Each week on This Bites, dining critic Ann Christenson from Milwaukee Magazine and Radio Milwaukee’s resident foodie Tarik Moody dig into the city’s culinary and restaurant culture to help you find new spots, old favorites and the best ingestibles around Milwaukee.
One of the ways you can tell a city’s food scene is worth its (ahem) salt is how easily you can order a dish that takes you someplace far away. Milwaukee has grown into a hallmark for culturally diverse cuisine, evidence of which is all over this episode.
That includes our leadoff topic: the return of Milwaukee Asian Restaurant Week. Running from May 17-23, the celebration that coincides with Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month encourages diners to check out the many varieties nestled within the Asian food world.
Local group ElevAsian has helped drive this effort every year through handy tools like their list of more than 100(!) restaurants to try throughout Southeastern Wisconsin. They’ve got your covered with everything from Indian to Indonesian and Cambodian to Korean, plus three spots offering special deals in conjunction with Asian Restaurant Week:
- Ni Burmese (Milwaukee) — $10 off when ordering $50 or more for dine-in or takeout
- Ono Kine Grindz (Wauwatosa) —15% off all menu items using code “ElevAsian26”
- Sap Sap (3rd Street Market Hall) — free egg roll with each brisket fried rice order
You can find the full, impressive list of places to try on the ElevAsian website.
Elsewhere in this episode, we discuss Milwaukee’s diverse dining scene getting even more so, as the city welcomes its first Nigerian restaurant. Kemola opens its doors today (May 16) at 8704 W. Brown Deer Rd. with a deal that’ll knock 20% off for the first 50 guests and 10% after that. We suggest starting with the jollof rice and expanding your palette from there.
The former National Cafe will get a decidedly different flavor this summer with the opening of Soonja's Seoul Pocha, which will bring traditional Korean food to a contemporary space. Sibling owners Hae Jin Park and Jungwoo Park plan for a menu featuring old-style Korean fried chicken, grilled pork belly, fried seaweed rolls and plenty more.
Moving to more Mediterranean environs, Calogero’s Italian-inspired cocktail lounge is open in Bay View, offering old-world vibes and carefully selected beverages to create a warm, welcoming space. The new hangout from the owners of Santino’s Little Italy is just a couple blocks south of that restaurant and features craft cocktails, top-notch Italian wines, Italian small plates and even music that’s hand-picked for the room.
We also couldn’t ignore the controversy happening with Milwaukee’s food-truck fleet, which is fighting an ordinance from the Common Council that banned food-truck operations after 10 p.m. downtown and 11 p.m. near Burnham Park. A judge blocked its enforcement last week, which means trucks can still operate as usual, but the issue is far from resolved.
