Fish fries gain enormous popularity during Lent, but at South Woods of Cudahy, 5404 S. Pennsylvania Ave., the Friday fish fry is so popular that diners without reservations wait up to two hours regardless of the season.
Regular customers keep the nearly 40-year-old supper club bustling on weekdays, which feature nightly specials including prime rib, steaks, seafood and two daily soup selections.
The interior of South Woods lands somewhere between hotel banquet room and northern Wisconsin supper club, with white linens, landscape-themed artwork, tiny baskets of crackers on the tables and 1980s light fixtures.
South Woods literally stands at the end of a secluded driveway off of busy Pennsylvania Avenue, where a wooded area and a large parking lot surround a rustic back entrance.
Steaks, ribs, chops, seafood and Italian dishes all make the menu at reasonable prices of $25 or below, including choices of soup or salad and potato or pasta.
A homemade appetizer of bacon and cheddar sticks ($5.95) represented one of the more unusual plates I've sampled. Won ton wrappers were stuffed to nearly an inch in diameter with what appeared to be a processed cheese mixture threaded with bacon, deep fried and served with a ramekin of hot melted cheese sauce. They were surprisingly flavorless and somewhat unpleasant.
Mixed salads were good, as was a stuffed pepper soup and a Reuben soup. French onion soup was below average. And entrees were all over the board. Grilled and fried seem to be the two best options at South Woods. Filet and shrimp ($20.95) provided a well-cooked, medium rare filet and three plump, and delightfully fresh hand-breaded shrimp with a good, old-fashioned, oven-baked potato.
Steak pizzola with eggplant parmesan ($17.95) was interesting in that the "eggplant parmesan" was actually what we usually call eggplant strips rather than the traditional circular slices; but the steak was flavorful with garlic and pleasantly tender. Red sauce was rich and interspersed with chunks of fresh tomatoes, and this was overall just a great dish.
On the other end of the spectrum, veal Oscar ($19.95) was shoe-leather tough, with the accompanying asparagus overcooked to a rubbery texture.
During both visits to South Woods, service was challenging. Our water glasses remained empty much of the time, and both waitresses actually yelled to us across the room to ask us how we were enjoying our meals, which makes me think this is a common serving technique here.
That aside, South Woods is obviously doing something right, because it certainly seems to draw clientele. I'm not confident after my first two visits that I would contemplate waiting two hours to sample the fish fry. I guess I'll never know what I'm missing.
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.
