Riverwalk Bistro Review

Last Friday we attended the Jazz Festival in Milwaukee’s Riverwalk Bistro which is the third restaurant to occupy the space at 223 N. Water Street. This restaurant is hoping to break the failures that caused the demise of Onyx and Borrego’s before it. With the exception of some very minor service glitches, this one may finally take hold.

Upon entering the interior is long and narrow and it kind of reminded me of a darker version of Sauce, one of my favorite restaurants in the City. We were promptly seated and were given the choice of outside, bar, or dining room seating. We chose the dining room. I love the wine list at this place. It is simple and very inexpensive for those seeking a bottle. Many of the wines are priced at $22 a bottle, with the most expensive being 30 bucks (sparkling wine excluded) The descriptions of the wines really help people like me who are not wine experts. I chose the Altos Malbec, which was perfectly described as “A wine of extraordinary charm, featuring wild cherry, red berries, anise and tropical spices of nutmeg and cinnamon. It has intense purple-violet color with soft, appealing tannins” The wine was excellent. Let me confess that I rarely match food with wine the way you are supposed to. I love deep, dark, spicy red wines like Zinfandel. I knew I was going to order a light and delicate fish, but I still chose a bold red wine. Our appetizer was their Bruschetta. It was very mediocre. It featured olive tapenade and goat cheese, two things I absolutely love. The problem was that there was barely a hint of goat cheese and the dish was completely overpowered by the tapenade. I love olives, but I had hoped for a great balance between tomato, bread, olive, and goat cheese. The tomatoes were very average and given that tomatoes are in season now, I was disappointed at the bland ones featured in this dish. If I wanted shitty tomatoes, I would go to Pick ‘n Save and buy them myself. This dish was a complete disappointment and as you read on, it is somewhat surprising giving the greatness of the full entrées. According to some recent reviews in OnMilwaukee.com and in the Shepard Express, we should have chosen the calamari instead.

My fiancée had the Bourbon Street Crab Cakes, which is misleading because there was no crab in there (we asked before we ordered). Instead they are made from Crayfish and are drizzled with a Cajun Remoulade. Why they don’t call them Burbon Street Crawfish Cakes is lost on me. Despite the misleading name, they are awesome. There is a significant amount of breadcrumbs, but it is needed because the crawfish tails are almost wholly intact. Plus the breading is perfectly seasoned. These really remind me of my favorite crab cakes in the City, which are served at Scotty’s Crab House. My fiancée was a bit leary of ordering these and only did so because I offered to trade dishes if she hated them. She really enjoyed them, so I had to eat my own entrée, which was the special of the day, Grilled Halibut with a basil apricot butter.

Each of the entrees came with the starch of the day and the vegetable of the day. I really like this concept because you could end up with different things each time you visit. The potatoes were excellent mashed (or is it smashed) with garlic and some other spices (I couldn’t quite put my finger on it and our waitress really didn’t know. I believe some paprika was in them. The veggie of the day was perfectly cooked broccoli which tasted even better when I placed some of the basil apricot butter on them.

Service was so-so. I think our waitress was new and she had to deal with this whiny couple next to us who we could overhear making tip deductions each time she served them something. “Oh that’s a dollar off her tip because she handed the bill to the wrong person” “She gave us the wrong bill! That’s another dollar.” I was so glad when they left. It took a long time for her to get our wine orders even though there weren’t a ton of people there.

If you are in the Third Ward and are looking for someplace with reasonable prices and good food, the Riverwalk Bistro would be a great choice. I am looking forward to trying their Sunday brunch. They have the crawfish cakes featured in their Eggs Benedict dish.

Décor/Ambiance: 7/10 The décor is modern and stylish, yet it feels really warm and cozy. I imagine the bar would be a great place to stop for a drink to escape the chill of winter.
Food: 6.5/10 The Bruschetta is what is dragging this down from a 7.

Service: 5/10 The service was ok, I am sure with time it will get better.

Fishbones Review

I discovered Fishbones in its infancy as a restaurant about 5 years ago. My girlfriend at the time (now fiancée) and I were in Downtown Delafield and wanted to go to Carpenter’s Pub for a sandwich. We were saddened to see that it was closed so we took Milwaukee Street, which wraps around Nagawicka Lake and takes you from the quaint downtown area of Delafield to the poorly planned, shitty, overbuilt, suburban area of Delafield. We were on our way to the Water Street Brewery when we spotted Fishbones. It was in what used to be a dive bar on the shore of the lake. When I was in college we would park near there and get a boat ride out to this island where we could party all night long without fear of the police busting us. We decided to give it a try and since then it has become one of my favorite restaurants in the area. We visited it again on Saturday night and like all other visits, we were not disappointed.

We walked in and were immediately seated, which is surprising given the popularity of this place. We were not terribly hungry, so we skipped appetizers and opted for a salad. I had the house Caesar, which contained the perfect amount of dressing and the typical Caesar ingredients. It was good, but nothing spectacular. My fiancées salad was the house salad, which had red and green leaf lettuce with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, Daikon radish, and fresh Romano cheese tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette. It was pretty tasty, but I think adding some Gorgonzola or Bleu cheese would have balanced the sweetness much better than the Romano. Fishbones’ appetizer list is extensive and unique. We have tried a few and they are pretty good. I really like the Bone's Trio, which is a combination of Crawfish Spring Rolls, Fried Catfish Strips, and Creole Chicken Quesadillas.

Our entrees arrived shortly after we ate the salads. I opted for the special, which was a sautéed Red Snapper with a goat cheese Beurre Blanc sauce served over rice, Bok Choy, Asparagus, and Carrots. The fish was cooked to perfection and my worries over mixing something as strong as goat cheese with a delicate fish like snapper were put to rest as they had achieved the perfect balance of the tanginess of goat cheese with the sweetness of the fish. The only think I didn’t like was the white rice served with it. It was more of a pilaf, which I am not a fan of. I would have preferred regular sticky rice or even mashed potatoes (wasabi mashed would have worked well with the Bok Choy). Despite the rice, I loved this dish.

My fiancée ordered the Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi with a saute of snow pea, spinach, and Shiitake mushrooms with a spicy mango sauce and drizzled with a pomegranate glaze served on a bed of dirty rice. The fish arrived perfectly crusted and the swirls of the two contrasting sauces almost looked like caramel and strawberry toppings for ice cream. The fish was a little overdone, which was disappointing, but it was still very tasty. The sauces were great however I didn’t find the spicy mango sauce to be very spicy at all. The rice on this entrée was a little better. The sautéed spinach was outstanding and the Shitake mushrooms had an earthy overtone that balanced nicely with the sweet sauces.

The owners of Fishbones have a new restaurant in Delafield called Zin. We actually ended up eating at Fishbones because all I knew about the restaurant was that it was owned by the Fishbones people and it was in Downtown Delafield. I didn’t know the name or location. Based on my information we couldn’t find it. Now I know the name and location and cannot wait to try their “Italian Cuisine with a California flare.”

Ratings (out of 10):

Décor/Ambiance: 7/10 The décor is bright and festive. My only complaint is that it is noisy.

Food: 8/10 This place never disappoints. Slightly overcooked Mahi-Mahi prevents this from getting a higher grade.

Service: 9/10 The service was great. Our waitress knew the dinner menu as well as the wine and beer list and was very attentive and friendly.

Just so you aren’t wandering around Delafield like we were, their other place called Zin and can be found here:


Fishbones
1704 Milwaukee St

Delafield, WI 53018

Phone: (262) 646-4696

Fax: (262) 646-4657

ZIN

629 Main St.

Delalfield , WI 53018

Phone: (262) 646-5959