Newport Shores

Newport Shores

Port Washington, WI

Well my friends it has been awhile but I have finally returned to write a new food

blog. I have so many places to review but I thought since tomorrow is Friday and we are in Wisconsin, I will discuss my last fish fry. Now usually I wouldn't find myself in Port Washington, unless it

has something to do with pirates, but with family living there I find myself heading in that direction every so often. With a wonderful little downtown and being right next to the lake, there are plenty of places to check out in the area. While I've only eaten in Port Washington for Pirate Fest, I never got the chance to eat at any of the places around there, and that leads us to Newport Shores.

Located right on the lake inside of a place that looks like it was once an old farm home, the area couldn't be better for seafood. The big windows we were next to gave you a good look at the lake and although the place was a bit crowded and the tables were all in very close proximity, it still gave off a nice

home/comforting atmosphere. When you walk in there are a bunch of tables and a decent sized bar while in the back there is a room for larger groups, and that is where i was seated. Like I said, the place was a little crowded, and was tough to move around but you'll find that at most places on the weekends. The menu itself was a good size and had a nice selection for the seafood lover and the non seafood lover

As far as prices go, look to be spending between $9 to $20 here, more than that if you're looking at their Porterhouse ($26.95) or the many lobster and king crab leg meals that also include different steaks, which are all listed as market price on the menu. If spending a lot isn't an option for you, a catfish or tilapia fish fry maybe a good choice ($9.95) or the basic cod fish fry ($10.95). Lake Perch and Canadian Pike were also 2 other options that you could choose from. ($12.95) If you aren't a fish person, they had a variety of steaks that included Top Sirloin ($13.95) or a New York Strip. ($19.95) If your like me and steak doesn't suit you, then the baby back ribs ($19.95) are usually a good choice. Being the seafood lover I am, I decided to go with the Seafood Platter ($13.95) and a bowl of Seafood chowder ($2.75).

I ordered the Seafood chowder, because I can't pass up a good cup of soup and it also came with some coleslaw. The soup was probably the greatest part of my me

al. It was thick and creamy and was filled with potatoes and almost every bite had crab and a few other things thrown into it. It was good because it wasn't overly fishy like some seafood soups can be and it didn't screw you out of any of the seafood like some places do. I must admit that this was one of the better soups I've ever had in my life, and even the coleslaw was really good, and I don't even like coleslaw. Overall it was a perfect soup and I wish more places would carry this kind of soup with this amount of quality. As for my fish fry I ordered, well it could of been worse.

Like most places, you got to choose a side of fries or a baked potato but if a place offers rice, I get rice because I love it. Along with the rice, the Seafood platter came with fried shrimp, your choice of fish, and scallops. You can choose between two different fish and I believe that I got the perch, which is usually

a good option. While my rice was delicious, I had mixed feelings on the other items. I think I'm losing my taste for fish fries, they just don't taste great to me anymore, how un-Wisconsin of me.

Neither one of my items had an outstanding flavor, except maybe the perch, which stood out a bit more. The batter was very salty and you could taste that strong saltiness more than the flavors of the seafood. It went pretty well with the fried shrimp though, I don't think you can really do wrong on those and they were pretty delicious. While the scallops lacked a lot of flavor when they slipped out of the batter and weren't anything memorable. I must say that they gave you a lot more fish than breading, which is hard to find at a lot of places and is always a plus to a meal. I probably could of done without the scallops, which is weird because I love scallops, and the perch wasn't bad choice but wasn't the greatest thing ever.

I don't want to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth after reading this because just because I didn't enjoy a fish fry, doesn't mean that it's a bad place. I think my tastes are just changing, and while although it wasn't the best, it was better than a lot that I've had before. I also included a picture of the cheese curds that we ordered because they were delicious and tasted great with the ranch that came with them. Before I end this, I must also mention that the specials here were great. They gave you TONS of options to choose from with their specials. Lots of unique fish and some different flavors that I haven't seen at to many places like this. My Dad ordered the blue gill from the specials and it was delicious! Another person I was with ordered the stuffed shrimp ($9.95) and I tried some and that was also a very tasty option. Overall, if you are with your family and want to go out to get a fish fry or a steak out in Port Washington, I'd make this a place to look into.

If you are interested in looking at other meals they offer, they have their whole menu online which includes burgers, chicken, pork, and even deserts!

Thanks for reading!

PS: Sorry for the weird fonts in the blog, it does that for some reason and I have no idea how to change it, so hopefully it's not that annoying.

Roots

Roots

Milwaukee, WI

Even though I'd love to eat at a fancy expensive places a lot, I usually don't get the chance to. A couple months ago I got a chance to try out a place that I've never heard of before called Roots. Located on Hubbard street in Milwaukee, it was located in an area that I never really was around before. It was also one of the first place besides Bean and Barley that I've been to that was mostly for people who were vegan or vegetarians.

The area that Roots was located was spectacular. Overlooking some streets of Milwaukee and a huge garden, it gave off a very good feel to it, almost like you were at a winery, but with a big city right next door. The inside wasn't anything super special but had a good amount of tables, although they were quite small, and a huge bench thing against a wall with more tables set up against it. It also had a nice bar set up and the windows allowed for plenty of sunlight to get in. One of the nicest attributes to the place was the little patio they had outside that overlooked there garden. I must also add in that I ate on the lower part of the restaurant, while the upper part was either full or they weren't seating up there at that time, so I didn't get a good look at it. I could go on about how clean the place was and how great the building looked but I'm going to go into the food now.

Although the dinner menu wasn't huge, it did contain some very interesting options that I've never heard of before. The reason I didn't hear of a lot of them is because of their large amount of vegan foods that they offered there. Items such as sesame mock duck and Grilled Seitan were brand new to me but if you are a vegan they probably aren't. The prices were more than I could usually spend on my own, which is why I was with my family here. With salads and starters beginning around $6-$9 and going to as high as $18, there was a wide variety of items to choose from such as crab cakes ($14), Shrimp Taco salad ($10-Small, $20-Large), a cheese plate ($18), a mussel and clam hot pot ($10) or just a normal house salad ($6). When you got the entrees though that's when the prices went up a bit. If you come here, look to spend no less than $20 on an entree. With items truffle seared tenderloin ($36), Sauteed King Salmon ($30), Grilled Seitan Cutlets ($22) and Sesa

me Mock Duck ($20), you will be spending a good amount on a meal. The one thing that stuck out on the menu for me that I had to try was the soy grilled tilapia.

Upon getting my meal I thought to myself, this is far to small for a big guy like me. While it looked appetizing, I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. Upon my first bite I fell in love. At $27 I would of ordered a couple of these and not cared about the cost. The tilapia was very fresh and had a nice soy sauce on it that gave it little saltiness to it. Around it was a coconut curry sauce that was by far one of the better things I've tasted. It was more sweet than I was expecting it to be with none of the spice that I was expecting. The sweetness of the coconut sauce and the soy sauce went great with the fish. Almost better than the fish itself was the cashew sticky rice that was placed underneath it. It was also a little sweet and was probably one of the best rice dishes I've ever had. I liked how it was put together in a square and was a bit hard around it but soft on the inside, it was a new experience of eating rice for me. It also went great with the coconut curry just like the fish did. The whole meal was filled with a lot of different flavors that all went together incredibly well and made this a great meal. Although I was afraid of how small it looked it surprisingly filled me up, so I was incredibly satisfied with what I ordered.

If you have a good amount of cash in your wallet or want to impress a vegan lady (or man) in your life this is a place to check out. I tried a lot of other peoples food that day and none of it was a disappointment, even though weird vegan meat that I tried. If you plan on coming here, remember that you will probably be spending more than $50 for 2 people. They are also supposed to have an amazing wine selection if that's your thing. I don't drink so I'm not quite sure about it but I think they have the Roots Cellular area for a reason, so check that out if you are interested. Overall I really enjoyed this place. The waiter was patient of our requests the place was clean and the food was delicious. Check this place out! Even if it doesn't suit you, they do have burgers so maybe even give that a shot!

Barnacle Bud's

Barnacle Bud's
Milwaukee, WI

I really wish I would of done this review sooner but I've been quite busy lately, but for those of you who can still find a nice day to do some outdoor dining, this is the place for you. Barnacle Bud's is a place that I think gets it's name around from word of mouth because before I came here, I've never heard of it before or saw anything about it. The even more interesting about it is that driving there makes you feel like your going to a back alley drug deal. Getting there involves driving down a street that is surrounded by what looks like warehouses and an area that you wouldn't think would even hold a place to eat. After driving some distance through this abandoned looking area, you finally come to a sign that says Barnacle Bud's. This place is actually pretty difficult to find, but I would say worth the search.

When you enter, you are taken to an area that looks like a large dock covered with tables, which makes sense since people with boats can drive up right to the place and dock for something to eat. I don't know if it's as busy now since Summer is almost over but when I went, this place was packed. There were a lot of tables to sit at but almost no room to move around. If you do happen to get a seat outside, you get a nice view of the river and all of the boats that go by, which makes for a really perfect summer view. The environment is a fun one and the people who work here are quite friendly also. While I liked what I saw around me, the food is what is really important here.

The menu had a great selection of different seafood's, such as a poboy, oysters and different seafood baskets. They also had 2 different kinds of burgers along with a pork and chicken sandwich and a few other choices. They even have different special's for all the different days of the week. What I was most surprised about were the prices. For being a place in Milwaukee it's usually tough to find something for less than $10 but at Bud's, I don't think there was one thing that was more than $10 (except a few of the specials.) I was with my family so they decided to get an appetizer which happened to be the Barnacle Bud Wings.

While I usually wouldn't order wings at a seafood place, I would have to say that I must change that policy after trying these. While not the best wings I've ever had, they were up there for sure. They only had 1 flavor of wings but that is perfectly fine in this case. They weren't very spicy but had a little bite to them, which makes sense because I believe that they used jerk sauce for the wings. They also had a sweetness to them and the jerk flavoring is always something that never fails to taste good. The amount of meat on them wasn't anything spectacular, but it gave you enough food to hold you over for your next meal. For being $8.95 and getting 10-12 wings its a little pricey but what you'd find at most places I guess, but these are worth checking out if you have the chance. For the main course though, since it was a Friday, there was only 1 thing that I could get.


Nothing is usually better than a good Wisconsin Friday Fish fry, and Bud's was great because you didn't just have to order cod like at most places. You got the choice of 4 different types of fish! There are not many places I've been to where you can do that. The choices for the fish included cod, cat fish, smelt and grouper and being that cat fish is one of my favorites, it was an easy choice. As for the price, it was pretty normal for what you'd find at most places for a fish fry, $9.95 and it also included bread, fries and coleslaw. One thing that made it a little different though is that it also included clam chowder. As you can see in the picture, you get 2 pieces of cat fish, which are a pretty decent size and a good amount of fries. While the cat fish tasted alright I have to say that I was still a little disappointed. I just think that there wasn't enough flavor in the fish, you could tell that they put some seasoning and such into the batter and everything but it ended up being more of a bland seasoned bready flavor than fish flavor. There were moments when the cat fish came through quite nicely but it was drowned out by the batter. I tried the grouper I believe and that was quite tasty and had more fish than breading so you could taste the fish a lot more. The same thing went with the cod, which was also very good. Lastly, while clam chowder is one of my favorite soups, I don't really know what they did with there's here. While most clam chowders are nice and creamy, they replaced this creamy with a thick potato soup that had small bits of clam in it. While I've had other clam chowders like this, I think this one was the thickest but if you don't let that bother you, it was still really good. Overall the meal was decent but I was a little saddened by the flavor of my cat fish but all the other fish I tried was delicious.

I have to say that this place is worth going to just because it's a perfect example of a summer restaurant. Watching the boats and the river on a sunny day just gives off a perfect summer atmosphere. If you are one for fried seafood or your basic sandwiches for a good price, this is the place for you. Be it a grouper Reuben ($9.95,) a brat ($6.95,) a 10 oz Big Bud Burger ($8.95) or some Kinnickinnic Chicken ($7.95) there's something for everyone to try for a good price. This is for sure a place to check out if your looking for a fish fry or just a good place to sit outside and eat on a nice day.

John's Root Beer

John's Root Beer
(Waukesha, WI)

One place that I've heard about the past couple years is a little place in Waukesha called John's root beer, which is supposed to have the greatest root beer in the world. For a little birthday celebration a week ago I decided that I would finally check it out and see what this place is all about.

When I first saw what the place looked like I already knew it would be worth the trip. What you get at John's is that awesome drive up restaurant that you don't get to see very often. Sure you can go to Sonic or something but they don't give that nice retro feel and that's what I enjoyed about John's. With it's florescent orange building to it's florescent orange garbage can and even tables it just gave off a very fun and old school vibe to it. Since you can't go inside the place, all the eating can take place inside your car or one of the many picnic tables that are on the side or in back of the building. As for the menu it has what you'd expect from a little place like this.

John's had all the fried food favorites and American classics that almost anyone can enjoy. With different variety's of hot dogs, a chicken sandwich, bratwurst, ice cream, french fries,mozzarella sticks, and of course root beer. As you can see there are a lot of different items to choose from and you are bound to find something you enjoy. I decided to try one of my favorite kind of sandwiches which is the pulled pork.

A pulled pork sandwich isn't a difficult sandwich to ruin, it had few ingredients and if you put them together right and have a good bun, then your good to go. For the price $3.57 I wasn't expecting a great amazing professional grade pulled pork sandwich and I didn't get that. What I did get though was just a good straight forward pulled pork sandwich. With a slightly sweet bbq and decent tasting pork you couldn't really go wrong for the price. They put a good amount of meat on it but not a lot to make it super messy. The sandwich isn't a big one, I think a finished it in a few bites but that doesn't bring the quality down at all. Overall the taste wasn't anything amazing and it didn't have a strong flavor but I still enjoyed it and would probably get it again.

While choosing my sandwich wasn't a difficult decision, choosing the size of my root beer was. With sizes starting at small for .71 and going to a large for $1.67. I ended up going with the large because it felt like the right thing to do. After hearing so much about this root beer, I was really excited to see what the hype was all about and I must say that it does deserve all of it's hype. While I can't say it's the best root beer I can say that is one of the more different ones that I've tried. While a lot of root beers are heavily carbonated, John's root beer is more flat and doesn't have much carbonation to it at all. It also has a nice real sugar taste to it (I'm not sure if it uses real sugar, but it sure tastes like it) which makes it a little sweeter than other root beers. It also seems a bit thicker than a normal root beer. Overall, I loved it and even though I was a little sad I wasn't offered a chilled mug with mine, I still thought it was a great root beer, and trust me I've drank a lot of root beer.


If your looking for a fun and cheap place to eat, John's is a place you should check out. With sandwiches starting at $2.14 and not getting anymore expensive than $4.84, it is a good cheap date place. If you are a big root beer fan like I am I would also say to check it out. If you like their root beer you are able to buy some to take home in a quart ($2.14,) a half gallon ($3.33) or a gallon ($5.23.) You can also get huge frosted mugs full of root beer that I believe are about a quart or so. If you like old school drive in's and good simple American and fried food, John's is a great place to check out. If you read people's comments about this place and all the memories they've made here you can tell that there's a reason that it's been open since 1937. If you are in the Waukesha area do yourself a favor and stop by, you won't be disappointed.

The Black Rose

The Black Rose
(Milwaukee, WI)



The only Irish pub's I've ever stopped into in Milwaukee are Trinity and The Harp and my experiences at those have mostly been surrounded by drunken people and drinking Sprite, so when I had some coupons to actually get some food at a Milwaukee Irish Pub I took my chance. The Black Rose has a great location, being located right on Oakland next to Solo pizza, the Miramar Theater and right across the street from Oakland gyros, it's a very easy to find spot. It is also attached to Solo pizza, which I wrote a review about before.


I think the atmosphere of the place was one of the better ones I've had in a bar. It was very super clean and wasn't packed, but it was an afternoon. It had lot's of sunlight coming in through the large front windows and they had plenty of big booths to sit in that were kind of similar to the ones at trinity but not as decorated. The bar was also very nicely set up with some packer decorations and a good amount of alcohol against the wall. If you get bored there they also do have a deer hunting arcade game! The bartender we had was also super friendly and made the experience there even better. Now that the atmosphere of the place is done with, let's go to the food.

While being a bar, an Irish place and a pizza place, there is a lot to offer on the menu from each of these of these categories. In the bar food category the menu offered burgers, starting at $6.95 for a plain cheeseburger and to $9.95 for the ultimate cheeseburger, and also nachos for $8.95, chicken tenders for $6.95, and Fish and Chips for $11.95. For the Irish options you got to choose from stuff like Shepherds pie for $10.95, Irish Stew for $11.95, and many peoples favorite the reuben for $8.95. As for the pizza it's the pizza from Solo, so if you wanna know pricing just read my last review for it. So even though the menu wasn't huge, it offered a lot of different things. As for what I ordered, I usually don't get burgers but I had a coupon for one so I went with it.


My coupon was that for $6.95 I could get any burger, fries, and a drink so I decided to try the most expensive burger, the Ultimate Cheeseburger. The burger was Angus beef topped with Cheddar, Jack, Swiss, and American cheese with some bacon and scallions also included. If you wanted you could get sauteed mushrooms, but those aren't for me. It also came with some bbq dipping sauce, which I actually didn't notice and I wish I would of. One of the most interesting things about this burger that made it different from most places is that it was on normal sourdough toast, no bun here, which was one thing I enjoyed about it, even though I couldn't really tell that it was sour dough. The burger itself was well made and very flavorful, thick, and juicy. I haven't had a burger in a long time so I'm not sure what qualifies as a great burger but I think this qualifies for one. All the cheeses were packed on nicely, and as a cheese lover, I couldn't of asked for more. As always though, bacon always goes well with anything and it went perfectly well with this burger. The fries that you got were your average fries, nothing special but still tasted good. The burger was a bit sloppy an wasn't presented amazingly but I won't knock it down for that because it still tasted good.

If your ever in the mood for a drink or a bite to eat I would for sure check this place out. With items starting out about $7.95 for appetizers and meals going up to about $14.95, for the Chicken Broccoli Alfredo, the prices are about what you'd find all around Milwaukee. With a unique menu featuring mac and cheese to reuben rolls, there is a good amount to choose from. Also with the friendly and clean atmosphere, it is a place to check out during an afternoon and probably even during the night. So if your on the Eastside and not near the bars on Water, check this place out, you may even like it more than Trinity.

Summerfest Round 3:

Pitch's/Miss Katie's Diner

This is one of the few places on the Summerfest grounds that I've never heard of before, and the fact that they had something called a fried Frito Pie makes me kind of upset that I never have. Located near the Chipotle and JoJos Martini Bar, it's pretty easy to find if you are heading over to the Marcus or the Classic Rock Stage.

While I have been taking a picture of the menu at these places, I have failed and didn't at this place, but from what I can remember there were ribs and a few other classic diner foods. The ribs were quite expensive, if I'm remembering correctly, but those didn't interest me as much as the fried Frito pie. The fried Frito pie is basically deep fried chili with Frito chips around it. They give you 4 decent sized little pies along with some salsa and some sour cream for $5.


I'm not going to lie to you and say that these things look appetizing, they actually looked like really weird chicken nuggets. I really didn't know what to expect or what these things really were. I was super surprised when I finally took a bite and found out that they were pretty delicious. The chili inside wasn't a spicy chili, it was more of a sweet chili with lots of beans in it. The Frito crust went quite nicely with it and added a little crunch to the soft center. Even though I didn't try the salsa that came with, they went really well with the sour cream. There's not much else to explain about it. If you like chili, and you don't mind having a nice crunchy layer around it then you'll probably enjoy this. I loved the beans and I loved the crust, and even though it wasn't very filling, I didn't feel to bad parting with $5 to try these things out.

If your super hungry, this may not be the thing to get because you do only get 4 of them but if you want a little snack, I'd say go for it. This is one of the more unique things you'll find at the fest and a surprisingly good one.

Summerfest Food Round 2:

Trinity
(Briggs and Stratton Stage)



My goal this time around at Summerfest was to find something that could top the amazingness that was my tamales the last time I was there. I looked far and wide and found something that sounded good enough that it just might be the one. When I think of Trinity, I think of a bunch of drunk people standing around in a crowded bar, because that's all I've experience there, but I guess they actually have food also! One of their items that I found interested enough to try was the Irish Nachos.


Homemade potato chips are always a good choice in most dining situations, and having them covered in cheese and corned beef sounded like heaven to me. While for $6.50 the portion wasn't as big as I'd liked it to be but it's Summerfest and that's what happens. The potato chips were probably the best part of the nachos. They were salty and crunchy and overall everything you want in a potato chip. As for the toppings, I can't say that they were amazing. The cheese sauce was your average cheese sauce, plain and only slightly cheesy. One of the most important parts, the corned beef, wasn't as good I thought it would be. While it had a nice salty meaty flavor, it wasn't a strong one. They did put a good amount of the corned beef on it, which I enjoyed, but it was not the best that I've had. One last problem with it was that there was just a little to much cilantro on the nachos and they kind of got in the way of the other flavors. It also came with a thing of thousand island dressing but that's not something I enjoy, so I left it out.


While it may seem like I hated these, I really didn't dislike them at all, it just didn't meet my expectations. The potato chips were great, and it was a nice, but expensive, little snack for me. If you like homemade potato chips I'd give this a try, but it shouldn't be high up on your priority list. Most of the other things on the menu were also $6.50, while some were $5. You can also see from the menu I posted above what other items you can get here, things such as shepherds pie and the popular Reuben roles, which from my experience are quite tasty. So if your hungry at the fest, this is a place to check out if your looking to get a little more interesting in food selection.