I love Milwaukee. I love Milwaukee restaurants. I love supporting Milwaukee and its restaurants.
I was excited to go to Goodkind tonight. I've heard great things. The space is great--cozy, eclectic, colorful without being overwhelming--and the service folks have a knowledgeable way about them. It drew a good crowd, too--a nice mix of older and younger, etc. Felt good to be there. And the host was terrific.
The highlight of the meal was the drinks. I had a cocktail that was sublime. My partner had a great saison. Both were outstanding.
The food, however, was much discussed after the meal. We started with calamari, admittedly a banal choice. But we had heard good things. It's true that the calamari was tender; however, there was very little of it (4 small pieces, maybe) and more of the fried onions and a few fried lemons. My honest suggestion for the chefs: Consider using preserved lemons and not fried ones in order to try to cut the fried bit somewhat. There were lots of "fried nothing" bits on the plate, too. It was disappointing.
The Caesar salad was good. The anchovies were bright and appealing. Probably the highlight of the meal.
We finished with the crab pasta dish. Here is where my husband and I were most disappointed. We love Dungeoness crab and weren't expecting a big pile of it for $18. But the crab was cold, piled on a heavy red sauce with extremely spicy pepperoni. I love red sauce. I love pepperoni. I love pasta. In fact, I love all the ingredients in this dish; however, it was completely unbalanced and just odd. I thought to myself, "Well, maybe we just ordered the wrong things tonight." But then I got to thinking some more: A restaurant of this quality, with this following, shouldn't have "wrong things" on its menu, period. This dish reads like, "Hey! What do I have left over in my fridge? Let me throw it together because I'm tired and don't want to think of how to use these ingredients to make sense together but damn I'm hungry so just feed me already." And I really, REALLY wanted to like it.
So, overall, two stars is proper for my experience. The place is charming; the drinks are great. The food, though--and I know I'm an outlier for the reviews on Yelp--is not so great. I appreciate the lower price point, but a bit more thought and care could be taken with the composition of the dishes. And I don't want to have just ordered the "wrong thing" in the city that I love and support. read more