One of the true marks of a good restaurant is consistency. For any given review I write for OnMilwaukee.com, I dine at a restaurant a minimum of two times, hopefully three times, if time permits, and the reason I do so is to try to get a feel for a restaurant's ability to deliver consistent meals and service so that my reviews will, in theory, accurately reflect what my readership will encounter on a visit to the same restaurant.
That is why Il Mito Enoteca, 6913 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, has me so befuddled in writing this review. The two visits I paid Michael Feker's most recent venture (the others are Il Mito on 6th and Virginia, and the former Los Mitos) were so dissimilar in service and food quality, I hesitate to determine if my assessment should be mostly positive, or wholly negative.
Il Mito Enoteca resides in a bustling hub of Wauwatosa in a space that formerly housed Cranky Al's, and the restaurant space itself is lovely in earth tones, and with a small, but functional bar towards the back. Seating is cramped, and on two weekday visits, the restaurant was pleasantly busy. Reservations are recommended.
The menu at Il Mito carries some basic Italian standards with a Feker twist. Expect to see lamb and veal Osso Buco, Caprese salad and other salads, pastas and pizzas. Additionally, the options include a lovely unconventional split pea soup (crema di piselli, $3.95) with pancetta and heavy cream. The muted flavor of this soup makes it one of the more enjoyable and creative items on the menu. That's not surprising since soup historically seems to be one of Feker's strong points.
And this is where the disparity begins. Our first visit brought fairly good service and food, and despite being seated at a two-top that should be removed from the restaurant (we were positioned next to the hostess station and directly in between the front door and the bar, dead center in the walkway area, leaving us with patrons and servers constantly brushing up against our table and our food) we really enjoyed our first visit.
Our second was a completely different story. The food was subpar, and our service atrocious, culminating in our server trying to sneakily substitute decaf for regular coffee at the end of our experience, because, when we asked why we were drinking decaf upon seeing the orange carafe lid, "the regular was still brewing and (she) wanted us to have hot coffee."
On our first visit, we sampled the formaggio ($6.95) with mozzarella, parmesan and pecorino; it was a lovely assortment of cheese, dried apricots, figs and candied walnuts in an herbed olive oil. The second visit, we ordered the same, now with gorgonzola, and the presentation and cheese were completely different and in part, unappetizing due to poor presentation and dried out cheeses.
Frutti di Vento ($7.50), a seafood compilation of crab, shrimp, and clams, was somewhat fishy and just didn't do it for us. Insalata Caprese ($6.95) was so rank with balsamic vinaigrette that the tomatoes and mozzarella were completely nondescript.
An entrée of gnocchi Piedmontese ($9.95) joined rabbit, tenderloin and duck with the potato pasta, but the sauce was watery and the meats tough and grisly. Risotto Parmigiana ($9.50) was a good attempt at the classic Italian rice dish, and had the kitchen used arborio or carnaroli rather than a straight medium grain rice, the dish could have been excellent, but as it stands, was slightly mushy and oily.
By far, the best dish we sampled was the mezzaluna di zucca ($8), a pumpkin ravioli with a sage butter sauce, but even that faltered, with the pumpkin flavors few and far between.
These fair-weather dishes, combined with considerable service issues and our aforementioned seating snafu, drop Il Mito Enoteca from my short list, yet the restaurant remains busy.
Perhaps the inconsistencies are such that a first good visit will allow repeat customers forgiveness for a subsequent bad visit, but with so many other restaurants to choose from, I hope Feker's team can pull together and make its better experiences consistent ones.
Il Mito Enoteca is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Amy L. Schubert is a 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry and has worked in every aspect of bar and restaurant operations. A graduate of Marquette University (B.A.-Writing Intensive English, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (M.A.-Rhetoric, Composition, and Professional Writing, 2001), Amy still occasionally moonlights as a guest bartender and she mixes a mean martini.
The restaurant business seems to be in Amy’s blood, and she prides herself in researching and experimenting with culinary combinations and cooking techniques in her own kitchen as well as in friends’ restaurants. Both she and her husband, Scott, are avid cooks and “wine heads,” and love to entertain friends, family and neighbors as frequently as possible.
Amy and Scott live with their boys, Alex and Nick, in Bay View, where they are all very active in the community. Amy finds great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and passions for food and writing in her contributions to OnMilwaukee.com.
