Adventure 4: The Icon

The Icon (website)
206 State Street
3 Adjectives: Chic, perky, modern.
Price: tapas (4-9) entree (17-23)
Authenticity:
Atmosphere:
Overall:
Other Opinions: madisonatoz, wisconsinstatejournal, badgerherald, yelp
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I have twice been to the new and highly praised The Icon, a nice tapas bar located across the street from the Overture. Like the Overture itself, this small place is glamorous and snazzy, mirroring the avant-guard dishes that the restaurant tries to put out. The inside of The Icon is a well-planned out mix of red, white and black. The theme is retro movies, and the place is decorated with plush red seats, some flat screens, and every possible movie memorabilia you can find in red, white or black. There is also a bar with a large selection of wines.

Interestingly, the owner of The Icon also owns Frida's, the mexican restaurant up a block and across the street. However, the fancier fare at The Icon is not something you would be able to spot if you were to go to Frida's. Some of the fancier ingredients used at The Icon include chevre (goat cheese), spanish chorizo, pine nuts, and a variety of imported cheeses and olives. On the other hand, the restaurant does mirror Frida's in some of the Spanish-tilting dishes. After all, tapas is a Spanish creation.

Although The Icon has entrees, a more fitting and fun way to enjoy the place is to try a selection of their tapas - small appetizer-like plates of food. Accordingly, The Icon prices their food as such; their try-as-you-like desserts are only $3 a pop. On the other hand, the money does add up, because many of the tapas dishes are quite small. Therefore, what is highly suggested is if you bring a group of four interested in food: then you can try a variety of nice dishes and split the bill. On the first trip, I had a selection of tapas while on the second I went for their special Valentine's Day dinner. I will try to address each of these experiences separately.

What is deceiving about the menu at The Icon is the seemingly plainness of each of the dishes. Surely "caesar salad" and "fish fry" are dishes you could find at practically any place in town, yet what makes this place unique is the way each of the dishes is prepared and presented. Possibly the most amazing is the wild mushroom soup (left), a phenomenal mix of savoriness and creaminess in each mouthful. The crispy bleu cheese toasts (generally crispy and buttery day-old baguette slices) complement the soup perfectly. This dish is flawless and a must-order. I'll save the neat presentation of this dish for you to find out.

Another good find is the ahi tuna tartare, if you are very adventurous. I decided to try the tartare on a whim (possibly due to subliminal messages from watching too much TopChef; it seems like almost every course has a tartare, doesn't it?) and it was delicious. The dish consists of delicate pieces of raw tuna complemented with a lovely parsley-caper sauce and bold roasted tomatoes. The tuna is spread onto toasts, similar to lox on bagels. What really surprised and delighted me about The Icon is when we asked for more toasts (only two were given with the tartare), they actually gave us a basket of precious crispy, buttery toasts instead of cheap bread. What a nice touch! The Icon also has a nice selection of flatbreads, a fancy way of saying pizza with non-traditional toppings. The seafood flatbread I tried was wonderful. Finally, the desserts are all great - especially the flan - and definitely worth it.

Although I have much to praise about The Icon, this is not to say that all of the dishes are mind-blowing. For instance, the baked garlic shrimp dish tasted quite average, and had a more chewy rather than melt-in-your-mouth texture I get with quality garlic shrimp. The patatas bravas, even though decorated in fancy aioli, tasted mediocre and was barely step up from good french fries. Although many of the dishes are very good and should definitely be ordered, some of the recipes are not well-developed and the dishes do not seem to be worth the cost.

This was especially true visiting The Icon on Valentine's Day. As tradition, my boyfriend and I have gone to a Valentine's Day dinner every year. Not well-known to most college students, many high-end Madison restaurants have a Valentine's Day multi-course dinner. While there are the rip-offs, most local places do a honest job preparing a fabulous and romantic meal. The fare is pricey ($70-100 per couple, without drinks, depending on where you go), but it's quite exciting to splurge just once a year to try something amazing.

The five-course menu at The Icon looked very tantalizing this year, and was near the "cheaper" end of Valentine's Day meals. The first two courses were sampler plates of their many tapas. A surprising hit was the plate of cold tapas. The imported cheeses each had unique, multidimensional favors and so did the smoked Spanish meats. As an olive-disliker, I was even wowed by the rich flavors the different olives had.

The hot tapas course and the mushroom soup course were both very good. However, the biggest disappointment of The Icon's Valentine's Dinner was the main entree. I ordered a baked chicken that was topped with chevre in a bed of mashed potatoes while my boyfriend ordered the vegetarian pasta. Neither dish seemed to spark the excitement that was elicited when we sampled the previous courses. Although my chicken was clearly brined (soaking the meat in salted water for a few hours prior to cooking to ensure a tender and juicy texture) and cooked well, the chevre combined with the buttery mashed potatoes made the dish feel too heavy. Also, outside of the chicken being topped with expensive chevre, the cheese did not really contribute much to the meat. Luckily, we did not spend an extra $20 to get the steak and lobster entree instead. A couple next to us had it and complained about the size of the half lobster tail (definitely looked prawn sized) they were given. The meal was slightly redeemed in the end by the wonderful desserts provided to us. A special tres leches cake saved the day. Overall, I would not recommend dining at The Icon on Valentine's Day - you aren't missing out on much. Instead, gather a few of your food-loving friends and head over to The Icon on a normal day to enjoy a few of their renowned tapas.