Restaurant recommendations for downtown Milwaukee?

If you want to venture out of downtown (most of these are pretty close to downtown), I'd recommend:

*Kopps (3 locations, closest to downtown would be about 15-20 min drive north in Glendale)
Lakefront Brewery
Uncle Wolfie's Breakfast Tavern
Glorioso's Italian Market
Avli
*Three Brothers
La Reve

*would be unique places without a comparison in Louisiana

Madar’s
Elsa on the Park
Real Chili (after spending some time in the many bars)
Water Street brewery
Zarletti’
Smoke Shack
The Wicked Hop
King and I ( thai)
MO’s (steaks)
Mos Irish pub


If you are staying downtown, these are all walking distance.

Swinging Door Exchange (LINK /) is a solid tap and eatery. Specials have been tasty when I’ve eaten there for lunch.

A short ride share outside of downtown is Odd Duck (LINK /). It’s one of the better meals I’ve had recently.

Mader's for a true German experience which you're not going to find anywhere else in the US.

LINK

"Mader’s was founded in 1902, before the Wright brothers first flight and before Henry Ford’s Model T. A porterhouse steak or roast duckling dinner were priced at 20 cents. Lunch was four cents. A stein of beer was three cents. If you drank two steins of beer, your lunch was free. The wooden tables and chairs along the uneven bar were rickety. One single fan oscillated from the tin ceiling, providing air circulation. Often the rugged men who frequented Mader’s became inebriated, and stumbled out. There were no automobiles, hence no laws regarding “blood-alcohol levels.” The suburbs had not yet been invented; men often lived and worked on the same block. The majority of Milwaukee’s population in 1902 were German immigrants and their beverage of choice was beer. This was an era when “Bucket Boys,” toting a wooden pole with buckets of beer dangling along the lengths, would make their rounds within the office buildings. Their refreshing goods were passed around to all – the early beer capital’s answer to the coffee break. In 1920 a crushing blow struck the humble tavern: Prohibition! Charles Mader hung a large sign in his window: “Prohibition is at hand. Prepare for the worst. Stock up now! Today and tomorrow there’s beer. Soon there will only be the lake.” Forced to reinvent or close down, Mader’s wife, Celia saved the establishment. She turned her full attention to creating the rustic, familiar German dishes of her homeland: Sauerbraten, Wiener Schnitzel, and Pork Shank. The new business plan succeeded and endured past the jubilant night of April 7th, 1933 which marked the end of Prohibition. Mader’s was there to serve the first legal stein of beer in Milwaukee and it was announced from Mader’s on the city’s only radio station on that historic midnight. A collection of sepia-toned photographs adorn the walls of Mader’s Restaurant, illuminating many of the highlights from these pivotal founding years."

Be sure to make a trip to the restroom down a hallway which features incredible photos and signatures from Presidents, actors, dignitaries and other notables from over the past 100 years, who have all had dinner there.





They have various plaques adjacent to the tables you sit at...

Good suggestions. A few more

Pizza/Italian Calderone Club

Wings Points East Pub

Seafood Third Coast Provisions

If you travel a little south of downtown to the Third Ward, Walker's Point, and Bay View there are a ton of great places to eat and drink.