Service was excellent. It was a busy Friday evening, service was great, food arrived quickly and was well prepared. I had the salt and vinegar chip crusted Walleye which was tasty with a good portion size read more

This is probably the best restaurant for dinner in Monona. The decor could use an upgrade and our server was a bit slow...that being said, the food was way above average. We plan to come here every Friday night to give them the business! The outdoor seating is a major bonus and the place is huge. No doubt there is some serious potential. Somethings that they could improve---access to more GF options. Both meals we had were excellent and super reasonably priced. We generally frequent farm-to-table restaurants in and around Madison and so we were happy to see local meat and produce on the menu. This is a brand new place and so I know it takes time to work out the kinks and get into a flow...I trust they will find their groove! read more

The previous incarnation at this location didn't quite hit the mark, so we'd been looking forward to the opening of The Breakwater for most of the summer. We boated in on an early Friday evening and headed straight up to the the outdoor patio/ bar. My initial reaction was meh, as nothing had changed since new ownership took over. The tables and walk-up bar were still the old, tired design from the old place. It wasn't clear if there was table service and, after sitting for 5 or so minutes, we decided to order our drinks at the bar. Things didn't go so well as we clearly interrupted a conversation between the bartender and another employee. There was no beer list available and I had to crane my neck to see the taps, additionally, the cooler with bottled/canned beer was in such disarray that I couldn't even figure out those selections. After ordering a refreshing pint of Bells Oberon, we settled in at a table overlooking the boat traffic on the channel.Should have been a beautiful summer evening, right? Wrong! We had intended on having dinner, as well, but the odor from the sewer pump out was so offensive we took our beer back to the boat and headed out to Lake Waubesa for dinner elsewhere. I really wanted to like The Breakwater, the Madison chain of lakes has a dearth of restaurants for boaters and I was hoping this was going to fill that gap! The lackluster upper patio and awful sewer odor were incredibly disappointing. read more

Inconsistant. New place. Funky insecticide smell when we walked in the door. First dining room to the left is comprised of plastic folding tables? We sat in the main dining room and the food was quite good. The wait staff was also very nice. There is no decor to speak of. Table clothes and plastic beer cups? Must be to accommodate the boat people who know not when to use 'inside voice'. Yeah I get it you had a few but reign in the exuberance. Maybe they felt the need to get over the noise created by the crayon throwing kids. The awkward 'ok let's clean up the mess' from the employees didn't faze mom and dad. I guess they felt entitled to treat the room as if they were in the Mc Donald's play house. Too many $$$ for a $ atmosphere. read more

Nice place. Went for fish tonight. Except for being a bit noisy the bartenders were great, the cod was perfect, the waitstaff was excellent but the check in service was terrible! Hostess checked us in at 6:00pm (said it would be 20 minutes). At 6:35 we re-checked but they seated others and lost our reservation for two! We had to wait another 20 minutes to be seated!! Their check in service was horrible! read more

We went today for brunch -excellent. Great service & unique menu. Farm fresh veggies, awesome hollandaise sauce & great Bloody Mary.

We didn't eat there, but I agree with others, the Host was extremely awkward and made us feel very uncomfortable. It's a decent place to hang out by the water and have drinks. read more

What an amazing new restaurant with lovely shaded outside seating at the dinner hour. The service was impeccable. We enjoyed cheese curds and truffle fries that were yummy but the salad with brussel sprouts and the marinated sirloin were absolutely gourmet. The key lime pie was a standout for dessert. There are 13 slips for boaters to pull up. read more

The claim of "farm to table" and "craft cocktails" is mere lip service. My wife and dined there the this week and having just opened, they are pretty far away from being ready for prime time. The bar service was poor, appetizer came out lukewarm and the meal was less than okay. If you enjoy trying to get aioli on a limp frite, you found the right place. The sandwich featured a bun that I am pretty sure came out of Woodman's bakery section (pretty sure I use the same sub buns for kids lunches). The noodle bowl my wife ordered was lukewarm and flavors were not at all balanced. My wife said she felt like she had just smoked a cigarette, describing the aftertaste left in her mouth. It was a greater disappointment because the chef formerly worked under Dan Fox who sets a high standard for food quality and service. If you like old fashions, look elsewhere and expect an up-charge of $2 on a rail drink for an orange slice, maraschino cherry in a weak drink, muddling not included. read more

This is a tough review - I was here with my husband and daughter and it was as if we were at 3 different restaurants. I had the Brussels sprout salad and it was amazing. I would order it again at any of the top restaurants in Madison. So I wanted to give Breakwater a great review. My daughter's Mac and cheese was runny and nothing special. Which for any restaurant touting local food in Wisconsin seems like a serious oversight. The diner down the road (cranberry creek) has better Mac and cheese. But a kids menu slip up might be forgiven if not for my husband's noodle bowl. It arrived cold, had very little flavor and, as my husband said, was "not good." The cheese curd appetizer was very good and the beignet desert was solid. But as much as I initially wanted to score it higher - as it is a welcome addition to monona - I have to settle on 3 stars for now. Hope to come back again and score it higher. read more

Soooo wanted this place to be good.......sorely we were disappointed. Our server admitted he had only been there a week, but simple things like taking close to 20 minutes to bring a table of 4 drinks...(managing to only bring 3 and forgetting the 4th), checking on us after our food was delivered, waiting another 15 minutes to get the check.....It never came, so we went inside to find it. Calamari appetizer was served cold, they "generously" offered to take it off our bill when it was sent back. Burgers were served ala carte (i.e. they are too cheap to include fries or chips with their burgers). I believe it was the manager who continuously apologized to us and seemed truly apologetic about the poor experience that was Breakwater, he also comp'd our round of drinks which was nice. I would love to say that because of his efforts we would go back, but there are far to many other good restaurants in Madison to risk another repeat of an overall subpar experience. read more

I really wanted to like this place, but after 2 tries, I'm done. My first visit was about a month ago for happy hour. Service was excellent. The place has a great atmosphere and the drinks are good, but the tacos were dry and the noodle bowl was cold. I thought maybe it was just an off day, and decided to give them another try for brunch today. Oh man. I ordered the duck confit hash, which featured about 3 bites of dry duck and the most sadly overcooked eggs I've ever been served. I didn't eat it, and seriously, I eat anything. My friend had an underwhelming frittata with dry (I'm sensing a theme?) sausage. She said the whole thing tasted overcooked. THEN it started raining. We were the only table out on the patio, so when 3 employees came out I thought they would offer to help us move our plates inside. No. They started clearing the silverware rolls off the unoccupied tables. I worked in restaurants for over 10 years, I get it, rolling silverware is the worst, but SERIOUSLY one of you could have offered to help your customers. 5 minutes after we moved inside our server finally asked if we wanted our food. Sure, it's probably delicious now that it's a puddle. Bartenders were friendly, but somehow we got charged for an extra cocktail, at which point I just signed the bill and got out. I might go back for drinks but honestly probably not. read more

Been here several times when it was still Bourbon Street Grill, always enjoyed my time. Since the new owners took over, we were curious about the improvements made, so we decided to dock and check it out. Told some friends we would pick them up here to jump on the boat. In retrospect this was a bad choice because there isn't an easy way back to the docks, without going through the restaraunt. They had a small cooler they were planning on taking on the boat. Breakwater said they couldn't bring it through. I get they don't want anyone BYOBing, that is fair, but we are talking about walking through. C'mon. Strike 1. On the way back we had a grocery bag full of cans to recycle from an afternoon on the lake. As we were about to throw them in the garbage can on the doc, we were told from Breakwater that our garbage wasn't their problem. Thought he was joking, he wasn't joking. Strike two. We ordered some drinks on the main deck to hang for a bit and finish out the Badger/LSU game. Six of us, plus a couple babies, sat down at a table on an empty deck after paying for drinks. Same guy from earlier asks us if we were going to be eating. Since we were not, he told us to move up to the third deck. Strike 3. Bartenders were great and accommodating, but this guy with a powertrip needs some learning disability level customer service skills. Lost us, but hope for their sake this guy gets let go. Didn't catch his name, but we were there in the afternoon twice on 9/3/2016. read more