Locavore

We gave it a second shot after a bad experience our first time. This time we sat at the bar and had just bar snacks (we aren’t big on their menu). We had excellent service. The first time the waitress couldn’t even tell me where they source their steak and they are supposed to pride themselves and sourcing locally. This time bar snacks was a perfect start to the night!

Look, I’ll be honest — it was Friday night, an hour before close, and we were pretty drunk. That’s not going to stop me from enjoying some locally-​sourced small plates, though! Especially when Locavore is better than it needs to be — no one expects great food from a casino, but it’s nice to take advantage when you’re in Potawatomi.
The fish fry was great, largely because it was only slightly reminiscent of what we’re used to for Wisconsin fish frys. The tempura batter did a better job of showcasing the fish, and the coleslaw wasn’t heavy with mayo. Plus it came with broccolini, and I’m always a fan of cruciferous vegetables. Less successful was the Southwest bibimbap, which took too many good ideas and dumped them into the same bowl. The carne asada, egg, and spicy cabbage were necessary parts of the execution, but omitting the sprouts, cumin carrot, and a lighter hand with the salsa verde would have gone a long way towards distinguishing flavors.
The braised veal cheeks were excellent, and I really liked the mushroom napoleon as a vegetarian entrée. Not only did it bring together oyster, wood ear, and King Trumpet mushrooms, but the Parmesan crisp and fermented honey created a dish that was funky, meaty, sweet, and savory, all at once.
It took me 30 years of living in Milwaukee to visit this casino. I’m not the type of person who gambles, but I’ll come back if I can visit Locavore again.

This was a great little spot to catch a quick breakfast, after losing our shirts at slots and roulette. Great, cheerful service started our meal with a smile. A nice cup of hot chocolate and a bite of m’lady’s pulled pork skillet — a good start… But it was the Crispy Spanish egg con carne that absolutely killed me. A poached egg coated in Spanish rice, then flash fried, and served with carne Asada and chimichurri — Absolutely Nuts!
The bagel was a bit clumsy with sesame seed overload, but I know a lot of people that would have loved it.
We’ll most likely start our casino mornings here from now on.

Tenderloin filet is excellent. Short rib and Scallop «special» was as good as it gets. Only problem is that it was only available for a short time and has not been back since. Go figure in a casino restaurant that the best waiter is a guy named «Chance.» Desserts… so, so.

We only came here because the Fire Pit was closed. After our last experience I was reluctant to give it another try. I don’t know what to say about today’s service. We were seated and it took a good 20 minutes to even get acknowledged. People that sat down after us got their food first. People were walking out as we are about to do. 5 more minutes and we are out of here.
We get our food (after 30 minutes) and my smoked trout eggs Benedict looks delicious. I take my knife and try to cut the English Muffin and it was rock hard. The waitress did bring out another muffin. I wasn’t going to send it back because I didn’t want to wait another half hour.
We got no drink refills. So we sat another 15 minutes and I went up to the front to get our check. I had a coupon to use and look through my purse and don’t have my id and they wouldn’t take the coupon. I had had it at this point. We had now been there a hour and ten minutes. I asked to speak to the manager (Marcel?) and he took care of the situation. I officially am done with this place. Quite a shame because in the beginning it had such promise.

Just had try this fish fry offered at Locavore. Being a Milwaukee native, I know what good fish fry is about. That said, I’m conflicted about Locavore. First off, the fish fry is located on the «small plates» section of the menu … That wouldn’t happen anywhere else in town. Don’t go expecting to be so full from the fish fry you won’t be able to move. Secondly, it’s a rather eclectic collection of food. It consists of: tempura fried fish, tempura fried broccolini, rye bred toasts and creamy coleslaw.
Now, I actually enjoyed the tempura fish and broccolini. It was delicious. The coleslaw didn’t seem to fit with the theme but it too was tasty. My favorite had to be the toast — probably toasted on a flat griddle but it was excellent. There was a «swipe» of remoulade sauce on the plate — would have liked a bit more than a swipe. There was no potato side as a usual fish fry would have but I don’t eat a lot of carbs so that didn’t bother me at all.
Despite the seemly odd combo of tempura and traditional, I enjoyed the meal. For $ 9 I guess it was good. And we used a $ 10 coupon so it was a super reasonable meal for both of us. Would like to see a «large plate» option and an oriental style slaw to fit the rest of the theme.

The fish fry was perfectly sized and delicious. For breakfast the granola crusted French toast was the best I’ve ever had. The hollandaise sauce on the eggs Benedict was exquisite. The eggs were masterfully poached.

Located in the lobby of the hotel at Potawotami Casino. I had the meat lovers omelette on Saturday morning and the oscar Benedict with crab instead of ham on Sunday. Both were delicious, and the breakfast potatoes were good too. Seating was immediate, ambiance was nice, and service was good. I’ll return during future weekend stays at the casino for sure.

This place is the Art graduate of food design! The food from salads to main course to desserts are beyond out of this world. They should be placed in the art museums! Food is amazing. My salad. Not sure what I got, but it had berries. Wonderful. My main course was a pork loin, was delicious. It had seaweed, and like a purple flowers. And a green paste. Delicious. The service was well attended. Andrea from Chicago, treated us like the number one priority. Not only her, but other waitresses and waiters attended us well. Even when they had other tables. Love this place. I am most definitely coming back. The cook should be making his own Lavacore restaurant, not being supported by a hotel but on his own, in a high society city. Chicago, New York, San Fran, Vegas? haha, but I can see the chef’s creations going big!

Locavore strives to break the chains confining the usual opinion of hotel restaurants. For the most part, they have, and they offer food and drink choices far beyond the Holiday Inn you stayed at in Columbus last Winter. However, at the end of the experience, the ambiance and feel of being a hotel restaurant remains.
On a spur of the moment we decided to try something new. Someplace we hadn’t heard much about nor had others’ opinions affect what would be a completely objective dining experience.
The restaurant that met that criteria was Locavore, located just off the main lobby of new Potawatomi hotel and casino. I made reservations, but they were unnecessary – the place was quiet; we had our choice of table. We were greeted warmly and quickly shown two cool menus: one with drinks and the other with food. I say «cool» because the menus were attached to large rectangular wooden planks that gave an air of contemporary sophistication.
Let’s say this unequivocally, their drink menu rocks. They offer a wide selection of locally crafted beers and spirits as well as intriguing choices from the table bottle section.
Food is available in both small and large plates. The «small» plates aren’t that small. In fact, we were pretty much stuffed after a cup of soup and one small plate of Fritto Misto – consisting of Growing Power lake perch, scallop, kabocha squash, fennel, pinenuts, preserved lemon aioli. The Fritto Misto was marvelous to look at, but the batter on the fish and vegetables was a little much. Also, Fritto Misto’s description on the menu said nothing about deep-​frying. Nonetheless, it was alright. We could have left fat, dumb and happy after that, but we did what we do and continued to gorge (me, really, my wife nibbled).
For our large plates, I went with the Pancetta-​Wrapped Pork Tenderloin and my wife selected the Local Mushroom Napoleon. The tenderloin rocked. It was paired with a side of just-​like-​my-​Mom-​would-​make-​it spätzle. It was a savory dish, and even though I didn’t need to, I ate my plate clean.
We shared a banana bread entrée for desert. It was good, with flambéed banana, rum caramel, candied pecans, and crème fraîche ice cream. It could have used one more scoop of the ice cream so that a little could be had with every bite of the bread, but it was quite delicious.
Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, the restaurant was pretty quiet and it was late, ordering coffee to pair with desert is a risky proposition at this time of day, but I was served a fresh, aromatic cup of joe. This is one of those subtle criteria I use to judge a restaurant (I think I got this from my Mom) and Locavore passed this test with flying colors.
Here’s the weird thing: we both really enjoyed the food, drinks, and service on which we indulged at Locavore, but if you would ask me if I would recommend it, I probably could not. At least not with so many other dining options in Milwaukee. If you’re going to be at the hotel/​casino anyway, then absolutely, enjoy, but Locavore will need to shake the feel of being a hotel lobby restaurant before I can give it a full-​on, must-​visit recommendation.

True to its name, Locavore in Potawatomi Hotel and Casino specializes in locally and regionally sourced fare. The place has an upscale meets earthy feel, with décor suggestive of natural forms like pine cones and leaves draped from the ceiling and walls.
Start out with a cocktail like the Rhubarb Shandy (rhubarb and Outboard Weiss beer) or Locavore’s twist on the classic Old Fashioned, garnished with a slice of duck meat that lends the drink a deliciously smokey flavor.
The beer list is of equally high quality, with the occasional number of rare finds such as Zombie Dust (when it was hard to find in stock anywhere) and KBS bourbon barrel stout. Like everything on the menu, the drink list changes periodically.
The menu is broken into small and large plates. Small plates are in the $ 10-​$ 15 range and can be a light yet satisfying meal for one person or an appetizer shared among two; large plates are in the $ 20-​mid $ 30 range.
During my visit, I tried the albondigas, a Spanish-​inspired dish of beef meatballs served in a sauce of cheese and croutons, and garnished with fresh greens. The cheese plate was also fantastic and something I’d highly recommend; an artistically arranged plate of Brie and aged cheddar, with dried blueberries and pistachios, berry compote and a small dish of Wisconsin raw honey on the side.

This place is amazing! Wow! Came to this city for business and didn’t expect much but was blown away by the quality of food especially here. Stayed in Milwaukee for 4 days yet ate about 6 different meals here. Tried most of their menu. Personally met main Chef Van Liu, very humble, nice and talented guy. Their Bloody Mary is probably the best in the world. Southwest Bibimbap is the most delicious bibimbap I have had as well; a combination of Western and Eastern elements. Meats are also cooked to perfection. Service is top notch. Prime location inside a new and big casino. Great job!

I seem to be getting better at posting photos soon after a visit, but I have to improve on the timing of my reviews and updates. UGH!
Anyway, today’s ROTD helped me realized I had not updated my dinner experience from a couple of months ago.
My friends and I ordered the Bacon Poutine, Bibimbap, Chef’s Garden Carrot Salad, Japanese Savory Pancake, and the Braised Berkshire Pork Shoulder.
Chef Luu focuses on locally sourced ingredients, which you wouldn’t expect at a casino restaurant.
I remember the poutine, being good, but not great. The Bibimbap was very good! I like the way it was presented in deconstrcuted mode, and then we could mix it all together ourselves or eat it as is, trying each component separately. I recommend mixing it all together.
I didn’t try the salad because I was already getting full, but 2 of the 4 in our party enjoyed it very much. It was also beautifully plated!
The Japanese Savory Pancake was good, but not really savory enough for me. Maybe there were too many bitter greens. I appreciated the creativity, though.
The braised pork shoulder was excellent, very tender and full of great flavor!
I haven’t been too impressed with dining visits at Potowatom over the years, although Dream Dance was excellent on both visits, but I feel comfortable recommending Locavore, and I certainly plan to return to try the new menus as the local ingredients they use change throughout the year.

It appears that many of the reviews are for Brunch… which by reading the reviews and looking at the photos, looks great!
I’ll toss one up here for dinner.
It was a monday around dinner time. We were one of the few people in there. Maybe just an off night for them? I kept forgetting that it was a hotel restaurant… because i kept forgetting that there is now a hotel there.
The food was great! I had the lamb. Sooo good. The veggies that came with it were equally as good. We also enjoyed the Charcuterie which was great. Actually… it was really really good. There was a duck something something and a liver pâté of sorts that was great.
Best part was using the BOGO coupon from Food n Froth.
Can’t wait to try the brunch!

This seemed to to such a great place to dine. The atmosphere is nice.
Ok… Are you ready??? The service very poor for this kind of restaurant. The servers wear plaid shirts like they should be working in an countryside diner. There were 7 of us for dinner. At our table 3 had soup which was tasty, but served at room temperature. They had the excuse that the warmer was not working. It took 20 minutes for the warm and yummy coconut chicken soup to arrive again.
On to the entrée… My chicken dinner was served at room temp and all dried out.
I won’t even give this place another try except for maybe a cocktail. Their beer and wine list was awesome.
Hope if you dine here your experience is mucho better.
Bön appetite!!! :-)

Had breakfast before hitting the tables. Locavore was uninhabited by customers other than a party of four and myself. The relatively quiet atmosphere and the jazz playing on the loudspeaker made it relaxing and pleasant. The waitress was friendly and attentive. I had the farmhouse breakfast which included 2 eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and toast. The strawberry-​Apple jam was homemade and outstanding. Everything was well prepared. The meal and coffee was $ 13.00.
It was a great place to start a Sunday.

I glanced through the previous reviews before writing this up, and it seems like a lot of them were for brunch. A group of 4 of us went for dinner on New Year’s Eve, and ultimately got the short end of the stick. We called the casino a few days prior, and were told there were no reservations, but arrived around 8 and were told that we were on the wait list and had to wait for people with reservations to be seated first. A slight irritation, and that may be to the fault of the casino vs Locavore itself, but we were given a 45 minute wait time. An hour later we were rudely told by one of the wait staff that they shouldn’t have given us a time frame and we were not even guaranteed a table before they closed at 10 pm. The saving grace of this situation was the manager coming to promise we would still be seated and in 20 minutes, and she made good on her promise.
The restaurant cleared out in a hurry by the time we were seated and half of the tables were empty; however, our waitress was still slow to return to our table to take our orders, refill water glasses, bring bread, etc. I must be honest, we were already a little impatient with the wait time for the table, and the waitress may have had other things going on at the time, but for ~$ 35/​plate we were hoping for a little better service than we’d usually get somewhere else.
The food was smaller portion sizes. My wife and I both ordered the surf and turf. 2 pieces of shrimp, some broccoli, and beef (my memory fails me if it was a tenderloin). I can’t complain about the taste, or the presentation as both were very good, yet waiting for our drinks other than water was distracting enough to leave a bad after taste.
The review is unfortunate, because we saw the potential in this place as it had gluten free options, which was what drew us in the first place for a member in our group. I can’t say I would avoid this place altogether, but it’s helpful to know they do take reservations and have difficulty with managing the crowd on a busier night.

An amazing brunch location! Serving it up everyday from 7 – 2! And with so many great craft beers! Plus serving up ingredients from local/​regional vendors, it’s crazy because this place is inside the casino.
Highly recommend this place as a great place to start if you are going to the casino. Oh and they have free valet outside the hotel entrance, so you don’t have to worry about the parking structure.

Really digging the concept and execution here!
Some people like the word foodie, others (including myself) don’t. Some think farm to table is a «movement» or trend, but I think it’s just a Midwestern way of life… hasn’t it always been farm to table, and we’re just returning to our roots in a more visible or committed way? I’ve oftentimes found myself critical of trends, movements, «what’s hot or what’s next,» labels, and the like. I say like what you like, do what you do, and do so out of ethos/​ideology/​interest, and be done with it. You can be into a thing without it defining you.
I’ll make an exception when it comes to labels with the word locavore, however. I’ve often used this term to encompass more of an ideology than a trend, though: a locavore is a person committed to consuming, locally. (This ideology can certainly extend past food/​drink consumption: think locally made goods, shop local + more of the dollar stays regional, etc.)
Locavore may be trendy now, but it’s been a way of life for lots of humanity for a long time. A looooong time. (Think BACK IN THE DAY, you guys.)
And this Locavore in the Potowatomi hotel? It’s legit, you guys. Rishi tea. Local craft brews behind the pine. Cheese and meat and veggies that are — you guessed it! — sourced locally/​regionally. Sure, lots of places do that, but for a giant casino to follow suit and execute on that ideology in a quality manner? That says something, and I’ll tell you what: they’re executing in a way that’s a *little special, to boot. (More on that in a bit…)
To the particulars:
Brunch/​lunch everyday until 2pm, dinner menu rocks starting at 4pm. I had the Hot Brown Benedict (per my ridiculous weakness for all things Benedict) and loved it, save for the choice of starch beneath all that goodness (French bread, unconventional, makes sense per the Benedict take on the Hot Brown but wasn’t super into it personally). The gruyère sauce in place of Hollandaise? Sublime. Turkey, bacon, and poached eggs? Yes yes yes. One of three rotating Benedict selections all priced at $ 12 or less, my Benedict-​loving butt will certainly be returning. Fact.
Our server was kind, attentive, and on point. I dug the décor but it seems that may be changing sometime soon-​ish. Regardless, I was quite impressed and will definitely return, if only for that little bit of special.
*Quality offerings that span breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Consistency in execution. Reasonable price points. A nice atmosphere. Sure, you can’t be all the things to all the people, but I’m a big fan of consistency and thoughtful depth-​meets-​breadth offerings from restaurants. Enough with the nuance, the pretense, the small plates, and the bent. I’d love to see a few new Milwaukee spots follow suit here. Approachable is the new black, you guys.

Fancy fare on the cheap. Service is fast. Manager and staff very attentive. Breakfast potatoes are fresh and sea salted. Asparagus perfectly cooked, crisp and seasoned. Menu is very interesting. Some menu rarity like blue crab Benedict $ 12 and a Bloody Mary with cheese curds and a beef stick. Love the décor, high ceilings and huge pine cone lights.