Without Italian ingenuity, electronics would run on potatoes, partiers would throw potpourri in lieu of confetti, and diners would be left trying to twirl their forks on carrots and french fries. Send palates to the land of flexible fare with today’s Groupon: for $15, you get $30 worth of fine Italian cuisine and drinks at Michael’s Italian Restaurant in Waukesha.
With fresh ingredients and in-house preparation, Michael’s Italian Restaurant has given fine diners a tasteful taste of Italy for more than 40 years via a gourmet menu and wine list. Start off by accelerating appetites with antipasti offerings like marinated calamari, soused with Michael’s special seasonings and fried to Oscar-hued perfection ($8.75). Classic dishes like three-cheese ravioli ($13.95) mix with authentically audacious fare such as the pasta arrabbiata, sautéed sausage or chicken tag-teamed with sweet and spicy tomato cream sauce ($14.95). Like the water-sealants of Venice, Michael’s pizza recipes have been refined and perfected since 1955, offering hands-on eaters a shot at rounded delicacies like the veggie or chicken parmesan pizzas ($16.05 for 12,” $18.35 for 16”).
A veritable trove of liquid treasure, Michael’s wine bar pours more than 100 varieties of whites and reds starting at $5 per glass or $22 per bottle. Inside, the pristine table arrangements and mood-enhancing lighting facilitate romantic dates, fancy family outings, and formal meetings between rival air-guitar champions.
Michael's Italian Restaurant
Michael's Italian Restaurant's kitchen cupboards are bare. Their sparseness doesn't stem from a food shortage, but from the eatery's devotion to fresh ingredients. To wit: chefs deftly knead fresh batches of homemade pizza dough daily, and they coat the disks with ladles of from-scratch pizza sauce. They simmer organic beef with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and they fly in fresh fish from Chicago each morning before enhancing the fillets with white wine lemon sauce. In addition to traditional dishes, they've added contemporary flourishes to the menu such as gluten-free pizzas and pastas and meatballs equipped with 4G technology. Regardless of which entree guests select from the expansive menu, knowledgeable servers are always on hand to suggest pairings from the eatery's vast wine list.