Food Around "Milwaukee": Members' Suggestions

This is a list of places to eat, culled from an email thread on our mailing list in which members suggested places they like. Keep in mind that the "I" and "we" in many of these notes refer to the original writers, who were many -- not to the Webminister. In compiling this list, there was no attempt to note who wrote what. This was mostly cut & paste from lots of individual letters, time spent mainly to give a "quick & not-too-dirty" compilation of our members' varied suggestions. As such, the writing styles, and likes/dislikes vary considerbaly. Some links were added to some places' names, ad hoc, but no attempt was made to do this for the entire list; lack of links here does not indicate lack of a web site, so if you like web sites, it is still worth your while to search for them on your own.

You might also want to look at the 'Last update' date in this page's footer; sometimes that just indicates a change in formatting or fixing a typo, but it might also mean the lists have been updated.

AMERICAN

• Final Approach (by the airport.)
• Ma Fisher's
• Blue Mound Inn. It has wonderful New England clam chowder. At least it did 20 years ago. [... around 1990, then ...]
• The Safe House for atmosphere
• The Melting Pot is really good ... if you're in the mood to spend a lot of money. It is worth the money but we're only willing to drop that kind of cash once a year.
• The Picnic basket out near Pewaukee Lake. Huge portions, cheap price, and quick service.
• Genesis on Hwy 100 & Beloit - American Style (Greek "Denny's"):
• Georgie Porgies is a burgers and custard place. Two locations - Oak Creek and Racine.
• Conways: It's obvious to a lot of us who go to fighter practice, but for those who don't, 22nd & Wells is where we go afterwards [when practice is at Marquette U.]. Great bar food. Super-love their cheeseburgers. [The place is also smoky.]
• McBob's on 50th and North for their Corned Beef and burgers. They do a brunch on Sat and Sunday that has a really good Corned Beef Hash
• Amelia's, by the Airport
• Ashley's BBQ 60th & Center.

CHINESE

• Ho-Ho's, though it's kinda smoky. (3956 S Howell Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53207)
• Yen Ching, on 76th and Good Hope.
• Emperor of China on Brady St
• The Emperors Kitchen in Brookfield (On Bluemound behind Kopps)
• Wongs Kitchen on 92nd & Capital. It's a little hole in the wall, but the food is fantastic, and they were clients for a few years.
• Lychee Garden (7920 W Layton Ave)

FISH FRY

• St. Sebastian's Roman Catholic Church - they have a web site if you want to see it ( http://www.saintsebastianonline.net/community-life/fish-fry/ ). People line up, even just for carry-out, and get big orders for groups. Kids' & Seniors' discounts. Eat there some nights, can always carry out.
• Brit Inn on Oakland
• The American Legion Hall on Wilson Dr (in Shorewood).
• Butler Inn or Stumble Inn.. Stumble is a bit of a drive, but worth it.
• Fish Fry: Fritz's Pub, 20th & Oklahoma.
• Pheasant Inn in Briggsville, WI [north of Portage]) (All time favorite fish fry place)
• Friday lunch buffet at the Lunda Room, Marquette's Faculty restaurant in the Union.

GREEK

• Oakland Gyros (Oakland and Locust)
• Gyros West on Bluemound in Waukesha has the best and fullest Gyros and pretty good seasoned fries.
• And for Gyro's, there is a little place on 13th and Pierce I think. I don't go there often cause it's not in the best neighborhood but it is so small you can't fit more than maybe 15 people in there to sit at a time but they have the best food and very good portions for the price. I can never remember names.

INDIAN

• Maharaja (on Farwell)
• Mayura (on Farwell)

IRISH

• Moe's Irish Pub (in Brookfield)
• County Claire (downtown)

ITALIAN

• Fernando's - 1629 W. Oklahoma Ave
• La Toscana (8405 27th Franklin, WI 53132), which is good but not mind-blowing
• Balistreri's Bluemound Inn
• Albanezes (sp?)?? on Keefe (?) kind of near the Walmart on Capitol.
• Albanese's on Blue Mound in Waukesha by the Home Depot used to have really good pasta- I have not been there in years, so I can not say how they are recently but they always seem to have cars there. And their friday fish fry had a definite Italian flavoring to the breading.
• DeRango's pizza - I've never had it from the Layton location but John DeRango (the father who started it in Racine, most of the other DeRango's are his children) and my dad were pretty good friends growing up and my mom waitressed ate the one on 6 Mile Rd. So we had their pizza a lot. [The web link here is for the (a?) 6-mile location, but Google shows a lot of results on the Milwaukee-area map for a search on "DeRango's".]
• If you like DeRango's pizza you will also like Zaffiro's on Farwell.

JAPANESE

• Japonica in Greenfield (love their sushi bar!)
• Wasabe at the corner of Blue Mound and Moorland has good sushi.
• Izumi's (on Prospect)
• Benihana's (downtown - Kilbourn and 3rd, maybe?) - I recommend the Sushi-Boat Lunch. The tempura-fried ice cream is really yummy!

KOREAN

Seoul (on Prospect)

MEXICAN

• For Mexican, I like the little rest. on the corner of Lincoln and Howell, can't remember the name.
• Rio West Cantina on Center and Humboldt. They have a HUGE selection of tequila, kind of a limited menu, but plenty of food for the price.
• Botanas (awesome salsa & good selection of tequila) http://www.botanasrestaurant.com/
• Mexican: Fiesta Garibaldi's on Bluemound.
• Jalapeno Loco - by the Airport

MIDDLE EASTERN

• Shaharazad (Oakland near Locust)
• Casa Blanca on Brady, especially the veggie lunch buffet

MONGOLIAN BBQ

• Gengis Kahn's Mongolian BBQ on Hwy 100
• BD's Mongolian BBQ at Bayshore Mall - Dahrien, "he of the limited palate", really loves this place and says of it, "This is definitely the place for Mongolian BBQ if you have an American's taste!" You can get one bowl (filled as high as you can manage) for one price, or all-you-can-eat for about $2 more. One bowl is always *plenty* sufficient for me. What's fantastic about this place is that they have like 8 kinds of meats (meatballs, smoked/polish sausage, beef, two kinds of steak, lamb, pork ...), 30-something sauces that aren't *all* weird or foreign [they actually have four or five that Dahrien will try -- amazing, actually!], multiple kinds of noodles. Oh, yeah, they have a pretty big veggie bar, and lots of dry spices and addtions, too, in case you're into either of those sorts of things. The soup & cheese bar is available for an extra price. (They've never objected ot my adding some cheese to my bowl, though, either.) /// And THIS is cool for those of you with FOOD ALLERGIES: They have a separate window to go to with your bowl of uncooked food; in the window is a guy (or gal) with three separate mini-woks, cleaned after every use, where they'll cook your food apart from anyone else's so that your food won't get contaminated with other stuff. You can use the window, even if you just don't like bits of other peoples' veggies sliding into your food as it gets cooked and rotated on the big grills. /// You wanna know something else cool? They have a location in Mongolia!!! It's been there since May of 2005! Now that's cool, an American franchise, the first in Mongolia, serving their Mongolian BBQ in Mongolia, no less!

NORTHERN EUROPEAN/RUSSIAN

• I like Polonez at 4016 S Packard Ave when I want north-eastern European cuisine.
• Irina's-across the street from Bayshore Mall on east Silver Spring? She and her husband are Russian but the food they serve is generally not. But--what they do have on the menu is wonderful. They make their own bread and bagels and pastrami and corned beef. Their potato pancakes are superb, so is the Rueben and so is their soup. If you eat breakfast there you can skip your next meal-we call it the home of the 8-hour breakfast. And if you don't clean your plate Irina comes over to yell at you-we love it there.

THAI

• EE-Sane Thai-Lao Cuisine 1806 N. Farwell Ave., (414) 224-8284
• Phans Garden Restaurant 1923 W National Ave, Milwaukee, WI
• Singha Thai in West Allis (Hwy 100 & Lincoln)
• The King and I (downtown on 3rd Street)
• …A wonderful little Thai/Vietnamese place out in Brookfield where the West Town theater used to be, in the same mall as the Applebees [just east of Barker Road & Moreland]. I wish I could remember its name....