Mar. 11, 2009 - Issue #699: Witch
Madison’s Grill
Dressing them up: Madison's Grill misses the mark during Downtown Dining Week
Downtown Dining Week is a promotion that encourages diners to satisfy their hunger pangs at some of Edmonton’s downtown restaurants. From March 6 to 15, you can choose from a special menu at as many of the 23 participating restaurants as you want. It’s a fixed price menu, it runs during both lunch and dinner and it’s supposed to be something of a deal.
The promotion, with its promise of innovative menus at bargain-ish prices, hooked me, and I found myself intrigued by the thought of dining at Madison’s Grill.
But from the moment I stepped into the grandiose, stately room, I felt somewhat inadequate. My heels weren’t quite high enough, my hair wasn’t coiffed enough and my fake diamonds didn’t shine bright enough.
The long rectangular room is elegant, sophisticated and imposing and so were most of the diners, sitting with impeccably straight backs in dark leather chairs. Everything was grand. The tables, covered with pristine white linens, were set up in precise and orderly rows, and even the huge white pillars and oversized ferns were meticulously placed. The rich coffee-coloured walls did lend a touch of warmth, but the whole effect never once threatened to cross over into cozy and intimate territory.
We were seated in the middle of room and presented with our menus. I glanced at the regular menu, but I was there for the Dining Week menu. For $50, you get to choose between two appetizers, three entrées and two desserts. It was a quick decision. I wanted the Roasted Squash and Beet Salad, the Grilled Salmon, and the Espresso Crème Brulee.
I made my husband order off the regular menu. Sometimes special deals also mean special portion sizes, and I couldn’t resist conducting a little experiment.
While my husband pondered, we ordered two glasses of the lovely Dona Paula Malbec ($10 a glass). Our somewhat reserved waiter took our order courteously enough, but first impressions were of someone who might have taken their training a bit too seriously.
My husband finally decided that the Madison’s House Salad ($10) and the Grilled Elk Striploin ($41) might make worthy comparison material, and it just so happened that they were also what he felt like eating.
We placed our order with our perfunctory waiter and tried rather unsuccessfully to settle in comfortably. We were still trying when two salads appeared before us. Mine was served on a humble rectangular plate. My husband’s, served on a much grander square plate, dwarfed mine—a lot.
Aside from size, neither was particularly thrilling. I found a few squash spears and possibly even fewer baby beets nestled in a puddle of dill-speckled yogurt. “Living greens” were scattered overtop, and the whole thing was drizzled with a sweet-and-sour vinaigrette. The promised pistachios didn’t even make an appearance, and the squash was disturbingly crunchy.
The salad that occupied the space in front of my husband was undeniably bigger, but not better. The dried blueberries and spicy pine nuts helped a bit, but the long stems on the various pieces of greens didn’t.
My salmon arrived sitting atop a stew of potatoes, shrimp, scallops and mussels. It looked every bit as impressive as the elk that was taking centre stage across the table from me. And if it hadn’t been overcooked and dry, it might have been very good. The soupy broth, teeming with flavour, did a respectable job of adding a bit of needed moisture, though.
The elk, on the other hand, was beautifully tender and the potato hash scattered underneath it did a marvelous job of soaking up all the juices.
Dessert, while elegantly presented, also ended up being a bit underwhelming. The dark chocolate/espresso ganache was intense and silky, but when our spoons dipped down a bit further, they met with a Bailey’s layer that seemed slightly curdled.
I guess you could say the little annoyances sprinkled throughout the night added to the experience. Water glasses that weren’t refilled as requested, finished plates that languished far too long, a late quality check on our very-nearly-finished dinners …
When you spend $137.55 before tip, dinner should be astoundingly memorable.
I quite like my world without Madison’s. But I still have time to find a downtown restaurant or two that might fit in it nicely. V
Mon - Thu (7 am - 10 am & 11 am - 10 pm);
Fri (7 am - 10 am & 11 am - 11 pm);
Sat (8 am - 11 am & 5 pm - 11 pm);
Sun (8 am - 11 am & 5 pm - 10 pm)
Madison’s Grill
10053 Jasper Ave, 780.401.2222
More info about Madison’s Grill →
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