The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company

Came in around noon for some lunch. The waitress made it very obvious she was unhappy. She spent most of her time flirting with the Bartender. We were never given menus before she asked to take our order. Then she gave us the regular menus and got mad and frustrated with us when we tried to order food because they only had their brunch menu available. Refused to give us straws when asked. tried asking for a refill of water so many times, but she completely ignored every attempt. I only got my water refilled after she brought me my bill. I got the fish tacos, taste was ok but they only give you enough sauce for one taco. I was so disappointed in the fact that they were served in a bowl on top of rice and beans. All the bean juice soaked in to the shells and made them impossible to eat normally . I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that I had to pay over $10 for a kids menu when it was 4 dried nasty Dino nuggets. And I was charged extra for ranch that we did not ask for. Will never be coming to this place again.

Ordering from the bar because no one approaches the table after a long time sitting, to get the most undrinkable cocktail ever, I had to ask another bartender from the other floor to remake it and thank her I was able to drink it, you must know if you want to be having a drink in the bar by the pool tables the bartenders ARE NOT GOING TO CARE about you.

Atmosphere: 2

Service: 2

We've heard so much about Wisconsin and its cheese curds, and we looked forward to trying some. We found The Great Dane Pub & Brewing through a Google search, specifically for fried cheese curds. The menu items look great, I wanted to try everything. We got the cheese curds for our appetizer. To our surprise, they were on the crunchier-hard end, barely tasting the cheese. We thought it was the norm for fried cheese curds until we tried cheese curds the next day at a different restaurant, and they were amazing!
My brisket Mac & Cheese, the pastas were too el dentê and the brisket slices were hard and dried. It would have tasted better if the brisket was shredded with a little BBQ sauce or even simmered in some sauce, then baked with pasta and cheese.
My house salad with ranch dressing was delicious. Nothing beats a house ranch. You guys did great with that! Next time, I would like to try the pot pie. My friend had it, and he said it was delish along with the side of cinnamon apples.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

Extremely disappointed! Great Dane used to be one of my favorite places in Madison to eat, so I was shocked when I came in this weekend and discovered the changes to their food menu. No more brussels sprouts, which was genuinely the best appetizer on their menu. No more poutine either, which would have been a very close second place, especially with winter coming up.

I ordered the mac and cheese, which I've had multiple times over the years, and discovered they now make it completely differently, and not in a good way. The cheese sauce that I asked for to dip my pretzel in was watery and chalky. The sauce on the cheese was clumpy and very poorly mixed. They even switched to using a different kind of noodles, which wouldn't be a problem except the new noodles end up extremely crunchy on the top of the dish and soggy and overdone on the bottom. It's obvious the kitchen hasn't taken these changes into account when making the food. My partner ordered the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich and found the sauce on it is different than it used to be, which makes the sandwich taste awful. The jambalaya my friend ordered also tasted totally different, very mild with very little spice.

Just extremely disappointed in the kitchen at GD and its obvious downgrade in quality. We will not be coming back to eat there again.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 4

Varied menu, including vegetarian options. Great beer, of course. The "bergamot frucht weisse" was a special treat -- cheers to the brewmaster!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

LOVE this place! Owners and staff are "Top Notch" and beyond comparison!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Old Glory Cheese Curds, Crispy Seared Brussels Sprouts

Very personable, attentive server with lots of refills on drinks. Loved that they had a gluten sensitive menu. (Make sure you ask for it.) Had a Reuben with salad. Everything was hot and freshly made. Husband loved the Mayan chicken wrap and West African chicken stew. Delicious ? Will return.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The two bartenders are not enjoyable! It wasn’t busy but they never checked on us and seemed bothered by being asked by other customers and even staff to do their jobs. Frankly, they shouldn’t work at a place called The Great Dane. Dogs are friendly. They should work at a place called The Cat Shack because cats are snobby and unfriendly. They will push your drink off the edge of the bar and still charge you. That would totally be these two bartenders. lol.

Atmosphere: 1

Service: 1

Such a great atmosphere, could spend days in here.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

the beer itself was pretty decent, I tried their stout and scotch ale - the latter was particularly good. the bar service, however, was seriously lacking. had to wave vigorously and raise my voice to almost shouting level several times to simply get noticed, although the place wasn't that crowded. the guy's pour was also extremely terrible (see the pic, like who tf pours stouts like this?!).

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 1

My husband and I stopped here for drinks on a Sunday evening. We snagged a seat in the garden area which is lovely and quiet. The beer menu has a variety of options and we enjoyed everything we sampled. We ordered a plate of cheese curds and they were phenomenal. Service was excellent, even as the place filled up in the dinner hour.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Old Glory Cheese Curds

came in after a Badger game. it was busy but we got seated right away. we then waited over 30 minutes for anyone to even come to the table. we sent someone up to the host stand to see if our server had been notified we were sat or just to get some waters. server came over shortly after with little apology. we figured food would take a while since it was busy, no problem. we didn’t expect to get a nacho app that was clearly under the heat lamp for a long time, and 3 out of the 4 main dishes that were room temp. 1 dish was piping hot and anything from the fryer was cold. the float person was more helpful than the server. they brought our food and took away dirty dishes.
it would be a great place to just grab a beer. the staff are not prepared to serve tables or cook food.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 1

The cheese curds that were served to us were straight up room temp. They had probably been sitting out for more than an hour. I let our server know when she eventually came back to the table but she was not really all that concerned. Asked if we actually wanted her to have her manager discount them. I was surprised at the lack of concern. Our sandwiches were mediocre, we had to ask twice for some napkins, and our drinks ran dry. Maybe we just got them on an off night but it just wasn't a good experience at all.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 1

Service: 2

The Nashville hot chicken is amazing and the staff are friendly, would definitely recommend grabbing some food and drinks from here.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Potato Fries

A true Madison staple! Later at night on the weekends during the school year it is a bar bar, but it's nice that the restaurant and bar area are separate so it's a great dinner spot anytime.

I'm always shocked how they're able to nail seemingly all of their dishes despite having an eclectic menu, highly recommend for any mood you're in.

The bar area has TVs and bar games (lots of pool tables, darts, etc.) and they make a wide range of tasty beers.

Parking will always be tricky as they're right off the square. It's a really big place so there is almost always available seating.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5