FOOD
77 Square is the definitive arts, culture and entertainment guide for Madison, Wis., and the surrounding area.
Tasty pub fare at Tilted Kilt
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My male companion called it Hooters Light.
"It's really pretty tame," said my old college friend as we took in the Tilted Kilt in all its sad glory.
The small restaurant chain, which first opened in 2003 inside a Las Vegas hotel and casino, hypes its scantily clad, knee-high sock-wearing, midriff-exposing female waitstaff.
"In this day and age, you see a lot more skin at the beach -- or at the Madison pool. Let's be honest here," he said.
It's sort of an Irish/Scottish/English/sports bar take on Hooters, where the young waitresses wear short, plaid kilts with matching plaid bras or bikini tops under white half-shirts tied to show off their chests and bellies.
The Tilted Kilt is not a household name like Hooters. In fact, on two occasions, while looking up the restaurant online, I typed, "Twisted Kilt" once and "Tilted Quilt" another time.
Our waitress, Mallory, was the cutest of the servers, and looked like the proverbial girl next door. She was also as nice as the girl next door, and gave us excellent service.
A bigger surprise, however, was the quality of the food. The Longshank's platter ($11.99) was excellent, consisting of three braised sausages sitting in a maple mustard vinaigrette and topped with sauteed red and green peppers and onions. All the components worked well together. The only disappointment was a large pile of garlic mashed potatoes that had cold pockets, little or no garlic flavor, and had to be doused with salt.
My companion's meatloaf ($10.99) was also better than expected. It was served with the same sauteed red and green peppers and onions, which enhanced the meat. The meatloaf was covered with a thick layer of delicious sauce made from San Marzano plum tomatoes, widely considered to be the best sauce tomatoes in the world. It came with a generous helping of the same dull mashed potatoes on the side.
Both of our meals arrived on dramatic, black double platters and were served quickly.
Diners can elect to have a cup of chili or side salad for $2.49 with any entree or sandwich. The full-flavor chili was packed with meat, served very hot, and was definitely worth ordering. The salad was ample, a nice mix of greens with red and green peppers, white onions, tomatoes and grated mozzarella, and not overly dressed.
On a visit two nights later, our waitress, Amber, had a different look than our first server. A buxom woman with long, two-toned hair and multiple piercings and tattoos, she was gorgeous and also provided great service.
Sticking this time to the more casual side of the menu, the food was good, not great. The Sloppy Jane ($8.99) was perfectly fine, with roasted turkey, Swiss cheese and homemade coleslaw served on a soft bun with Thousand Island dressing. Sloppy was a misnomer. There was little discernible dressing and the sandwich was actually slightly dry. It came with thin, crisp, better-than-average fries.
The personal-sized pizza was also respectable. The Kamana-Wana-Lei-U ($7.99) with pineapple, bacon and mozzarella cheese had a juvenile name (say it out loud), but was otherwise hard to fault. There are five other specialty pizzas or you can build your own.
The restaurant opened in April in the old T.G.I. Friday's spot across from West Towne Mall, and like its most recent predecessor, Peppermill Grill, is pretty plain from the outside. It draws a young, mostly male crowd (no surprise) and was doing pretty well on both a Monday and Wednesday night, where Peppermill Grill struggled on the weeknights.
I'm not crazy about the restaurant's layout, with a raised bar area in the center, surrounded by booths and tables. The walls have been painted Kelly green and there are comfortable, green upholstered booths and chairs. I counted about 10 televisions tuned to the Brewers game but there may have been more.
A meal at the Tilted Kilt isn't complete without the Tilted Guilt ($5.99). The restaurant offers four desserts, but none as tempting as the Tilted Guilt, a half-baked chocolate chip cookie served hot from the oven and topped with vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup. The mix of hot and cold is intense, and richly satisfying.
My companion had a few bites and seemed appalled that I proceeded to finish the whole thing.
"That's got to be like 5,000 calories," he pointed out. "That is more decadent than the scenery."
TILTED KILT
Address: 420 Gammon Place
Phone: 826-5554
Web site: www.tiltedkilt.com
Hours: 11 a.m. until midnight Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Notes: Large parking lot; wheelchair accessible; no personal checks accepted; no smoking.