Odd Duck

pros:
some of the best food i’ve had in the city
cons:
cramped seating area, hard to have a conversation with someone when you feel like you’re a part of the next table over
expensive, tapas style plates. will spend close to $ 100 on two people to be just barely satisfied. and then you’ll probably want to snack on something else when you get home.

Delicious food and interesting cocktail offerings. I was pleased they were able to take a last minute reservation. The pancake and scallops were amazing and can’t leave without the crème brûlée.

Very, very good food! My friends and I came late on a Friday, and we enjoyed it. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said, but I can say this: bacon-​wrapped dates. Yum.

Liked it but was too noisy and the music was too load to talk with our guests. We asked to say hi to the manager, but she never came over.

I think my rating is closer to 3.5 stars. Odd Duck is certainly a nice place for a meal … The vegan options were savory and having visited many nice vegan restaurants, the prices didn’t seem that extravagant, especially for tapas.
And yet I’m not sure if I would recommend it. I came in to sit at the bar since I would be dining alone and had to wait half an hour. Not a huge deal but still odd since there were empty tables. I guess groups like sitting at the bar though it’s not that conducive to conversation. Once I got seated, already knowing what I wanted to order, I had to awkwardly sit there making reluctant eye contact with the bar tender. He didn’t serve me water or provide me with cutlery and a napkin like he did the folks next to me who sat down five minutes after I did. HELLO. It wasn’t until the lady bartender who was taking care of people ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BAR noticed that I hadn’t been helped was I able to get a drink and place my order. I think the whole thing kind of soured the meal but I guess if you look a certain way you’d probably have a grand ol’ time (i.e., you’re white).

Great food and helpful staff to navigate the changing menu.

Perhaps some of the most complicated, unique, and inspired flavors I’ve had in quite some time. There is no shortage of imagination in their kitchen! Perhaps more on the pricey side for some — hubby and I shared five dishes, two deserts, and I had two cocktails for about $ 90. It was all absolutely outstanding. Dates, pork belly, rabbit sausage, morel gnocchi… the descriptions are all there on the menu and I can’t even begin to describe them further. One cocktail involved rhubarb liquor, another involved — I kid you not — carrot, curry, and coconut foam. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT! Just outstanding. Don’t miss trying this place!

Simply perfect. My date and I stopped early on the off chance we could get a table. The dining room was booked but the patio was available. Maybe the most perfect weather for it.
We started with the charcuterie board, then seared scallops with white gazpacho. A spring greens panzanella salad and chicken fried quail followed. Then pan roasted halibut followed by a Korean pancake and we ended with ginger and lemongrass pork belly.
The service was easy, relaxed, timed perfectly and everybody knew their product. With three cocktails the check was only $ 117.00.
Simply perfect.
BTW…You all stay away :)))

How does one live life without an Odd Duck experience? Everyone else in this market has a huge shadow cast over them because of the perfection that Odd Duck is delivering with every dish that pumps out of that kitchen. A menu that has something for every diet, beers that will make your jaw drop, and flavors that are so perfect you will beg and beg for more.
I have visited the location twice now with our foodie group and just a nice sit down with my other half. Both experiences have started with warm welcomes and quick service. For starters the cheese plates and charcuterie are perfect, typically serviced with a jam, bread, nuts, and mustard providing every paring to keep your palate experiencing different notes at every bite. One of the things that I love about Odd Duck is the focus on goat cheese! My favorite!
My first time going to Odd Duck I think we may have tried every single plate on the menu and it has changed since then so I will focus on my most recent experience. The Fried Green Tomatoes are my favorite shared dish on this menu. Perfectly breaded and cooked with a goat cheese spread that has crispy greens on top, this tasty treat will be memorable. We also shared the Goat Cheese and Potato Pierogies that knocked our socks off. Absolutely a perfectly cooked combination of flavors that made every bite worth eating. The real star of my night was the Filipino Seafood Stew. Like all great stews there should be bread that to soak up broth and that broth should be the stand out neutral flavor to everything else. I can not even tell you how good the broth was and how distinct it was against all the seafood in the bowl. It had its own flavor different from the seafood and that made me very impressed. The mussels, shrimp, and cod were all cooked exceptionally well and melted away with every bite.
There is so much on the menu to try and the fact that I have never had a bad plate here speaks to the skill in that kitchen and the thought behind every dish. A lot of respect to the chef and what he has done here. Looking forward to more menu changes and experiences at Odd Duck!

Just had the sichuan cauliflower– the flavors are awesome! Who thought that you could purée cauliflower and flavor it so that its a mystery ingredient you have to refer to the menu to find out what component it was! Kudos to the chef:)

Casual and intimate restaurant with excellent food, drinks, and service.
Excellent Charcuterie selection — ours included Gin n Juice Salame, mustard seed Gouda, trout mousse and Pork & sweetbread pâté; all were delicious
For the meats we had Charred Octopus, Chicken Fried Quail, and Smoked Duck Breast. Octopus was meh; sauce was too condensed and salty, this dish was screaming to be wrapped in a lettuce to give it a refreshing crunch. The chopped mushroom garnish in this dish was the highlight for me. Chicken Fried quail was SO GOOD. It’s so simple but perfect… Like a more refined version of a thanksgiving meal. I dream about the corn bread stuffing. The duck breast was also very delicious.
Mushroom Risotto was cooked perfectly, and the Pierogies were super yummy. We finished with the Crème Brûlée and it was excellent. We will definitely be back!

I love this place so much. Very few restaurants can boast a menu where every item on it is fantastic. This place delivers though. The staff is friendly and the place is hopping. Great venue. The price felt very reasonable for the exceptional meal I just had too. Loved the tartare, quail and the dates. Save room for one of their amazing desserts too. The bar has plenty of good drinks and a staff that knows how to make them right. Quick and made perfectly. They have a great selection of cheeses, salumi, game and also quite the vegetarian menu too. All around you can’t get better in Milwaukee. Definitely earning 5 stars for me.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Three wows. Been meaning to eat here for a long time. Every time something has come up. Or no reservations were available (tip: you definitely need one here).
So that brings me to review time. What an amazing time we had last night. Odd duck did not disappoint. From the time we checked in and were seated until we left the service was excellent.
But here the star is the food. The menu is constantly changing but here is what we had.
First course was the Gouda stuffed dates. Wowsers. Flavor was amazing. And any dish with bacon is rock star IMHO.
Second was Lebanese spinach pie (s). Again, great flavor and texture. The mudajara rice on the plate rocked too. Finished off with pickled turnips.
Third dish was rutabaga latkes. Again, wow. Cooked perfectly I could have had four more portions. But alas we still had two more dishes so I resisted gluttony.
Fourth dish was lamb kawarma. Served on home made pita with hummus, tzatiki, and Caramelized onion. Just fantastic flavor and texture.
At this point we though one dish has to bomb. Right? ⁵⁄₅ is rare. But…
Last dish was the smoked duck breast and that too was perfect. Served with a Parmesan crespelle, and stuffed with duck confit, the dish was an amazing end to a fantastic meal.
Can’t wait to come back and try all the other offerings. Clearly odd duck will be in the rotation (if we can get a table).
Overheard they are opening another new restaurant in bayview so we are certainly in for a treat!

I have heard so many great things about this place and well they are all true. 5! 5! 5!
Once seated all I could do was dwell on the menu for awhile as they were so many inviting options to choose from three categories — meat and cheese board selections, animal small plates and vegetable small plates.
I opted not to try the meat and cheese selections but they were so many of my favorites on the list. Next time. Oh yes there will be a next time. Instead we chose 3 meat and 2 veggie to try.
5 dishes — all worth 5 stars! Wow that is hard to do so outstanding job Odd Duck chefs. I don’t know how you do it out of the tiny kitchen in this place.
Stuffed Medjool dates– ok I ordered these on purpose because I like them as a dish but more importantly to see if the Duck could take these to a new level. They didn’t disappoint. Better ingredients make better dishes. The quality of bacon and dates was top notch and the sauce on the side was the delighter taking this dish to the next level.
Lebanese spinach pie were next with super flaky crust and delicious filling along with yogurt sauce. Best side of the night was the mujadara rice with pickled turnips.
Lamb Kawarma was divine with butter humus, pomegranate, ground lamb, tzatziki, and homemade pita.
Rutabaga latkes were a fresh take on this classic dish with red cabbage purée, celery and apple salad along with caraway tuile.
Finally finished the meal with smoked duck breast presented atop a Parmesan crespelle filled with duck confit and braised mustard greens.
Dessert? Oh yes they had flourless chocolate cake and a unique cheesecake. I only got to view these on the table next to me but they looked great.
The dining space is small but feels cozy especially with each table sporting its own wooden or ceramic little duck. That is why reservations are a must — walk ins are not really an option most nights. Definitely adding this to my top restaurants in Milwaukee. And oh did I mention pricing is totally reasonable so a great meal is easily in budget.
Don’t wait to try this place — call now!

I had the #83 and #38 cocktails… the latter was much more delicious. Food-​I had the pork belly, duck, beehive cheese board, perogis, and Japanese Cheesecake. I am SO FULL RIGHT NOW. I was really looking forward to the duck but suppose I should have inquired more about the sauce prior to ordering (handed it off to someone else who loved it). That being said, my favs were the pork belly which they paired with blue cheese (thank you, exactly what I want paired with it!!!) and the cheesecake. It was a solid experience. went on a Friday night around 830-​not entirely packed, room to breathe. One downside-​you cant really hear anyone at your table speak, so dont expect to have great conversations ha ha An overall good experience.

So sad I don’t live closer because this place is so amazing! I came with two other people and we ordered tapas style and shared everything. Their cocktail menu is diverse and creative! I had a sprig of thyme in my martini and it wasn’t too herb-​y.
We ordered the Japanese style «pizza», pork belly and fried green tomatoes. We had some spicy beef bowl and of course saved room for dessert after we cleaned our plates. I wish I had room for more!

Let me kick this off and say this place was absolutely amazing. The person I was with said this place was 99.9 percent perfect!!! Ok, now let me give the details you are waiting for. Call ahead of time for reservations, I did but they were booked for the day and evening. Well the hostess told me to come around 7pm and put my name on the wait list for the bar seats. Once I arrived at 7pm they said the wait would be about 25 mins, which was fine. Went across the street to tonic tavern for a couple drinks but it’s funny because as soon as I put the drink in my mouth they called me. So it took about 10 mins instead of 25 which was fine.
The food and drink details are as follows. Me and a friend ordered the Orange Bourbon Manhattan and the number 83! My Manhattan was STRONG, but not complaining. As my mom would say, the bartender has a heavy handed pour lol. The food was absolutely orgasmic. Small plates but fulfilling. We ordered the beef short rib carnitas, smoked duck breast, seared scallops, and the black trumpet mushroom risotto! All of those selections were wonderful. I’m not a scallop fan but they made me a fan, my friend said its almost the best scallops in town that she has had. For dessert we had the coconut sorbet which was excellent as well.
They have a wide selection of gluten free options. Expect to send between $ 12 – 18 per small plate and the drinks are between $ 9-​$ 12 bucks but remember they are stiff and heavy handed on the pour. For two people we spent exactly $ 100. So expect to spend some of that hard earned money but trust me it’s well worth it. Attire and ambiance is super casual. It definitely has a repeat customer and consumer and I will be back sometime soon!!! If they would have an option of 5.5 stars it would get that in my opinion

Arrived in town for business and this was one of the first hits on Unilocal for dinner.
This place is pretty hipster looking especially with the bearded bar tenders. They seem to have asian influenced foods.
This place is a tapas place which means expensive high quality, low quantity food. In this case, the low quantity food is served on large plates, so it looks even smaller. The menus look like they rotate everyday as they are dated.
First, I had the truffle sheep cheese to make sure I had a Wisconsin cheese while i was here. It was good. I don’t really know my cheeses, but it was delicious enough. It came with bread and apricot? jam. I liked the jam a lot.
Next I had the pork belly. The pork belly was pretty darn good. Unfortunately, there are only 3 bite size pieces.
I was still hungry so I decided to get the Korean pancake that other reviews talked about.
Korean pancake was meh. It tasted like California Pizza Kitchen Thai pizza which is a pseudo thai flavor. In a korean pancake, that makes it a pseudo-​pseudo korean flavor. I definitely wouldn’t get that again. The one good thing about this pancake was that it helped my stomach be not hungry.
Street parking only.

**As a full disclaimer I am not the biggest fan of small plates**
I went to dinner at Odd Duck as an anniversary gift for my wife. The service was excellent, the server was very knowledgeable & friendly. The food was amazing! There was plenty of options & the presentation was done very nicely. I just would like a large portion of a very good dish but that’s just me.

Ugh, this is one of those times where a 0.5 star would be helpful. I wouldn’t quite give it a 5 because even though the food was great, it didn’t quite blow me away. The food was fantastic and I would easily recommend Odd Duck as a go-​try-​it-​now kind of place but some of their dishes just had way too much salt. The octopus, for example — great texture, tender, and meaty but the flavor kind of got lost with whatever sauce accompanied it because it was like a salt bomb. STILL, I would order it again and again because it was one of the best octopus dishes I’ve had in a while.
We tried other dishes (see my photos) but my favorite other than the octopus might have been the okonomiyaki. It wasn’t anything near authentic and I wish it was thicker with maybe more batter and veggies, but still really tasty. Otherwise, it was perfectly cooked and super comforting. The garlic roasted broccoli dish was probably my least favorite because I thought they were slightly overcooked. When you pay $ 9 bucks for a few pieces of broccoli, I think they should be perfect. Not this time but it wasn’t a deal breaker.
The service was friendly and attentive without being overbearing. This place brings out the food as it’s prepared so there isn’t much room for error. I think our table could have ordered one or two more dishes if our server had suggested some but instead, we were content with what we had and asked for the bill.
I like the fact that they do small plates and local ingredients so I look forward to coming back and trying some of their other offerings. Oh, and it’s also a pretty good place for hipster watching!