Roxanne Suson, a Brookfield native and graduate of Brookfield East High School, provides readers with an eclectic mix of topics. Once a trial attorney, now a full-time mom, Roxanne blogs about the happiness, sadness, and absurdity of life and family in the suburbs.
I am a self-proclaimed foodie. I love food. I love to watch the cooking shows on the Food Network. I love to page through cookbooks. I just do not like cooking, a fact I was completely honest about with my husband when we first started dating. (In fact, we spent a lot of our time frequenting the restaurants on the east side.) I blame it on parents' who loved to eat out, and they took my brother and I everywhere. We spent special occasions at places like John Byron's in the old First Wisconsin building downtown, Grenadier's, or the original Boulevard Inn. Sunday lunch was also a time to eat out, albeit at a more casual place. Remember Arthur Treacher's? That was a Sunday favorite. Although Arthur Treacher's has long been defunct, Brookfield now has bigger and better options when it comes to seafood: Joey's Seafood and Grill and Mitchell's Fish Market.
Joey's is located in a strip mall on 124th and Capitol, the same mall that contains Caribou Coffee. It offers a wide variety of seafood at very reasonable prices (crab legs, scallops, shrimp, different types of fish and chips, to name a few). Kid friendly, they offered my daughter a children's menu, crayons, and a small container of goldfish crackers upon seating us the first time we were there. (She liked the fact that we were seated next to the aquarium.) She's not a big seafood eater, so she ordered her standard chicken fingers and fries on both our visits to Joey's. The first time we ate at Joey's was for lunch on a Saturday afternoon. The second time was for dinner on a weeknight. The first time there, I ordered the original fish and chips, the two-piece order. The filets of pollock were a pretty good size, had a tasty batter coating, and were fried perfectly. Cole slaw and french fries were the sides. Joey's even has a bottle of vinegar on the table as a condiment if you want to get truly English about your fish and chips. The restaurant does offer take out, but I am not sure how fried foods will hold up over the drive home. The second time I was there I had the scallops sauteed in butter. They were good, but, in my opinion, not as good as the fish and chips I ordered before. As a side, I got the hush puppies, which were better than the french fries I had the first time. My husband ordered the lobster and seafood tacos on our first visit and the coconut shrimp on our second go round. Both were really good. (I always make it a point to taste what my husband is having whenever we are trying out a new restaurant). I ate the leftover coconut shrimp cold the next day, and it held up exceptionally well.
Mitchell's Fish Market is located at Brookfield Square Mall, but there is no mall access to the restaurant. We also visited this restaurant twice. Getting parking close to the restaurant can be a problem. It is on the same side as Barnes and Noble, Hoolihan's Restaurant, and the Bravo! restaurant. So, there is competition for parking spaces. You can bring kids to this restaurant, but the close proximity of the tables when the restaurant is packed might provide a tight squeeze if you want a highchair. They do have a kids menu with, of course, the ever-present chicken fingers for kiddies who are not into seafood. Mitchell's has a big, lobby area and a large bar right off the entrance. The restaurant itself is also large with both booths and tables. The menu contains an extensive list of seafood, including including several varieties of fresh fish which can then be prepared in several different ways. There is also an oyster bar, which you don't see much around here.
The first time there, I went all out and ordered the lobster bisque and the sea bass with the shanghai preparation. The bisque was as good as any other bisque I have had, but the patrons seated behind us had a different opinion. The seabass was steamed, served over sticky rice, and was accompanied by a sweet soy-sauce based sauce. It was tasty, and the sweetness of it made it different from what I have previously tasted in Chinese restaurants. My husband had the crabcake appetizer and cannot remember what he had as an entree. I had a bite of the crabcake, and I liked it so much that I ordered the dinner portion on my second visit. The crabcakes were large and meaty with no hint of green pepper, an ingredient which prevents me from ordering crabcakes at certain restaurants. My husband had steak on his second visit, which was tasty enough that he did not put A-1 sauce on it.
In my opinion, Mitchell's is more upscale in terms of both price and menu offerings. You can take kids to both places, and both have kid menus that offer options other than seafood. Patrons of Joey's were dressed pretty casually; patrons of Mitchell's ranged from the shorts-clad crowd to the after-work business casual bunch. On both visits to Joey's, we were able to walk in and get a table fairly quickly. On our second visit to Mitchell's, we came on a crowded Friday night and had to wait for a table. I'd recommend making a reservation on weekends or if you have a large number of people in your party.
