first time visiting Madison, WI and looking for good places to eat and hang out
 

Anyone from around Madison, WI area that can give me some suggestions for places to eat and hang out ? TIA.

- Jason

Well what do you like to do?
The Great Dane has decent food and lots of beer.
The patio at the memorial union is right on the lake with cheap beer and plenty of undergrads to oggle and on weekends in the summer they often have free live music.
Madison has a ton of bars and it kinda depends on what you like-are you a frat boy, hipster, or just an average joe? I always like Genna's on the square but keep in mind I am old.
Plenty or restaurants too-if you want to spend a bit of money Harvest which is right on the square is always pretty good. Our favorite restaurant was Lombardino's which is over by the University hospital-cool little restaurant with a paper mache replica of the Trevi fountain, but I haven't been in several years so I dont' know about the food but they won best Italian from Maidson magazine this year. The admiralty dining room at the Edgewater hotel has the best lake views of any restaurant but it's spendy like Harvest.
How could I forget the Essenhaus-German style drinking hall-thousands of personal steins on the walls, you can drink many german beers from glass boots, on weekends they have a polka band
The farmer's market is on saturday morning and is one of the largest in the midwest plenty of food and it is on the square around the capitol building.

I guess I am an average Joe type. I will check out those places you recommended. Are you a KP employee as well?

Yes I am Kaiser employee.

If you are going to be there over the 4th the fireworks are pretty impressive as well.