The best Fried Cheese by whillsjournal on Eaten
Fried Cheese
57 reviews
AMAZING
1st CHEESE CURDS
Eagle Park Brewing Company, Milwaukee
This is the absolute MASTERY of cheese curd! Perfectly gooey insides with a golden, peppery, and flavorful crisp on the outside! Served with a variety of sauce options! Absolutely the best cheese curds in MKE!!!
2nd CHEESE CURDS
Revere's Wells Street Tavern, Delafield
Wow! A delightfully salty cheese curd with a lovely pop of salty oil, and a curd that has equal melt and rubbery squeak to it. The breading is underseasoned and requires a bit more salt when standalone, but the chipotle ranch makes up the difference to bring these into the top tier of curdfare. The hand-tossed breading is jagged and crisp and offers a great bite and texture contrast. Nearly perfect!!
3rd CHEESE CURDS
Camino, Milwaukee
Incredible curds with a parmesan garlic seasoning! Really great cheese flavor and juicy, salty, oily flavor bursts inside! The stringy texture of the cheese however makes them ~slightly~ bothersome to eat, but oh so worth it!
4th PANCAKE BATTERED CHEESE CURDS
Black Sheep MKE, Milwaukee
So unique and so incredibly good. The pancake batter is magically thin (not dense a la corn dog/pancake on a stick) and provides the iconic crisp to the cheese curd. The cheese is DELIGHTFUL, and the maple syrup really makes this curd sing beautifully. A special venue with a special cheese curd.
5th CHEESE CURDS
Buffalo Wild Wings, Oshkosh
Incredible cheddar cheese curds, with a squeaky chew and a salty, oil pop in every bite. A light, crispy batter salted perfectly… and paired with a delicious southwest ranch! These are very impressive cheese curds!
6th CHEESE CURDS
AJ Bombers, Milwaukee
These flavor bombs are absolutely incredible. The breading is seasoned expertly with a savory and herby flavor. The cheese is really flavorful, but the cheese is just a touch too rubbery in texture missing that touch of melty/creamy. The chipotle ranch is INCREDIBLE and worth dipping EVERYTHING into and adds so much great flavor here!
7th CHEESE CURDS
The Mecca Sports Bar and Grill, Milwaukee
What a refreshingly light and salty golden crisp!! A super savory cheddar cheese curd is stored inside with a lovely oily and salty pop! Not overly greasy on the outside, just incredibly clean tasting fried cheese!
8th CHEESE CURDS
Steny's Tavern & Grill, Milwaukee
This is perfect execution on the “simple curd”! A golden crispy breading around a delicious white cheddar, these sing from the burst of salty oil contained inside. Absolutely incredible curds!!
REALLY GOOD
9th CHEESE CURDS
The Brick Pub and Grill, Glendale
These curds were super simple and well executed. A nice crispy, salty breading with a greasy salty cheesy squeak iconic of a good Wisconsin cheese curd!
10th CHEESE CURDS
The Explorium Brewpub Third Ward, Milwaukee
These are lovely globs of fried cheese! A perfect blend of gooey versus rubbery, though the breading was missing a little something. Flavorful despite that shortcoming though!
11th CHEESE CURDS
Milwaukee Ale House Grafton, Grafton
Very flavorful and gooey cheese with a signature squeak to them. My biggest complaint is that an order is really half an order due to the fries in the basket. Wish they were stand-alone to have more of them. The dipping sauce is very good!
12th CHEESE CURDS
Foxtown Brewing, Mequon
These are REALLY good cheese curds!!! They have a golden crunch with a lovely flavored breading, and the cheese finds the perfect blend between gooey and squeaky!!!
13th CHEESE CURDS
5-8 Club, Minneapolis
Juicy with a perfect amount of crunch, the salty squeak really captures the Wisconsin fair vibe of a cheese curd very well!
14th CHEESE CURDS
Inventors Brewpub, Port Washington
Nice and thin, crispy breading with a salty inside! Very solid squeaky cheese curd with a great flavor!
15th CHEESE CURDS
Culver’s, Mequon
The most accessible fried curd in the Midwest (and the US), Culver's is remarkably consistent and flavorful regardless of location. Some cheddar and some white cheddar in every batch, and a well-seasoned, peppery breading. Always worth it!
16th FRIED CHEESE
B&C Barbeque, Wichita
Wow! A very neat take on a “cheese curd”, albeit these are more like mozzarella stick bites. Fried mozzarella cheese with a breading that is seasoned well and with a lovely kick!!!! Very good!
17th CHEESE CURDS
Café Hollander Mequon, Mequon
An atypical curd for being muenster instead of cheddar, but these are a pleasant and refreshing delight in curdfare. A nice crisp and thin seasoned breading with a gooey and salty cheese inside! (Notes: these were served on a skewer alongside a burger ordered, but are representative of the full cheese curd order available at the venue. Additionally, past experience at the venue has shown the kitchen staff on weekends tend to overfry the curds, and are definitely better on weekdays! This review assumes the properly cooked version!)
PRETTY GOOD
18th CHEESE CURDS
Paulie's Pub & Eatery, West Allis
A bit atypical with a mozzarella-esque flavor for a white cheddar curd, but these have a tasty seasoning in the breading and the salt of the gooey yet rubbery cheese really adds to the juicy pop these have. An oddity in curdfare, but one that definitely works, but not with the marinara.
19th CHEESE CURDS
The Stillery - Grafton, Grafton
These curds are very creamy and melty, but lacked a needed amount of salt and flavor elsewhere. Worth the nom because they’re good though!
20th CHEESE CURDS
Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee
Nice light and crispy breading (that could have a little extra seasoning in it), good cheese body, but are prone to being over cooked sometimes by the kitchen staff, which can make them hit or miss. Forget the ranch.
21st CHEESE CURDS
Oak Barrel Public House, Milwaukee
Really solid cheese curds, a nice choice of white cheddar that starts gooey and gets perfectly squeaky as they cool a bit. Batter is rather bland however, so a very good but average curd overall.
22nd CHEESE CURDS
Copper State Brewing Co, Green Bay
An interesting take on cheese curds with mixed results. The breading is atypical but offers a nice crunch, albeit unseasoned. The cheese has a good oily and salty pop, but is a bit mild in cheese flavor. The Bloody Mary aioli is a really tasty and interesting sauce that is somewhere between ketchup and garlic aioli.
23rd CHEESE CURDS
Jake Melnick's Corner Tap, Chicago
Solid cheese curds with a crispy breading and a southwest style ranch that really elevates these beyond boring. Without the ranch, these are a touch bland and mostly grease. Had a few smaller pieces that were just breading. Still good overall!
24th GARLIC CHEESE CURDS
Rustic Road Brewing Company, Kenosha
Lacking salt on the exterior, these rely heavily on the garlic flavor to be interesting. Juicy and an oily pop on the inside from the slightly-rubbery texture, these are solid curds overall, in large part due to their light and crispy breading not standing in the way of the cheese despite being underseasoned.
25th CHEESE NUGGETS
MJ's Bar and Grill, Saukville
A thick breading with a solid amount of seasoning encasing a solid white cheddar cheese curd. A nice balance of squeaky and greasy, but would definitely love a touch extra salt and pepper here.
26th CHEESE CURDS
J'Sports Bar & Grill, Saukville
A solid cheese curd with a very squeaky cheddar inside with a nice golden and crisp breading. Breading seasoned lightly with pepper and could have used a touch more salt, but these were good and poppable bites of fried cheese!
27th CHEESE CURDS
Good City Mequon Public Market, Mequon
A very nice salty white cheddar curd that is perfectly balanced by its squeakier texture. The breading is however rather bland, and holds this back from being a better package.
28th GARLIC CHEESE CURDS
Pete's Pub, Milwaukee
Golden and lightly crispy, these cheese curds carry a lot of garlic flavor, but not really much else. The fairly muted cheese has sort of taken a backseat here, and the lacking amount of salt makes this a bit of an average overall package.
29th GARLIC CHEESE CURDS
Cocktail Corner Bar & Grill, Oshkosh
Soggy and oily curds that still deliver a solid garlic-infused cheese flavor. A disappointing lack of any crunch and a fairly unseasoned breading leaves much to be desired. The cheese is fine, but nothing special here overall.
30th CHEESE CURDS
Moonlight Tavern & Supper Club, Port Washington
A light and golden breading here houses a solid cheese. A solid cheese curd that is supremely average on all remarks. Needs a touch more salt but is fried perfectly. Cheese is mid-tier with enough flavor to make me enjoy eating them, but not enough to want to seek them out again in the future. Light, crispy, and satisfying, yet standard.