Wild Rice Restaurant – Madeline Island

Wild Rice Restaurant

– Madeline Island

Wild Rice Restaurant

Bayfield, WI

Sit back, Relax and and enjoy the truly tantalizing tongue mouth experiences. This is where the Island life meets the city style. Wild Rice Restaurant from the outside to the inside cries sophistication and elegance. The first thing you see when walking in the door is a two story wine rack with over 2700 bottles of wine. The dining room had a  vaulted ceiling with spaced out tables seating less then 100 people. This spacing gives some privacy between tables. From the dining room you can see into the kitchen.
They are open year around and their busy season starts the end of June. The special treat was the head chef Jim Webster, a four time James Beard semifinalist for the best chef in the Midwest. You can see him in this image giving directions to his staff for the nightly service.

Each month has a new tasting menu that is featured every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. The three course tasting menu for $35 and a half price bottle of wine is a special treat. There are many different wines to pick from and even the 1/2 price bottles of wine had many to choose from. Wild Rice is known for their wild rice soup made with rice, carrots, chicken and smoked ham. This was the best dish on the tasting menu or any other tasting menu thus far. The soup is a carrot soup with chicken but the added texture of the rice and smoked ham adds just another layer of flavor. Each dish was beautifully placed with an artful eye to delight your mind. Another well known dish is the Wild Rice Cake with pecan and caramel sauce served with cinnamon ice cream.
You can find art thought out the restaurant. On the walkway roof, next to the walkway, on the back of the bar, on the menu, on the dishes, on the grounds and in the lady’s bathroom. And yes the lady’s bathroom was the best treat of all. Walking into the bathroom, it caught me off guard when I saw a old lady holding a plate with towels on it. The three mannequin status are just too funny and are a must see. When talking with Randy Anderson the maître d’, he told us that these two women have been known to show up thought out the restaurant. Once they were trying to take a ride home with him, not something you would want to see late at night in your rear view mirror.
Wild Rice is just minutes from downtown Bayfield or two hours from Duluth or four hours from Minneapolis. Bayfield is connected by a 20 minute ferry ride to Madeline Island.
For more on this restaurant you can visit Wild Rice Restaurant or see more images or see Wild Rice Tasting Menu