Wonderful place for brunch any day of the week. It was great to see how an old firehouse was transformed into a restaurant. We especially enjoyed seeing the old "net" attached to the wall which was used by the firefighters when a person needed to jump out of a burning building. We also appreciated having an outlet available to charge our phones at our table for two. Now about the food . . . Everything was delicious and was made from locally sourced ingredients. The favors of each entree were combined in such a way that they provided comfort as well as nourishment. The hot cider drink had a surprise "kick" for ones pallete. We thoroughly enjoyed our brunch and will definitely be back again.
Very cool atmosphere being in an old fire station! It was busy when we arrived and we hadn't made reservations so we sat at the bar and the bartender was very knowledgeable on all the menu items and the farms the ingredients came from. My americano was great as was my fiance's hot chocolate! Eggs were made perfectly and the bacon was really good! Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a good brunch!
Great options today with the specials! I wished wasn't keeping the carbs low as the PBJ French Toast. Amazing potatoes! Very quick service. Great reason to stop in walkers point. Easy to find parking.
I can not give a full review because I did not have the opportunity to eat their food but I will review on their customer service (or lack thereof). I called this morning and asked if there was a wait and was told no that we could get a seat right away. However, when we arrived, it was a different story. We were first asked if we had reservations then told we could not have a seat todat. When my wife explained this to me, I went back in to discuss with the young lady at the hostess station. I asked her why she didn't tell me when I called 10 minutes prior to arrival that they require reservations? I told her I would see her in 10 minutes and she said ok then immediately hung the phone up (without saying goodbye). She then said she could seat us but we would have a 40 minute wait. I'm not sure if this is common practice for Engine Company No 3? Very rude over the phone and the front of house. These two key components of your operation are your clients first impreassion. Your business looks successful and I wish you luck, but the face of your company needs a tune up. Thanks for pushing us away, Zak' s Cafe was very glad to have us and their service, staff, and food were spot on for our first trip to Milwaukee.
What an awesome piece of history that someone had the vision to preserve and turn into an awesome restaurant! Stopped operation as a fire house in the 1920 s and had been vacant until 3 years ago. Definitely a must stop if your in Milwaukee.
Awesome food and amazing experience. This place typically has a wait but figured I'd give it a shot on a Saturday afternoon. In my group we had two coffee drinks and a bloody Mary to start out with. For food we had eggs Benedict. The food was cooked to perfection. To say the least it was a great experience and suggest anyone to come enjoy!
The spaghetti squash carbonara was overly rich, unbalanced, and a small portion. It's loke eating an animal fat bomb. The whole plate was an overly creamy cheesy pureed like substance with bits of tasty pancetta on the bottom. No potatoes or bread with this. Apparently there's squash in here - but I will have to say, it is unfortunately over burdened by this pureeed cheese /cteam substance sauce and I could not taste it . Oh and there's an egg on top. This still makes no sense because it's already a heavy, fattening dish. Not to mention the portiom is small - and I'm a small person. This left me hungry actually. My friends meal looked 10 times better so I will have to order something else next time.
Engine Company No. 3 is a former fire station turned into a restaurant. I liked the decor and enjoyed seeing all of the photographs of the station in the old days. It was interesting to see the history of the place and that gave it kind of a nostalgic feel. I also like that they are a straw free organization and all of their food comes from local farmers. I ordered the French toast bake and chamomile tea, while my husband ordered the choco coco pancakes with a side of potatoes.The food was quite good and our waitress was nice. Overall, we had a positive experience.
The food was phenomenal!!! The place is an old firehouse with all the decor to go with it. My husband had the basic egg breakfast and the red potatoes were delicious. I went out on a limb and ordered the Patacon Con Huevos Y Chorizo, it is a must have! Will definitely come back again the next time were in Milwaukee.
I have been to this restaurant a couple of times and I waited to give my review to be sure it was accurate. My first experience was more of a three stars and my second experience was definite four stars. What is the difference between the two visits, I'm not sure since I didn't see any varying factors between each visits.
We chose this place strictly due to Google reviews and pictures of the food, well the reviews were spot on and I'm hooked. We ended up eating at the downstairs bar and we're served by Babbs (she gave us 2 other recommendations of things to do while in Milwaukee that were spot on too.) she was great and the food was awesome...those smoked potatoes are worth the visit alone. We will be back.
They have take away breakfast and open early on weekdays, which you don't find much of in this area! Decor reflects the firehouse atmosphere. The upstairs has a bar and is a great waiting place when the lines are long. Make a reservation if you can, will definitely help out! Great breakfast foods with a variety of options and locally sourced vendors. Wish they were open later in afternoon!
My husband and I were there on May 20th. We are from out of town so we just stumbled upon this place after a quick google search in our area. We sat at the bar for breakfast. I ordered the French toast and some baby red potatoes and my husband ordered the pancakes and a side of sausages. The toast was SO good. The smoked baby reds were so rich in flavor, that they didn't need any additional salt/pepper/ketchup or anything you normally might add. Actually, we agreed ketchup took away from their smoky flavor. We left really impressed by our server and his deep knowledge of where the individual food items came from (farm name and location). We will come back next time we are in MKE!
Amazing service. The menu is exquisite offering cuisines from around the world. This is a great brunch spot if you're willing to spend a little extra, but the portions are adequate for the quality and price point. You won't be disappointed!
I was in Milwaukee on a trip to see friends and we had booked a table to have breakfast here. We were a group of 4 and had heard good things about the food here, but we were all massively let down after this visit. Firstly the menu was unnecessarily hard to read and we needed our waitress to explain the dishes. When we ordered, two of us had the salmon on brioche, I think the third had a version of an eggs Benedict and the 4th the polenta. Our salmon brioche was more brioche than salmon, couldn t have been more than a spoonful of salmon on there. It was also covered in too much oil and surprisingly tasteless. The bene was also flavourless and oily and the polenta had too much fatty meat and again far too much oil. We collectively ate very little of our meals and after putting in our complaint, we were offered nothing but a cinnamon roll which, you guessed it, was far too oily. Wouldn t go back in a hurry.
It gets one star ONLY because I liked out waitress Jackie. I was there for brunch, the pankcakes had no flavor, out of the box just add water mixes taste better, the sausage links tasted like cardboard with a very weird texture. The atmosphere is fair and the seating for 2 is a terrible setup, those tables are in the narrow back hall directly across from the bathrooms (gross!!) and kitchen service/coffee station. Not impressed and will not return.
Just moved to Wisconsin a few months ago & my parents came to visit.. Since my dad is a retired Los Angeles City Fire Fighter, I thought it would be cute to take him here since it's an old fire house. But I definitely wasn't expecting the food to be as AMAZING as it was! I ordered the chicken sausage omelet of the day and OH MY GOODNESS. it was sooooooo delicious! Highly recommend & can't wait to go back & try something else here! Also, our waitress was super nice and encouraged us to walk around & look at all the old fire department memorabilia & photos they have displayed on the walls.
Went here for my bachelorette party and we received the worst service I think i have ever had at a resturant. The lady serving us was rude the whole time and seemed annoyed with us for no reason at all. When it came time for the bill she would not split it and i caught her and the other employees talking badly about us in the corner and giving us nasty looks. The food was amazing but thanks to the staff my day to celebrate my wedding coming soon, was ruined because of bad service. Would not come again.
Great use of an old fire station. Good use of old firehouse memorabilia. Food was terrific and service attentive. Plenty of street parking at lunchtime.
The place is lovely. Just great decoration and cleaness. It has WiFi and nice tables. the food is great and has good portions. If you want to eat breakfast close to downtown this is the place. The coffee is also excellent so drink one. I got an excellent treatment by the staff and owner. The place is managed smoothly, hope it keeps doing great for long.
So delicious! We were in Milwaukee over night I thought my 3 year old son would love eating in an old fire house he sure did the food was amazing we had raspberry pancakes PB&J French toast the smoked potatoes and fruited everything was perfect. I also got a house made lavender cola to go omg so glad we made the story for breakfast. The staff was so friendly and the building was very clean definitely will do it again
I really want to like this place. The concept is great and the menu descriptions interest me, but the food kind of falls flat. The breakfast sandwich I tried on my first visit, along with the tater tots, was so salty I could barely eat it. Last time I tried the Milenesa sandwich and upgraded to truffle fries. The sandwich was good, nothing wrong with it, but absolutely unexceptional (damning faint praise). Even the jalapeno jam could not wake up the flavor. And I strongly suspect the fries were seasoned with truffle salt and that's it...for the $2 upcharge I was definitely expecting more.
This is such a great place and Jewel hidden in a busy city, the menu is fresh and different. The building is amazing, staff is great. Food was very good
I have heard really great things about this place and I'd wanted to try it out for a while. If you are going, I recommend making a reservation because wait times get extremely long on the weekends. The reservation process was easy to do online and our table was ready when we arrived.
The coffee arrived promptly and tasted good.
The menu was confusing to say the least. Nothing looked particularly interesting (definitely not typical "breakfast" foods). Overall, I did not like anything we ordered (porchetta and polenta, salmon madame, and the smoked pork eggs benedict).
After expressing our concerns about the food, the manager (I am assuming, he did not introduce himself rather he just began speaking) sent over a cinnamon roll which was also not very good.
The space is very cool and bright and the restaurant is easy to get to.
The porchetta and polenta had a very oily salsa verde which I thought was pesto until I reviewed the menu. Porchetta is already a fatty piece of meat, so I didn't appreciate the amount of oil in the bowl.
The salmon madame was an enormous piece of brioche with a salmon spread on the top. There was not much salmon in the spread. Prior to ordering, we asked the waitress what this dish was like and she went on to describe the way the fish was deboned.
Great place for brunch! Atmosphere is excellent. There was a wait, but the bar upstairs had more than enough space and the bloody Mary's were amazing! I had the salmon benedict and found the hollandaise sauce not to my liking, but that is a personal preference (I enjoy a very rich, traditional hollandaise).
Had to wait 20mins past reservation. Menu item descriptions minimalistic. Small portions for big price. No salt or pepper provided, as they think you should eat it as is. NO RANCH DRESSING...No substitutions allowed. Cannot have separate checks at one table. 20% added onto check for parties 6 or bigger, so don't bring the family...And overall the most frustrating unprofessional dining experience of my life.
We came for brunch and it was fantastic! I enjoyed my dish that had chorizo sausage, rice and beans, plantain and Spanish style eggs. It was very hearty, great flavor and very filling! My husband ordered their spaghetti squash carbonara and it was delish! The soft egg really made the dish with the added creaminess. Would most definitely come back.
Portions are small. Pricey for what you get. In all fairness, the food was good, but the service was lacking. The vibe was sort of "sorry but this is how we do it here!". Felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode of The Soup Natzi.
They aren't very clear about the reservation system. Service was okay. The menu makes it seem like a foodie place but it wasn't all that impressive. Won't go back as its not worth a wait or the food prices.
ECN3 really filled a hole in the Milwaukee restaurant scene by being a dedicated breakfast/brunch spot. Even with some new players in that space, Engine Company always delivers an outstanding morning dining experience. Like their sister restaurant La Merenda, they strike a balance between local flavors and ingredients and globally-inspired menu items.
Some of my favorites are the Urtain, Patacon con Huevos y Chorizo and Krumpli (when it's on the menu). But the traditional breakfast staples, like pancakes and French toast, are also excellent.