text: Best Brewpub in the United States.\n\nThis review applies to all four of the Madison area Great Danes - I've been to the original downtown location over 100x and have been to the other three locations 5-15x each, noticing minimal difference in quality of food, drink, or service.  Altogether, I figure I've eaten at the four Great Danes at least 150 times in the past 18 years and had only three less-than-top-notch experiences there (see below).  In fact, my wife and I love this brewpub so much that we rented out half of the downtown pub's outdoor garden area for our rehearsal dinner the evening prior to our wedding.\n\nMadison has a lot of great restaurants, but there are a few dishes that are hard to find here done properly, including Mexican and Chinese food in general, Buffalo wings, and nachos.  Well,  maybe the only place in Madison that actually has good nachos is the Great Dane, where they have lots of good toppings, lots of good cheese and will custom craft them to your particulars.  And their wings, while breaded and not the classic Buffalo-style, are quite tasty, if overpriced.  Their artichoke dip, served in very tasty dish made out of a hollowed-out fresh-baked loaf of bread, are the best I've ever had.  GD's soups are also very good and their onion soup, with melted cheese and croutons, will rival that of any restaurant, anywhere on earth; they use some of their beers in it and it is awesome.\n\nGD's hamburgers are among the 5 best burgers in Madison and I especially like their Dane Burger, which is topped with their awesome artichoke dip; I sometimes will ask for them to make me a Dane Burger with a healthier buffalo patty.  The Applewood Bacon Burger is also excellent, but not as good as the Vintage Brewing Company's similar Black-and-Blue Burger (the best burger in town).  The thick fries that accompany the burgers, among other side options, are outstanding when you dip them into GD's chipotle mayonnaise, \n\nMy favorite dish on the menu is the Southwest Tortellini, which is a cheese-filled spinach tortellini with blackened chicken, black bean salsa, and creamy cilantro sauce, served with a garlic bread that will shame 99% of garlic breads served by Italian restaurant.  The Inner Warmth Peanut Stew, a vegetarian dish, is flavorful, filling, spicy and excellent.  I heartily recommend the Thai Chicken Pizza, as well as the buffalo chicken pizza, when it is available.  I've always considered \"comfort food\" to be a lame affectation of the retro-trendy types, but GD's meat loaf is really good, its chicken pot pie is no longer a dish for one's grandparents, and its mac-and-cheese is extremely good, especially the buffalo chicken version.  I've had most of their salads and they are also top-notch, with very fresh lettuce and other ingredients.\n\nOK, as good as the Great Dane's food is, its beers are even better.  I'm a beer aficionado, have been to dozens of breweries around the US, and aside from a half dozen or so Belgian breweries (the Belgians brew the best beer in the world), I would be confident that the Great Dane's beers would compare more than favorably with the beers of the very best breweries anywhere.  The Old Glory APA (American pale ale - like an IPA but a bit lighter, with citrousy Cascade hops) is easily the best pale ale I've ever had.  The Crop Circle Wheat beer is one of the finest wheat beers made in the U.S.  If one were to ask beer experts to name the 5 best breweries in the U.S., Bell's, in Kalamazoo would make many of those lists.  Aside from their stouts (Bell's makes the finest stouts in the country, hands down), the Great Dane's beers are better across the board.  Bell's makes some mediocre beers; the Great Dane does not.\n\nI've had three less-than-positive experiences at the Great Dane.  Many years ago on Mardi Gras, they ran a drawing contest, I won a Great Dane golf shirt, but one of the owners had been giving me bad looks for no reason at all, he called over a bartender and had her tell me that I won a different prize, something trivial instead and took back the shirt.  I got so mad that the owner had been such a &*&%#@@ jerk that I didn't go back for months afterward.  This year I had mussels steamed in a beer garlic sauce and the mussels didn't taste fresh.  And for Mother's Day 2012 we went to their brunch buffet and were partially disappointed.  The omelet and carving stations were very good, but the pancakes, waffles, French toast, bacon and sausage had been made hours before and were not worth eating.\n\nSo why so many neg. reviews for GD?  I'm guessing some are bogus (I've had such uniformly positive experiences that I just don't believe some of the complaints) and I'm also guessing GD's owners refused to pay this site's AdBribery demand, so they get hit with more neg. reviews. Google the site's adpolicy if you don't believe me.\n\nIn summary, if there's a better brewpub in the US, I'd sure like to go there.  \n\nThe Great Dane is highly recommended.