Milwaukee area restaurants

In message , dated 17 Nov 91 23:32:39 GMT,
Steven B. wrote:

>I will be in the Milwaukee area in the near future.  I am looking
>for new and interesting restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area.
>Most of the time, I'll be interested in reasonably priced, but still
>noteworthy food, but I would like to try one or two fancy places.
>I am not too particular about type of food.

      I'm from Milwaukee so I could tell you about quite a few good
restaurants there, but I'll try to limit myself to my favourites.  Two extremely good Middle-eastern restaurants are Zam-zam's Cafe (a little place near the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee--  the portions are kind of small but the food is delicious and the drinks are superb)  and the Casablanca (a slightly more formal restaurant with a bar located on the South Side of the city--  the portions are large and absolutely everything I've ever eaten there has been spectacular.)  The Casablanca, by the way, used to be called the Sahara so it might still be listed under that name in the phone book.
      Milwaukee's southside is also home to dozens of Mexican restaurants.
Some of the best are Marisco's (specializing in Mexican seafood dishes--  the ceviche is fantastic), Rudy's (I highly reccomend their Chili relleno), and Taqueria Jalisco (a small little place with simple food done well-- the chorizo tacos are a must!)  The owner of Taqueria Jalisco runs another restaurant--  simply called Jalisco--  which is located near the UWM campus, but it's a little more expensive, more formal, and the food is not (in my opinion) quite as good.
      Other excellent restaurants that come to mind are Singha Thai (located
in New Berlin on Highway 100), which is one of the best Thai restaurants I've encountered.  There is an extremely good West-Indies restaurant called Horace and Rita's located near the intersection of capital and 21st or 22st. It's really small--6 barstools for seats-- but the food is wonderful.  (btw, it is located in an area that some consider to be "a bad neighborhood" if you are concerned about such things.)
      Well, I think this is long enough, so I'm going to stop here. All the
restaurants that I've mentioned here are fairly inexpensive and quite good. My tastes lean towards ethnic food and that is reflected in these reccomend- ations, but there are plenty of good American/Continental restaurants in Milwaukee as well.  (A particularly good, extremely fancy contintental place is Steven Wades' --  also located in New Berlin.)  There are, as one might suspect, a number of good German, Polish, and Czech restaurants as well, but I don't know too much about them.
      Sorry I was not able to include more precise addresses, but I don't
a Milwaukee directory or map handy. E-mail me if you have further questions.

      -----  jim chokey ([email removed])

From article , by [email removed] (Steven Berson):
> I will be in the Milwaukee area in the near future.  I am looking
> for new and interesting restaurants in the greater Milwaukee area.
> Most of the time, I'll be interested in reasonably priced, but still
> noteworthy food, but I would like to try one or two fancy places.
>
There's a new russian restaurant where the mexican restaurant used to be, or back when you were going to school here, hmmm I think it was a bar then whose name I forget.  Well, it's on the same block as Siegel's liquor. And no, I haven't been there since it opened. Has anyone else who reads this group?

Christopher S. wrote:
>Well, I know I'm in Pittsburgh now, but I love to talk about Milwaukee,
>since I am a native resident of Whitefish Bay myself.
>
>Restaurants:
>
>FANCY PLACES:
>1) There's always Grenadiers, but sheesh!  This is a major price tag.
>2) Fox and Hound is out near Holy Hill.  Excellent.
>3) Karl Rasch's downtown serves excellent german cuisine.
>4) as does Maders on Old World Third Street

Chris is right on all these, but especially don't miss Maders. For less $$ try lunch (you'll still get more than you can eat).

Christopher S. wrote:
>Well, I know I'm in Pittsburgh now, but I love to talk about Milwaukee,
>since I am a native resident of Whitefish Bay myself.

And I'm in Columbus now, but have only been away from Milwaukee for a year. I'd like to counter your obvious *North Shore* bias.

>Restaurants:
>FANCY PLACES:
>1) There's always Grenadiers, but sheesh!  This is a major price tag.
Major is an understatment. It's probably *the* most expensive place in town.

>3) Karl Rasch's downtown serves excellent german cuisine.
>4) as does Maders on Old World Third Street

You really can't go wrong with any of the triumvirate of downtown German restaurants, Karl Ratzsch's, John Ernst, or Maders. Considering atmosphere, I'd go for one of the schnitzels at Maders.

>MEDIUM PLACES:
>1) There's a bar/restaurant on the tomp of the Hyatt Regency downtown
>    called Polaris.  The food isn't that spectacular, but it's OK, and
>    the entire restaurant revolves around to give you a really spectacular
>    view of the city, esp. at night.

Go to Polaris for a drink *after* dinner.

>3) DosBanditos (sheesh! I think I'm hungry for Mexican food or something!)
>    on Green Bay Avenue in the North Shore about 1/4 mile north of Silver
>    Spring is GREAT mexican food.

I thought Dos Bandidos was out of business a couple years ago. Anyway, they weren't that great. Better Mexican can be found in Walker's Point just south of downtown. Or that one place whose name I forget, but it's on National around 22nd or so.

>4) The Silver Spring House, just north of Dos about 1/2 mile is a nice
>    pub-like place with good food at reasonable prices.
>
Haven't been since they remodeled, but I was never very impressed.

>CHEAP PLACES:
>1) Heineman's on Silver Spring in Whitefish Bay, or on Brown Deer Rd just
>    East of Port Washington Dr. (there are two) serves some pretty home-
>    style food at a good price.

This is true, but it's the same food you can get in any city so why bother?

>2) The Coffee Trader on Downer by North Avenue is a nice Coffee/Chat place
>    with huge windows to Downer so you can laugh at all the funny looking
>    people as they walk past.  :)

It's ok if you don't mind paying outrageous prices for a cup of coffee, just so you can be with the hip and trendy folks and other yuppies.

>3) Just down the street is Webster's book store.  This place is cool.  You
>    can buy a book or a paper, go next door and get something to eat and/or
>    drink, sit at a table outside or in, and read while you eat.  Again,
>    such a variety of artsy-type people hanging around.

Webster's is almost as much a rip-off. And it's way too crowded. (Am I showing my anti-East Side bias yet?)

>4) There's always the strip on Port Washington between Hampton and Silver
>    Spring.
>
If you like McDonalds or Big Boy. There's really nothing there worth making a trip for.

In my estimation, someone with just a few days for dining in Milwaukee should not waste time with any non-ethnic reataurant. There's too much good food. Try the Serbian food at Old Town (on Lincoln just off I-94 near St. Josephat's). Especially the burek (cheese is best) and the cevapcici (pronounced che-WAP-chi-chi). They also usually have great strolling tamburitza musicians. Then try Polonez or another one in the same area for Polish food. Have a bowl of czarnina (duck's-blood soup). I already mentioned the German and Mexican choices. Oh just look in the yellow pages. They're listed by ethnicity after the regular listings. If you have to have American I recommend two places. The best is the Boulevard Inn on Sherman Blvd and Lisbon. Their soups are always excellent and they're well known for their excellent fish entrees. Otherwise, go north to Cedarburg. Try the Cream & Crepe restaurant in the Cedar Creek Settlement for great crepes, great lemonade, and the best broccoli soup I've ever had.

IMHO, Milwaukee is a great town for dining out. Columbus may have 110 Chinese reataurants and just as many pizza parlors, but I really miss the ethnic food of Milwaukee.