Michael's - a Staple of Waukesha

Michael's has been on the corner of Sunset and Grand Ave in Waukesha for as long as I can remember, but I have never stopped in or heard much about it until a year ago. My roommate of the last two years went there occasionally with her boyfriend and always enjoyed themselves there. My parents and I finally decided to try it for a fish fry two weeks ago.

Upon entering the place, I was totally taken aback with how large it is inside. When you look at it from the outside it didn't look much bigger than a place with a few booths and a couple tables, but it has a full bar, plenty of booths and tables for a big group. We arrived around 7 and were able to get a table within 10 minutes. We sat in the bar and got a drink and then got a wonderful, large booth.

The place smelled amazing and trying to decide what to have for my meal was difficult. I figured I should get a little of everything, so I tried the seafood platter, 2 pieces of cod, 2 pieces of perch and 2 butterfly deep-fried shrimp. The meal came with soup or salad and I'm a sucker for clam chowder so I had to try it. It was seasoned perfectly and the clams were not chewy as they can sometimes get.

When my meal came, I was very impressed with the size of the pieces of seafood. I tried one piece of each and a few fries and was very full. The breading on everything was a crumble-style but different on each item. I was very happy with my meal selection.

My mother ordered the baked cod and it was an extremely large piece. I took a taste of it and it was baked perfectly and seasoned with just salt, pepper, lemon and paprika. If my mom didn't have a cold, I would have taken home her leftovers. My dad had the perch and cleaned his plate so I'm sure he enjoyed it.

Michael's is definitely a place that I want to go to again, maybe with a group to order a pizza or their amazing pasta dishes. They often have coupons in the clipper magazine but even without it, the prices were extremely reasonable.