Milwaukee is a city I’ve always loved, but now I can appreciate it even more through adult eyes. I was born and raised here, moved to New York and eventually came home, where I put down roots with my then-girlfriend, now wife.
Coming back as an adult meant getting to know Milwaukee differently: finding the restaurants I’d return to again and again, developing a short list of which summer festivals are actually worth braving the crowds for and discovering the places I now insist visiting friends make time for. It’s a city where you can eat exceptionally well without spending New York or Chicago prices, spend an afternoon on Lake Michigan, stumble into a packed street festival on a Wednesday night and still be home in time to plan a quick Wisconsin road trip for the weekend.
So, rather than attempt to catalog everything Milwaukee has to offer, this focuses just on my experiences over the last year or so: the places I love, the things I’d do again, and a few nearby escapes worth the drive.
Restaurants
Birch — Birch was one of the first Milwaukee restaurants I fell in love with after moving back to the city, and even though the restaurant has changed hands since then, it remains one of the places I’m happiest to return to.
The trout crudo, served with seasonal accompaniments, is always fresh, bright and good enough that I never really want to share it. But the dish I resisted for years was the brick chicken. I’m usually hesitant to order chicken at a restaurant, and after repeatedly eyeing Birch’s version from afar, I finally gave in on my most recent visit. I should have done it sooner: cooking the chicken beneath a brick leaves the skin remarkably crisp while the meat stays juicy and flavorful.
Pro tip: Birch also hosts Pepe’s Oyster Bar, a monthly pop-up named for chef Kyle Knall’s late father, featuring a rotating menu of hot and cold oyster and seafood preparations. Go for drinks and oysters with friends, or indulge as an appetizer before settling in for dinner.
Odd Duck — Odd Duck was one of the first fine-dining restaurants I ever paid my own money to eat at. I still remember being completely taken aback by how good the food was. More than a decade later, the restaurant has moved into a larger, airier space filled with greenery — and somehow, the bar keeps getting higher.
The menu is built for sharing, with small plates divided into charcuterie and cheese, raw, animal and vegetable. On my most recent visit with Morgan, I could have eaten several portions of an end-of-summer stone fruit and tomato salad served over creamy ricotta. A poached whitefish dish was another standout, paired with rice prepared in several different ways to add contrasting textures. And if you start — or end — the meal with Wisconsin cheese, don’t skip the apricot preserves alongside it.
Taquería El Cabrito — The best carnitas tacos in the area, in my opinion, can be found at Taquería El Cabrito on Milwaukee’s South Side. Served on corn tortillas with diced onions and cilantro, the pork is juicy but fried until crisp around the edges and packed with flavor.
The restaurant opens early and closes late, and no matter what time I show up, there are always people digging into giant bowls of soup. Sometimes there’s live music; often families are celebrating. But the salsa and chips are always flowing. I order my tacos with avocado, a side of cebollitas asadas — bulb onions grilled until tender and charred — and a large jamaica. There’s no alcohol, so if margaritas with your tacos are a must, you’ll have to decide whether they’re worth missing some incredible food.
Blue Star Cafe — Blue Star Cafe is a Milwaukee treasure. The small restaurant serves Somali food, and I get the same thing every time I visit: goat mendi, with fall-apart bone-in goat served over deeply seasoned rice studded with crispy bits of potato and raisins. It’s the kind of dish that could convert someone skeptical about goat.
If you enjoy heat, ask for extra basbaas, a green chile and cilantro sauce that brightens the whole plate. There’s plenty more on the menu, including crisp sambusas stuffed with vegetables or beef, but whatever you order, add a mango juice to wash it down.
Harbor House — Situated on the shore of Lake Michigan, Harbor House is a white-tablecloth seafood restaurant with sweeping views of the Milwaukee skyline. The restaurant serves more than 10,000 oysters a month, with fresh seafood flown in daily, and the raw bar is an obvious place to start. I tried Kumamoto oysters here as part of a sprawling seafood tower — alongside snow crab, lobster tails, tuna tartare with seaweed salad and more — and they immediately became my new favorite variety.
The rest of the menu runs the seafood gamut, from grilled whole branzino to New England seafood sauté, along with a smaller selection of steaks. Our favorite dish was the house-made pappardelle with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, topped with beautifully seared scallops. We finished with vanilla ice cream, fragrant olive oil and a generous scoop of caviar. I loved the combination, though next time I’d probably hold the olive oil and let the caviar have the spotlight.
Lake Park Bistro — Lake Park Bistro has the kind of delightfully old-school French restaurant feel that starts at the grand entrance and continues with white tablecloths and waiters in spiffy uniforms. Where the restaurant really shines, though, is its three-course brunch.
Priced according to your choice of entrée, brunch includes an appetizer, entrée and dessert, all portioned for a leisurely meal. The French onion soup arrives deeply savory beneath a cap of melted cheese, while the steak frites pairs a grilled bavette steak with crisp shoestring fries and rich béarnaise. And no matter what you order, don’t skip the croissants — they’re delectable, as they should be. Ask for a table by the window for sweeping views of Lincoln Memorial Drive and, yes, Lake Michigan.
We need your help to stay independent.
Things to Do
Milwaukee is an easy city to fill a day in without necessarily making a grand plan. For a low-key afternoon or evening, I like Canni, a cafe, bar and third space that’s especially welcoming if drinking isn’t your thing. There are coffee drinks, mocktails, optional infusions, DJs on the weekends and a back patio where friends gather to play cards, talk and linger.
If you want something much sillier that works for a group, Whirlyball is one of those activities I was skeptical about until I actually tried it. The game is played in bumper-car-like carts while you wield a lacrosse-style stick and try to score, and within minutes everyone in our group was laughing. The venue also has bowling and laser tag, plus a full bar and restaurant if you need to recover between rounds.
And when the weather is good, the best thing to do in Milwaukee may be the most obvious one: get out on the water. My first sail on Lake Michigan was quieter and more relaxing than I expected, but my favorite detail was the tiny gas grill attached to the rail of the Catalina 27. I had prepped appetizers, sides and heavily salted my steaks, in advance, which was fortunate. Grilling on a sailboat turns out to be much harder than grilling on land where I’m quite proficient. Boatsetter made the booking easy, and because the sailboat was captained by its owner, all I really had to worry about was keeping dinner from burning.
Festivals
No one does summer quite like the Midwest, and Milwaukee takes that seriously. Festivals and fairs crowd the calendar through summer and fall, thinning out but never disappearing entirely once the weather turns cold.
The Wisconsin State Fair is one of those events you could spend several days exploring and still miss something. There are the animals, of course — cows being milked, pig races, goats to pet and bunnies to adore — but the food is a major draw in its own right, with new creations arriving every year and the annual Sporkie Awards recognizing some of the best.
At Lumpia City, look for crisp lumpia in playful flavors like ube butter banana French toast, which won a Sporkie in 2025, or pizza stuffed with gooey cheese, pepperoni and sausage. Wisconsin Hot Cheese is another favorite: the deep-fried cheddar nuggets are cooked to order and give even a great cheese curd some serious competition.
For a very different kind of festival experience, head downtown for the Milwaukee Night Market. Show up on a Wednesday night and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the middle of a busy Saturday. The streets outside 3rd St. Market Hall fill with music, food and crowds, but what stands out most to me is the art. The market is carefully curated, bringing together artists and makers from around the region to display and sell their work. And if all that browsing makes you hungry and you spot Tom’s Smokehouse food truck, get the brisket.
Milwaukee’s festival calendar stretches well beyond these two, so if your visit overlaps with one, it’s worth checking the city’s full schedule before you arrive.
Want more great food writing and recipes? Sign up for Salon’s free food newsletter, The Bite.
Worth the Drive: Easy Trips From Milwaukee
One of Milwaukee’s advantages is how easily you can use the city as a jumping-off point for a quick Wisconsin road trip. If you have an extra day or two, there are plenty of nearby lakes, small towns and resorts worth exploring.
About an hour from downtown Milwaukee, Lake Lawn Resort on Delavan Lake makes an easy all-season getaway. The sprawling property has everything from standard rooms to stand-alone lake houses, plus indoor and outdoor pools, lawn games, basketball and pickleball courts. In warmer weather, you can rent kayaks, wave runners and paddleboards or take a seasonal cruise aboard the Lake Lawn Queen; winter brings cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, ice fishing and sledding.
Breakfast at 1878 on the Lake was one of the highlights of our stay. The buttermilk pancakes were wonderful, and I especially loved the steak and eggs, with a perfectly charred steak and rich orange-yolked eggs. In colder months, you can also book dinner in one of the restaurant’s outdoor igloos. They’re surprisingly warm inside, and ours made a cozy setting for pork belly skewers, crab puffs and smoked cocktails. One warning from experience: the folding chairs in the igloo were deeply uncomfortable, so ask if they can bring you one from inside.
Because Delavan sits not far from the Illinois border, travelers who are interested in cannabis can also make the roughly 30-minute drive to Spark’d, a dispensary and consumption lounge where recreational cannabis is legal. You can order food for delivery, spark up and relax in the lounge. There are many devices available for your pleasure, including one of my favorites, the Stündenglass gravity hookah, which you should definitely try.
For a different kind of escape, head to Delafield. The Delafield Hotel is a charming boutique property with massive rooms, comfortable beds and bathrooms outfitted with Kohler rain showers and soaking hydrotherapy tubs. Its onsite restaurant, i.D., serves dinner daily, but part of the pleasure of staying there is simply wandering outside: walk down toward the Bark River, take a hike, watch the ducks and, if you’re lucky, spot some of the sandhill cranes that pass through the area.
Pick a destination, rent a car through Turo, a peer to peer car rental service, and head out for a few days. You’ll definitely see some cows, but you’ll also gain perspective that only a road trip through farms and tiny towns can offer.
Read more
about this topic
