Oliver’s Public House

I love this place for Brunch and for after-​work Happy Hours. Oliver’s truly excels at both and has become one of my favorite haunts for an incredible breakfast, and unreal Bloody Mary, and a really great happy hour (with superb snacks).
Pro tips:
+ Sit at the bar
+ Get a bloody mary. They have perfected their recipe, and it is Madison’s best (IMHO).
+ Be aware that most of the breakfast egg dishes come with hollandaise
+ Go for happy hour
+ Build your own cheese/​charcuterie plate & pair it with an awesome beverage
+ Order the warm mixed nuts — there’s a ton of them, and they’re a bargain (and delish)

Just had a great dinner – warm bread, trout and salmon entrees at our table, followed by chocolate mousse… with excellent service from a waiter named Oliver (no kidding)!

This place is pretty terrific. There’s a lovely bar – the bartender was a sweetie. I love the window seating. The restaurant was spotless.
Focaccia served with honey and sea salt butter is food crack… so addictive. I ordered the chicken sandwich, not expecting much and just hoping for something kinda healthy. It had Penterman’s «Marieke» Gouda, rhubarb, greens and a house bun. It was delicious! It was served with a salad which was fresh. Dessert was a chocolate beet cake with chevre ice cream, fig balsamic jam and candied tarragon. It was okay.
Staff were great. The server was very personable and professional.
I recommend this place. I really enjoyed the experience.

Fantastic food, laid-​back atmosphere. All around a wonderful Sunday morning brunch experience!

Brunch at Oliver’s is much better than their dinner offerings. I dig the atmosphere here and recommend it for gatherings with friends– you’ll actually be able to hear one another. The drinks are pretty good (they obviously care a lot about the bar situation), so don’t pass up a chance to partake.

Another outstanding meal and service! Our party of six family members were well cared-​for by Oliver; highly attentive, jovial and patient with us. The new menu features a wonderful braised beef cheek that I highly recommend. My son let me steal a taste of the porcetta which I want next time we dine there. Be sure to save room for dessert, the apple fritters are outstanding!
Thanks for a delightful Holiday meal, Chef!

BEST. BREAKFAST. SANDWICH. EVER.
Your choice of bacon, ham or portobello «bacon» plus one perfectly cooked sunny side up egg plus the most delicious garlic aioli ever plus your choice of cheddar, Swiss or brick. I had the bacon and cheddar and whoa, drrrroooooolllll. Delicious to the max. I’ve never had so much bacon included on a bfast sammie before! There had to been 5 – 6 slices. Swoon. Plus it was some of the highest quality bacon I’ve ever had. It comes with your choice of potatoes or salad. The salad was fresh.
This was my first stop in and I will definitely be back. Homemade pastries, Collectivo coffee and Radiohead (even the obscure stuff) playing in the background. Friendly waitstaff. What’s not to love?!

Recommended by FB friends when I asked for suggestions. I would also recommend this place too.
Easy parking on the street and I think there’s also parking off to the side. Staff are very friendly and nice. Everyone helps out. Nice place for a meet and not noisy at all. No décor and settings.
Food was good. Soup du jour was delicious! The tuna bruschetta was good in taste and ok in presentation. It is basically everything as described on a toasted slice of bread. I didn’t know how to eat it. Without cutting, things fell off the bread unless I held it horizontally to eat. I also have a small mouth.
I made the error to cut it into fours. The bread is only hard around the edges. The center is very soft and everything fell onto the plate. :-(tip — fold it in half and open up the mouth.
I had expected bruschetta as small pieces of toasted bread slices with stuff on top. That would have made this dish perfect!
Everything tasted good, even the coffee. Not salty with balanced taste, I.e. Nothing over powering the other.
Nicely done!

Liked this place a ton. Went with friends for brunch.
I first noticed the lack of a 90 minute wait, like most places in downtown madison, and the warm and cozy feeling of the interior due to all the wood décor.
The sun lit up the place, the collectivo coffee rocked, and my breakfast Sandwich was served with… thick cut bacon!!! Awesome! They’ve got vegetarian options, twists on classics, biscuits and brat gravy come on, various forms of eggs benedict and about 6 things you’ll want to try all at once.
The service was happy and at just the right place, they let us chat about for and couple of hours and never rushed us. I will be back to try their dinner options as well as the bar, in the near future.

The dinner descriptions say BLAH WAH WAH but flavor says YAAASSS MAMA!!!
Even the pork chop knocked my socks off! I don’t know about you, but I think pork chops are usually pretty sad and dull and meh.
Think Merchant quality when you think cocktails. The signature list is strong — a bit on the sweet side for me, but the bar staff is on point and ready to mix up something different and exactly to your liking.
The décor is classy and the atmosphere is chill. I’ve never had to wait for a table. The servers are friendly and they might bust your (pork) chops just a bit.

All right, brunch lovers, listen up! I have good news to share. I met a friend for brunch yesterday and she recommended we go to Oliver’s. It was my first time there and from the minute I stepped in the door, I knew she had led me in a classy yet relaxed & very tasty direction.
Our server, who’s name happened to be Oliver (I know! What are the chances…), was attentive and lovely and patient and helpful in a very balanced & nuanced way. We really appreciated him. Our coffee cups never went cold and he had great ideas on what to order. I also want to make note that they make all their own meats, in house, people! Pretty great!!! And boy howdy, is it wildly apparent.
Their corned beef and hash, wow! The meat just fell apart and my friend was practically silent as she happily ate her meal. I’ll be getting that next time. I ordered Willi’s Omelet which has sweet, caramelized shallots, thick-​cut, house-​made bacon, spinach, tiny bits of apple and cheddar inside with a luscious, but light chive hollandaise drizzled over the top. The omelet was insane. INSANE! One of the best I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot of omelets. Just sayin’.
Along with that I got the rosti potatoes and some lightly dressed greens. The potatoes were just okay for me. They are finely shredded potatoes, not very flavorful, that were dark on the outside and stacked a bit too thick so they weren’t as evenly finished inside as I would have liked. But they were all right and I had added cheddar to them so that helped. Next time I’ll get the roasted potatoes instead. Now that I think of it, Oliver recommended the roasted, but I was apparently too curious about the rosti. Next time. And there will be a next time. Oh yes!

Am I eating in someone’s Pottery Barn condo?
Food was predictable. Prices are presumptuous. The space is semi soul-​crushing. I mean, it’s just really boring for a «public house».
They do have ginger beer on tap for drinks which is cool but the booze pours are more Utah and less Wisconsin. Cheese plate is decent, speaking of obligatory Wisco Unilocal comments.
If you moved the entire place to Willy St for a year, made it smoke every day and then put it on a truck back to Its current location it may be closer to a public house than a hotel lobby bar. At that point everything tastes and feels better.
Probably too harsh, but I’m growing tired of these contrived, street-​level condo restaurants with little soul.

Healthy food, good size portions (not too much)!
Went for 2^nd time: tried churros again, this time was deep fried! I think it would be better to fry the dough a bit less. The espresso ice cream was very good! I also had cappuccino, which was awesome!
Went for 3^rd time: smoked trout omelette; very good! Loved the side salad; very fresh ingredients!

I arrived at Oliver’s quite skeptical… A review of their website had turned up a 14 dollar «children’s pre fixe,» which struck me as crazy and fussy. But we left the kids at home and had a lovely meal. (I think now that might be a ploy to keep the numbers of kids low, which is fine!)
The cocktail menu is a delight to read, with inventive twists on standards. The beer selection is very solid.
All our dishes were delightful. My porkchop entrée was absolutely delicious. A dining companion was pleased with the trout. Another dinner found the salmon special to be a little overly acidic.
I want to make special mention of how wonderful the service was. Our waiter was familiar and confident with the food and drink menus. He looped by the vicinity of the table to see if we needed anything but never once interrupted the flow of our conversation. That is so incredibly rare these days.
Oliver, you won me over. We’ll be back!

With its commitment to using high quality local ingredients and its hip setting on Old University Avenue, Oliver’s is brimming with potential. While I did not dislike any of the components from my recent dining experience, I just didn’t feel the quality of my meal justified the high price tag.
Oliver’s oozes casual elegance, from the gleaming zinc bar that catches your eye the moment you walk into the restaurant to the slow lighting and black and white pictures of rural Wisconsin. It is a casual enough setting to stop by after work for a cocktail, but dressed up enough to be a date night destination.
I also give high marks to the service staff. A host warmly greeted my guest and me and promptly seated us. Our splendid server kept a close eye on our table throughout the meal, clearing dishes, checking beverage levels and the like.
Oliver’s executive chef Patrick McCormick honed his craft under the tutelage of Heritage Tavern’s Dan Fox and Nostrano’s Tim Dahl. Under his direction, the restaurant employs a farm to table philosophy, utilizing products from Keewaydin Organic Farms in Viroqua, beef from Iowa’s Grass Run Farms and pork from Fox Valley Berkshire
As I mentioned in my intro, while the food was above average, it was not at all memorable. My dining companion ordered the roast beef sandwich with cheddar, caramelized onions, and horseradish sauce. The roast beef had a satisfying deep sear. However, the sandwich came with no sides and cost $ 11.
Kudos to Oliver’s for offering Wisco Pop’s ginger brew — I am a huge fan of this invigorating beverage.
I ordered a bowl of the garlic potato soup ($ 8), a small house salad ($ 5) and an order of the house-​made focaccia with honey butter (4 half slices for $ 3). The soup, topped with asparagus coulis, smoked trout, crispy leeks, lacked the richness and depth of flavor that I am accustomed to in other renditions of this soup. The fishy smoked salmon overwhelmed the other flavors of the dish and the pittance of crispy leeks meant the soup lacked much in the way of texture. While the house salad was a feast for the eyes, I longed for textural variety and a more imaginative dressing. The satisfying, freshly made focaccia provided the meal with some textural contrast and offered up flavor from well-​made, slow fermented bread. My only beef was the $ 3 price tag. With the top shelf pricing utilized by Oliver’s, they should consider offering a complimentary basket of bread. My lunch for two, with one non-​alcoholic beverage, set me back $ 37 (with tip). While I’m OK paying a premium for exceptional quality, I do not feel Oliver’s product is worthy of the hefty price tag.
Oliver’s offers its happy hour from 3 to 6 Monday — Friday, featuring $ 5 Old Fashioneds, $ 6 pours of Columbia Crest wine and $ 4 Mules and Bucks (with Wisco Pop Ginger Beer, suh-​weet). The happy hour food options also are intriguing (smoky butter popcorn, crispy squishy buns and poutine with brat gravy). With the happy hour pricing of the food and drinks, this may be the best opportunity to enjoy the talents of Chef McCormick without completing depleting your wallet.

This place is our consistent go-​to spot for a nice dinner out where we know everyone is going to enjoy their food. No worries about someone being disappointed here — all the dinner entrees we’ve tried have been great. Oliver’s can definitely compete with the downtown restaurants despite their more off-​the beaten path location. They do accept reservations with the exception of their outdoor seating which is first-​come first-​served.
There are two vegetarian entrees, the buckwheat crepes ($ 14) are my favorite. The veggies are fresh, not overly cooked and not overly greasy (win win). The mister loves the mac n’ cheese (I can confirm, it is quite good) and is also a super fan of the pan roasted trout. We normally have stuck to beer (they’ve got a nice selection) but the cocktail list also looks great. My teetotaler friend (she is expecting) was super excited to find a non-​alcoholic list of craft cocktails that she could enjoy as well.
With excellent food and consistently good service, this is a place I’m happy to go with out-​of-​town folks because I know everyone will leave having enjoyed the experience. No risk here, and that’s a good thing.

I finally came back here to try their dinner service for my birthday. Besides one hiccup, my boyfriend and I enjoyed our meal.
I ordered the Oaxappens in Oaxaca, which I had tried before so knew that I liked it. It’s perfectly sweet and spicy. For our appetizer we ordered a trio of cheeses recommended by our waiter. I loved all of them, and my boyfriend especially enjoyed the Bleu. It was served with poached pears which complemented it really well. I also LOVED the bandaged cheddar combined with an apple compote. They were served with some crisp crackers. It was really, really delicious.
Now comes the hiccup. My boyfriend ordered the Mac n Cheese… it was honestly gross. The noodles were too thick, sauce tasted like nothing, and I’m not sure who enjoys turkey in their mac. We really hated it. There was no essence of cheese anywhere in the dish. However we mentioned it to our waiter and he happily brought my boyfriend another entrée, the steak. Now the steak. Holy crap what a delicious meal. That is something we would come back for. I also loved the Buckwheat Crêpe I ordered. The succotash was full of brussel sprouts, asparagus and red onion, and it combined with the mascarpone into a fork full of yumminess. I would return to have it over and over again!
So, had the steak and crêpe dish not been so good, this review would have 2 less stars. However Oliver’s redeemed themselves after a disastrous mac attempt. I’ll be back to try the Brunch!

Overall: great food and good drink menu
We were excited to try this newer restaurant. The second we walked in we knew that the atmosphere was perfect for us. Even through we went to dinner at 6p on a Thursday, their dinning room was already pretty full. We didn’t mind taking a table in the bar next to the full length windows. My husband was impressed with the beer list and wished he had spent more time looking at the liquor list. Our waiter was very kind and polite. We decided to go for the monkfish and steak. They were amazingly done. The steak was savory and mouth watering. The monkfish was light but rich and the same time. To top it off we ordered the chocolate cake which was rich and heavenly.
We would definitely go back.

Perfect, and I do mean PERFECT eggs during Saturday brunch. I had the Willi’s omelette, with delicious mushrooms, Hollandaise sauce and oven roasted, herbed potatoes. I’ve never had mushrooms so flavorful, and I like the way they thinly cut the roasted potatoes.
We found easy parking because Oliver’s has rented the lot at the former Import Auto Clinic.
No trouble finding a table and had wonderful service.
We attended a Unilocal!Elite event here on St. Pat’s and it was off the charts great. Couldn’t wait to return for brunch, and so glad we did.

What a cozy spot on Old University Avenue. We went on a Friday night without reservations so it was packed but we managed to snag a bar table without too much waiting. Atmosphere is great, bustling yet welcoming at the same time. The drinks were phenomenal! While this is a tall order, their Public House Old Fashioned is arguably the best old fashioned I’ve ever had (beats Dorf Haus and Avenue Bar)! The Whiskey Smash was also outstanding and beautifully served (which I also loved).
Food was great as well. I had the scallop and shrimp appetizer as my entrée and it was outstanding and a great deal compared to the main entrees. My scallops were cooked to perfection and the grits were also to die for… not too salty and not too mushy. My husband had the steamed mussels and clams (not my cup of tea) and also said they were fantastic. Overall, great food, a fun atmosphere and KILLER drinks. We would go back just for cocktails if we couldn’t get in for dinner… what a great addition to the neighborhood!