My annual article, 52 Restaurants for your Bucket List, was originally created to provide readers with an easy way to explore the wealth of restaurants in the Milwaukee scene over the course of one year (52 weeks). Today, as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, it provides a fun and equally compelling guide for folks who’d like to bring variety to their weekly meals while providing vital support to some of our finest local restaurants.
Here's the featured restaurant of the day, plus five can’t miss dishes to try
Taqwa’s Bakery & Restaurant
4651 S. 27th St., (414) 539-6878
facebook.com/TaqwasBnR
Taqwa’s Restaurant is a newcomer to the South Side, but it's well worth your time to check out. Gloss over the menu and you’ll find familiar dishes like hummus, baba ghannouj, falafel and kabobs. But you’ll also find less common offerings, including traditional breakfast items, manakish, fatayer and delicious housemade desserts. [Read more]
Five dishes to try:
- Manakish: handmade Palestinian taboun baked to order and topped with guests’ choice of za’atar, Mediterranean cheese, cheese and za’atar or spiced beef, tomatoes and onions ($4.99-$5.99).
- Tahini salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, mint, olive oil and lemon ($4.99)
- Spinach fatayer: freshly baked dough stuffed with spinach, onions and sumac ($0.99 each)
- Dawalee: grape leaves stuffed with seasoned meat and rice and served with a quarter roasted chicken and cucumber yogurt salad ($9.99)
- Warbat: a dessert of flakey phyllo dough filled with lightly sweetened custard and soaked with syrup ($2.49)
Bonus: Don't miss the mthawami (garlic whipped with olive oil) to enjoy alongside ($4.99).
As a passionate champion of the local dining scene, Lori has reimagined the restaurant critic's role into that of a trusted dining concierge, guiding food lovers to delightful culinary discoveries and memorable experiences.
Lori is an avid cook whose accrual of condiments and spices is rivaled only by her cookbook collection. Her passion for the culinary industry was birthed while balancing A&W root beer mugs as a teenage carhop, fed by insatiable curiosity and fueled by the people whose stories entwine with every dish. Lori is the author of two books: the "Wisconsin Field to Fork" cookbook and "Milwaukee Food". Her work has garnered journalism awards from entities including the Milwaukee Press Club. In 2024, Lori was honored with a "Top 20 Women in Hospitality to Watch" award by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association.
When she’s not eating, photographing food, writing or planning for TV and radio spots, you’ll find Lori seeking out adventures with her husband Paul, traveling, cooking, reading, learning, snuggling with her cats and looking for ways to make a difference.
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