Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2019
A risotto made with heirloom tomatoes? How unusual. But of course, because it was served by Ristorante Bartolotta, it was magnificent. So delicious, and the risotto stayed creamy, as cooling risotto rarely does. Ristorante remains the place for traditional Italian cuisine, of the kind you’d find in Italy. Chef Juan Urbieta leads the kitchen, making perfect dishes like springy rigatoni in tomato sauce with eggplant, mozzarella and basil, or thin veal cutlets in white wine caper sauce; founder Paul Bartolotta, one of America’s best-known chefs for Italian cuisine thanks to his years in Las Vegas and Chicago, contributes to the direction of the menu at Ristorante now, too. New this year was a fun antipasto for the table, a board of three types of prosciutto served with dried figs and gnocco fritto, little fried breads.
Wine lovers will find an impressive list that sweeps across Italy (and is heavily discounted on Mondays and Tuesdays). The Bartolotta group’s first and smallest restaurant, Ristorante has an abundance of heart.
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2018
Marking a milestone in 2018, the Bartolotta empire’s flagship restaurant in summer was refreshed: a new kitchen, swanky bathrooms, updates to the dining room that leave it looking sharper but still like the cozy Ristorante we’ve known for 25 years. The updated menu kept the restaurant’s much-loved dishes — here’s looking at you, pappardelle with duck ragu — but chef Juan Urbieta introduced some excellent additions. Meet a first-course dish of sautéed shrimp in rosemary-chickpea sauce, tender ricotta-spinach gnudi among the pastas and a new dessert of lemon cream with toasted meringue. You could always toast the restaurant with its deep selection of Italian wines. Twenty-five years look good on you, Ristorante. You’re still the standard-bearer of traditional Italian cuisine.
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
The 25 Best Italian Restaurants In America
For a quarter-century this rustic outpost in a historic building in a quaint Milwaukee suburb has been turning out bonafide pilgrimage-worthy Italian food, Current chef Juan Urbieta spent time at Michelin-starred restaurants in Chicago and Italy before making his way to Milwaukee. The menu remains as vital as ever -- handmade pappardelle with slow-braised duck ragu, similarly handmade spaghetti with spiny lobster, and a four-course chef's menu that comes in at a paltry $60. Of course, going rogue and ordering four pastas is also a perfectly defensible choice.
Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2017
The prolific Bartolotta Restaurants group now owns or operates more than a dozen places, but its first is still my favorite, Ristorante, in the heart of Wauwatosa. Chef Juan Urbieta is a master of Italian cooking, whether it’s pastas, fish or meat. The standing menu changes little from year to year, and sometimes I want nothing more than Ristorante’s perfectly crisp chicken, roasted in the Tuscan style. But more often I look to the three-course chef’s menu, which takes a more seasonal approach. In spring it included an ultra-savory dish of emmer wheat prepared like risotto, with salami, Grana Padano and spinach folded in, and topped with crisped shallot.
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
Milwaukee's Best Italian REstaurant 2017
After losing the crown in 2015, Ristorante Bartolotta reclaimed its perch at the top of Milwaukee's Italian food heap last year. And if the 2017 results have anything to say about it, the Cream City Italian food staple doesn't look like it's letting go of that title anytime soon, as the diamond of the Bartolotta brand handily took first place for the second straight year.
If that wasn't enough, Ristorante Bartolotta also retained its hold on OnMilwaukee editors' hearts – and stomachs – coming away with their pick for the second year in a row as well.
It's not hard to see why. The intimate, welcoming little place in the heart of Tosa Village has the most authentic, most delicious and most engaging Italian – not Italian-American – menu in the city, offering up anything but predictable plates.
- OnMilwaukee.com
Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2016
This cozy Italian restaurant, the very first in the ever-growing Bartolotta group, has the feel of a comfortable neighborhood restaurant, and the classic dishes on the menu are like old friends. (Hello, pappardelle with duck ragu.) But I’m partial to checking out the monthly menu, where chef Juan Urbieta stretches; in spring, the reward was fried soft-shell crab over a spring salad that included fiddleheads, and a perfect risotto with taleggio and spinach, creamy but firm to the bite. Risotto is a dish that's attempted at many restaurants but rarely mastered as it is here.
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
Milwaukee's Best Italian REstaurant 2016
After coming in third place last year in our annual readers poll ballot, the longstanding king of Italian restaurants in the Milwaukee area, Ristorante Bartolotta, comes out on top again. Ristorante returns to its traditional position atop this category.
And it's not hard to see why. The intimate, welcoming little place in the heart of Tosa Village has the most authentic, most delicious, most engaging Italian – not Italian-American – menu in the city.
- OnMilwaukee.com
Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2015
Why go here: The oldest and coziest of the Bartolotta restaurants, this Italian ristorante feels like going to a family dinner. Lots of chatter, lots of eating. Chef Juan Urbieta executes the menu with flawless technique and the classic Italian restraint that lets ingredients take center stage.
What to order: Pappardelle with duck ragu and a brick-roasted half chicken with perfect, crisp skin, absolute classics. But do check out the changing chef’s menu; in late August it held handmade cavatelli draped in heirloom tomato sauce with pecorino.
What you’re drinking: It’s not every day you can peruse an all-Italian, 250-bottle wine list.
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2014
As much as I love the braised duck ragu with pappardelle at Ristorante Bartolotta, the first thing I check out on the menu is the chef's seasonal menu by Juan Urbieta, a la carte or four courses prix fixe. In June the reward was an appetizer of vivid artichoke mousse topped with strips of crisp, fried spring vegetables and garnished with Pecorino shards and veal glaze. Downright magical.
If I can resist the pappardelle, I turn to ravioli, always tender and delicate. Spinach ravioli filled with ricotta and dressed with brown butter, truffle oil and Grana Padano is on the regular menu now, and the seasonal tomato menu lay sautéed tomatoes and wisps of black summer truffle over ricotta-filled ravioli. The wood-fired oven turns out meats such as juicy, crisp chicken, served with potato puree, brussels sprouts and white wine-lemon sauce with pan juices.
The wine list's bottles are entirely from Italy; desserts are simple but done well, like the salted caramel budino with chocolate ganache.
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
Milwaukee's Best Italian Restuarant 2014
Even in a year full of surprises, OnMilwaukee.com readers have made sure the Italian cuisine crown stays put. For the seventh straight year, Ristorante Bartolotta, located at 7616 W. State St. in Tosa Village, has come away the champion.
It's almost impossible to find issue with the readers' pick, seeing as the signature Bartolotta restaurant is still the gem of its ever-expanding bunch. Pushing aside the familiar and expected Italian menu items (spaghetti and meatballs, etc.), Ristorante and executive chef Juan Urbieta have constantly dished out delicious authentic dishes, putting the spotlight on the vivacious variety of diverse regional specialties that Italian cooking has to offer.
The OnMilwaukee.com editors couldn't help but join the readers in naming Ristorante the best Italian restaurant in the city.
- OnMilwaukee.com
Carol Deptolla's Top 30 Restaurants of 2013
Ristorante Bartolotta is a marvel of consistency, and its menu, largely unchanging, now seems classic: the braised duck ragu with pappardelle, most definitely; the brick-roasted chicken, certainly. They're dishes that satisfy and comfort, and they're worth returning for.
But I do take particular delight in the monthly menu, where chef Juan Urbieta can stray from the tried and true. One rewarding dish this summer was pan-roasted black cod, like velvet on the tongue, over caponata (eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, red peppers, golden raisins and pine nuts).
- Carol Deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Food Critic
Milwaukee's Best Italian Restuarant 2013
Once again, OnMilwaukee.com readers have chosen Ristorante Bartolotta in Tosa Village as Milwaukee's best Italian restaurant. That makes six in a row for this Bartolotta gem. Though Bartolotta's has branched out into steaks, seafood, French food, gastropubs and beyond, Ristorante Bartolotta has been there from the beginning. For nearly two decades, Joe Bartolotta has run one of the most consistently great Italian restaurants in town.
Thanks to head Chef Juan Urbieta, the menu has never gone stale. Urbieta and his crew create great special menus, including ones that focus on the bounty of regional Italian cuisine, spotlighting the diversity of Italian cooking, as well as winemaker dinners that pair great wines with special menus.
So, if you're looking for red-checkered tablecloths and 10 versions of spaghetti and meatballs, you'll have to go elsewhere.
If, on the other hand, you like seafood, polenta, risotto, a wine list worthy of exploration, warm and crusty bread, a comfortable atmosphere and an attentive, knowledgeable staff, Ristorante Bartolotta remains the place to go in Milwaukee for Italian food.
The OnMilwaukee.com editorial staff agrees and also picked Ristorante Bartolotta as its editors' choice. (Did we mention it's truffle season?)
- OnMilwaukee.com
Milwaukee's Best Italian Restuarant 2008-2012
For the fifth straight year, OnMilwaukee.com readers have chosen Ristorante Bartolotta in Tosa Village as Milwaukee's best Italian restaurant.
Though Bartolotta's has branched out into steaks, seafood, French food, gastropubs and beyond, Ristorante Bartolotta has been there from the beginning. For nearly two decades, Joe Bartolotta has run one of the most consistently great Italian restaurants in town.
Thanks to head Chef Juan Urbieta, the menu has never gone stale. Urbieta and his crew create great special menus, including ones that focus on the bounty of regional Italian cuisine, spotlighting the diversity of Italian cooking, as well as winemaker dinners that pair great wines with special menus.
So, if you're looking for red-checkered tablecloths and 10 versions of spaghetti and meatballs, you'll have to go elsewhere.
If, on the other hand, you like seafood, polenta, risotto, a wine list worthy of exploration, warm and crusty bread, a comfortable atmosphere and an attentive, knowledgeable staff, Ristorante Bartolotta remains the place to go in Milwaukee for Italian food.
The OnMilwaukee.com editorial staff agrees and also picked Ristorante Bartolotta as its editors' choice.
- OnMilwaukee.com
