison enough times now that I can confidently say: this town has moved beyond beer brats and cheese curds, though thankfully nobody told the beer brats and cheese curds. You can still find those—on menus and in conversation—but lately the city’s been making room for tamarind stews, handmade tortillas, oyster towers, and one of the better croissants I’ve had outside Paris.
This isn’t a list of the places that have been around since college kids still used flip phones. But if you’re wandering around Madtown and googling “restaurants near me in Madison,” I’ve got you covered. This is where you go now, in 2025, if you want to find the best restaurants in Madison.
1. The Harvey House
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A nod to the supper clubs of Madison’s past, Harvey House dropped on the scene in 2021 from co-owners Joe Papach and Shaina Papach and has only been getting better and better since. The space feels like the set of a Wes Anderson film about Midwestern supper clubs, and the food manages to reference nostalgia without being handcuffed by it. Order the relish tray. Eat the burger. Pretend you’re the kind of person who eats this well every Friday.
2. Mint Mark
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Mint Mark’s old space was so small you couldn’t whisper a secret without the bartender hearing it. The new one—just up East Wash—is bigger, louder, and every bit as ambitious as when co-owner Sean Pharr first opened it. With Kasey Cooke now executive chef and Rupert Addington general manager, the menu changes constantly. But the hits are always there: crispy potatoes, something rich involving cream and acid, and a cocktail that tastes like the person who made it is very, very tired of your gin and tonic order.
3. Butterbird
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Fried chicken is the conceit, but the vibe is more high-functioning Waffle House for food people. It’s from the team behind The Harvey House, and you can tell—everything’s just a little too well-brined, too perfectly plated, to have come from a place with booths this sticky. Get the biscuit sandwich, worth it just for the killer biscuit alone, and sit by the window where you can watch pedestrians try to figure out what exactly they’ve stumbled into.
4. Bar Corallini
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Sometimes you want red sauce, and sometimes you want it with a Negroni and someone explaining the provenance of their anchovies. Bar Corallini tries to do both, and somehow pulls it off without being smug about it. The pizza is pretty darn excellent, but the real draw on chef Giovanni Novella’s menu is anything baked, blistered, or bathed in olive oil.
5. Ahan
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Ahan has officially shed its pop-up roots at The Bur Oak and planted itself firmly on Williamson Street, in a beautifully raw space that feels like the opposite of fussy. Chuckie and Jamie Brown‑Soukaseume didn’t just expand—they leveled up. Now they’re turning out those Laotian dishes people line up for—Pad Kra Pow, fried sesame balls, red curry udon—with all the family recipes intact and the precision of a kitchen that knows what it’s doing. As a two-time James Beard semifinalist, Jamie isn’t chasing praise—she’s earned it. This is Laotian cooking made loud, clear, and unapologetically modern.
6. Nook
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Nook is a 12-seat communal dining experience that feels like a secret dinner party thrown by chefs who actually want you there. The 13-course tasting menu changes with the seasons, and the open kitchen means you can watch every dish come together. It's intimate, adventurous, and worth every penny.
7. Mishqui Peruvian
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Mishqui has gone from neighborhood secret to three-location empire, and chef/owner Cynthia Garcia’s newest spot near Capitol Square is her best yet. Garcia does a proper ceviche—cold, citrusy, with the heat of a jalapeño that doesn’t apologize—and the lomo saltado, pictured above, is better than it needs to be. She’s never phoning it in here.
9. Sultan
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The kind of place where you order the whole menu and thank yourself later. Sultan is a modern Pakistani small-plates restaurant that opened in early 2024, and the kitchen has clearly studied both tradition and restraint. The haleem is stick-to-your-ribs good, but it’s the tamarind beef short ribs that might ruin you for all other ribs.
10. Mad Rabbit Café
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Fully vegan but zero preachiness. Mad Rabbit feels like a punk café that grew up just enough to start making food your mom might actually enjoy. Their biscuit sandwich is a structural marvel, the tofu scramble tastes like someone finally got it right, and the whole place runs on good vibes and oat milk.
11. Viet Town
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Opened in the old MOD Pizza near East Towne Mall, Viet Town does comfort food for anyone who grew up on bún bò Huế and can’t find it done right anymore. It’s loud, no-frills, and the portions are generous enough that you’ll wonder if someone’s grandmother is back there cooking.
12. Level 5 Donuts
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At some point Madison decided it deserved proper vegan donuts, and Level 5 answered the call with a dedicated shop on Atwood. They’re dense, chewy, sweet without being obnoxious. You can build a box of six, but you’ll eat one in the car before you make it out of the parking lot.
13. Cafe Mimi
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This new spot serves Korean street snacks with Midwestern charm. Cafe Mimi’s finest comes in the form of fried chicken, kimbap, and those sweet-and-salty Korean corn dogs that come crusted in sugar and barely require teeth. There’s no ambience and you’ll eat out of paper boats, but you’ll also think about that corn dog for a week.
14. Los Atlantes
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Now with three locations, including the newest on Park Street, Los Atlantes Mexican Restaurant & Bakery doesn’t bother with trend-chasing. They’re doing mole, pozole, breakfast tacos, and sweet pastries that sell out before lunch. No one’s here for the aesthetics. They’re here because the food makes you wish you lived closer.
15. Leopold’s Book Bar Caffe
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The book bar you always wished existed, with cocktails strong enough to make you forget you came for a novel. Their kitchen started serving food this year—deviled eggs, oysters, little snacky things that go well with a Negroni. And brunch on Sundays, if you make it past the regulars camped out with their hardcovers and half-finished martinis.
