The food was good and the decor/ ambiance was great but the service sucked big time. My friend and I came here after being down at the farmers market. We were both visiting madison from out of town and wanted to eat somewhere that used local ingredients. Yelp came to the rescue and we evaded over to the Mermaid Cafe . I order d the California BLT and my friend got the chicken pesto panini. We took our seats and waited.........and waited........and waited. 25 minutes later I went up to the counter to see what the deal was and they were JUST plating our food. WHAT?!?!?!?  We didn't order a steak , we order simple sandwiches that take 7 minutes to make. I told the gal at the counter that we had been waiting for 25 minutes for sandwiches which was ridiculous. There was no offer of a free drink or free dessert nothing. Would love to go back and the food was great but the service was def sub par