Cafe 36 — Restaurant in Town of Waterford

This restaurant is perhaps the best kept secret in the greater Milwaukee area. The place is clean and classy, with the co-owner"s ( Joelle ) paintings adding a creative touch. Her artwork , and the modern R&B and jazz style background music gives this place a subtle avant garde feel, while the, servers and the exceptional chef and owner , Sam , make you feel like family the minute you enter. Dining is casual, but exceptional. Sam uses original Moroccan spice blends in a way that magnifies the fresh flavor of all of his dishes. Meat/seafood options are top shelf. Moroccan shrimp is the best.Vegetables are always fresh.Soups are world class . A while back, I invited a group of close friends to a multi course Moroccan dinner with Sam. All are world travelers and have eaten in the finest restaurants in Europe and in north Africa. All were impressed not only by the unique and extraordinary cuisine ( Sam served exceptionally prepared Moroccan style fish as one of two main entrees) , but also with the beautiful presentation of the food , interjected by Sam's brief , but eloquent history of the background of the dish. We had two 17 year olds along who enjoyed the meal and the experience as a whole. More standard meals, including eggs ( all varieties and available Moroccan style ), ham, pancakes , omelets , burgers, steak , etc. are all masterfully prepared as well. There are no disappointments here. Cafe 36 is an exceptional food oasis of the highest quality and...

I took my family here for a little lunch.

My wife got chicken skewers, I got shashuka, and my daughter chicken tenders.

The chicken was overcooked and charred on the top giving it a bitter flavor. The pita bread tasted like it came from a frozen package and wasn’t cooked through all the way. The shashuka wasn’t really shashuka. eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic, commonly spiced with cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. Typically it’s also topped with feta cheese. Most of the dish seemed like it was just thrown in a pan and cooked over high heat rather than with oil sautéed properly and the. Finished off in the oven… it was also underwhelming in size and was almost $15.

The waitress was fine. She had a hard time understanding us, especially when my wife because she has a strong accent but my bigger issue was the time it took to get the food out. It took about 20 mins.

Final note, with two apple juices and one coffee it ran us 51 dollars to eat lunch here. In my humble opinion, way overpriced for the quality and service. I can’t see myself ever eating here again. It’s too bad too because there isn’t many cafes like that in this area.

I will say that the overall environment was quite nice. Big windows with lots of natural light and an overall old school cafe vibe...

Waitress was very pleasant and did offer to remedy the fact that my husband did not like his gyro although he told her that it would probably be futile since a second one would probably come out just the same. Definite attempt made at a pleasant atmosphere but the cleanliness had a bit to be desired. The food.... Shawarma was edible, though lacking flavor. The flavor that stood out the most was the very dark chicken and wrap which were almost to the point of being burned. No sauce, and what is shawarma without sauce??? The gyro my husband had was the worst gyro either one of us have ever eaten. The meat was not browned on the outside and shaved off a larger piece of meat, but rather all of the meat pre sliced was put on a griddle and cooked on both sides, VERY dark, again almost burned as was the pita. The meat also did not have the traditional flavor of gyro meat. With eyes closed you would never know that it was supposed to be gyro meat. The tzaziki had zero flavor, basically just sour cream, I wouldn't even say it tasted like Greek yogurt. The French fries were on the salty side but tasty. Definitely disappointed...