Dining options expand with openings, new brunch in Westown
Downtown — Westown, specifically — has more options for lunch, brunch and dinner this summer.
Shah Jee’s, the popular Pakistani fast-casual restaurant, last week opened its third location, at 228 W. Wells St. It’s open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.
Diners can choose at the counter from combinations such as chana masala (chickpeas), saag paneer (spinach and cheese) and basmati rice with dal (lentils), or chicken masala with chana masala and rice with dal. Most combos are $9 or $10 and include a beverage. The original restaurant is at 770 N. Jefferson St. Last year, owner Azhar Shah opened a restaurant on the east side, at 3116 N. Downer Ave. A location he opened last year on the southwest side, at 3933 S. 76th St., closed at the end of July.
Lunch is packaged to go, but the Wells Street restaurant has plenty of seating, for about 50.
To call in orders for pickup: (414) 800-5575. Delivery is available via third-party companies.
Meanwhile, Crab It Your Way, the newest of the city’s spicy seafood-in-a-bag restaurants, is open for lunch and dinner at 823 N. Second St.
A similar restaurant — King Crab Shack, a Vietnamese-Cajun restaurant — has two locations, on Brady Street and South 27th Street.
Diners choose whether they’d like a pound of lobster tail, snow crab, king crab (all at market price), shrimp ($16) or crayfish ($13), and then customize it. They pick a sauce (such as Jamaican jerk, Buffalo or the house sauce of butter and seasonings) or seasonings such as Mojito lime, plus a spiciness level and addins ($1 to $4.99) such as andouille sausage, broceggs coli, corn, red potatoes or sweet potatoes.
The whole thing is brought to the table in a plastic bag, and diners set to work, armed with plastic bibs and gloves.
The restaurant also has appetizers, such as crab cakes ($13.95) and fried green tomatoes ($3.99); po’ boys, such as fried catfish ($9.95) and oyster ($8.95); and salads, such as one with lobster tail and avocado ($16).
Crab It Your Way has a children’s menu and a full bar.
The restaurant is open from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
To contact Crab It Your Way: (414) 763-9953.
The new weekend brunch is at the Mecca, the sports bar with the two-story, 38-foot TV screen (and many, many other screens) in Fiserv Forum’s Deer District.
Brunch hours are from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Besides items from its regular lunch/dinner menu, like chicken wings, nachos, burgers and salads, the Mecca will have breakfast items:
S’mores pancakes ($11), fried chicken strips with a biscuit, sausage gravy and fried egg ($10), a breakfast sandwich of fried egg, candied bacon, whipped avocado and caramelized onion ($12), egg and potato breakfast tacos ($13), steak and ($21) and veggie hash made with Beyond plant-based meat ($16).
Meanwhile, the bar has added a couple of Bloody Marys, both $8: the Buffalo Bloody, made with jalapeno-infused vodka and trimmed with a Buffalo wing, bluecheese-stuffed olive, celery, pepper jack cheese; and the Mecca Bloody, made with bacon-infused vodka and trimmed with a beef stick, pickled egg, cheddar cheese, pickle spear and pickled green bean.
The Mecca is at 1134 N. Phillips Ave. To contact: (414) 908-0401.
Contact Carol at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.