Twisted Fire — Restaurant in Oconomowoc

Do we finally have a restaurant in Oconomowoc worth making our family's "go-to"? We spend many early Friday evenings vexed on whether to settle for mediocrity in town or drive 30 minutes for something enjoyable. We want nothing more than to support a local business while truly enjoying our meal.

Sadly, Twisted Fire is not it.

There's no doubt that care has been put into the renovations. Inside and outside the place is clean and inviting. We were a bit on the early side of dinner, got seated right away. Our server(s) was very nice and was on top of everything, except one thing I'll mention in a bit. There were other servers who brought our food and checked in on us as well. Seemed geniune in trying to be sure we had a good meal.

Our youngest, the pickiest eater, was able to order butter noodles with parm, not on the menu. Made our life easier, he was delighted. My wife got the Artichoke pasta bowl with chicken. She ate most of it, didnt complain but didn't praise it either. I'm guessing she'd go back and order it again but it wouldn't drive her to suggest the place. My other, oldest, child and I ordered cheeseburgers. My oldest loves burgers, so he was excited it was an option. I was eye-ing up the $35 ribeye but we decided to order an app and I didn't want to spend that much knowing I might not finish whatever I got. I ordered mine with aged cheddar, as did my child, plus I added some bacon. My burger came as ordered but the cheese was light and either cooled after being molton or never fully melted. It's that coagulated state where the texture is odd and it changes the flavor a bit. Plus, there was so little of it, it appeared as if it was a thin layer of spreadable cheese. Probably a good thing seeing how it wasnt hot anyway. My child's burger came without his cheese and this was the one place the server(s) failed. Another server brought it out without cheese, we let her know, and she said she'd let our server know, leaving the naked burger (sitting open faced as they bring it out) just sitting. It took a few minutes for our server to return and take the plate back to the kitchen. The kitchen partially (again) melted some cheese on top and the plate was returned to the table. So barely melted you could still see the pieces of shred. The potato buns are a bit odd for a burger but seemed very fresh. The meat in the burger was high quality but under seasoned.

The biggest tragedies were our appetizer and the fries. We ordered the fried curds with jalapeño mayo. Twisted fire isn't the only one in town foolish enough to roll with unseasoned, beer-battered curds and it's maddening. The breading gets soft and soggy almost immediately and since it has no seasoning it just tastes like fryer oil. I don't know if these restaurants are trying to be cute by being different but it's not good at all. And just like the aged cheddar on the burgers, the curds had either cooled and coagulated or were barely heated enough to melt. I think they used quality, part skim, low moisture mozzarella but it was do hard to tell in its half-melty state. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The mayo had a very "eggy' taste and had no jalapeño flavor. The fries were so damn close to greatness. The we're obviously cut in-house and made fresh. They are thin, just enough crisp and meat to make them a great bite. I was excited to see they were seasoned. Turns out that seasoning was their downfall. It's ridiculous. I don't know if it's a ton of paprika or what they put on there but it's odd and not good. Sure, there will be a handful of people who enjoy them. But I'm guessing the vast majority of people are like us, just wanted a great, simply salted fry. My oldest though it tasted like cinnamon and was totally turned off. So close, yet, so far.

Don't get me wrong, this place is new, they are still figuring it all out. The hope is they take diner feedback to heart and make some changes. They are close enough to good to want them to stick around but not good enough to...

My husband and I finally stopped in to try this restaurant for the first time. I gotta say I'm leaning more towards negative than positive. I ordered the steak and fries. At these prices you should be able to get a steak how you want. It's not like the steak comes in one piece. It comes in small medallion pieces (5 or 6). I ordered it medium, which means a little pink in the middle. I wish I would've taken a picture of what the chef cooked. I received steak that was seared on the outside and raw inside. I showed the waitress (Emily) and sent it back to be cooked some more. They added more fries and put it all on a new plate, which the waitress stood there and patiently waited until it was finished. The second time I received my order wasn't any better. The steak was still raw, but the general manager had come to the table and apologized and asked if I wanted a new steak. I was hungry and it was getting close to closing time, so I said no and ate what was on my plate anyway. The waitress also saw what was on my plate the second time as well. My husband and I were very disappointed with the steak being undercooked twice. We did get a free dessert 😆 their way of an apology. It would've been better if my order was taken off the bill, considering it was screwed up twice. One screw up, fine give me a free dessert. But screwing up twice c'mon seriously. Kudos to Emily for being such a great waitress, apology was not necessary from her. Everything else was good and we will be returning in the future because there are other things on the menu that I would like to try. Don't think I will order steak again, which is a shame because it's very good tenderloin medallions. The bill, with the tip was $75. I've had much better meals for that price tag. I would recommend this restaurant, but stay away from the steak until they hire a competent chef. My husband wasn't pleased with the portion size of the meal that he ordered, so he was still hungry when we left. But he said it was good. He's also used to eating a lot more than what he got, so that's not saying...

We had the Tomahawk Pork Chops and the Steak and Mushroom Risotto (med. rare). Both were amazing. The chop came with a baked apple and the best corn cake. We loved it so much we went back a few weeks later with friends. We got the Steak and Mushroom Risotto (med rare) again. The steak was overcooked it was med to med well. It was still good but not as we like it. We also got the Skirt Steak which was amazing! It was better than the steak with the risotto. My friends got the Tomahawk Pork Chop which was great! And they also got bar-b-que chicken. The chicken was so small I was surprised by it, also the baked apple I believe they ordered as a side was not cooked at all. It just had a couple of grill marks on it. The waitress got a new one it was better but not like the other one they got with the chops. To me it seemed like they must of been having an off night in the kitchen. We will give it another try because the first impression was so good. A few weeks later I went back a 3rd time with a friend. Amazing service and the food was on point. Everything was cooked to perfection. We went again. Lol! My steak was again over cooked. Don't let this post turn you away. Just ask that they get the temp of your meat right because it tastes amazing. Even overcooked. Everyone else at the table (4 others) food was...