Prairie Cafe & Bakery

Loved it! Great breakfast especially the potatoes were delicious. Nice place for families. Wide open spaces and quick service.

Food is pretty good. Coffee is good. My only complaint is that there is no quiet space for adults to read or work. I have packed up and left twice because of people with their loud children just plop down next to people who are clearly trying to concentrate. It’s a big place. Can’t we have some small part where a grownup can read the paper in peace?

I ate at Prairie Café TWICE during my 4 day stay in Madison this past weekend. (I had also been to their previous location on past visits). For my lunch visit, I had their salad of the day which was amazing.
My second visit was for my grandma’s 90^th birthday party! What a great space for a party! Everything we needed was right there. I went earlier to help set up and the staff was so accommodating and easy to work with. And of course the food was great.
I would highly recommend the Prairie Café for breakfast or lunch (they don’t serve dinner) or a smaller party!

Many thanks to the Prairie Café & Bakery!!!
The Prairie Café was the best place to have my mother’s 90^th birthday celebration. The venue space itself was ideal for accommodating her multi-​aged family and friends. The food was excellent. The staff was extremely friendly, helpful, and efficient.
I would highly recommend the Prairie Café & Bakery for both breakfast, brunch, or lunch and to host your next special occasion.

Came here for lunch. One of the sandwiches we ordered had a curly black hair stuck in the melted cheese! (None of us has hair like this.) Yuk!!! We sent it back. No apology, no offer to comp anything, they just made another one (which we opened and checked thoroughly) and said «sorry for the wait.» No mention that this wouldn’t happen again, no acknowledgement that this was horrifying! Disgusting! Never coming back again!

We came for lunch. Food was delicious and coffee was amazing! The service was great and the employees were friendly.
Furniture was clean and employees were attentive at clearing the tables. Plenty of space to find a seat during lunch. Music playing but nothing obnoxious and not too loud.
I only wish that they served breakfast all day, and I’m sure a lot of other people feel the same way.

Nice new building with well trained staff. My neck got sore looking up at the menu behind the bar. They need some hand out menus like other places. I had a southwestern rollup that was very good and spicy. My partner had the CBLT, cheese BLT I think, that was good but had too much butter on the outside of the bread. The only complaint was that there is no sound proofing and one crying rug rat in the dining area really hurt my ears and made it hard to talk. It is an open ceiling design which is nice looking but bounces all sound everywhere and is annoying.(Ban Kids!) Breakfast menu looks great and I will definitely go back.

Great place with extremely fresh ingredients. I’ve been here twice now-​both times for breakfast and it’s just a wonderful little place. The space is open and cheery. You order at the counter, get a number and go find a seat. There are a number of tables outside as well as counter seating if a regular table/​booth isn’t to your liking. Coffee is by Collectivo and is self-​serve behind the register. Don’t forget to grab your silverware right behind you after you pay.
The menu has quite a large selection. I had the carnitas burrito and it was delish. The chipotle sauce that it comes with is excellent and I could have used a touch more on my burrito. It comes with a side of salsa verde which was awesome. Not sure if it was housemade or not but it sure tasted like it! My sister had the burrito with black beans, red/​green peepers (I can’t remember what it was called and is not on the online menu for some reason even though it was not a special-​though after a second glance I notice the carnitas burrito is not listed either… CAUTION: website menu is not updated). She really enjoyed it and hers came with a very good red salsa. Portions aren’t overwhelming and don’t come with potatoes so is actually a perfect amount of food. I’ll be back for sure.

Menu and food quality were nothing special. A bit overpriced for a place without full service. Although it’s a nice, new place, the space is definitely lacking personality or comfort. It’d be nice if breakfast foods were available in the afternoon.

New place + several more visits under my belt = time for an update.
Dropping the rating a star from before; I’m so torn on how to rate this… I feel like a 2.75 is about right these days, but I’ll be a bit generous.
+ New space looks great. Open, airy, bright.
+ Dining area is largely separated from order counter thanks to half-​walls and coffee area.
+ Menu remains the same as before
+ They now accept credit/​debit cards!!! Finally!!! Yay!
+ Friendly staff
+ More outdoor seating than before
+ The toast. Yummy.
+ They now bus your tables when done eating
— It’s not immediately clear that they do this; I discovered it by accident after walking around the place, holding my plate looking for the bus-​bins.
And now, for the negatives…
— Tried to dine on July 3. Place was locked-​up tighter than a drum. No signs about holiday vacation, no mention anywhere. Just dark (at 9:30am). Not cool.
— While they have Colectivo coffee, it’s brewed far too weak. It’s so thin and anemic, that all variants taste nearly identical to one another.
— Do the scrambles-​of-​the-​day ever change, or do I manage to visit when the same scramble is featured (every.dang.time.)?
— Scramblers have become quite greasy. Past two visits left my plate with a solid sheen of oil.
But my biggest gripe (aside from weak coffee and greasier than before food): logistics of the coffee station/​order counter area. Why are they so close to one another, thus making it nearly impossible during busier times to get coffee or to get up to the counter (to ask a question or request a to go container)? The distance between the order counter and the coffee area is maybe two-​people wide, so it gets crowded quickly in that area. It’s also the only area for garbage/​recycling, which makes it all the more busy. :-(
I’m quickly running out of favorite west-​side breakfast haunts.

My family loves this place! We have been going here since their old location. great place to bring your kids for breakfast. It’s good food and they are pretty quick (we are generally there pretty early)! They new building is great and has a ton of space.
My husband loves getting the Corned Beef Hash and the Burger and Fries breakfast. I also love the Corned Beef Hash. Their specials are all really good. I generally get the special scrambles. The coffee is great, and they have unlimited refills! YES!
The fruit is always fresh, and they have great baked goods. Staff is really friendly there.
and YES!!! they take credit cards now!!!

I have visited for lunch twice, great sandwiches at good value with fresh fruit as a side — beautiful new building full of light.

Visited for breakfast today, and really enjoyed it. A couple of specials listed on the board when you walk in. Order at the counter and the give you a number and bring it to your table.
The special sounded good — but I went for an omlet with sausage, mushroom and cheddar with sourdough toast. It was excellent! Good size, delicious sausage and the Fresh bread. Others in our group had a Belgian waffle and one had oatmeal. All were very pleased!
Order came out fast and the staff was very nice. Good sized place and it looked like there was outdoor seating too. Very pleased.
Only complaints were it looked like many bakery items were sold out (good sign they were good) and the menu on the website wasn’t working. One review said cash only — but I don’t know — I saw a card swiped ahead of me so that might be old info.
Can’t wait to go again! Very good!

Just had my third breakfast since this café moved across the street into larger quarters. I loved the food at the old place. I’m ready to report my major disappointment with what the new kitchen is producing. Food was long in preparation, egg dishes were overcooked, greasy, omelet was a overdone dried out frittata.

Went to new facility on Fathers-​day. It used to be one of my most favorite places for coffee, bake goods, and breakfast. Food was still excellent, we had a scramble and it was excellent. Food still is great, but, the new beauty full facilities has major problem. I have not been in such a load environment for eating for a long time. In looking at the internal construction there is no sound absorbing or muffling materials anywhere. The restaurant is an Eco chamber. Than to top it off they where constantly grinding what I initially thought was coffee but it turned out to be some kind of smoothy. Than a worker showed up without her proper tee shirt on and the manger had to yell over the smoothy machine for her to get her work shirt on and get to work. He of course had to yell since the smoothy machine was going so all the customers got to witness the entire exchange. The tables are much more spread out and the tables are big. But because of that I could not talk across the wide table in such a noisy enviorment. The design to have the kitchen out in the open makes the noise of food prep a big problem. The feel of the old place is gone.
They can now handle more customers but the dinning experience is greatly reduced. I came across town from the east side to dine here, but going forward I will only be going here if it happens to be on my way to somewhere. I hope Prairie can address the loss of comfort they used to have, it will take a real effort and defiantly some extensive attention to sound dampening.

Super cute café! Very spacious with great ambiance. Many different food and drink options. They now take credit cards too!

New location is gorgeous! There’s something for everyone here. Healthy options, ultimate comfort foods, a wide selection of teas… And oh their tea! You get a huge pot of high quality loose leaf tea for a small price. I always ask for a little soy milk to add to mine. Just delightful.
Note: The wifi is strongest in the far end of the café near the restrooms.

Have always loved Prairie. We have looked forward to eating here Sundays when in Madison (which has been often the last 3 years). Got here today and found the Café had moved across the street. New space is okay, high ceiling makes it extremely loud. I miss the warm atmosphere of the old spot. Biggest issue is I think they forgot the recipes and seasonings at the old place. First time ever, we were horribly disappointed, after waiting 30 minutes for our food. Toast was burnt, sent it back and dug into my corned beef hash. Potatoes were not done and it was bland beyond belief. We sent the plates back and while they added a bit of seasoning it was still not «Prairie hash» and they threw the same eggs on grill to rewarm so now my medium eggs were hard. Maybe the new grill isn’t seasoned enough yet. They also now clear the tables for you, instead of having a station for you to dump your own. Twenty minutes after we eere done someone came and cleared our plates away. I sincerely hope they find the old mojo!

First time in the new space and it was better than ever! Friendly staff and great food and I paid with a CREDIT CARD!