For the ninth straight year, October is Dining Month on OnMilwaukee, presented by the restaurants of Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. All month, we're stuffed with restaurant reviews, dining guides, delectable features, chef profiles and unique articles on everything food, as well as voting for your "Best of Dining 2015."

Zesti
130 E. Capitol Dr., Hartland,
(262) 367-3333
zestieatery.com

From Iran to Germany to France to Italy to the USA, the menu at Chef Michael Feker's Hartland restaurant Zesti, opened earlier this year, is all over the place – and, happily, not in a bad way. What could seem like an eclectic and unfocused collection of random dishes from across the globe instead feels cohesive and personal as Feker serves up meals and flavors from the various places he's worked and lived throughout his life and career. Most importantly, the food tastes delicious too, delivering on both parts of the phrase "flavor journey" that appears in the menu's mission statement. At about a 40-minute drive, Hartland might be a bit of a poke for those looking for a bite to eat closer to the city, but considering its delectable menu of exceptionally crave-worthy dishes, it's very much worth seeking out. 

Type of food: Varied global cuisine, ranging from Italian pasta and pizza to French cote de boeuf to German veal schnitzel to Iranian mahiche bareh to American BBQ chicken wings

Prices: Appetizers and small plates cost from $6.25 to $12.25; main dishes cost between $11.95 to $19.95. 

Vegetarian friendly? Yes. 

Hours: Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. for lunch and 5 until 10 p.m. for dinner; Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. for lunch and 5 until 11 p.m. for dinner; and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. for brunch and 5 until 8:30 p.m. for dinner. Closed Monday. 

Parking: Limited nearby street parking 

Vibe/dress: The exposed brick, dangling wire chandeliers and garage door style windows – which presumably open up for nice brunch weather – combined with the warm lighting and rough-hewn wooden decor to create that familiar mix of rustic and industrial that I now insist on calling "industrial" for the rest of time. The dress is cozy smart casual. 

Hits: To make things simple, everything we sampled on the menu was a hit, starting with the appetizers.

The filet de bouef cafe de Paris – slices of beef tenderloin with compound butter served on top of french fries and onion strings – was delicious, mixing together to form a perfectly flavored steak in casual bar-approved appetizer form. The meat was perhaps a touch overdone; I wished there was more juice to drip down onto its bed of fries and onion strings. Still, it was meatily satisfying and very flavorful – even more so when eaten together with the other ingredients, like the show-stealing fries that were happily heavy on flavor.

The involtini di melanzane – a signature Feker dish featuring rolled eggplant slices baked in cheese and tomato sauce – was another strong meal starter, delivering tender eggplant and a rich tang from the sauce and cheese.

The entrees didn't disappoint either. The ravioli dish – stuffed with pumpkin and ricotta, and topped with a sage sauce – made for the perfect autumn night dish, filled with warm flavors and textures. The ravioli's traditional look, long imperfect half-moon-esque dumplings rather than the typical processed squares, only added to the cozy, homey experience. The same goes for the spaghetti bolognese, a classic done just right. The pasta was perfectly cooked, and most importantly, the sauce was thick with rich meaty flavor. 

Creme brûlée and a pear puff pastry closed out the "flavor journey," and while the journey aspect calmed down with fairly familiar desert options (flourless chocolate cake, gelato) the flavor part was still in full effect.

The creme brûlée had the classic delectable mix of crunchy burned topping and silky custard, while also not being too filling, while the pear puff pastry happily satisfied the sweet tooth. 

Misses: Other than perhaps a slightly thicker sauce on the pumpkin ravioli – a terrific dish nevertheless – there were no misses in terms of the cuisine. My only minor quibble with Zesti would be the aesthetic. On paper, the industrial mix of exposed brick and rich wood tones sounds warm. In person, however, it feels a little like fake warmth. It'd be nice if the aesthetic felt as personal as the menu (filling the relatively vacant walls with some family items or photos from the journey that led Feker to opening Zesti might help). During busy times, the roomy space can get rather loud too. The genuine service and genuinely scrumptious food easily make up for these otherwise minor aesthetic nitpicks.