On the Yahara A-Z

K.

Killer Baja Tacos from El Dorado Grill, Willy Street.  Closer to the intersection at Machinery Row at where John Nolan meets the inroads to the Capitol, the El Dorado Grill is a much more fashionable looking and feeling place than many of the others along the street moving east.  El Dorado is another Food Fight (restaurant group) so it has a wonderful mix of throwback retro style but new and innovative foods and service levels.  The decor is a kind of clean but gritty bold southwest thematic

 
which totally transports you away from any expectations of this part of the city, but food options offer gluten free and even a vegan burrito at brunch time.  An enjoyable and standard way to test southwest food is the fish tacos, in this case called Baja Fish Tacos, made with blackened mahi-mahi, pickled red onions and a homemade cilantro-lime aioli, served with red rice and black beans.

Very similar in quality to the great Tex's Tubbs Taco Palace not far down the road on Atwood, the execution here is even a bit more gourmet or refined -- the mahi mahi is about as good a seafood selection to place inside a soft shell as you can find and the homemade sauce is very unique.  On a sunday the night the bar is full of Madisonians who have any number of a hundred places to scout out, but the El Dorado clearly has a major following, serving a fresh tap selection, "world-famous"

margaritas and what is claimed to be the best tequila menu in the city.  A half of a block away from the main city bike path which to the east leads to Riverside Drive and past, and the west up to either the Capital or a run along the lakeside at Monona, El Dorado is in an enviable spot to begin the long link of restaurants along Willy.