Nitty Gritty Restaurant & Bar

Nice patio. Plenty of seating. Peach brandy old fashioned is delicious! The quesadilla was also very good. Easy walk from main street, not too far away.

Went on my birthday. How can you beat drinking for free on your bday? Decent craft beer selection with an emphasis on local microbreweries. I ordered the WI grass fed burger and onion rings. It was a tasty burger! Fun ambience, great happy hour and decent nightly drink specials.

Not so Black & Bleu Burger. The last few times I’ve ordered this burger you wouldn’t know there was blue cheese on it. The rest of the burger was great minus the bleu cheese. You might as well order a regular burger as you’re not going to get the blue cheese.
The rest of their menu is pretty good. Sometimes their food does come out a bit greasy.
Fun restaurant for Sun Prairie. Fun atmosphere. Great for watching sporting events.

Went here on 2 separate occasions for birthdays for my children and some close friends. The service was good, fast and friendly for the most part. We got seated quickly as it was early in the evening around 5 pm and were served our drinks and sodas for the kids quickly. We ordered our dinner and it arrived 10 minutes later which was great as the younger crowd has little to no patience. We ate and finished our drinks and were done with in an hour which is great since we also had sporting events to get to that evening as well. The birthday boy got a balloon and also a free kiddie cocktail which made him feel special. The food was only average at best and slightly over priced for what we got which is why I’m rating it at 3 stars. The service on the other hand was very friendly.

This place needs a revamp, starting with reading and responding to their Unilocalers. It’s overrated, dirty and overpriced.
Terrible service. Miranda was our server. She was slow and condescending. There were several mistakes on my bacon cheeseburger — they messed up a bacon cheeseburger. Miranda didn’t like that after ignoring us, I called her by name as she ran past our table for the 10^th time to come back to our table & asked for a refill of soda & water with little ice. So she leaned in, bent down and explained to me (with visuals) how she always trains her so staff to fill cups with ice to the top and she was now going to have the redo my soda to my «liking.»
The bathrooms were a mess. No paper towels, trash on floor. Piss on the toilet. The parking situation is ridiculous.
One positive note: the hostesses were very friendly.

Good food. The gritty burger is their signature. Cheese curds are the best. Friday nights seem to be a little understaffed. Service was good but not great. Will continue to go back.

The Sun Prairie Nitty Gritty is a fun and friendly environment. I was there for a trivia competition last weekend. I love that the Nitty serves Brunch. I had the Sunrise Burger, waffle fries, and Leinie’s Vanilla Porter. But it was good to know I could have had pancakes or other breakfast-​y items if I wanted too.
Nice servers, friendly bartenders, and good cooks in the kitchen. My brother lives near by so I know I will be back again.

We go here for all of our birthdays (yay birthday club!!). The nacho plate’s my fav. The bartenders are nice, although one time one of them was showing a little too much interest in my date. lol I forgave her – he’s pretty, after all.
I prefer to come here in the warmer weather and sit outside – the patio is really nice and there are nice big TVs, too, if you’re into watching the game.
The parking lot can be crowded, sometimes you have to park on the street. The bartenders are great about changing the music if it sucks, too. The bathroom is well-​kept. I’m comfortable here.

WHY is this place a Madison area tradition!!! Ugh. My goodness.
Despite the fact that I grew up in the Madison area, my trip to the Sun Prairie Nitty Gritty was the first time I’ve been inside one of these establishments. I was there with family to celebrate my brother’s 15^th birthday. We were a party of 6 and we came for dinner on a Wednesday night around 5:30.
Pros — the atmosphere was fun — lots of TV screens, a decent sized mid week crowd, but not too noisy. Everything was very clean and well decorated. The menu is extensive, and I appreciate that gluten free buns and cider options were available. Our server was decently attentive, and the food came out very quickly. All of these things are great.
Cons — seriously, what is with this food? I ordered the bruschetta burger basket. It comes in a small black wicker basket — that is too deep to eat from comfortably. The portion of fries was minuscule, and lukewarm at best. The fires were the best part. It should have been a warning sign when our server didn’t ask me how I wanted my burger done (I ordered it medium rare anyway). This burger… if you’ve ever had a warmed up, previously frozen, high school cafeteria grade hamburger, this is exactly the experience. Thin, strangely textured, oddly chewy, and completely tasteless. The «fresh tomatoes and basil» were a smear of goo on the bottom bun, and the mozzarella was a translucent piece of processed «cheese». Just… no. Also, my gluten free bun was hard as a stone and basically inedible. I buy this brand of buns all the time (Udi’s), and they are pretty good, so I have no idea what happened here.
Also, my little bro’s «free birthday sundae» was the size of a shot glass.
I guess if you want to go watch a game, eat fairly ok fries, and drink cheap beer (there are lots of miller specials), this is a great place. If you want a palatable dinner… keep driving.

A solid 3 because we never know how things will turn out when we go. Service levels run the gambit, last night was a win. The up charge from fries to veggies caught us off guard but things like are certainly not unique to the Gritty. BBQ wrap was good but lacked pizazz and hubby unfortunately had another failure in his brisket tour of the greater Madison area. It was fatty, tough & flavorless. He’ll go back to the burgers which are hit or miss. Fried cheese curds always good but it’s hard to go wrong with fried cheese.

Great place for burgers and birthdays! Great place to watch the game as well. At times the floors are a little sticky and the servers aren’t always in the best mood. They made a pretty good old fashioned though. The brunch is fun with some different sandwiches and some decent bloody Mary’s. Their outdoor patio is pretty nice in the summer as well. Would recommend to anyone that’s having a birthday or looking to watch the big game!

Obviously a great place to go for your birthday since you drink for free, and it’s pretty good for just going out any other night. I had their signature burger (the Nitty burger) and it was good, but not great. The burger seemed a little thin, which I wasn’t expecting. They have a pretty decent looking breakfast/​brunch menu which I’m looking forward to trying. I like getting their bloody marys, but the last time I had one here it was really bad. I’m not sure what happened, but it tasted like straight tomato juice. Usually it is flavorful and has a good bite to it. I’ll have to make sure I don’t order one when the bartender that made this one is working…
The service is prompt and friendly, and I’m sure I’ll be back. Looking forward to trying the brunchzilla bloody mary, granted the right bartender is working.

Hubby and I went for a late lunch and sat in the bar area. Waitress attentive and the food excellent as always. Great place for a date night or just talk without too much noise. The burgers were yummy and the fries perfect!

Came in for dinner for my fiancé’s birthday. Overall it was a good experience and I have no complaints. The service was pretty quick considering we had 10 people at our table. I ordered the strawberry & pistachio salad. It was really good with the raspberry vinigarette although it could have used more feta and strawberries on it.

This place is hit or miss. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s meh. Inconsistent. Burgers are about $ 2 over priced.

Stopped in here randomly when looking for a sports bar in the Sun Prairie area. We grabbed a table in the large bar area, the waitresses were friendly and quick with the beers… but, we didn’t know that they marketed themselves as the «official birthday bar», so be prepared to be asked several times who is celebrating a birthday in your group and some initial confusion from hostess & waitress if you’re not celebrating (as if to think somebody would just come here for just a beer!). You will also be inundated with birthday announcements, singing, etc. over the loudspeaker. so if you don’t enjoy watching others celebrate birthdays or you’re not celebrating one yourself, you may just want to make this one a quick 1-​beer stop like we did.

Big surprise, I came here to celebrate a … birthday! Haha, Nitty Gritty is the bar to go to if you have a 21+ friend or family member with a birthday, because they drink free! We happened to be there the same day as a Packers game, and they had a ton of TVs not only in the bar, but in the dining room where we met for lunch.
They have booths for 2 and tables for large groups; from what I saw, the bar layout was pretty spacious. With snow still on the ground during our visit, I will need to stop back during the summer and drink out on their patio too.
It really is a place for all ages (if you stop in for lunch or dinner)… maybe not so much after 8pm when it feels more like a bar crowd. I saw children with balloons and celebrating with their family, but mostly college kids and older, there for their drinks. Not sure I’d frequent the bar outside of a birthday… luckily enough of my friends always choose the Nitty to at least start their night!

If it is your birthday, what are you waiting for!!! Get to the Nitty and grab yourself some free drinks!
This Nitty in particular has a great outside patio & plenty of parking.
If it is not your birthday, plan on only staying for less than an hour or you will be forced to listen to their birthday song that they plan once an hour. Followed by bell ringing and birthday names being read over a microphone. Yes, this happens every hour of the day.
So yeah, I’m pretty sure I can only deal with this every so often when it’s not my birthday.
The food is pretty good. Nothing special, just good bar food. The Big Gritty is my go to burger. It is huge! 2 giant patties and a tasty wheat bun covered in cheese, tomato, and onion with a pickle spear.
If you get the cheese curds, they come with Gritty sauce. Not to my liking so I order ranch instead. It’s kind of like a strange thousand island sauce. the curds themselves are fantastic! Nicely battered and decently sized.
The milk shakes are my favorite! They not only bring you a nice large glass cup covered in whip cream, but also the very large metal cup that they made it blended it in. So it’s like have 2 shakes sitting in front of you!!! Yum Yum.

I have been to the Nitty several times for drinks as they are the «Birthday Bar.» However, this was my first trip for dinner. Completely underwhelming.
I ordered the Bruschetta Burger, cooked med. well with the house fries. My burger was cooked beyond well. To say it was dry would be an understatement. It had a single slice of mozzarella that had already started to firm up. This probably means by burger was sitting under the lights for a few minutes. The bruschetta of tomato and fresh basil was delicious. However, i was not given enough. With a burger that doesn’t come with any mayo, this was the only wet component on an otherwise boring burger.
I ordered a cup of chili, which was $ 3.75. It was the only way to get chili on my fries. If you order it on your fries, it is still $ 3.75. The chili was terrible. It is their seasonal soup and it tasted like it came straight from a can or a mix of chili seasonings.
I usually go out to eat midweek because I do not feel like cooking. Honestly, I would have rather stayed home and ate frozen pizza. At least then I would have saved money and I knew that my food would be just ok.

Seriously? We never go out for burgers, but we felt like checking out The Nitty Gritty tonight. We decided to sit outside because it was beautiful out. We had at least three different servers walk by us several times without uttering a word to us. Four other groups came in after us, were immediately attended to and served drinks. One server had to completely walk around us in order to get to the other tables. It was impossible to not see us. While we realize we probably weren’t purposely ignored, it sure felt like we were. After 20 minutes (yes, we literally timed it) we walked out. We even decided to give them one last shot by talking to the host/​hostess, but they were unapologetic and disinterested. We will never go back.