Your votes are in, Milwaukee, and you have selected the winners of OnMilwaukee's Best Dining 2011. We're announcing the results of this readers' poll, including our editors' pick, in a series of articles that run all October long during Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com.
For the fifth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee.com, presented by Concordia University. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as the winners of our "Best of Dining 2011."
For the fourth straight year, OnMilwaukee.com readers have chosen Ristorante Bartolotta in Tosa Village as Milwaukee's best Italian restaurant.
Though Bartolotta's has branched out into steaks, seafood, French food, gastropubs and beyond, Ristorante Bartolotta has been there from the beginning. For nearly two decades, Joe Bartolotta has run one of the most consistently great Italian restaurants in town.
Thanks to head Chef Juan Urbieta, the menu has never gone stale. Urbieta and his crew create great special menus, including ones that focus on the bounty of regional Italian cuisine, spotlighting the diversity of Italian cooking, as well as winemaker dinners that pair great wines with special menus.
So, if you're looking for red-checkered tablecloths and 10 versions of spaghetti and meatballs, you'll have to go elsewhere.
If, on the other hand, you like seafood, polenta, risotto, a wine list worthy of exploration, warm and crusty bread, a comfortable atmosphere and an attentive, knowledgeable staff, Ristorante Bartolotta remains the place to go in Milwaukee for Italian food.
The OnMilwaukee.com editorial staff agrees and also picked Ristorante Bartolotta as its editors' choice.
OnMilwaukee.com editors' choice: Ristorante Bartolotta
Runners-up:
2. The Pasta Tree
3. Tenuta's
4. Il Mito Enoteca
5. Mimma's
6. Zarletti
7. Calderone Club
8. Ryan Braun's Graffito
9. Louise's
10. Sala da Pranzo
11. Centro
12. Albanese's
13. Libiamo
14. Third Ward Caffe
15. Fila Bene
