The Willy Street eatery was the year's best debut ...Sardine was strong enough to really help reinvent the dining landscape in Madison. It's one of the first large-scale dining rooms in town that knows how to mix savvy fun with serious dining, an informal sense of fiesta with good food, a true sense of style with a real sense of taste. The kitchen has already produced some classic dishes-the best skate wing I've ever tasted; an ethereal duck salad...

-Jerry Minich, The Isthmus