Golden Nest calls itself a cafe, but it’s more akin to a diner. Its first location was in Wauwatosa, and now it has spread to the Madison area, with one location on the near west side and the other in Sun Prairie.
Right off the bat, I have to say the Madison location didn’t seem like a friendly place. For example, on my first visit, the host made me sit at the bar despite a half-empty restaurant. While sitting at the bar, the robot server could not move past me, as it required a very large radius around it, so I had to scoot down the bar (which means everyone who sits near the kitchen faces the same issue).
Not surprisingly, the menu has large sections dedicated to various pancakes (including pancake tacos), French toast, crepes/waffles (including chicken n waffles) and benedicts (including lobster benedict). I settled on the croissant French toast ($14.95), and it was outstanding. You combine all the benefits of French toast with the sponginess of a croissant. They were so good you could eat them without butter or syrup.
If you don’t want something sweet, try one of the bowls. They come with two eggs, a choice of potato and a choice of toast (including English muffin and biscuit). Among the choices were the pollo bowl ($16.95), with grilled chicken, feta cheese, spinach, asparagus and other toppings, and the shamrock bowl ($16.95), with corned beef hash and Swiss cheese.
I chose the beef short rib bowl ($19.95), which came with sautéed mushrooms, green onions and melted white cheddar cheese curds. The dish was bland but helped by the demi-glace, which added a bit of savoriness.
Non-breakfast items are available, too. The 2nd Breakfast Burger ($15.95) was big and meaty with a nice amount of cheddar cheese, two big strips of bacon and an egg on top. Unfortunately, my burger patty was over-charred, so many bites tasted burnt. Also, I upgraded to onion rings for $2.50 more and was sad to see that I only got five onion rings. At least they were crispy and delicious.
Other lunch items include a salmon BLT ($16.95) and a patty melt ($15.95).
Both the Madison and Sun Prairie locations of Golden Nest serve breakfast and lunch every day.
Tags: American, near west, Sun Prairie
