Pooley’s

Nice little sports bar with pool tables and various bar games. As a sports fan, I liked the memorabilia that is spread across the walls. A nice craft beer selection and decent bar food (burgers + fries). Although I was only visiting the area for a few days, this place definitely seemed like the neighborhood hangout bar. I enjoyed the vibe, and would go back.

Great food, good-​looking bar, unfortunate racial experience.
The Good — The food. I love the burgers here. I got the Wake Up Burger and requested the egg to be runny. It was perfect. I’d always recommend the burgers to anyone who asks. Tater tots always come out nice and crispy as well.
The Bad — My friend was accused of stealing peanuts by one bartender when the other bartender had previously given it to him. We were charged, but we let it go. No big deal, just a misunderstanding probably.
Then, we were told that if anyone pukes, the bartender was done serving us because he had to clean it up last time. None of my friends ever recalled this incident.
NO, we do not look alike. NO, we certainly do not act alike either. I’m sorry you had a bad experience cleaning up someone’s puke, but don’t racially profile us that it was us, or that we’d do the same thing. Would you say that to every white person that comes in? Very unfortunate and very unfair. Very disrespectful. If he would have said, «if anyone pukes, I will not serve,» that is understandable to me. The second part of what he said has very different context to it.
We came to this bar because it was a friend’s birthday and he chose to come here because we’ve had good experiences prior.
I’ve had good experiences here prior so I will not let this one cloud my judgement. I would still come back. However, I do think others who wish to read this review need to know what could potentially happen to them.

It’s like a sports museum. Great memorabilia. Perfect place to catch a Badger game. Cold beer and good mixers. We had the wings… great homemade blue cheese. Will come back for sure.

Weak tap beer line up. Marginal service levels. Cluttered «sports» pub. Take a look at the layers of dust on all the helmets on display — now thats impressive! Why do people hold gatherings here?!

This is THE greatest sports bar I’ve ever been in. So much memorabilia to see. Justin was our server today. Justin was attentive and had a great personality. Ordered chili, which is homemade, and was served piping hot and was very tasty. My BLT was solid, and the fries were crispy and enjoyable. We will definitely be returning.

Previous reviews were spot on with the «not your average sports bar.». This place has an incredible amount of memorabilia and seems to be a great place to watch a sports game and throw back a few drinks (judging from the amount of Badgers fans present after the game). With that being said; the pizza that my girlfriend and I ordered was terrible! Costing $ 25… I was expecting something of decent quality, but was presented with what was the worst pizza experience in my life. Not only was it under cooked and soggy, but there was something different with the sausage and mushroom (sour taste). My girlfriend immediately felt sick and only ate one piece. I hate to judge on just one experience because I understand it really depends on the staffing, but if I do ever return; it will definitely not be for the food.

I’m not sure I would just call this your typical sports bar. This is more of an unusual sports bar amusement park. While it may look busy when you first arrive due to all the cars parked in the lot, the place is pretty big. The bar zigzags around with these soda fountain type bar stools. Then there’s large tables all around, TV’s everywhere. A dining area on the second floor. All types of local sports and Big 10 memorabilia, banners, helmets, caps, jerseys, etc.
As far as food, they have a nice selection of bar food. Regarding beer, they could do a bit better. Some nice local brews including New Glarus. I switched from Hopalicious to Alpha King in a bottle which I was told is very hard to get. They have drink specials every day. Mostly on certain mixed drinks and standard brews like Bud/​Bud light. I had their buffalo wings where they give you 8 wings, but no celery/​carrots. The bleu cheese or ranch on the side is to dip your wings if they’re too spicy. They had a nice dry rub with an excellent seasoning possibly with a little smoke added. Very crisp, meaty and tasty. It’s nice to have flavor and spice without the sloppy sauce all over your fingers.

Kipps food never fails to impress! Everything on his menu is delicious. Teriyaki wings were SO GOOD.

Great pub food. They pour great mixed Drinks. Friendly bar keepers. Josh and Monica are terrific bartenders.
If you love sporting events this place has televisions everywhere.
They can host large groups anytime but I would recommend you call ahead so they are ready for you!!!
Burgers are great. The wings are off the chain. BW3 wishes their wings were this good. Great sauce selection too. If that is not what you are looking for try the grilled chicken Caesar salad better than a lot of sit down places.

Ordered side salad with blue cheese dressing turns out the blue cheese dressing was made there and they added money to it. wasn’t much Blue cheese in it. Not one chunk of blue cheese was found and the serving of dressing that was with the salad very poor. Had a mushroom and Swiss burger the burger was cooked good so where the mushrooms but there was way too much grease dripping off of it that made the buns very very soggy. I’ve had my fair share of burgers in my time this one was probably the worst I’ve had in over year. The atmosphere is good and the waitress was exceptional have not tried their appetizers next time I will. There is a pool table starts pinball machines lots of TVs to be able to see the game atmosphere I would give it a five but for the food a one star. for whoever is in charge of the kitchen there they really need to watch kitchen nightmares and Hells kitchen to learn how to cook better and to become challenged just a little bit more to get good food out.

I’m a sports nut so I loved this place. Indoor courts, memorabilia galore, and games for most ages. Food was tasty service was well above average. Can’t wait to go back again.

I get it, I get it… Pooley’s is a sports bar. Once you get over the allure of being hit over the head with sports memorabilia up to the ceiling, you’ll notice you’re basically drinking in a repurposed utility garage meant to keep large tractors at one point. If you look at the jerseys and helmets, you will see a layer of dust caked on them; even some of the flags sag with dust. Gross.
They do have a gym attached, when I looked in they had a bunch of folding tables set up and some bag toss on one of the courts, as if celebrating someone’s birthday at the local public gym. Looked like a party on a budget.
Saving grace? The bar was shaped like a W for Wisconsin of course. There were TVs everywhere and yes, if you have a favorite sports team not from Wisconsin, you could play a little scavenger hunt and likely find your team. These things are what saved it from a one star, also — if you’re looking for a place good for groups… Pooley’s has the space.

THE WORST PLACE TO WATCH SPORTS IN MADISON!
Went here to watch the Badgers with some co-​workers since we work in the area. Waited over 1 ½ hours to receive our apps. What???
Never received an explanation, other than «The Kitchen is f*cked.».
Never will return, it is B Dubs from now on to watch any sports.

Pinball update!
Current machines are:
Addams Family, still a fav
Atlantis (Bally)
Star Trek
World Cup Soccer
Atlantis was totally new to me at this visit but it’s a really fun game for any level. Great art, great submarine sounds, a lot of fun and in great condition.

Started the day with an excellent Bloody Mary, had the Mexican Salad with blackened steak– it was awesome! It came with this awesome mozzarella filled breadstick, so tasty. All parts of my salad were fresh and well presented, the homemade chipotle ranch was perfect on it. Our table also enjoyed the pepperoni pizza and black and blue grilled chicken sandwich. The nachos at the table across from us looked spectacular! Prices were very reasonable and our waitress was very nice, a bit slow at first, but I think they were just understaffed first this this morning.
Good atmosphere, tons of sports memorabilia on the walls.

Great atmosphere for any sporting event or place to meet some friends. Large open area with plenty of seating and tv’s.

I had been to Pooley’s only once prior to this past Saturday. I really have no desire to return ever again.
My roommates and I had heard they have some pinball machines, and wanted to check that out. Who doesn’t love pinball?! Well, their pinball machines ares mostly pretty lame. The only machine worthy of your time or money is the Star Trek machine, which is pretty awesome. The others aren’t so great. The Addams Family machine looks awesome, but man does it cheat!
So we did quickly glance at Unilocal regarding their food, and we thought it was probably going to be mediocre… but we were hungry. And it was indeed mediocre. My chicken sandwich was pretty basic California Chicken. It came smothered in some sort of spread. If you are going to use a cheap bun, you can’t just smother both sides! My sandwich felt apart immediately. Ugh. The chicken was a little underdone as well, verging on pink. I didn’t get sick from eating it, so that’s a plus. I gave half of it to my roommate and he didn’t get sick either. So the three of us all ate mediocre chicken sandwiches and we survived. People seem to like their pizza, so maybe go with that.
The crowd was also interesting. A bunch of bros and bottle blondes. That sums it up pretty accurately, actually. I felt some hard glares from across the bar from some sketchy looking dudes. With limited physical strength, I would absolutely not feel safe going to Pooley’s alone on a Saturday night. Absolutely not. Maybe the daytime crowd doesn’t look so threatening.
The bartenders were friendly, and did a great job. They should migrate somewhere else, because I’d gladly order from them again. But, I will not return to Pooley’s. No way.

Always a fun place to hang with friends. They even have Angry Orchard on tap, my FAVE cider and on tap??? Def gained an extra star for that grand idea. First time having the Kipp’s Special Personal Pizza… delish! Meat lovers delight for real! Bacon. Ham. Pepperoni. Sausage. !!! It was pretty darn good for less than $ 10. Awesome sports memorabilia surrounds you and there’s plenty of TV screens to go around for every sporting event playing that day. The menu is pretty extensive and there’s even a sand volleyball pit in the back. Plenty of room for parking and easy to find. I give it 4 stars only because I don’t want to come to a sports bar and see little kids running around. This is an adult playground, leave the kids at home!

Have been to Pooley’s numerous times during trips to state basketball tournaments. The experience had always been good, but not today. Even though there were few patrons, waited 20 minutes for our beverages, and 45 minutes for our meal. The server was woefully untrained, and the bartender seemed to be annoyed when we asked for our drinks. Food was just averge, price was ok. Service was poor.

This would be the perfect site for the TV shows «Bar Rescue» or «Kitchen Nightmares.»
The biggest weakness was the waitress we had. Slow service for both the drinks and our food. This is a bar: the drinks should have come fast and furious. The food arrived before the plates. The waitress forgot my water. Waitress never checked to see if I wanted another drink.
Places like this should be using mystery shoppers to test and improve their service. And this bar is in Madison, WI, where there are a million other bars one can go to.