Continental shift: Three new Madison restaurants' international revamps

Three Madison restaurant spaces have recently changed their menus, vibe, and, in two cases, management. All have essentially crossed borders to cook and serve on different international and ethnic fronts, too. Will they make the local dining scene more interesting? The A.V. Club dispatched its friendly food-immigration agents to make an inspection.

The Haze (106 King St., 608-260-2680)
Origins: Restaurant Muramoto (now at 225 King St., 608-259-1040; and 546 N. Midvale Blvd., 608-441-1090), the highest-class sushi joint in town, then the short-lived Kushi Bar Muramoto.
Current status: The Haze converts the space into a casual barbecue restaurant. Customers order off a chalkboard menu at the bar and fetch their own beverages, which include soda and a nice list of beers on tap and in bottles. There was even some light country-western music playing during The A.V. Club's visit. The primary decorations are black-and-white portraits of local farmers, from whom The Haze sources all of its meat and produce. The cuts and sandwiches fall into the standard barbecue categories—beef brisket, ribs, chicken, pork, and sausage. Thanks to the fast food-style sauce dispensers next to the soda fountain, adventurous patrons can easily slather their slices of animal with five different pan-barbecue sauces (including ketchup). Both the Asian and American sauces are satisfying and tangy, the Asian sweeter and probably with some soy, the American a little peppery.
Key dish: The sliced brisket is a quintessential barbecue cut: full of smoke and slathered in sauce, tender and juicy on the inside, crispy and salty on the outside (though a bit overdone and dry, when we tried it).
Visa length: If The Haze can work out some of the kinks in its food and ambience, it might be able to ride its cool concept into resident-alien status.

Opa Lounge (558 State St.)
Origins: An Afghani restaurant called Maza; and before that, Saz, which offered a confusing menu of Mexican, Greek, and Turkish food.
Current status: Opa's drinks menu offers a strange opportunity to drink your way up Mount Olympus with a full flank of cocktails named after pagan gods—topped, of course, with Zeus Juice (Southern Comfort, coconut rum, Amaretto, grenadine, pineapple juice). The food menu changes every month, but if October's is any indication, it bounces between traditional Greek dishes (gyros, moussaka) and free-form international-classy cuisine (steak sandwich, Belgian seafood stew). The dimly lit, brick interior might either feel swanky or just sort of bleak, depending on what the company's like at the new bar.
Key dish: The moussaka's richly spiced sirloin, eggplant, and potato layer on some hearty comfort, if not nearly enough for $13. So perhaps it's wiser to take such detours as the Belgian-style fries, roasted-quail entrée, or Opa Burger with mustard aioli, cole slaw, and cream cheese.
Visa length: Leave it open and make some tentative pleasure-trip plans, even though it's not clear which borders you'd be crossing. Opa seems unsure of what it wants to be, but State Street could use a few more semi-classy drinking joints and varied menus.

Fiesta Grill (7005 Tree Lane, 608-203-8488)
Origins: Rice Café, which offered teriyaki chicken rice bowls, stir fry, and burritos (really, anything with rice was fair game).
Current status: The front room of Fiesta Grill now sports a giant beach cabana constructed mostly out of foam, where you can drink a beer or a watery margarita and watch TV. The dining room's walls are now adorned with framed pictures of quaint Mexican haciendas under colorful sunsets. The menu is mostly an exercise in permutations of the same burritos, chalupas, gorditas, beans, and rice. Lunch specials are a good value: For a bit more than a Taco Bell meal, you can order a semi-decent plate of tacos or burritos. Both chicken and steak fajitas, with two tortillas on the side for wrapping, are pretty reliable, too. Then there are more robust seafood dishes, which involve gulf prawns and sea bass—appealing if you're willing to spend more than $10 per plate.
Key dish: The combo platter boasts a cheese enchilada, chicken burrito, and beef taco. That pretty much sums the place up.
Visa length: If a quick, cheap lunch is its best feature in a town that already has so many Mexican spots, a brief work permit will do.