La Merenda

Great drinks! Great bartenders! Get the light blue colored label bourbon, the name escapes me. Iffy location… And the servers have that unmistakable «fear». Own it! Be proud to do what you do. They must be frequently beaten by customers, they are so humble and apologetic its almost off-​putting. But the booze is great, the food is better. Parking is OK, bathrooms are fair, and the prices are a little on the high side. Buutttttt, they handled our table of 20 pretty well. Don’t come here expecting to spend less than 100 $ for a couple with drinks. To be fair, I think we did get what we paid for. Our group tried one of everything on the menu — almost. The veggie dishes didn’t seem to excite us, so we didn’t try many. But the belly crêpe, chorizo, lamb, and all the deserts were all super stand outs that I’m not sure where else I could shop for in a restaurant. Can’t wait to go back.

The Service food and ambience were outstanding. There was such a large selection and each part of the country was represented on the menu. It was just amazing to me how perfectly done each dish was. Switching from Mexican to Colombian to Italian and each dish seemed so authentic. The wine and beverage selection is also something to note. This place is definitely a Milwaukee favorite.

Always a treat! Have never had a disappointment. The small plates are perfect if not certain what to order the staff is very knowledgeable as wall. Going back soon!

After asking everyone I have met so far in Milwaukee where they like to eat and getting the same answer, «You’ve got to try La Merenda» we decided to give it a try! So glad we went! I was kind of afraid leaving Reno/​Tahoe because the food scene there is on fire, but La Merenda has put my southern heart to rest!
I love tapas… I mean if I could eat tapas every day of my life I would! If I could eat at La Merenda every day I would! We had a reservation at 5… if you do not make a reservation I cannot see how you will possibly get in because the place is always packed! When you walk in, there is a small bar. If I were to describe the environment I would say warehouse/​chic/​hipster feel. Because all of our clothes are making their way across the country right now on a moving truck we were in jeans and felt very comfortable. There were people dressed up and people casual like us and no one stuck out.
We started with the local artisan cheese and pistachio salad. When I knew we were moving I knew Milwaukee and I were going to be friends because of the cheese… and I was so right! I love that they use local vendors for all of their dishes and the cheese was so good! Usually when we get a cheese plate there is always one you aren’t crazy about but with this dish hubby and I loved all of it… picture empty plate!
I would never have thought about putting pistachios on a salad (there is a reason I am not a chef) but it was fabulous! Candied pistachios with gorgonzola cheese and a pistachio vinaigrette… served on arugula… perfection!!!
Duck Pierogies were next on the menu. The duck was cooked perfectly and really put a cool twist on a classic dish!
The last dish we shared was the Argentinian Style Beef. This is hands down the best beef I have had anywhere… and that includes my mama’s kitchen (thank goodness she doesn’t read Unilocal) and that is saying something! This dish makes my mouth water just thinking about it. I do not know how they prepared it but they are cooking up magic back in that kitchen ya’ll!
We finished with a three milk cake (it is in Spanish on the menu but my Spanish consists of Hola and I cannot remember the name… but trust me it is a 3 milk cake). We split this because we were totally stuffed. The portion was perfect for sharing and it was the perfect ending to a perfect meal!
The restaurant staff is all very nice and make you feel like you are joining their family for dinner instead of eating in a restaurant. I loved the romantic feeling and it was an oasis in the middle of a crazy life… to be able to have a time out and have a cozy dinner with the hubby. This is definitely going to be on our favorite places to go to dinner!

I fell in love with La Merenda when I first moved to Milwaukee and to this day, it is my favorite restaurant. The dishes on the rotating menu are tasty and full of flavor. Among my favorites: patatas brava with chorizo, the savory crepes, Argentinian style beef. And of course for dessert you can never go wrong with the tres leches cake. The ambiance of the restaurant is intimate and inviting and it’s great for a dinner for 2 or a larger dinner party. I can’t say enough how amazing this restaurant is! 5 stars all the way!

I was here for a business dinner and it was a wonderful experience. A few more visits for me to update review and ratings so I can’t yet go to 5 stars but I give it 4.5 stars. I hear on the weekends it is packed and will be an hour wait or longer without a reservation. We cam on a Monday night with a reservation and it wasn’t busy at 6 PM.
Atmosphere: +++++ Third Ward, nicely lit dinning room that is more on the romantic side. Entrance walks right into the bar area. A sort of industrial feel with exposed ceilings and cinder block walls makes you feel right at home in the Third Ward in my opinion. Noise level was below moderate even when the the dinning room was filled.
Menu, Food & drinks: ++++ Yes, small plates or topas type restaurant. And many items that are Gluten Free! Also as much as possible, ingredients are locally sourced. The small plates are supposed to be a little larger than most topas restaurant but I believe most are about this same size. We started off with 50% off bottles of wine (Monday only) and had a nice bottle of Deuco a blend that was more Cab and full bodied. Menu is broken into three areas. Field, Sea and Pasture. Field is like the appetizer or salad side of a menu. I counted 12 or 13 selections and was told by someone in our party that the menu changes often. We started out with the La Merenda salad. local arugula, pine nuts, apples, blue cheese topped with cranberry balsamic vinaigrette maple glaze that was amazing. And enough glaze… no skimping on that. We then went to the «Pasture» section. PORK EMPANADAS fried pastry filled with smoked pork shoulder, apples, local onion and SA Braai citrus chutney. Nicely fried and perfect touch of chutney for the citrus. We then had the PORK BELLY CONFIT CREPES Home-​made chive crepes filled with pork belly confit, mushrooms and white truffle cream sauce.
Service: ++++ Our server was wonderful. Not yet 5 stars until more visits. What I liked was immediately asked if anyone had food allergies. He made recommendations to the menu and to the wine list. Knowledgeable with the menu and which items to stay away from for the allergies. And was attentive and made frequent visits but not too many.
Value: +++++ Very reasonably priced especially for the Third Ward. Eac of our plates where from $ 8 – 10. For quality, service and variety this is a bargain or good buy.
Summary: Wonderful menu with variety for most palets and for those looking for Gluten Free options. Reasonably priced and located in the Third Ward with a romantic atmosphere. The overall Unilocal 4.5 stars is accurate and you should bookmark this place and visit it soon.

The food was great and the prices were reasonable some of the dishes are quite impressive. Really enjoyed the Penang Curry, Pork Belly Crepes, and Empanadas.
Definitely coming back because I want to give it another chance. We were there with a large group and maybe next time I would chose different tapas.

I knew I would love La Merenda after learning Engine Company No. 3 was it’s sister restaurant. Last weekend I was able to experience La Merenda for the first time with a large foodie group ready to wage tapas war.
When the entire party arrived we were immediately sat and greeted by our waitress. The waitress was very accommodating and willing to go out of her way for a vegetarian that was in the group. Overall, just a really good service all the way to the end.
I think the most impressive parts of the entire dinner were the curry dishes that we had. The Butter Chicken and Curry Market Fish were very impressive. Not a really big curry fan but I did enjoy these two dishes and curry is not always easy to get right. Two items that really stood out and had me begging for more were the Goat Cheese Curds and the Argentinian Beef over sweet plantains was a show stopper.
There were a few dishes that were just ok and really did not impress me or wow me by any means. The Veggie Empanadas, Sauteed Spinach, and the La Merenda Salad did not make me go back for more. In fact I understand the local ingredients theme but I really did not understand why a sauteed spinach dish was on the menu. Also, my only criticism would be that we gave the server the freedom to bring food and she ordered us spinach. Not the highlight or most inspiring dish on the menu.
We will definitely be back to try other items on the menu. There are some very interesting dishes that I did not get to try.

This was my first time here and I highly recommend it! We started with the Wisconsin Farmers salad. The ingredients were fresh and the LaClare Chèvre buttermilk dressing was amazing. We followed that with the Sitka Bay salmon. The salmon was cooked perfect and the farro, spinach, and butternut squash purée blended each bite together. Next was one of the specials pork pierogies. The pork was shredded tender pork very flavorful. It was topped with a Gorgonzola cheese sauce and diced apples. Really was spectacular. We finished the night with the Tres de leche cake. It was light and airy with a light as whipping cream frosting.
I look forward to going back and trying other items on their menu

So clearly I’m the only person to just find out how awesome this place is. 300+ reviews and an almost 5 star review? It’s all true! As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t know how great this place was but it was recommended so I thought, yes, let’s take my out of town friends here on a Saturday night for dinner without making a reservation. We arrive to an hour and half wait. Fortunately for us, 3 spots were clearing up at the bar.
Sangria at $ 6/​glass, fantastic deal and delicious. Also their soda is made in house! What a cool specialty. Tapas are somewhat new to me but I liked the idea of trying a bunch of items and sharing them. Wisconsin cheese was good, the veal with carrot risotto — sooooo good, I still dream about it, we also went with the duck andouille– spicy but delicious. The French option on the menu was crepes with truffle sauce, I can’t remember more of the name or what else was in it but we liked it. Of course we also opted for dessert and chose the tres leches cake. We devoured it. If you take nothing else from this review, it is go to this place.

So good. So amazingly good. La Merenda serves it up correct. I would first like to say how impressive the service for a table of 10 was. Truly unbelievable that this place has the capacity for large groups, second it was amazing that Merenda consistently and continuously put out excellent plates of food for our group.
It was my Birthday so we had 5 couples out to enjoy an evening of food, fun, and cocktails. The server suggested we let her take the reigns and serve up what she considered was the best of the best. With 10 people this made it by far the easiest way to order small plates. The drinks flowed freely and she made sure no one was for want! The food just kept coming out a few plates at a time. Our host also made sure we had the proper vegan selections available too. This shows the care and concern for all in the party to be accommodated.
My personal favorite plates were as follows:
MARKET FISH CURRY (THAILAND) — Wild Sitka Bay market fish Namya coconut curry | broccoli | local potatoes | Thai basil oil | tomato
5 stars. Lot’s of flavor bursting through and through. I think i was caught licking the bowl!
BUTTER CHICKEN (INDIA)
JenEhr Farm chicken curry | cream | ginger | garlic | chile | turmeric |tomato | cashews | rice.
OMG! Again I was caught licking the bowl! Oh well you should know by now i don’t play when I eat. 5 star dish!
PORK BELLY CONFIT CREPES (FRANCE)
Homemade chive crepes | Maple Creek Farms pork belly confit | River Valley Ranch mushrooms | white truffle cream sauce
Pinch me I’m dreaming! These things were a work of art. Magnificent all around. I need this in my life more often,
Now we tried several dishes but these were the super star standouts for me. La Merenda is beyond good. The flavors blended by the chefs were spectacular and showed the culinary grit the chef’s have here. The ambiance was cool. It was like I was in a spanish home on the countryside. We will be back so I can eat many small plates again but I’ll be a little greedier next time around and bring less people! Also looking forward to experiencing the patio area which I’ve heard is one of a kind.
Thanks for making my Birthday a culinary delight La Merenda! It was unforgettable!

My favorite Milwaukee restaurant. I loved Movida but La Merenda has slightly bigger portions and is more comfortable/​cozy.
The last time I visited we had the Pork Belly, Empanadas, truffled potato skins, and duck (but we’ve gone multiple times and always been happy). The Empanadas were my favorite. 4 plates filled 2 people up — we didn’t finish all of it. The waitress recommended us wine at our request and we were very pleased with the selection.
The service is always patient and excellent.
Make a reservation. This isn’t a quick meal — there is a long wait for a table because it’s an experience and they allow you to savor and take your time.
I wish La Merenda had a wider variety of cocktails

Embarrassing confession time: it was our first time ever at La Mirenda. No excuses, we should have been here years ago. But, it was worth the wait.
The interior was charming, the cocktails were unique (Old Fashioned made with pumpkin syrup? Yes please); and the food…
The goat cheese curds in a tomato chorizo cream sauce were amazing. I could have lived on the cream sauce and been happy. My husband talked me into the Malaysian Goat dish; and it was great. The preparation of the goat made it tender and flavorful; and it paired well with the lentils. Also; the homemade gnocchi was great. We didn’t have a single plate we didn’t love. Can’t wait to go back again!

I’m not even sure what to say other than advise anyone reading this review to immediately make a reservation for a dinner with friends. I was here for a work event on a Tuesday night (Nov. 17) and the place was packed. There were 13 in our party. We had a reservation and were promptly seated. We ordered a mix of cocktails and wine. Unfortunately, I had to drive back to Madison in a rainstorm, so decided to drink club soda.
We ordered the chef’s menu, and it was absolutely outstanding. We started with an arugula salad that had a wonderful mix of fresh ingredients. Others in my party were not eating it, so I managed to steal most of the salad off of two separate plates. The empanada was great, but not particularly memorable. Ceviche was outstanding.
We had another dish, which I believe was the fundido de hongos, which, simply put, was a cheese dip with their house made tortilla chips, but it’s almost insulting to call it «just» a cheese dip because it is so wonderful. Since we had chef’s table, I never saw a menu, but I just looked it up on line. Ingredients were: River Valley Ranch mushrooms, local onions, huitlacoche, Flyte Family Farm beans, Alsum Farm sweet corn, local roasted red peppers, Clock Shadow Creamery Menonita cheese, house-​made tortilla chips (gf)
The Argentinian beef was out of this world. I don’t eat a lot of beef, and this was well worth it.
We ordered a mix of desserts, all of which were great.
Bottom line, this place is top notch. Wish we had something like this in Madison.

Ordered according to their recommendation:
Poke Empanadas. Fresh recommend
Pork Belly Confit Crepes. Salty, ok
Autumnno Angello. Not really like it, sale and sweet
Potato skin. Taste pretty cool
Ginger beer is cool to order since it’s not sweet
I suggest ppl order two plates per person.

Its the review you don’t want to write because your afraid it won’t live up to how good the meal was .
First things first. They have valet parking, as well as street parking .
I came during the week the minute the restaurant opened for dinner. We were able to get a table, however it filled up rather quickly. I suggest a reservation. The tables are kind of close together along the perimeter, so be ready to get cosy with thy neighbor.
For a drink starter I got their drink of the day, a pumpkin old fashioned. I can’t even begin to explain the taste bud party that was happening in my mouth. It was a old fashion with just a hint of pumpkin. It wasn’t pumpkin overkill like everyone else seems to do the the pumpkin flavor now a days .
The rest of the menu is set up tapas style. Some of them are bigger tapas portions then others. I defiantly suggest coming with a date or maybe two other people. I don’t feel like it’s a good group place food tasting wise. (It’s the selfish foodie in me, I wanna get a good portion of a lot of different things).
They offer affordable plates as well as a little bit higher priced ones. They have all the plates labeled out with what region it was inspired by. I was grateful each plate was also labeled with a clear description of what was on it. From past reviews it seems they change up their plates from time to time. There’s one way to make someone come back for more :) I thought it was neat they offer salads as tapas too; I have never seen that before .
I can honestly say out of all the plates, there wasn’t one I didn’t like .
If your coming with a large group I suggest ordering the truffled potato skins. There only $ 5 and its a large portion. I also suggest the braised veal, great price and a larger portioned plate .
Service was on point. Even with how busy it was and how many plates tables ordered, the food turnover time was super fast .
I will defiantly be coming here again, and I suggest you do the same !

Another great dinner experience at La Merenda.
We ordered about 6 to 7 dishes to pass around the table. We went here for our son’s birthday. I nine-​year-​old, a 13-​year-​old, and two adults.
We had a salmon special, potatoes bravas without chorizo, Argentinian beef, butter chicken curry. Everything was tasty. The only complaint came from the kids who didn’t like the homemade cola and citrus sodas.
This service is very nurturing, attentive. The atmosphere reminded me of my time in another place. Miss matched chairs and tables with random pictures on the walls. And a dimly lit ambience.
The wine selection gives you just enough from each key region

located in a shady part of town this is a hidden gem. I was pleasantly surprised when my friend was able to get a reservation in the day before we went out.
First let me get «the ugly» out of the way.
the waitress was soo bad. she did NOT want to be there at all. good thing i was out with some great friends who made great conversation. first she came and took our drinks order and she said she will return with water. 15 minutes later she comes back after the other two friends arrived and got their drinks orders. no water no drinks yet
finally the drinks arrives and she said she will be back to take the order. some other waiter got us water our waitress was not to be seen ‚
anyway I do not want to bore you with the waitress diasater… it was soo bad !! I would have walked away if I wasn’t out with such an interesting bunch :)
The food was amazing
— Beef Tostadas were my favorite. OMG loved it. (be warned my friends who are not used to a lot of spice did get a kick out of this :))
— Pork Belly Crepes and Pierogies were a tie for the crowd favorite.
— truffled potato skins were soo good salty and paired great with the wine
— Argentinian style beef was awesome. everyone raved about the mashed sweet potatoes although I personally didn’t really care for the potatoes
— Mushroom soft tacos were great too (omg all the food was great) :)
— Goat chees curds were pretty good but got a thumbs down from the others
Not so great
— empanadas were a disappointment
— we wanted to have shrimp but the waitress recommended the Ceviche which was horrible (ok by now we should have known not to take any advice from the server !!! so maybe this was due to our poor judgment lol)
the wine was pretty great and we had few cocktails and shared a wine bottle. all in all the bill was only $ 50 each (for the four of us with drinks)
I would go again during summer and sit outside and enjoy the food :)

Went on a sunny afternoon with 3 other gals for lunch. We decided to sit out on the patio and so glad we did. It’s so cute and roomy. Gorgeous fireplace out there as well for the chillier nights. We even the the pleasure of seeing one of the cooks picking some fresh herbs out of the garden.
Started out with the sangria. Yummy!
We shared 10 dishes. The food as usual was amazing! So fresh as tasty. We especially loved the paella which was special of the day, the pork belly crepes (a definite must try!!) and of course the Argentinan beef.
We were served by Sinceree and she was very attentive and I really appreciated that after a few dishes, she gave us clean plates for the next couple.
Absolutely just love everything about this place and can’t wait to go back.

I thought my friend and I were being very European when we made 10:15 reservations on a Saturday night, after catching a show at Next Act theater, but we were not alone. When we arrived at 10:05, we had to wait a little bit. There were 3 seats (not together) at the bar, and the main room of the restaurant was filled almost to the brim. Since I am normally in bed by 10:15, I was surprised to even see some children still eating. This taught me that reservations on a Saturday night are obviously a must… and probably are every night of the week.
Service was prompt and polite, and the food was exceptional. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was probably because it gets really loud, very easily, and the fact that ta almost too busy to get in. The food was dynamite.
My friend and I shared the ceviche halibut — fresh, creamy, flavorful– the grapefruit added a lovely accent to it. We inhaled this dish. Next, we shared the tart of the day, which had cheese and nuts and a sauce drizzled over it… it was divine. Nice to have a warm dish after the cold fish, and a delicious one at that. The salmon curry over tamarind rice ended our late night excursion. A punch of spice and flavor, with perfectly cooked salmon. Moist. Delish.
We had a city tin $ 10 discount, otherwise our total for a party of two would have been $ 35 pre-​tip. Instead, it was $ 25 which was sort of amazing for the quality and diversity of the food.
I’ll be back, with a reservation, when time permits, La Merenda. Well done.