Crandalls Restaurant Madison

What a place for brunch!! Cozy and intimate with a great view of State Street - Crandall's makes for an awesome brunch spot on Saturdays or Sundays. We had walked past the place dozens of times, never stopping in. A few weekends ago, we did - and we've been back twice since! The coffee is truly excellent. Extremely smooth, no bitterness, and not overpowering. We were told that it's an organic Peruvian coffee; regardless of what it is, it's really delicious. Expect to drink 3-4 cups while there. The brunch menu is fairly Americanized, with a few Peruvian accents. The omelets seem more like folded frittatas - a bit more browned than I'd normally prefer, but the eggs remain fluffy and the ingredients are fresh and flavorful. Love that they include lightly dressed greens on the side. Service is a bit on the relaxed side. There are times where you might sit for a bit, but you'll never feel neglected or forgotten. Seems as though they give you plenty of time to chat and enjoy your visit. There are a ton of places to eat in this area; Crandall's is near the top. Given the long lines at a nearby place, you'd be foolish to wait there when this gem is located just a few hundred yards away. Give it a try!

The waitress did just fine. We ordered 4 meals that were supposed to have avocado. None of our dishes came out with avocado. We realized about halfway through our meals so we inquired about it. The message we received from the manager was that avocados were too expensive and that we'd get 15 cents off per plate on the bill. The waitress asked if that was okay and frankly at the time we had better things to do than debate the merits of getting a 1% bill discount for missing one of the most delicious ingredients because they avocados "too expensive". When the check came I still wrote in a tip of around 18% while I was on autopilot and after a couple minutes realized that they charge automatic gratuity of 18% on groups of 4+. Ive never seen automatic gratuity on groups less than 6 before, so I guiltily scribbled out the tip since it was already there. I left kind of feeling bad about scribbling it out. I suggest going elsewhere.

Food was good but not worth the 45 minute wait from ordering to eating. The place wasn't packed, there were several open tables. We watched as others who arrived after us were served their food before we were. Our server was nice enough but it seemed like this was her first job. They really need a second restroom, the entire time we were here there was someone in there and someone waiting to go. Will not come back.

We were never greeted. There were several open dirty tables. Sat down hoping to get acknowledged, after five minutes and several passes by waitresses we were asked to move because we were sitting at a broken booth. We moved and sat for another ten minutes and several more passes from the waitresses without any further acknowledgement. Another two top came in after us and were served waters and began receiving service and we didn't get so much as a glance from the waitresses. The menu looked great! Too bad we didn't get opportunity to try it since we got tired of being ignored.

I hardly make this type of post about a local latino restaurant. However, we were trying to enjoy a good dinner tonight with my family in a restaurant well known in Madison (with many, many awards-not that it really matters) after a few hard days in the hospital. But we have one of those pretty bad experiences that I need to share. I was done with my dinner and my son was almost done with his and my husband didn't get his dinner yet! Nobody explained (until I was done with my dinner) that they made a mistake with his order. All of this after we waited for 25 minutes to get our order of drinks...so disappointed 😰...the prices of this restaurant indicate a different level of service and food. Some restaurants are overrated! By the way...we paid the whole bill for this dinner (no offer to take something off due to wait etc). We were also surprised with the rule that even for a group of 4 (it might be something only a few restaurants do) they charge you the automatic 18% gratuity in your bill. I guess, it's a good policy for the servers!