Black Trumpet, Waukesha, WI

We read Beth’s blog on a regular basis and have used her recommendations in the past, so my husband, Andy, and I were extremely excited to guest blog for Beth.  We were considering going out for fish anyway, so now our Friday night plans had evolved.  Beth had planned on going to one of our usual places, the 5 O’clock club in Pewaukee, but they are always super busy and being that it was the first Friday of Lent, we figured the 5 O’clock club and all of our regular haunts would be even more crowed so we decided to try the Black Trumpet inside the Clarke Hotel in downtown Waukesha. Waukesha has really put a lot of effort into improving the downtown area and we think it is important to frequent these establishments. If people don’t come downtown and spend money, these places will close and we will be right back to the crappy Waukesha that many of us grew to avoid.  (But enough about my “Support Downtown Waukesha” speech) As a note to those who don’t spend much time in downtown Waukesha, don’t spend a lot of time looking for the perfect parking spot, just find one of the public lots and enjoy the walk. The Clarke Hotel does have valet if you really find this to be a concern.

We had been to the Clarke Hotel for cocktails before and loved the atmosphere but never dined there. We arrived about 6:30PM, and were asked if we had had reservations, we didn’t. They told us it would be a 45 min to one hour wait. We should have thought they wouldn’t have had the typical “no reservation on Friday rule”, oh well. We had a couple glasses of wine and enjoyed the warm, cozy, non-smoking atmosphere. We found out during the lengthy wait that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had done a good review of their fish fry in Friday’s paper, and they were busier than usual and unprepared for the influx of customers. We entertained ourselves by people watching out the window and just enjoying each other’s company. The service at the bar could have been much better, this wasn’t related to how busy it was, it was that the bartender just wasn’t very attentive, although her lack of attention paid off for us since it seems she forgot to ring up about half of our drinks.  Though that will be offset by the dry cleaning bill for the wine she spilled on Andy’s pants.  We were finally seated at 8PM.

The fish fry special is $13.99 for the all you can eat fried or baked cod. This price is a little higher than the average Waukesha County fish fry, but we expected this from the Black Trumpet (Early Bird price is $11.99 from 4:30 -5:30PM). We each ordered the half and half Fish Fry, half fried and half baked.  We were kind of surprised that they hadn’t offered any other fish options or specials, but we had planned on the regular fish fry anyway. After we placed our order, we heard our server telling the table next to us the specials, turns out there were other fish specials just no one shared them with us. Andy and I felt the pressure to give a thorough review and scoped out the place. The dining room is very nice; however we noted that they left tables un-bussed for 10-15 minutes, sometimes longer.  This hurt the atmosphere and obviously affected the time other customers had to wait for seating. 

The rye rolls that came with the meal were average. Our meal came fairly quickly, within 10 minutes. The waitress indicated that they were out of lemon (strange). We were really starting to worry that the Black Trumpet was not going to pan out, and we would have to write a bad review about a restaurant that we had been looking forward to trying.  Here is where the evening finally turned around. The food was wonderful and made up for the long wait. The fried cod was thick and firm, cooked perfectly, not greasy or mushy. The breading, which included ground potato chips, was crisp and flavorful and REALLY good.  The baked cod was seasoned perfectly and also VERY good. I did use some of the drawn butter that accompanied the fish, but not too much.  The meal included french fries that were skinny, crisp and also quite tasty.   We weren’t offered any other optional sides, i.e. potato pancakes, etc., so I am guessing that this is all they had.  The coleslaw was creamy and also quite good.  I am really picky when it comes to tartar sauce, I can’t stand the kind that is all mayo with a little pickle type relish.  This was some of the best tartar I have had, it was made using roasted Poblanos (those are peppers) and was excellent.

 
The waitress didn’t offer a “re-order” of fish until we were both completely finished with our first orders. She then came back, apologized for the delay, and indicated that they had run out of fish and had to thaw out more. When we received our re-order, about 15 minutes later, she failed to bring us the amount we had requested, but they had found more lemons. The re-order was still excellent even if it was “thawed” and was just as good as the first order. 

 

We had looked at their menu during one of our previous cocktail stops and noted that the Black Trumpet had changed there regular menu from a rather high end (we remembered Sturgeon and Caviar being offered on the old menu), to one with an Italian spin that included pastas and pizzas. It seems that many restaurants in Wisconsin have had to adjust their menus to more standard, affordable fare in order to remain in business, kind of a shame. Would we go back? Yes, only because the fish was fabulous and we would highly recommend it, though we were disappointed with the wait, the service and the lack of attention to detail.  If you are going to tout yourself as a “high end” restaurant, you need to go all the way. That includes the service. We did note the owner/manager milling around the restaurant, but he seemed to only stop and visit the regulars.  “Overall I would rate it an 8, even though the food was spectacular, could have easily been a 10, but the service really wrecked it.”

From the Black Trumpet, we decided to walk down to Chill, a small martini and wine bar, and found it worth a visit, great for a date or small group. It has a small bar (2 or 3 seats) and 3 tables, quaint, great drinks, I may have had one too many and the tab got quite expensive rather quick.  Overall a great evening, with my husband with a heavy price tag.  Thanks for letting us sub for you...