Roots Restaurant & Cellar

My favorite place to eat in Milwaukee. Bring your taste buds. They will be used. Everything has amazing complex flavors.

Well it used to be my favorite in Milwaukee as I now read that it is closed.

Amazing brunch with fresh garden foods!
The atmosphere is lovely both inside and outside .. Bloody Mary s are outstanding!

Another dinner in the Cellar results in yet another fantastic meal. I wish I hadn't eaten so much for lunch so I would have enough room for dessert.

This time instead of lemon or lime water, we got cucumber water which is a very nice and refreshing beverage to go with the food.

The BBQ pork belly with fried oysters once again had very succulent and tasty pork matched with a very crispy pair of fried oysters.

The devilled beef tartare didn't really suit my tastes but was a solid offering with delicious paprika crackers.

The chicken wings were surprisingly crispy although I wish there were non-spicy sauces to choose from.

The buttermilk chicken sandwich had perfectly cooked and very crispy chicken matched with mustard greens, peach honey, pimento pickle. This may sound strange at first but the combination is amazing. I guarantee the flavor is a lot more bold and sophisticated than the typical fried chicken with honey-mustard most people are accustomed to. The yucca chips are thin and crispy and a perfect side with the sandwich.

The Baked Ricotta Gnocchi comes with summer tomato ragu, fried greens, and trumpet mushrooms. The most surprising part of this dish is really how flavorful the tomatoes are. This is the real star of the dish with the gnocchi providing some extra texture and starch to the dish.

The San Francisco Cioppino comes with mussels, shrimp, fish, scallops, saffron arborio, in a fennel~tomato broth. I had a Bouillabaisse the day before but this dish made the other one forgettable. Perfectly cooked seafood in a broth so good I wish I had a tub of it to cook mussels in. I'm usually a creamy broth person but this tomato one is just amazing.

The jerk pulled pork was flavorful and a solid sandwich but not really unique.

The New England Seafood Melt is one of those sandwiches that even tough crab cake critics will love. It's not actually a crab cake but instead a seafood mix so perfect you'd think it was the star dish of an expensive seafood restaurant. It's light and refreshing yet flavorful. This item alone is worth the drive to Milwaukee for me, although if you add in the tomato broth I'll be there in a heartbeat.

Too bad I was too full to have dessert after tasting all these items. There were items I still hadn't tried yet from previous trips.

would give it 5 stars for the atmosphere alone. We did have a 20 min wait but that was mostly because we wanted to sit outside...but it was well worth the wait.
the main course for dinner...was just too enticing..ive not been to a place with just 9 items and been so confused as to what to pick. Had the Fried Chicken Breast - with
Boudin Blanc, black-eyed peas, collards, ham hock vinaigrette..was amazing..really liked how they fused all the different tastes together in such a nice way. Wish I had room for dessert!

Big time shout out to Roots for flexing their vegan cooking skills. If you've been to Roots it is not a vegetarian restaurant, not by a long shot. But when a classy place like this makes an effort to diversify their menu I have to spread the word.

Roots has always been vegan "friendly", meaning if you ask they'll find you something. They had tofu, could toss something together, and it was always good stuff. I've liked Roots since they opened, so when we were in town I thought a dinner here would hit the spot, at the worst I'd snag their veggie burger which is still a damn good meal.

I checked the menu, "What the hell is this? Glazed Parsnip "Ribs"? Why are "ribs" in quotes??" Turns out this was a vegan appetizer with a spin on ribs, instead of using a poor animal's ribcage they used thick parsnip sticks cut to the same size, glazed, served with an aioli on the side which was egg free. Fried up some crisp onions on the side and boom, beautifully put together and amazingly tasty appetizer.

Second I snagged the Seitan Taquitos. Roots has started using seitan now? Holy shit... For those not in the know, seitan is a meat substitute created from wheat gluten. It's closer in consistency to meat than tofu, so works well in place of pieces of chicken of beef. Roots taquitos flat out rocked my face off, with a molé on the side packing a perfect spiced kick, ending with a creamy sauce drizzled over the top. Don't worry, tofu cream, obviously no dairy. My lady said the balsamic reduction over her vegetarian cauliflower dish was the best sauce she'd ever had.

I was shocked. Having tofu around is one thing, but taking the time to develop seitan recipes or mixing it up with vegetable fill ins for meat was genius. Like I said, I've been to Roots a good 25 or 30 times but it was this last visit I saw light at the end of the vegan tunnel. No more getting a salad while the neighboring tables fill up on meat, Roots has my back now too.

My boyfriend took me here for a  romantic dinner. The view is truly incredible and the service was great.  I had a difficult time deciding what I wanted to try, so I opted for a salad, and two appetizers.  The salad came with an assortment of greens and came dressed with a fruit vinaigrette and tasty tomatoes.

Then came my appetizers: Salt & Pepper Drumstick with fried rice noodles, pickled grapes, sweet soy  and Black Pepper Pork Belly with bibb lettuce cups, tomato relish, fried egg puree.  I took one bite of the pork belly, and it was amazing. It was extremely rich, but was well balanced with the tomato relish and fresh bibb lettuce.  I can't say that I enjoyed the drumstick as much.  It had a combination of asian flavors (chile/soy), but was really too salty.  The rice noodles that came with it were simple maifun noodles and the pickled grapes didn't quite do it for me.

The Truffle Seared Tenderloin with chevre whipped potatoes,
madeira~black truffle glace that my boyfriend had was delicious. It was a huge portion and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dessert was a corn cake with corn icecream and currant gelee.  That was a nice surprise, and the corn ice-cream was really delicious.

I'll definitely come back to try the brunch.

*************** BRUNCH! *****************

Who doesn't love brunch? Four girls met for brunch on Sunday morning, and four girls were happy with brunch on Sunday morning.

Roots is in a great location (if you can find street parking) and has huge windows that offer a lovely view of the city from Brewer's Hill.  I'm always looking for good brunch places so I was thrilled when my friends suggested we meet to belatedly celebrate a birthday.

I ordered the "exotic mimosa" which meant it had other juices in it besides just orange. I'm not sure what they were (I think the server mentioned guava), but it was a truly lovely mimosa regardless of what was actually in it.  Frankly, I don't care what was in it, just that the o.j. is fresh squeezed which makes such a difference!

I loved that they don't butter the toast or English muffin there-- they bring a pretty assortment of butter and jams for the table. My crab cake was tasty, although a tidge small, and the sauce for it was divine. A really cool thing they offer (which was ordered by the pickiest eater in our group) is the the "build your own brunch."  I'll probably do it next time to make my perfect plate.

We got good service, even though the place filled up shortly after we arrived.

Last thing: let's face it; $2.50 for coffee is a little ridiculous, but it was damn good coffee.

Roots Eggs Benedict for the win! What an outstanding dish. Seared tuna, poached egg, atop fried seaweed, and your usual carb -- all baptized in a fabulous hollandaise sauce. YUM!!! I can't believe I had paid the equivalent $12 at the Eatery for eggs benedict. Roots by far is the better choice.

My girl friends and I came for a September Sunday brunch around 11:30 and we were seated out on the patio immediately. We should've considered a small wait to be seated at a shaded table because it got really hot under the sun. Watch out for the bees.

One of the girls had a breakfast burrito which was as serious as a heart attack. It was the size of a dinner plate and topped with pico de gallo and a load of potatoes.

Hand squeezed orange juice was also quite nice.

I stopped in for dinner before a show a month or so ago.  I really enjoyed the menu.  I had a perch sandwich and it was wonderful, I would definitely order it again.  The caesar salad was great as well.  I believe the upstairs dining area was closed (it was late) but the cellar down stairs was open and very nice.  I would say it is casual and nice to have lunch or dinner with a few friends or definitely a date!  

I give it $$ and feel the food and service exceed the dollar signs.  It was great and I would recommend to friends and family.

You can't say that they have not used every ounce of space to it's fullest potential here.  

Roots is one of those never fails you spots... the food is fresh, the menu is creative...they often persuade me to try things I might not normally...and I've never been disappointed.