Madogs

When I was walking along George Street, the other day, and noticed that Madogs was open and serving a lunch menu, I had to do a quick double-take. For those unfamiliar with the place, Madogs, along with Fingers and Rat Pack, is a late night piano bar, which has been a cornerstone of late night city centre drinking for many a year.

I had no idea what to expect when I entered during daylight hours, other than that I strongly suspected I would find it empty. I was correct. It turns out that it’s a rather smartly appointed place, with a nice restaurant section, just past the piano, upon which countless Elton John songs have been played, over the years.

Their menu focusses on burgers and grill items. Prices are mid-range, with my soup around £4 and the burger I chose around £9.

My waiter gave the impression of either being very new, or very unfamiliar with their menu, or a combination of both. He kept things ticking along quite nicely throughout my stay, though, so I was generally happy with that aspect of things.

The highlight was certainly the look of the dishes. As usual, my photographs don’t quite capture the magic to best advantage, but they hopefully convey that the soup looks rather stylish. A melange of sweet orange vegetables, with sweet potato, squash and carrots, the sweetness was allowed to dominate just a little too strongly for my tastes. It was a rustic and hearty effort, though.

My burger selection was based entirely on its name: the ménage a fromage burger. Bringing together three cheeses, sounded like a potentially good plan but the blue cheese completely dominated. I’m a big fan of the blue stinky stuff, but it was just too powerful. The burger was pretty decent, just on the edge of actually having the right amount of fat in the mix to make it properly juicy. The accompanying fries were fine.

So overall, and however strange it might feel, lunch at Madogs was pretty good. There were specific weaknesses with each dish, but both looked bonnie and weren’t a million miles away from being very acceptable. The place is really quite smart when not packed full of swaying people singing the entire Billy Joel back catalogue. Do pop in and give it a shot, next time you’re looking for a lunchtime bite.

Scores
Blythe scores Madogs
3/5 for food
4/5 for presentation
3/5 for service
3.5/5 for setting
giving an overall 13.5/20

Today’s quester was: Blythe

I ate: vegetarian chowder, ménage a fromage burger

I drank: water

I wore: jaguar tie pie

Total bill: £12.90