November 25, 2009 – Brasserie V
Check out the Brasserie V website.
erin says: After seeing 2012 with a group of friends, some of us headed to Brasserie V, a favorite of one of the group. It was crowded, but we only spent 5 minutes at the bar, long enough to order beers before being shown to our table. Three of us ordered butternut squash risotto with mushrooms and micro salad, one ordered moules et frites, and one ordered lamb chops. The bread basket contained chewy sourdough and some crackers along with a compound butter with cranberries and walnuts. We polished that off in no time. Two of our group split an order of appetizer scallops, and they were kind enough to share with the rest of us. I thought the little taste that I had was extremely good – I wish Brasserie V had a scallop dinner. The risotto was good and creamy. I’ve only had risotto maybe once before, so I’m in no position to judge if it was done “right”. It was a generous serving, and I think I would like it better as a side. I had a small piece of one of the lamb chops and I thought it was absolutely perfect, medium rare and juicy. It’s a shame there were only two on the plate. All of us stole frites from our friend with the mussels, and they were very tasty in the two dipping sauces. I was really tempted by the smoked turkey sandwich, but turkey was kind of a theme this week. I saw a few salads go by, and I regret that I didn’t order a side salad. They looked wonderful. We ordered a couple of the desserts, bread pudding and chocolate pudding (they had run out of creme brule by 7:15). The chocolate pudding was excellent. I didn’t try the bread pudding. I liked the atmosphere, although by the end of our dinner it was getting so loud that I could hardly stand it anymore. I think this was mostly because of the table next to us.
Overall, definitely high quality food, very tiny place with a nice atmosphere, friendly servers. I’m a little torn on giving a number rating. I feel like the prices are high, but they’re comparable to other Madison restaurants. When it comes down to it, I consider whether the price and the inconveniences like location and ability to get a table (on an average night) are worth the food. Here I’d say almost, but that might change if I give it another go with a different dinner. I also don’t usually drink beer, but my friends seemed impressed with the selection, so they would definitely rate it higher, I think. 8 out of 10.
