South Gate Cafe - Lake Forest, IL

This is certainly one of our favorite places to stop by for lunch in Lake Forest. Great soup and sandwiches and you can dine outside on the patio. Lunch aside, their dinners are fantastic also.


Tonight I was by myself and I had a spicy squid appetizer and the wild game plate, which consisted of: Duck, Boar and Kangaroo. It was fantastic! The squid was tender and the game had so much flavor I would have liked seconds. I ate out on their patio and the service was excellent.


I just happened to be in the area the next night and thought I would try the restaurant again. This night I ate in the bar and once again I was very happy with the food. On the other hand, the service was terrible. I received my salad before my appetizer which came out just before my main course. The waitress was rarely seen and obviously had little training. I'd recommend you stay out of the bar area and stick with the main dinning room or patio where they keep the good wait staff.

Even with this bad service, I highly recommend South Gate Cafe; this was the only time I have been disappointed.

http://www.southgatecafe.com/

Sanford - Milwaukee, WI

Located in an old family grocery store, Sanford has been serving the Milwaukee area for 19 years.

The food is a mix, but I would say the menu we hadwas more French or Mediterranean.

The décor is modern with white table clothes, but don't let this fool you. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. Two of us showed up in jeans (they were nice jeans, but jeans just the same), and we did not feel uncomfortable at all. Most were dressed business casual, only a few men had jackets.

Most likely the food will be different when you go since they try to use fresh local ingredients. We had two appetizers, one was a roasted morel mushrooms with ramps. It could have been a meal it was so large. The other appetizer was Lobster Benedict. The description on the menu said it was: Seared Serrano Wrapped Lobster and Poached Quail Egg, Lemon Herb Salad. I wish they had said the sauce was a dill sauce, I hate dill. Even with the dill, though, it was good.

For our second course we had a soup which was a Parmesan Broth with Prosciutto and Grilled Scallions, Parmesan Flan. It was light and rich at the same time, very creative.

For our main course we had the: Chargrilled Strauss Veal Loin and 17 Hour Veal Breast , Crispy Onion Potatoes, Tart Apple and Endive. The veal loin was good, but the veal breast was out of this world. The apparently marinated it is some sort of pressure unit for 17 hours. All I can say is FANTASTIC.

We also had the Elk, which was a little gamey, but if you like game we think you will like it.

This was our first trip to this restaurant. For years now we wanted to go, but just kept forgetting to stop by. After this experience we will certainly be back.

http://www.sanfordrestaurant.com/

Geneva Chophouse - Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, WI

The food is good, the service is great (if a little stuffy) and the atmosphere is perfect. Eating outside is a great choice if it is available and if the bugs are too bad.

For an appetizer pick the tuna tartare. If you venture off the steak menu, choose the Sea Bass, very nice. As a side, get the lobster Mac and Cheese.

Ahhh, not sure if we would recommend this. If you really like steak houses this might fit the bill, but in a word, over priced. There are many places it he area where you can get a good steak at a much lower price.

One word of advice to the managers put a wall up between the kitchen doors and the dining room. All night there was a constant commotion going on there and it is very distracting. A nice panel or something could block it from your guest trying to enjoy a relaxing evening.

http://www.grandgeneva.com/dining/dining_geneva_chophouse.asp

SOPRA Trattoria - Lake Geneva, WI

We saw this restaurant when we were driving through town. It has been in operation since March. We have been to Lake Geneva several times over the last several months, but we had not heard a word about the restaurant.

Sopra is an Italian restaurant with a modern flair. The atmosphere is comfortable and inviting. The only thing that was strange was the spot lights on each table, they should be dimmed a little, they were a bit blinding. This is our first experience at the restaurant, so we can't give you a detailed description of the menu, but we can tell you what we had.

We started our meal with the steak tartare, if you like tartare, this is a great one. Just enough spice.

I had the roasted beet salad and my wife had the Sopra salad. This is the only part of the meal we did not care for. The beets were great on my salad and the goat cheese went well with it, but the frissee was nasty. I honestly don't know what the attraction is with bitter greens.
Regarding the Sopra salad, my wife just says, "Yuck!" Next time maybe we will get two appetizers.

For a main entree, my wife had: Scallops - Pan-seared scallops layered with brie cheese and fried potato rounds, served with a fennel cream sauce. This was a hell of a meal, the fennel cream sauce was very unusual. We will have this again.

I had : Veal Chop - Pan roasted veal chop basted in thyme and garlic, served with caramelized garlic porchinis, shaved parmesan and roasted radicchio. I will have to say this was the best veal chop I have ever had. It was prepared perfectly and the flavor was out of this world. I could have done without the radicchio, once again what's with the bitter greens?

Over all I guess it comes down to will we go again, and the answer is yes. Next time, though, I hope the chef will allow us to have salt and pepper at the table. Even if we did not need the extra salt and pepper, I hate when a chef thinks he or she knows better how something should be seasoned.

By the way, the service was exceptional and the wine pours were generous, always a good sign.

http://www.sopratrattoria.com/