Forty8 Review

I usually visit a restaurant twice before I go around telling friends and family that it is a great place. After my first meal at Forty8 located at where else but 48th & National Avenue in West Milwaukee I resisted the urge to tell everyone that they had some of the best seafood in the City. After a visit last week I can now proclaim that Forty8s seafood selections are incredible.

On our first visit it wasn’t very crowded because it was a Wednesday night. We were seated at a table in the corner of the restaurant. I was surprised to find that the restaurant was more of a bar that serves food than a restaurant. Their regular menu is rather uninspiring, with the exception of the appetizers. The rest of the menu featured sandwiches and burgers. Inside the menu is a separate sheet that lists an impressive number of specials. This is the menu that you want to order from. It changes monthly but you will find many items make appearances every month.

We started off with some Lakefront Riverwest Stein beer and ordered the Grilled Crab Stuffed Avocado. It is an avocado, stuffed with Backfin lump crabmeat, tossed with fresh mango, peppers, and onion; served with Mornay sauce &basil oil. I expected to see two avocado halves and was somewhat disappointed with the amount of crab in proportion to the amount of sauce and avocado. Nonetheless this original dish was outstanding. The basil oil and Mornay sauce provided a nice balance to the crab, peppers, and mango. Even after we finished off the crab meat we were using our forks to pick every last bit of pepper out, making sure to drag it through the delicious sauce.

For my entrée I ordered the pecan crusted Chilean Sea Bass and my fiancée ordered some crab cake special that featured two regular crab cakes and two stuffed crabs. The Sea Bass was perfectly sautéed resulting in a crunchy crust and moist flaky flesh. The sauce was a hazelnut orange sauce that seemed to be cream based. There was a faint hint of orange and a little more pronounced hazelnut flavor. I think they probably used hazelnut oil. The sauce was also drizzled on some angel hair pasta. A sizeable portion of sautéed veggies including yellow squash, zucchini, and carrots was also included. The sauce blended very well with the angel hair pasta and the vegetables were simply sautéed in extra virgin olive oil and a touch of salt and they tasted outstanding.

My fiancées crab cakes were equally impressive. The two cakes were pretty sizeable and were drizzled with a great Remoulade. I expected the stuffed crabs to simply have the same filling as the crab cakes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was an entirely different mixture. The crab meat was the smaller (non lump) kind that you would find for 2-4 bucks at the grocery store, but was blended with breadcrumbs and spices and baked to perfection.

Our second visit was not as great as the first, but that is primarily our fault. We went on a Friday night on the same night the the Brewers were playing so it was packed. We were told it would be a 45 minute wait and we were pleasantly surprised that within 2 minutes of ordering drinks at the bar, we were seated. The wait was only 5 minutes! We were seated near the bar so we constantly had waitresses passing by our table. We also were kind of annoyed that people waiting for tables were kind of standing right next to us. It is very hard to carry on a conversation and enjoy a meal when you feel like you are being watched.

Nonetheless, with one minor exception the food proved to be as good as our first visit. We ordered the Fortygreat Crab cakes with a spicy Remoulade and wasabi dressing. The cakes were prefecly cooked, crunchy on the outside and moist and loaded with crab. The dish had multi-colored peppers sprinkled on top creating an impressive presentation, which tasted as good as it looked.

I ordered the stuffed monkfish, which was loaded with shrimp and crab. The fish was delicious and the mild taste of monkfish blended well with the red pepper cream sauce and the stuffing. I made sure to incorporate a bit of everything in each bite because the flavors fit perfectly together. It was served with sautéed veggies that were great, but a little too salty. My fiancée ordered the Grilled salmon filet topped with forty8's own tomato, caper and arugula salsa. It was served with with spinach tortellini filled with roasted vegetables, smothered in Mornay sauce, topped with fresh mozzarella stuffed cherry tomatoes. The tortellini was huge and tasted great. The tomato stuffed with the fresh mozzarella was nothing to write home about and I kind of wonder why it was even included with the dish. The salmon was overcooked and somewhat dry, which was surprising considering Forty8s mastery of fish dishes. Besides that, everything else was great. It was served with grilled peppers and asparagus that were so simple and flavorful that I wished I had a whole plate of them. They were just grilled, drizzled with olive oil and salted. I don’t think I have ever had grilled veggies that were so perfect. So our only complaint was the dry, overcooked salmon.

Service on our 2nd visit was a bit slow, but expected given that it was a Friday night. It was annoying to have people watching us eat and I think next time I would come on a weeknight.

Ratings (out of 10):

Décor/Ambiance: 4/10 It’s a no-frills bar and it can get a bit crowded. I would rather have them spend money on good ingredients than interesting décor. They really need a larger space.

Food: 7.5/10This place has seafood mastered. If the Salmon wasn’t overcooked, this would me an 8 or higher.

Service: 7/10The service good, but a bit slow…but that is to be expected on a Friday

Forty 8
4823 W. National Avenue

Milwaukee, WI 53214

Phone: (414) 389-9350Fax: (262) 364-3365

Best Burgers Ever

If you like spicy food and you like hamburgers, you will love this simple recipe. I cannot take credit for inventing it. That honor goes to my friend Aaron. He kept telling me how good they were, but I never really believed him because when I lived with him all he ate was Hamburger Helper and frozen pizzas. A while back I was making burgers and had a small handful of ground round left over. Not enough to make a burger, but too much to throw away. I drenched it in the Sriracha Asian hot sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper, and grilled it up. When I tasted it I was amazed. It was hot as hell, yet not overwhelming. The flavor of the burger came through and the sugars in the sauce caramelized the exterior of the burger, resulting in one of the juiciest, tastiest burgers I have ever tasted.

The only modification I have made from Aaron’s recipe is to season the exterior with some Penzey’s mild Cajun seasoning. You could use hot, but it is simply overkill. The Sriracha does a good enough job providing heat.

What you need:

Ground round (not to fatty, not to lean)
Sriracha hot sauce
Salt, Pepper and Cajun Seasoning (or seasoned salt like Lawry’s)
Buns
Cheese
Fire

Take whatever amount of beef you have and put it in a bowl. Squeeze a ton of hot sauce over the meat and mix with your hands or a fork. The meat should be drenched in hot sauce. If necessary, add more. You want to add enough to make sure that the meat has reached the point of saturation. If you want to try the meat, cook up a mini meatball sized hunk of meat and taste it.

Make patties, season, cook, enjoy.

Fujiyama Review

When I think of West Allis, the first thing that pops into my mind is mullet headed idiots squawking their tires every time the light turns green, not great dining destinations. However in the recent years West Allis has become a hotbed of culinary options. Crawdaddy’s, The Painted Parrot, and the recently opened “Q” anchor the eastern end of Greenfield Avenue. The newest dinning destination is not found on the up and coming “downtown” area but in a strip mall on Highway 100. It is a sushi and hibachi restaurant called Fujiyama and it is outstanding.

The first two times I ordered carryout from Fujiyama and ate it at home. I figured even an average sushi restaurant would be a great addition to the west side. Much to my surprise this place is way above average, bordering on great. The first takeout order consisted of a California roll, a Spider Roll, an order of the Sashimi appetizer, and a Sunshine Roll, which is one of their specialty house rolls.

The California roll was pretty good, but not a great indicator of how good this place really is. California rolls are for first timers or people who are too scared to eat raw fish, so they are pretty uninspired. I typically order the sashimi appetizer when I eat sushi because it is usually around 8-9 dollars and gives you a great overview fresh fish. This one had yellowtail, tuna, salmon, and some imitation crab. The fish was incredibly fresh and I couldn’t get enough of the melt-in-your-mouth salmon. A slight dip in soy sauce and wasabi was all that was needed to bring out the incredible flavor of the salmon. The yellowtail and tuna was also outstanding. I could have done without the imitation crab. It wasn’t bad, but it seemed kind of dumb to include imitation anything with the other three real fishes. The spider roll was incredible. The soft shell crab was perfectly fried and was a bit thicker than you usually see in a roll. Moving on to the specialty roll, it was filled with cooked salmon, crunchy tempura batter, and avocado. The outside was was wrapped in the same delicious raw salmon found in the sashimi appetizer and topped with the most incredible spicy creamy orange sauce, scallions and masago, which is very small flying fish roe. On our second carryout we essentially ordered the same thing, replacing the California roll with a spicy tuna roll, which was the perfect balance of heat and freshness. The only thing we noticed was that the Sunshine Roll had changed slightly. The masago had been replaced with more of the fried “crunch”. The replacement worked well, but I think I enjoyed the salty element that the masago added. My fiancée was pleased with the replacement because she wasn’t sure what the orange masago was until I told her after we had finished the roll.

Last Friday we decided it was time to dine in at Fujuyama. While the food remained impeccable, the service was interesting. We placed an order for an array of items including edamame, the sashimi appetizer, the Sunshine roll (which as you can probably tell is our favorite item on the menu), another specialty roll called the Scorpion King roll, and a spicy salmon roll. After a short period of time the sashimi appetizer appeared. The fish was extremely fresh and delicious. However the edamame, which usually is the first thing they bring out, was nowhere to be seen. About 10 minutes later our rolls (or at least some of them) arrived. We had the spicy salmon and the Sunshine roll but the Scorpion roll and the edamame were nowhere to be found. I became somewhat annoyed and found it difficult to enjoy what was in front of us because I kept scanning the dining room looking for our waitress to alert her that we were missing two things, plus my can of Saparro was getting pretty low and we had no water. She was nowhere to be found. 10 minutes into dinner the edamame arrived. It was very good. Lightly salted and perfectly cooked. Still no Scorpion roll. We were getting full, so we weren’t too concerned about it. Finally it arrived. It was essentially a Spider roll with some raw tuna in it. It was pretty good, however the crispy crab overpowered the tuna and it seemed like overkill. Next time I would probably stick with the regular Spider roll and save the tuna for something where its delicate flavor can shine.

While the food at Fujiyama is some of the best sushi in town, the service could use some help. Maybe after they are in business longer they will work out the kinks. I am just happy to have a sushi place for us west side residents. If I can ever get over my sushi fixation I may try the Hibachi grill.

Ratings (out of 10):

Décor/Ambiance: 8/10
For being in a strip mall in the ‘Stallis this place is very nicely decorated.

Food: 9/10
The sushi at this place rivals other more well-known places in town.

Service: 3/10
The service was erratic and unorganized. The waitress never stopped by to see if we needed anything.

Fujiyama

2916 S 108th St.

West Allis, WI 53227

Phone: 414-755-1977

Getto Reviews Bravo!

Getto has set me off again. Today he reviewed Bravo! which is some Italian Chain in Brookfield Square. He spent the entire article ripping the restaurant then gives them 2.5 stars. Read the article yourself and let me know if you think this place deserves a 2.5 based on his review. Oh and in an earlier post I mentioned how he likes to boast about his culinary expertise and I ripped him for complaining because some place asked him if we wanted cheese with his seafood dish. Well he pulled that one out again, complaining about parmesan on his Mahi Mahi. If you look at the menu it says the fish is parmesan encrusted. Again, if you order something and you know it has cheese, don’t complain about it and ramble on about how cheese on fish is unheard of.