The Riverwest Filling Station

I had a wonderful experience all around! The wait staff are extremely curtious, pleasant and attentive. The atmosphere is really inviting, the décor was extremely well thought out and it’s something that you need to see in person to fully appreciate! And, let me not forget, the food is AMAZING! SIMPLY AMAZING!

The hidden gem of riverwest! The food was delicious and the service was good. I highly recommend the tahina as an appetizer.

Why wait on line for brunch on Downer Ave. Head over to the filling station where parking is easy, there’s never a line, the décor is nice, and the food is delicious. I have become a regular after first hearing about this place a few months ago. Breakfast burger and challah French toast are my recs for brunch. Strong coffee and good Bloody Mary selection too

The food was nasty, and the service was slow. We waited 45 minutes for three sandwiches. I can only imagine how long we would have waited if we had ordered a dinner. Never again!

Great neighborhood bar/​restaurant in Riverwest. A hop away from the 15 bus line on Holton and a short walk to the 14 on Humboldt. Ample beer selection with lots of Wisconsin brews and on tap. The menu has V and GF options. I had the vegetarian sloppy (with lentils) with fries. Attentive service and affordable prices.

Nice little hidden gem. The food is great the tap beer choices are vast and all are craft options including some you can’t get anywhere else!
The food is hand made, fresh and to die for, so are the bloody Mary’s.
Aside from drinks and food the interior is adorable and crafty using real steal old fashion doors and aged wood as décor. It’s cozy and has a lot of natural lighting. Plus local art.
I appreciate the many USB and regular outlets that are placed along the bar so you can bring your computer or phone charger in with you.
Just so your prepared since the kitchen is from starch it takes a hot minute to get food. But it’s worth the wait.
I odiously like this place and recommend it. But try it yourself

Nick was our bartender and made the best drinks. Beyond awesome and very reasonably priced. Ordered lox and goat cheese sandwich!!! Amazing!!!

This place deserves at the very worst, a 4 star review. I was out of town on business, and went to Unilocal to find my favorite kind of food… Great beer selection with a classed-​up menu of bar food: Inventive burgers, truffle fries etc., good ambiance, and not pretentious enough for me to call it a gastro-​pub (and that’s a good thing in my book), also a bit off the beaten path.
My business partner traveling with me is from Kansas City, which is the event horizon of barbecue perfection on the bbq trail, and the ribs at the Riverwest Filling Station (which took a 5 day process to prepare) were the best he had ever had. The beer selection was solid, and the menu items were as well. I wanted a fried egg on my truffle oil fries. And although it wasn’t on the menu, my waiter made it happen.
This was a great find. A restaurant in which the owner lives in the apartment upstairs, and his father helps manage the kitchen in his retirement. The entire place was remodeled from a blighted property with the blood, sweat and elbow grease of the the Atinsky family. The ambiance is a credit to their hard-​work. And there is something genuine about this, which I appreciate. Next time I’m in MKE I will be back.

I love this place, so very much. Why? Because it is two blocks from my apartment and I’m a horrible cook. When I want something better than kale from the bag, or a microwaved veggie patty, I can go to my Second Kitchen. Riverwest Filling Station offers multiple vegetarian options, and sweet potato fries when I want to stuff my face. The décor is lovely, it’s very beautiful and classy. They feature tap ciders, and even had a saison on tap last time I went. So happy this place exists. It’s great for a snack, a meal, or just sips. The Filling Station is the perfect balance of low-​key everyday elegance.

Great food and better hospitality. I came here for a Saturday night packer game. Amazing fries, schnitzel, and beet salad. The owner’s mom passed out Jell-​O shots and cake for every touchdown. A hidden gem!

Crazy good tap selection of beers and scrummy food. GET IN HERE NOW!
Highly recommend local beers, open faced blackened catfish. And beer did I mention that they have great beer.

What a great place! The staff was super friendly, the place was very clean and the beer was fantastic. I was actually surprised how not busy it was. It was a Tuesday, but there were only like 4 other people in the place. The bartender was very friendly and helpful in selecting beers we would like. I got a smoked chicken salad sandwich and my friend got the BLT and both were delicious. I definitely plan on coming back.

I wasn’t particularly impressed by the smoked chicken sandwiches that my boyfriend and I got. the sour dough and arugula were overwhelming. we also got the children’s mac and cheese and it was very bland and disappointing.

Went to this place yesterday since Tracks was packed and we couldn’t find a seat to eat and watch the game. Walked in to find it pretty dead, which was nice because we could get a table right by the huge TV. Their décor and service was on point. Food was great and dessert was out of this world. Even the bartender (wife of the owner, I think) came to our table to hear our raves and even offer us a sample of a different dessert she made.
The only reason that I didn’t give 5 stars was the prices, $ 3+ for a cup of drip coffee. Plus the food prices seemed just a couple dollars more expensive then other places in the area.
Will definitely be back, hopefully more people hit up this great family owned Riverwest spot!

We have been here several times now and thought it was time to write a review. The first time we were there it was super busy and there was a live band there. The owners made a valiant effort to ensure our comfort and because of that I wanted to try this place again. A year later we had date night here with another couple. This time it wasn’t really busy and we were seated immediately. I noticed another live band was coming in so I asked to be seated in the back… this place is pretty small and I never will understand having a live band in such a small venue. We had to wait for the other couple so while we did we enjoyed some beers and the Trio appetizer (Hummus, Babaganouj and Tahina). This is a large appetizer and definitely enough for four people. The appetizer was tasty but nothing that stood out. After our friends arrived we ordered dinner. Two of us got the chicken fried chicken and two of us got the Portabella Mushroom sandwich. My wife didn’t like her chicken friend chicken but I didn’t think it was bad. The sauteed carrots, grits and gravy were good with the chicken being pretty standard… again, nothing stood out. The portabella mushroom sandwich was disappointing. Typically we see larger caps in the sandwiches but we got sliced mushrooms… not a big deal really but the flavors were bland. For the price I expected more. The service was good but it seems to always take forever for food to come out if the kitchen.
The ambiance is nice and the owners do a good job of trying to make sure everyone is satisfied. The beer choices are good and they do growler fills which is awesome. The clientele when we were there last night was primarily middle aged couples… not what we expected. We will probably not come back here with all the amazing choices out there, but if you haven’t been it’s worth a try. At the very least you will get to try a good beer!

Great new family-​friendly restaurant/​bar in Riverwest! Our waiter and the bartender went out of their way to welcome us and entertain our 10 month old son. New changing station in the ladies room. The food (bbq ribs, smoked chicken salad sandwich) had hints of Middle Eastern flavors and spices, which made everything unique! Loved the sangria and the chance to sample any beer on tap. We’ll be back!

Best coleslaw in the city. I dare you to find better.
Seriously. Now, it’s been a minute since I’ve been, but for my Washingtons there’s no better coleslaw in MKE. Red cabbage with this sort of middle Eastern thing going on spice-​wise. Also: lots and lots of craft beers on tap (and some in bottles), get your growler on, sometimes live music.
Boom.

I have been to the Riverwest Filling Station several times now and I really enjoy the food, ambiance, cocktails and live music on the weekends. I like many things on the menu but I must say that I am very addicted to the Po’ Boy Sandwich. It is sooo yummy! During brunch, I really like the Frittata. You can select from a lot of different options and it is very filling. I bring friends often and they also have always had a great evening. Definitely recommended.

I also really wanted to like this place because it’s in my neighborhood, but it’s only okay. The first time I came, my friends and I shared the trio of hummus, babaganouj, and tahina. It was good, but they gave us three large bowls of the spreads and not enough pita. We had to pay extra to have more pita, which I think is lame. They didn’t have the vegetarian sloppy joe so I got a veggie and tempeh dish with tahina (I thought it was tahini, am I going crazy?!) and it was decent.
The next time I visited, I tried the vegetarian sloppy and it was really bland. I was so disappointed. The sweet potato fries were good, though. The service was okay and I like the look of the place. Overall, I couldn’t help but keep thinking «I’ve experienced better.»

The visit started off on a bad service note, The serer dropped off our menus with out any explanation of the fa ct the the entrees on the menu are not available during brunch. He also did not take any sort of drink offer or even bring water., and when asked, the server directed me to the bartender to get the wifi password.
Once we were finally able to order drinks, my friend’s Bloody Mary was basically just tomato juice and maybe a little vodka. He brought it back to the bar as the server was nowhere in sight. The bartender graciously made another, a bit more spicy, but he says that it wasn’t much better. Every brunch should have a good Bloody Mary. This one apparently doesn’t, or at least it didn’t that day.
I got the Breakfast Burger, a bacon cheeseburger with a fried egg on top. As I was asked how I wanted it, I told him medium. It came well done, but that wasn’t the problem. The egg was done over hard, the yolk was solidly cooked through looking like the inside of a hardboiled egg. The server insisted that I had asked for it to be over easy. I had done no such thing, I said so, and the people at my table agreed. Even if I had, I would not have expected it to be overcooked so much. The place was almost empty so there’s really no excuse. None.
Then someone from the kitchen came out, presumably the chef, and insisted on a reason why I sent back the burger while explaining to the server that I didn’t want it replaced. He was quite aggressive with me, and I deemed him pretty rude. After the way he had been standing over me and leaning in a little, one of the people at my table commented that he was afraid the person the came from the kitchen may strike me, or at least attempt to.
This was my first visit to Riverwest Filling Station. I had been looking forward to checking it out as it is a new restaurant/​bar in the neighborhood, and after meeting the proprietors at Center Street Daze this summer, I was left with a very positive outlook for it. Unfortunately, this experience did not live anywhere near up to my hopes and expectations for it.
I sincerely hope that they get their act together as far as service and food go. This could be a really cool place. I am giving this place 2 stars as opposed to the one star that they likely deserve simply because I know there is a lot of potential for this place and I hope they will start to live up to it.