The Nitty Gritty is THE go to birthday place in Madison. You get a mug & a balloon on your birthday (you need your ID to prove it) and it comes with unlimited free soda, birthday cocktails, or tap beer and you get to keep the mug. That being said, you do have to go up to the bar for the refills - they want to make sure you can still stand up to get your beer! You also get the world's smallest chocolate sundae. They also have a great power hour from 10-11pm (or whenever they play the final countdown - get there early, there is always a line) where you get $1 high life taps, $1.50 rail mixers, and $2.50 bomb shots. Aside from all that, I love the food too. They have lots of seating and decent brunch, so it's a nice backup option if you can't get into the swanky other option you were hoping for. Their dinner is my favorite though - 2 different kinds of cheese curds and awesome burgers. You can't go wrong with the classic Gritty Burger (their gritty sauce is to die for) but they have a lot of unique and fun combinations as well as daily burger specials. A Madison staple! read more

Good burgers & friendly locals! A good time was had by all. Who needs 85 characters? Yelp is dumb for requiring 85 charters review! read more

Went for lunch while in Madison. Very disappointed with our visit. Beer was WARM! What? In Wisconsin?? Tap beer (Spotted Cow). The cheese curds were way over cooked... again, What? Onion rings were good and burger was ok... overall if you have a choice.. (tons of great places in Madison) you can do better than this place. read more

Went on a Monday night and our server was terrible to start off with. The food took about 45 min for a burger and hummus plate. There is nothing award winning about the burger. I paid $9 for hummus plate which consisted of celery, carrots and broccoli with a tiny cup of hummus. Lastly my beer was cool but definitely not cold. read more

This is a great local eats. The hamburgers are fantastic! Be sure to get them with their homemade chips as they are really tasty. They have a nice beer selection and the atmosphere is very casual. Apparently they have a birthday program so if you have a birthday you can go there and get a free drink on that day. The reason for the four-star is it was very hot in there. I am not sure if the air conditioner was not working or what, but it made it very uncomfortable. Staff was very friendly and we really enjoyed our meal. read more

Have to say we were in Madison just walking around during this Covid time. We ordered curbside pickup and were thrilled! The pickup was fast, easy and safe. The food was packed so nicely and there was a positive note on each. Oh yea and the food Was delish as expected. Don't forget this Place during our stay at home!! read more

Burgers seemed like premade patties & way overcooked....I like my burgers done but not dry and burned. Ordered the roasted garlic burger and sauce was cold. Fries were fine. So many great places to eat in Madison near this place. I hadn't been here in 20 years but I don't think I'veissed out on anything unfortunately...Server was nice and love the fun atmosphere...but the food needs work. read more

I am in Madison working at Wisconsin/Camp Randall and was told by some people that Nitty Gritty was the place to go. Food was good but service was poor. They acted really strange that I was by myself and it took about 5 minutes before someone even noticed I was waiting to be helped. I never got a refill on my water or napkins/silverware. Nobody checked on me until my meal was done. Won't recommend or return because of the service. Food was good though so it's sad the service was so bad. read more

Ate here for the first time in probably 7-10 years. My taste buds must have matured since college cause the food was pretty terrible. I ordered Jason's pork pretzel sandwich. The pork was dry and flavorless, I had to drench it in BBQ sauce to enjoy it. The fries were also not crunchy and not even the good potatoey when fries are not crunchy. Service was pretty poor as well. It was after the Badger game so understandable but food is not worth dealing with the slow service. If you're over the age of 25 you can probably pass and find a better place. If you're in college go ahead and drink your heart out with the expectation of lower than average bar food. read more

Second time here. Not bad, but not so good. I ordered BBQ chicken salad to go. Taste was good, but not fresh vegetable. Ends of vegetables, such as tomato, lettuce, were darkened. I guess they were old. Volumy, tasty, but quality was not good. Price was $13.70. Not reasonable taking quality into consideration. Staffs were nice and friendly. So they just need to improve quality of ingredients. Location is close to UWM and it takes one min by walk from double tree Hilton. read more

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Literally stood by their "please wait to be seated" sign for twenty minutes before someone finally made awkward eye contact with me and was like "waiting for something?" Update: I ordered my food forty five minutes ago and no word yet! Forty more minutes to go until close! Let's see if they get me my food before they shut down their kitchen! Further update (two or three minutes later)! Food! I'll leave a pic and you can decide whether it was worth the wait not to mention the price. About one hour and fifty minutes later, the experience is over. Claudia K. Was great, but everything else was pretty terrible. I won't likely be returning and I'll tell people to only come here only if they can find greater than two hour parking. read more

Always love this place so much. Food, atmosphere, and staff are amazing! The waffle fries are to DIE for and the shakes make life better. Definitely worth any wait, if any. You won't be disappointed! read more

I had an incredibly frustrating experience here on my birthday. I tried to use my birthday coupon to get $10 off my order of a chicken sandwich instead of a burger and the manager refused even though I've used it for that exact purpose before. The coupon just says 10.75 value. I'm no longer recommending this spot to my friends for their birthdays after this experience. This frustrating experience lead to my first ever review read more

Came here on a Thursday night for drinks - the place was very busy and vibrant. We had a large party and were seated quickly which was a plus and the service was really quick which we were grateful for. Since we were going essentially on a bar crawl and traveling through different places, I think this stop was great as the drinks were pretty decent (we had vodka cranberries and regular shots) and definitely a go-to if you're just looking for fun. My only complaint was the vodka cranberries only tasting like vodka, but some people actually prefer it that way so it wasn't a big deal. If you're ever looking for a fun night, this place is pretty good! read more

Less than impressed with the Reuben sandwich I ordered on a recent lunch visit. The corned beef, while plentiful, was dry and far too salty. The rye bread was nicely grilled, but didn't contribute much flavor. My sandwich came with a pile of fries, but they were under-cooked and over-salted. Did not feel the price of my meal ($12) was commensurate with the lackluster quality of the food. The venue was clean and well maintained. The dark wood booth was spacious and private. No issues with the service as well, I was immediately greeted and promptly seated. My server was prompt and efficient. read more

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Iconic. Don't miss this place if you're visiting Madison. Cheese curds are a must have.

Our server was great, and the food was good. I asked about a birthday mug for my 79 year old mother, whose birthday was 10 days ago, and neither host was willing to oblige. I also was declined a military discount. read more

We were seated right away. It wasn't too busy. We got onion rings and cheese curds to start. Both were tasted good. I got the Roasted Garlic Burger. It was delicious. It was garlicy and buttery. The rest of my party got the All-American Burger and The Smokehouse. They both really enjoyed their dinner. The server was nice but for it being slow, we didn't see her much. read more

Great location and yummy burgers, fun to go for power hour at night or a birthday dinner!

Went to nitty with the girls before a hockey game. Great place to get a bite to eat before heading to the Kohl center. Was disappointed that our waiter mixed up our fry requests and was defensive when we mentioned this. Warning sauce costs extra. A true Wisconsin staple and great place to celebrate a birthday. read more

Nitty Gritty - Black bean burger and chicken tenders - Bars Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

I ordered a double cheeseburger and a large order of waffle fries from Nitty Gritty on Frances St., in Madison, WI. It was a total disappointment. I had never eaten here before, but I wanted to at least try them out. The burger was soggy and sloppily thrown together. It was missing the bacon I paid over $1.50 for. Look at the pictures and see for yourself. There was no large order of fries, the burger and fries were stuffed together, where were the rest of the fries. I realized that the burger inside of a box could have caused it to get moist, but this burger could have been rang out it was so soggy. A sad disappointment. read more

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Every worker there was so nice and helpful from the host to the bartender to the servers. The menu is awesome with a relatively wide selection. I got the fish tacos, wrap, and burger and it was very very good. Shoutout to the chefs back there. Atmosphere is nice as well, great place to watch sports or just hang around. read more

Scouted this place out when we decided to take a weekend trip to Madison for my bday! Knew we had to hit it up and so glad we did! We walked in and was given a birthday balloon that the bartender ties around your complimentary beer mug! So cute and sets you aside as a birthday celebrant. You are able to drink for free, although it's strictly rum punch, a vodka punch, and draft beer. Fine by me! This place is such a fun concept! You just meet people that have the same birthday as you. It's a good conversation starter and just naturally brings camaraderie. I will definitely recommend this place to anyone going to Madison on their birthday and any bar owners in Chicago! We need one of these! read more

Nitty Gritty - Bars Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Free drinks on your birthday?! Yes you heard that right! All you can drink beer on your birthday! You also get a balloon and birthday mug! They have a wide variety of beers on tap, which is a super plus! I had an order of the cheese curds during their happy hour, so they were half off! Just basic curds but the dipping sauce was amazingly tasty! I believe it was called "Gritty" sauce. I also ordered the garlic burger which was sooooooo good! Best burger I've had in awhile! The sides were pretty basic though, I tried the French fries and cole slaw. Overall, come for the burgers and beer and definitely come out for your birthday! read more

I visited this Nitty Gritty location on my 21st birthday with a couple of friends and it was an overall pretty good experience. They give you a balloon and a mug that you get to take home, and you get to pick from a few free drink selections. We tried the soft pretzel sticks for our appetizer and they were served warm and they tasted really fresh which was great. I got the bbq pork mac and cheese for my dinner (which I've had before) and I really loved it. The mac and cheese itself was pretty basic but the bbq pork was super tender and flavorful and the onion strings and scallions really brought it to the next level. My friends got the fish tacos, chicken tenders, and the chicken bacon ranch wrap and none of them were particularly impressed with their meal. Unfortunately, the service was really lacking and although it was a Tuesday night and there seemed to be a million servers running around, our dinner took about two hours. Our waiter hardly checked on us and we asked for our checks three times before he finally brought them over 45 minutes later. We are all students and had homework to do after dinner, so this was pretty disappointing. Honestly, I probably wouldn't come here unless you are celebrating a birthday because there are plenty of better options for casual dinner fare in the area. read more

Nitty Gritty - Free birthday rum punch - Bars Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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Always a favorite. Burgers never miss, and it's a go to Birthday stop! Recommended if you're in Mad-town!

Convenient to my hotel, Food and drinks were very good and valued priced. Staff did a great job read more

We came here because we were told this was the best place for cheese curds. We ordered the curds which were tasty, but nothing to come back for. We also had the Asian chicken salad which turned out to be a completely Unexpected surprise. The salad was quite large, had a good serving of chicken, and was extremely tasty! Definitely worth trying out more of their salads and the burgers looked good too. read more

This review only pertains to the bar service. I love going here for their excellent power hour deals (10-11ish), but somehow they always mess up the cost and end up charging you more. It becomes a hassle to explain to the bartender what the correct price should be. Next time someone suggests going here for power hour I will respond with great hesitation. read more

The black and blue burger was absolute fire. I would recommend. Great place, great food, great people.

Our group had 4 adults 3 kids. It wasn't very busy so though service wasn't terrible, it also wasn't great. We were going to Lion King and figured an hour and half should be plenty of time, but it was just barely enough time. Everyone's food was good not really good enough for 5 stars. Do love the ambiance of the place when it's not packed. read more

I always like to start off with the positive. The waitress was AWESOME! Friendly, engaging, even made our kids feel welcomed. They split a milkshake and the waitress brought out two full ones! That's was super nice of her and both kids got their fill. My wife and I both got burgers which were seasoned beautifully and tasted great on their own. I had the Pretzel Bender Burger and glad I got the pub mustard on the side, it was too strong for the burger in my opinion. The cheese was spot on, added bacon and all in all, was a good burger. Places where I feel the Nitty Gritty missed the mark? The cheese curds and onion rings (part of the burger) tasted like they were fresh out of a plastic bag, pre-frozen, nothing spectacular and kind of disappointing when you look at where you are, in Madison, WISCONSIN..... Would we go back? Yeah... would it be our first choice? Not for Cheese Curds. read more

My wife and I came to the nitty gritty for dinner. I had the smokehouse burger and my wife had he Rueben both were excellent. Highly recommend both sandwiches. read more

Came in with a large group, around 40 after a youth hockey game. We sat upstairs and the food was great. Service could have been a little quicker as the kids got their meals when the adults were almost finished but it wasn't a big deal for us. Would recommend and we will be back! read more

Found this place on Google. Outdoor seating available but bit too hot to eat outside. Asked to sit upstairs but section was closed due to COVID. 9 in our group so had to split us up 2 different tables which was not ideal. Just drove 2 hours so were taking our time to order but waiter was on the pushy side, was impatiently waiting for our decisions. Felt rushed, menu was little confusing. Son ordered hamburger with mac & cheese, came out as a deconstructed hamburger helper. Little disappointed since wasn't explained very well. Nachos supreme was just that. Didn't get guac and sour cream til half the meal was over though. Other son and my daughter got buffalo wings and LOVED them! Wait for food was long. read more

Nitty Gritty - Bars Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

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I am from out of town on business and this seemed to be the closest place to the hotel open on a monday night so decided to go w my colleague. Ok maybe their burgers are good etc but o ordered the chicken cobb salad for 16.00! Some Lettuce was wilted and forgot to put on avocado and hard boiled egg which 2 important things for a cobb. Waitress said new cook in training and said sorry. She was super nice and took off 3.00 per salad. Anyway not much lettuce and chicken was very bland as it needed seasoning. Very sad salad and would give this place 0 stars but wings were decent, dressing was good and waitress was super nice. If you are here on business do your self a favor and go elsewhere. Just my 2 cents read more

I so badly wanted to absolutely fall in love with this place and give it a shining review! BUT unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. Walking in, the staff was very friendly, we were seated quickly and the environment was very lively. A great place for all ages if you ask me. Looking at the menu I was STOKED to see such farm fresh options in which everything is labeled to tell you where the meat and cheese is coming from. As a small farmer myself, that was something I could really appreciate. The menu is mostly burgers which is actually why we chose the location, because at the time, that is what we were craving. However, there are plenty of other options as well! We both excitedly ordered the farmers market burger and when asked how we would like a burgers done we both chose medium rare. While waiting on our food we ordered drinks. This is where things started to get disappointing... I ordered a bud light and it tasted very sour, I explained to the waitress and she shared that sometimes it happens with items on draft because their bar is two stories. She quickly replaced my beer with a bottled one and all was well. Then, our food arrived. The flavors were good but not all there. They burger just did not live up to the full potential that it could have been. The amount of cheese on the burger was so small that the bread absorbed it all so you didn't get that creamy and slight bitterness of a Boursin cheese the contrast with the sweetness of the bacon onion jam, which was delightful I would like to add. Sadly, both of our burgers came out VERY well done (aka very dry) (we ordered medium rare). just a tip: the burger doesn't come with veggies so I highly recommend ordering them in order to add some texture and acidity to the amount of meat that is on the burger. After we ate, the waitress came by to check on us and we explained that we would like to order another drink before leaving it we hadn't decided on one yet, she said she would give us some time and come back and check on us.. it was over 30 minutes before we saw her again. She was up at the bar talking to friends and walked past our table a handful of times to pick up other checks but NEVER checked on us again. After waiting all of that time and attempting to get her attention, we were finally able to flag her down. We had not had any problems with the service up to that point but it really was the final straw after being disappointed with the drinks, and the food. I just wish I could of been everything I know it is capable of being. The idea is there, but the execution is not. read more

A group of five of us went in to the bar after a concert, and we were incredibly impressed with the service, effficiency, the accuracy, and the drinks. Our bartenders were Gavin, Henry, and Skyler. Additionally, the manager Michael was amazing. What a great experience! Keep it up! read more

Stopped by this place after finishing the Madison Mini Marathon for a little post-race fatting as I like to call it. There wasn't much going on that day, but I can see that this would be a great place to stop by on a Saturday afternoon during football season to watch the games and have a beer. The food itself was pretty good, the cheese curds were great, and the nitty gritty sauce that they have to dip it in is the stuff that dreams are made of (well, at least what my dreams are made of). The burger that I got was pretty good, although I had buyer's remorse for not getting a burger that had the nitty gritty sauce on it. The fries were okay, although I did like how they brought a cup of ranch out for dipping without even asking me (it's like they know me--and I had never even been to Wisconsin before). Assuming I wind up in Madison again, I would definitely look this place up for another burger and another chance at those cheese curds. read more

Nitty Gritty - Garlic burger and fries. - Bars Near Me - Madison, Wisconsin

Been here 23 years in a row. Always fun. Hit every kind of crowd. Have every style and color of glass. Food is great as is the staff. Yearly my one beef is announce our fricking names on the p.a. Every year I'm here two hours and I'm lucky to hear my name either zero or one time minimum!! They do not announce hourly like they say. Marsh would do it every half hour if we asked him. So management, get on this!!!! I'm writing this review as I sit here waiting and waiting for my group to cheer my name called!!!! Oh, and what happened to the song that was played all the time called "Happy birthday, happy birthday, hap hap hap hap Birthday to you!" Bring that back! read more