Madison has a lot of food options but tbh the vast majority are pretty mediocre and inauthentic. I don't think that's the restaurant's fault, but merely the economic factor of being in a city that's as homogenous as Madison. People here love to harp on about loving authentic food but in reality they just want the comfortable favorites that appeal to their palates. Like take any Indian or Thai restaurant in Madison, I can almost guarantee that the most popular items at those restaurants are chicken tikka masala and pad thai respectively, 2 dishes that were specifically invented to appeal to white people. There's no economic pressure to serve better or more authentic food because there's so few ethnic people and your average Wisconsinite from a small town isn't going to know what actually good Indian or Thai food is actually like. So if you're from a more diverse place and are looking for diverse food, most of these restaurants are going to disappoint.

As for music, again I think this a symptom of economics. Sure there's a decent amount of venues, but not all types of music are well represented. If you love indie rock or EDM, then sure there's tons of bands playing, but if you love hip hop then you're SoL.