Twisted Willow

Cozy atmosphere and great food. A bit pricy but worth it for what we got.

The best restaurant in Port. Great food and atmosphere. Make sure to make a reservation.

This is my favorite restaurant in the area. The drinks are delicious the food is amazing. Great ambiance and beautiful. This is a must if you are in the area!

It is time to update my review for the TW. I recently had it at 4 stars. After coming back multiple times, I don’t know what I was thinking, it should have been 5 stars all along.
Really the best restaurant in Port Washington, not to mention my wife’s Fav spot. Of course we will be back… even if it is just for drinks.

It doesn’t have quite the sophistication or elegance that I would expect for five stars in say, New York or San Francisco. However, it is really a top notch place. Farm to table, reasonable prices, great bar work and our server Keri was game to have fun with us. I like this place and would ignore any references to «blue hairs» in previous reviews. This would feel good for younger to older diners who crave good solid food production, high quality ingredients and friendly Midwestern service. Views of the lake are a bonus for sure.

So this was not the first time I went but every time we go there for mom’s night out the food is always good! I love getting their goat cheese salad with salmon… yummy!
Their drinks can use some work like their moscato isn’t as fruity as I would like but I would still give them 5 stars for their food!

We were in town enjoying a weekend retreat and decided to try the twisted willow. We we’re told it would be a one hour wait so we went up to the tree house. (The bar on the third floor.) the bar upstairs is very nice and the bartender was very personable. Drink were reasonable priced.
When we finally were seated, which was exactly one hour, the service and the food was excellent. My wife had blacken tilapia and I had the cod. My wife felt it was the best she had ever been severed.
Our waitress, I think her name was Debbie was excellent.
We will be back
Joel

Upscale atmosphere within walking distance from the Holiday Inn– local and farm to table options — great dining experience in Port Washington

Food was very good, service was good, pleasant wait staff, fun atmosphere the night we were there — group of 8.

Delicious!
Great little place. The menu is small and limited, but the attention to detail in each plate is spot on. When I see a menu that is 24 pages long I really wonder how much of that can prepared fresh and not frozen, but here you know it is very fresh and seasonal and to top it off its as local as possible.
I think there are lots of people that would find this place intimidating, but go out side your comfort zone. Also, in typical American fashion, people may find the portion size small, so get an appetizer and a soup, and make sure you get a dessert too! All worth it!

Everything about this meal was phenomenal. I highly recommend the artichoke and crab fondue, the filet, and the mushroom stroganoff. I can’t imagine coming back to Port Washington and going to a restaurant other than Twisted Willow for dinner!

I’ve eaten here a few times when visiting my parents in PW the past 2 – 3 years and have never been disappointed. The prices may be a little more expensive than other PW establishments, but we feel the quality of the food and supporting a farm-​to-​table/​local approach is worth it. Specifically we love the more exotic blend of vegetables/​side dishes they pair with their well prepared main entrées.
My wife has a gluten allergy as well, so we really appreciate how much of the menu can be prepared gluten-​free. One tip: just make sure to specify you would like a dish prepared gluten-​free when ordering, as the meals are not automatically gf even though the menu shows the gf symbol.
The wine list/​parings are a nice touch and the tap beer selection is great too. Overall it’s our go-​to restaurant for us to enjoy when in town (and one of my parents favorite).

Very blue-​haired fancy restaurant, with great prices and a wonderful atmosphere. However, the Filet I got was not that good. It was cooked right but the meat itself was tough and not as tender as I’d anticipate. The corn muffin they brought out for free tasted really weird and something must have been in it to make me allergic, because I felt terrible instantly after one bite. Besides those minor details, I did enjoy my time there and I’d probably return, just not for the Filet.

What an excellent find in Port Washington. There seem to be several great restaurants sprouting up here and Twisted Willow is definitely one of them.
Nice variety in menu items. We had the artichoke/​crab fondue. Tasty and the toasted ciabetta was a nice vessel for the fondue. Before dinner arrived they served a bread plate with corn muffins. The corn muffins were so good, crusty on the outside, I could have made a meal of those. I had their soup of the day, egg drop. The egg drop soup was not your typical chinese restaurant egg drop, there were slivers of ginger that added a nice little zing to the soup. Dinner I tried the almost famous meatloaf, not sure why its not famous yet, but it should be!

Twisted Willow is a farm-​to-​table restaurant that serves contemporary comfort food made mainly with seasonal ingredients from local producers. The restaurant is located in the former Wisconsin House Hotel atmosphere, and offers a cozy, intimate and welcoming spot for dinner with friendly service.
I tried the Almost Famous meatloaf sandwich, which was served with beer gravy, bacon and «smashed potatoes,» which was both filling and delicious. Had the tart cherry crumble for dessert, which was excellent as well.
I’m looking forward to visiting again soon to try the summer menu, and also to stop by the new TreeHouse Lounge which recently opened above the restaurant.

We all had the cod except mine was baked. Exceptional. I will be returning. If you want great food, drinks, and ambiance then you need to be here. Also try the beet salad!!!

We went to Twisted Willow for their Friday lunch. What started out as promising ended up being a slow, excuse-​ridden experience. We had a toddler with us and the service was extremely slow. We were all hungry and looked around to see people who arrived later than us getting their food before us. The fairly detached and incompetent server kept on saying «the kitchen is so busy.» I wanted to say, so what? We are paying customers too. Why should our food for any longer?
In any case, the food came out and it was nothing special. When the hostess came we complained of the extremely slow service. All she came up with were excuses. Then the manager came and asked us about our meal and we said the same thing. Again, excuses. Why ask if, instead of acknowledging what happened, all you’re going to do is cough up excuse after excuse? It’s not as if we’ve never eaten at a «boutique restaurant» (her words). Anyway, she gave us a $ 25 gift certificate as an apology. We will never use it because we will never be back. Mediocre food, bad service.

I would say 3.5. The ambiance is wonderful and the service was great! I was impressed with the drink prices as they were very reasonable with an extensive drink menu.
Unfortunately I wasn’t that impressed with the food. The duck spring rolls were good with good sized chunks of duck meat but a little too much cabbage as well. I think some mung bean noodles interspersed would have been perfect. The shrimp bisque was pretty thin and while it was neat having actual shrimp in there, they were rubbery and overcooked.
The braised short rib was ok, but quite dry amd it did need the beer gravy /​sauce that thankfully was delicious. My wife had the salmon which was too sweet for my taste though she enjoyed it, maybe just a touch of miso to help balance the sauce and the jasmine rice was overcooked, not mushy, but kind of dried out like it had sat too long at the top of the rice cooker?
However SUPER major KUDOS for getting us in without a reservation on NYE for an early meal so thank you for that!

This is my favorite restaurant in Port Washington, hands down. I’ve been here at least a dozen times and have not one bad thing to say.
Though I’ve had much off the menu, I would have to say my favorite meal (for the moment) is the Shelby Sammie Panini. Wild mushrooms, roasted red peppers, onions and mozzarella cheese make the majority of this sandwich. So delicious.
The staff here are really friendly and don’t constantly hover while you’re eating. However they stop by and check on you enough that your glass won’t be empty for long. The décor is quaint and quite lovely.
They also have an awesome drink menu. Bonus!

While walking through downtown the girlfriend Unilocal’d this place and saw they offer several vegetarian and vegan options, which works perfectly for both of us.
We stopped in for an early dinner and drinks before heading home. We sat at the bar, which had a great sky light behind the bar. The front area has a baby grand piano and a few leather sofas to enjoy the music or drinks before dinner. We sat at the bar, which seats around 6 people.
The bar staff was super friendly, gave great recommendations, and on top of everything. It helped that both of them were vegetarian or vegan at some point so they could help point us in the right direction of what they liked here.
Most of the meals can be made either vegan and/​or gluten free. The soup was amazing and the beet salad (looked since I didn’t get it) amazing.
We got the wild mushroom and Kale Stroganoff vegan style — this was a great choice. It was such a large portion that both of us couldn’t finish it and had to take it home. At that point the bar tender put it in a to-​go box but wrapped it in twin with a Thank You note on it (see the pic I uploaded) — that was such a nice touch.
They take pride in their cocktails and beer selection here. The Cocktail menu is really fun by having cards of old jazz legends mixed in with great classic cocktails. The beer bottle list is extensive and written on the black boards on the side of the bar. They have 8 taps that rotate of various micro brews.
Definitely recommend this place as they cater to people who have certain dietary restrictions very well.