In a word: The Cadillac of food carts. The specs: #0573   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; review at Isthmus . JM ate the teriyaki chicken with a fresh lemonade. Nichole ate some of JM’s lunch. The bill was $7 plus tip. JM gave Hibachi Hut a B-; Nichole gave Hibachi Hut a C+ (see our grading rubric ). Hibachi Hut is the slickest cart on the Mall. The outside is all shiny chrome and vibrant orange. The inside is well-lit, surgical white, and spacious enough for two workers. The grub itself was somewhat disappointing, but once again our experience was limited: we just got one dish of teriyaki chicken. The chicken was tough, and the little bit of onion, carrot, and broccoli florets and stems didn’t distinguish themselves. Both the strifry and the long grain white rice underneath were permeated with a heavy brown sauce. Just under a third of the container was occupied by a lightly vinegared, coarsely chopped salad of cabbage and carrots. The large cup of fresh lemonade was probably the best part, if not for the flavor then for the State-Fair-showmanship of the juicing. This was accomplished with a motorized countertop juicer that rotated itself as the operator simply pressed a halved lemon down upon it. Add water and a scoop of sugar, shake, and hey presto, refreshment – because sometimes all you need is a high-tech quickie.

In a word: It’s nature’s candy. The specs: #0572

In a word: Did Madison need to import a Laredo’s-style chain? The specs: #0570   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Ruppert Food Blog , Yelp , 77 Square , EatDrinkMadison ; TheDailyPage Forum ; JM ate the lunch combo #3 with a lemonade. Nichole ate the carnitas tacos with an horchata. The bill was $18, or $9/person, plus tip. JM gave Fiesta Cancun an A-; Nichole gave Fiesta Cancun a C (see our grading rubric ). Fiesta Cancun on Mineral Point is the latest branch in a regional chain of family-friendly Mexican restaurants with spots in Platteville and Monroe plus four Illinois locations. It’s fine. Prices are about a buck more than at Laredo’s (our lazy yardstick for all restaurants of this type) and some ingredients are better, but broadly speaking, it serves the same purpose. A few parties were making use of the high chairs and booster seats. High-backed benches with airbrushed tropical scenes made up somewhat for the odd half-covered ceiling and the electrical conduit running at eye level – mostly painted over in peachy paint, but hey, if it were operational, one could bring one’s laptop and linger over spicy salsa for hours. Theoretically. In actuality, there wasn’t much to linger over. Pepsi products and a tiny, giga-brew-only beer list left us parched. JM noted that his pink lemonade was not often the default, but it tasted fine. The kicker was that the horchata was truly icky – evocative of those elementary-school experiments with corn starch in water. JM’s lunch combo #3 of beef enchilada, rice and beans was gone in a flash. The beef filling was a step up from Laredo’s (it didn’t include any of those diced frozen potato bits). The rice and beans were par for the course. Indeed, this was true of the whole affair. Nichole’s carnitas tacos were plain. One semi-portioned pile of fatty pork, slippery with fat, sat on three pairs of storebought corn tortillas. Once picked up they dripped fat into a lake of fat pooling on the wax-paper-lined plate. Nichole likes fat, but this much was enough to keep a 70-pound Afghan hound’s coat glossy for weeks. Some pinkish pico de gallo didn’t add much flavor, but the four jars of Abuelita and other hot sauces on the table helped. Had she thought ahead, Nichole could have augmented the pork with a side of fresh avocado or 12 cooked shrimp a la carte (a menu item we found odd). 20/20 hindsight and all. So, JM gave Fiesta Cancun an A- out of fairness and deference to the fact that he knows his tastes run toward the pedestrian, but Nichole would prefer to stay away. We learn something new every day.

In a word: Let’s be frank, this is the wurst cart. The specs: #0568   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; review at Althouse ; profile at Wisconsin State Journal . JM ate the Milwaukee dog, the chili dog, and a lemonade. Nichole ate the Italian beef, hot and wet. The bill was $14, or $7/person, plus tip. JM gave FIB’s a B+; Nichole gave FIB’s an A- (see our grading rubric ). FIB’s is a cart worth a trip. It serves a food perfectly suited to the street food milieu, namely eminently portable hot Italian beef, Italian sausage, brats and hot dogs. It’s attractive and clean, kitschy but not over the top. Sinatra tunes (the universal shorthand for Big City) wafted from the screened order window and a flyer featuring Mayor Soglin trivia was on hand.  There are only a handful of items on the menu, but it still took us longer to decide what to order than it took them to prep our stuff. We could have taken the scenic-kraut and walked around with our styro trays, but instead sat on a bench outside the Starbucks on the Square and dog in. The beef was on an excellent roll, with a great ratio of bread to tender meat. The giardiniera and jus mingled in a lip-tingling way that suggested the jus itself had some spice to it. Both of JM’s hot dogs were served on steamed poppyseed buns. The chili dog was one of the tidier, more pleasant ones he’s had. A couple tablespoons of meaty chili was rich with a broad, not piquant, heat, and soft, inoffensive beans, which for JM is sayin’ somethin’. Diced onion (on the bland side) and a Pick-Up-Sticks-evoking pinch of shredded orange cheese topped it off. The Milwaukee dog was dressed with average kraut and yellow mustard. If the mustard had been a good brown or even beer variety, JM would have no reservations about giving FIB’s an A-. French’s Yellow is fine but seems careless on a dog named after the beer capital of the world, like putting bell peppers on an Italian beef. We don’t know of a FIB that would stand for that. In other words (with apologies to John Sams ) we could even say that we never sausage a thing.

In a word: We didn’t realize loco meant “like fast food.” The specs: #0566   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; photo on City of Madison’s Flickr ; review at Taste Test Madison . JM ate the beef burrito minus the beans, with a can of lemonade. Nichole ate a chicken taco and a bean taco, both with hot sauce, and a side of guacamole. The bill was $12, or $6/person, plus tip. JM gave El Burrito Loco a B-; Nichole gave El Burrito Loco a C+ (see our grading rubric ). El Burrito Loco is a cart run by Señor Pepper out of Stoughton. It’s middling to fine for fast food – JM would go so far as to say it’s Taco Bell-icose if with more flavor (but now even the Bell has introduced “pork carnitas” street-food inspired tacos ). The menu is the right size, with a choice of burrito, taco, or salad with beef, chicken, and/or beans, and based on our sample a chicken burrito minus beans might be the best thing they do. Some days sweet corn cake is there too, but not when we were. JM’s burrito was a warmed flour tortilla packed with ground beef, sour cream, and orange seasoned rice. (They were flexible and happy to leave off the beans.) This burrito is exactly what you’d expect it to be, if anything, even moreso. The tacos were not made with Nichole’s favorite stuff. Iceberg lettuce and bagged shredded orange cheese she can do without (unless black olives are there to complete the 80’s Taco Bell nostalgia trifecta). The doubled-up corn tortillas held up well, but left her hands smelling vaguely floral. JM was wise beyond his preferences about beans, as these were runny and too salty. The chicken was the best part: a mix of light and dark meat, shredded fine and tender. The guacamole was merely passable, but the hot sauce was nice. Two invocations of Taco Bell in 250 words might be much for one little cart, but it’s pretty apt, for what that’s worth.

In a word: Something like a Chang Jiang cart. The specs: #0564   Address, hours & details via Isthmus . JM ate the cashew chicken with a lemonade. Darby and Nichole ate the hunan chicken. Dave, Joshua, Darby, Nichole and JM split an order of crab rangoon. The bill was $14. JM gave China Cottage a B-; Nichole gave China Cottage a C; Dave gave China Cottage a C+/B- (see our grading rubric ). A sign on the China Cottage cart reads, “We serve the best Asian foods with reasonable prices.” While we weren’t wowed, we can’t argue with that sentence since we can’t tell whether “best” modifies “Asian foods” or “Asian foods with reasonable prices,” and besides, “reasonable” is open to interpretation. Such are the problems with syntax in 21st century America. The problem is that food cart competition is stiff; in summer, the world is your food court. If there’s another option even slightly more appealing than what’s in front of you, it’s not much effort to walk a half block and get something to really love. In other words, compared to mall food or even regular takeout, China Cottage is nice and cheap, but there are other carts we’d rather visit. Our original game plan was to hit up Bonne Journee on MLK Dr., but according to his neighbor LMNO’Pies , he’d been absent from his spot from some time. Under our new, more flexible cart rules (basically: be there when we are or get skipped) that meant we could just move on. Fortunately China Cottage was next on the make-up list. While our little group waited for JM to find us, Dave and Darby got burritos from their go-to spot, El Burrito Loco, but shared in our meal, too. A handful of standard stir fry options plus noodle dishes were on offer. We got some crab rangoon that were the very definition of “just OK,” with some bites emanating an iffy citrus cleanser taste. The Hunan chicken was starred as hot but wasn’t really. The dish was juicy but not moist, if that makes any sense – the sauce was there to help the dry meat along, and fresh vegetables (crinkle-cut carrot planks, broccoli, bamboo shoots, and onions) did their part. JM’s cashew chicken was tender and tasty, with nice snap peas and water chestnuts, but the peas and uniformly diced carrots seemed to be from a frozen mix. If Chinese is your choice, China Cottage certainly meets the necessary requirements, though you may find a different type of cuisine prepared better a few steps away.

In a word: More like Briga-Bloom. The specs: #0563   Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Yelp , VegGuide , Isthmus ; official web site , JM brought a bunch of us a brookie, a cherry chocolate oatmeal cookie, Creamsicle cupcake, a peanut butter cupcake, and a cookie sandwich to share. The bill was $13.25. JM gave Bloom a B+; Nichole gave Bloom a B (see our grading rubric ). Bloom, a cute new bakery in Middleton, is adorable in a way that only a labor of love can be. With that territory comes some capriciousness. The first time we tried to go, in the make-ups to letter Q , Bloom was closed for spring break (as in, the whole week). The second time was the official ribbon cutting at Middleton Fest featuring a ton of people getting their bakery on and a ton more in the kitchen, which was chaotic, but ultimately got us the goods.  JM had the honor of picking out our treats and bringing them to our remote eating site. Nichole, Amanda, Carlos and Oscar met him after biking a prodigious amount to get ready for Bike the Barns (have you registered or pledged yet ?) and Jennie, Juan Carlos, Tiana, and Christine also partook of this little box of bounty. The consensus: Bloom is very good, but basically home bakery writ medium. Clockwise from top left: a cherry chocolate oatmeal cookie would make durable on-bike, bonk-preventing food. It was dense and somewhat dry, with a distinct cinnamon overtone. The cookie sandwich was a frosting-lover’s dream, with a dollop of sugary vanilla between two classic chocolate chip cookies. Not overly sweet regardless of appearance. JM’s a sucker for a good peanut butter and chocolate combination, and this cupcake was no disappointment. Jennie and Nichole each discerned an eerily spot-on Tootsie Roll flavor in the frosting. Likewise, the Creamsicle cupcake was an amazing imitation of another sweet treat’s flavor profile. The delicate orange creaminess was a surprise paired with light white cake, as interesting a juxtaposition of flavor and texture as astronaut ice cream. Finally, the “brookie” was new (to us) – a hybrid brownie-cookie. In this one, the cookie layer was a brownie on the bottom and a classic chocolate chip cookie bar on top. The cookie layer even separated a bit in the baking, which was kinda cool, giving the treat a filigree-delicate dome of sugar, flour and butter. We’d stop in at Bloom if we were in the Mustard Museum’s neighborhood, but because of its Brigadoon-style hours, it seems ships passing in the night may be the more appropriate metaphor.

We noticed that the Rs were all over the map in terms of quality, but in most cases we got what we expected. This may end up being the upshot of the project: we’ve gotten slightly better at predicting how awesome a place might turn out. This will come in handy someday when we get to choose where to eat. Our favorite R’s were: Breakfast: Roxbury Tavern Lunch: Rising Sons Deli Dinner: Restaurant Magnus We’re about to start the second longest letter, S , which is the biggest hurdle to feeling that we’re getting close to being done. After S, the last seven letters come faster. Though the make-up lists be long, we firmly believe we will finish the letter Z in 2012. So we want to thank you all again for reading and commenting, with a special hello to those who heard about us via the Wisconsin State Journal article back in May. And our heartfelt appreciation to those who have been going along the alphabet with us for years. R is also for Reminder that Bike the Barns is coming this September 11. Last we heard the ride is more than half full . The afterparty is not to be missed and is open to all. Register to ride or party, or please consider pledging the riders you know, Nichole’s ride , or the Carrot Cruiser . Proceeds benefit MACSAC’s Partner Shares Program . This is a really great event for a really good, local cause.  Thank you! Our grades thus far: Nichole JM A 237 42% 222 39% B 237 42% 286 51% C 74 13% 51 9% D 12 2% 3 1% F 2 1% 0 0% GPA by first letter: 1st Pass Cumulative A 3.11 3.30 B 3.15 3.19 C 3.25 3.23 D 3.20 3.29 E 3.03 3.08 F 3.24 3.23 G 3.21 3.27 H 3.16 3.23 I 3.40 3.32 J 3.13 3.14 K 3.08 3.19 L 3.23 3.29 M 3.32 3.27 N 3.15 3.15 O 3.23 3.24 P 3.09 3.11 Q 3.39 3.39 R 3.18 n/a

In a word: Far flung Fleming’s fills. The specs: #0562  Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Open Table , Review Stream , Life in the Great Midwest , Yelp , Eat Drink Madison , Trip Advisor , 5929 ; chatter at The Daily Page , official web site , Facebook , JM ate the crab cakes with a side of mashed potatoes. John ate Ruth’s Dinner with steak, mushrooms, Caesar salad, and a house Riesling. Nichole ate Ruth’s Dinner with the petite filet and shrimp, creamed spinach, corn bisque, and a side of sweet and hot peppers. Rose ate the BBQ shrimp with garlic potatoes and a harvest salad. The bill was $160, or $40/person, plus tip. John and Rose gave Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse an A+; JM gave Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse an A-; Nichole gave Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse a B (see our grading rubric ). Ruth’s Chris has an interesting history as a woman-owned chain that started in New Orleans. The Middleton location is Wisconsin’s only one; our preconceived notion of the place as shorthand for pre-cut luxury was only confirmed on our visit. A few of us opted for the prix fixe “Ruth’s dinners,” which simplify ordering quite a bit. Each is nearly perfectly portioned for enjoying on the spot without the hassle of leftovers, perfect for a date. Nichole got the steak and shrimp combination that featured three nicely sauteed and peppered spicy shrimp, interlocked in a tight spiral on top of a pedestal of steak. A side of creamed spinach was loaded with dairy goodness and spiked with nutmeg. The side of hot and sweet pickled peppers was piquant, vinegary, and crisp, and was very useful in cleansing the palate, but of all the sides we could have chosen was probably the most like a relish and thus a little too much for one person to fress all by herself. Rose’s BBQ shrimp was served on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes with lots of buttery gravy. After a pleasing Harvest salad of mixed lettuce, roasted corn, cherries, bacon and tomatoes, topped with shoestring fried onions, all Rose could say was “OMG IT WAS SO GOOD!” (emphasis in original). John was likewise enthused, calling his steak the best steak he has had in five years in Madison. The side of sauteed mushrooms was excellent and the Caesar salad had nice flakes of strong Parmesan. JM dug his crab cakes, which were not packed down, but instead were light and colorful with red and green flecks of finely diced peppers. They were nice, though he recognized the difference between the steak dinners and his – which is to say, the focus here is on the steak, not the seafood. The side of potatoes were excellent and telegraphed potatoness without being too lumpy. Each of our set dinners came with a dessert, one of which was a “chocolate symphony.” This included a small slice of light chocolate cake and a ramekin of fresh fruit awash in a buttery vanilla creme. Throughout dinner, service was relaxed. The host came to introduce himself and chat for a bit, which added a nice touch of hospitality. We know where to take John and Rose for our next celebration, but as for us, we may not make it a point to be back. The steaks were fine but the chain nature of the place doesn’t do it for us. In other words, it’s no Johnny Delmonico’s , and who knows what we’ll say once we’ve been to Smoky’s Club and Tornado.

In a word: Really, Pretty Adlerquate. The specs: #0561  Address, hours & details via Isthmus ; reviews at Yelp , Wisconsin Fish Fry Reviews , Ultimate Madison Bar Tour , ; listing at Eat Drink Madison ; official web site , Facebook . JM ate the Philly cheesesteak with fries and a lemonade. Nichole ate the smoked pork loin sandwich with a cup of tomato bisque. We split a caramel apple delight. The bill was $26, or $13/person, plus tip. JM gave RP Adler’s an A-; Nichole gave RP Adler’s a B (see our grading rubric ). RP Adler’s is in a nondescript building just outside the Beltline near the west side Menard’s, which makes for a semi-generic ticky-tacky suburban sprawlish aesthetic. While it might seem light on character, we found at this midweek lunch they don’t lack for flavor. Their menu is similar to most in the family neighborhood bar/restaurant mode. You’ll find fish fry, chicken Caesar salad, and even a portabella mushroom sandwich (which feels like 90’s retro somehow), but every now and then a dish jumps out with a funky accent like mango chipotle mint salsa or pasta from RP’s (no relation). Years of being the slowest eater at the table have taught Nichole to go with soup whenever possible because (depending on the server) it gives her a head start. Reading the cute blurb “One man, one mind, so many soups” on the menu was the nudge she needed to go for the soup of the day. This tomato bisque was worth savoring: creamy yet thin and light, sippable, with a distinct celery overtone and fresh herbs. Our sandwiches came out in good time. JM’s Philly cheesesteak special wouldn’t win any accolades for being correct, but the lightly sauteed green peppers, stretchy cheese mix and subtly spiced thin beef slices added up to a satisfying sandwich. The bun could have used some reinforcement. The side of crispy crinkle fries with a touch of seasoning added a lot. Nichole’s sandwich was not boring in the least. It was all perfectly grill-toasted white bread, a pile of smoky, juicy slices of pork loin, and some Havarti to tie it together – plus Door County cherry basil mayo? Yes, please. JM liked it too. Sadly we ended on a down note because our choice of dessert was not great. The best part about the caramel apple delight – basically an apple crisp a la mode – were the baked apples and zippy brandy sauce. The crisp itself was soggy from ice cream (it arrived on the, ah, semi-freddo side) yet the pastry layers were tough to get through with just a fork. An unauthorized fish fry run by half our team a couple weeks later (inspired by Wisconsin Fish Fry Reviews ) revealed very good, attentive service but an average broiled/fried cod deal, and no evidence of the smoked pork loin sandwich. If your group is mostly mainstream but includes a couple creativity-seekers (sorry, vegetarians, not much for you here), RP Adler’s just might do it for you.