Restaurant Week: Where New Year’s resolutions go to die

Those devils behind Restaurant Week (Jan. 23-28) in Madison barely let you get the training wheels off your annual “lose weight/get fit” New Year’s resolution before shattering your will with dozens of amazing offerings from local eateries. But at $25 for three courses, with three options for each (many restaurants offer $15 lunch deals too), at least you won’t go broke while relapsing into your 2010 ways. Here are a few of the options The A.V. Club checked out ahead of time.

43 North (108 King St., 608-255-4343)
The menu: The A.V. Club is eager to try Chef Justin Carlisle’s lobster bisque with tarragon marshmallow and “lobster crackling.” Loup de mer (sea bass) with Jerusalem artichoke purée, and an assembly of goat milk with celery and mango are possible next courses. Guests will choose from many options this week at the newish Shinji Muramoto-backed downtown eatery.
NY resolution threat level: 4 of 10. Heavy doses of sugar and fat intensify a balanced set of fresh ingredients. Nothing in this meal sounds destructive—if anything, it will give hard partiers the protein to power a late night of destroying their bodies in other, less subtle ways.

The Blue Marlin (101 N. Hamilton St., 608-255-2255)
The menu: Steamed mussels with white wine, chorizo, shallots, and tomato; pan-roasted whitefish with pesto mashed potatoes, apple-bacon aioli, and broccoli; and chocolate tartlet with berries and caramel sauce represent one of the more tantalizing combinations.
NY resolution threat level: 7 of 10. Chorizo, chocolate, and caramel are dense, resolution-busting foodstuffs, and even if a fruit/bacon emulsion can’t completely overpower broccoli, a super-vegetable, the threat level is deeply orange.

Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar (750 N. Midvale Blvd., 608-233-9550)
The menu: When eating at a steakhouse, a wedge salad of iceberg lettuce with onions and blue cheese is the classic starter. Porcini mushroom-dusted filet with mashed potatoes (here topped with a gorgonzola cream sauce) makes for an ideal main course. Cheesecake with blueberry sauce to finish the meal maintains the through-line of this culinary story, which stars every American who believes steak and potatoes are a God-given right.
NY resolution threat level: 9 of 10. Most people make it through huge steakhouse spreads just fine, but red-faced diners sometimes do go down after eating an artery-crushing meal of filet mignon and cheesecake.

Brickhouse BBQ (408 W. Gorham St., 608-257-7675)
The menu: Shrimp Skewers with peppers and crimini mushrooms, served with pineapple barbecue sauce, provide a relatively light lead-in for a monstrous third rack of Brickhouse’s excellent St. Louis-style pork ribs. Choose two sides, and throw the pecan tart served with vanilla custard on top for good measure.
NY resolution threat level: 9 of 10. Shrimp will never swim in the healthy school of seafood, and St. Louis-cut ribs are meatier than baby back, meaning you’ll have a lot of work to get to your butter and brown sugar-doused pecan tart. You’ll have even more work burning off this caloric calamity.

Graze (1 S. Pinckney St., 608-251-2700)
The menu: Sautéed calamari partners up with a light turnip flan and lobster sauce Americaine, and should hopefully leave plenty of room for the quarter-pound Graze burger, an amazing blend of fresh ground sirloin, ribeye, short ribs. Topped with caramelized onions and cabernet jus on a sesame seed brioche, this burger’s burger barely needs any help from the fries and garlic aioli. But its buddy, chocolate chip bread pudding with vanilla ice cream, should come along anyway.
NY resolution threat level: 7 of 10. A burger of this pedigree should be much lower in fat, but the fried calamari could make up for that with mind-blowing amounts of cholesterol. Try not to think about that while annihilating the bread pudding.

Daisy Café & Cupcakery (2827 Atwood Ave., 608-241-2200)
The menu: A veggie-heavy panzanella dotted with smoked salmon, seasoned bread cubes, tomatoes, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, cucumber, purple onions, capers and fresh basil, tossed in Dijon vinaigrette, will look like kids’ play next to the Daisy Deluxe Cassoulet—a slow-cooked concoction stuffed with duck, venison and pork sausage, bacon, and white beans. You may just end up staring at your three mini-cupcakes after that, but at least they’re nice to look at.
NY resolution threat level: 8 of 10. Mini-cupcakes and seasoned panzanella in moderation won’t derail a diet. But diving into a melting pot of meat like Daisy’s cassoulet will sink your resolve. But the extra workouts will be so worth it.

Check out the entire list of restaurants at madisonmagazine.com.