Restaurants in Brookfield (and the Elm Grove Row Next Door)

The restaurants in Brookfield start with the dining rooms at the two malls on Bluemound Road, and several of the meals worth planning around sit a little apart from them: a Bartolotta steakhouse on Capitol Drive, a bar and grill on Lisbon Road, and a row of restaurants on Watertown Plank Road in Elm Grove. Here is where each one is, what it serves, and how far it sits from Brookfield Square, so you can match dinner to the rest of your day.

A note on scope: the Elm Grove spots are in a separate village about 1.7 miles northeast of Brookfield Square, close enough to fold into a Brookfield evening.

Steak on Capitol Drive

For a steak dinner away from the mall, Mr. B's is a Bartolotta restaurant about 4.4 miles north of Brookfield Square.

It is one of two Mr. B's that the Bartolotta group runs in the suburbs, and both sit in the wider comparison of Milwaukee steakhouses.

A bar and grill with a Friday fish fry

Schmidty's Bar and Grill, about 5 miles north of Brookfield Square on Lisbon Road, is a bar and grill with a Friday fish fry, according to its listing.

Around Brookfield Square

Brookfield Square, off I-94 at Moorland Road, puts a long list of sit-down restaurants in one place. CBL Properties, which owns the mall, lists Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Lou Malnati's Pizzeria, Uncle Julio's Mexican Scratch Kitchen, Bravo, Bar Louie, Wasabi Lounge, Red Robin and Outback Steakhouse, plus a food court.

When we checked OpenTable in October 2026, Cooper's Hawk had been booked more times that day than any other restaurant on its first page of Brookfield results.

Just over the line in Elm Grove, Culver's on Bluemound Road is under half a mile from Brookfield Square and serves frozen custard and burgers made with Midwest beef and dairy.

If the meal is part of a day at the malls, the two malls and the Bluemound plazas are within about 3 miles of each other, close enough to fit before dinner.

Eating at The Corners

The Corners of Brookfield, the open-air district about 2.7 miles west of Brookfield Square, has its own small restaurant row. Islands named Sweetgreen for salads and bowls, FreshFin for poke and Margaux Brasserie, an upscale French restaurant, in its 2026 visit, and said food can be taken to the outdoor seating.

Elm Grove's Watertown Plank Road

Elm Grove's main street, Watertown Plank Road, has a run of restaurants within a few blocks, about 1.7 to 1.9 miles northeast of Brookfield Square.

Zisters, in the Elm Grove Park & Shop building, serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, with flights of eggs Benedict, omelets, tacos and mocha cappuccinos. On the same road, Za makes artisan pizzas, pasta and meatballs for dine-in or takeout.

Silver Spur Texas Smokehouse BBQ serves smoked barbecue, potato salad and nachos in a room with a stone fireplace, and O'Donoghue's Irish Pub, also on Watertown Plank Road, has draft beer, pub food and broasted chicken in an old stone house with a patio.

Tavo's At The Grove on Elm Grove Road is the Mexican option, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free choices and online reservations. About 1.9 miles east of Brookfield Square on Bluemound Road, Dumpling House serves dumplings, stir-fried noodles and sushi rolls, with lunch and takeout.

For a drink, Wine Down pours flights, 2-ounce tasters and glasses from a list of more than 40 bottles, and Elm Grove Beer Garden pours Third Space beer in season, Wednesday through Sunday, according to its listing, with food trucks on rotation.

By craving: pizza, Mexican, sushi and a drink

For pizza, there is Lou Malnati's at Brookfield Square and Za in Elm Grove. Za makes artisan pies for dine-in or takeout.

For Mexican, Uncle Julio's Mexican Scratch Kitchen is at Brookfield Square, and Tavo's in Elm Grove covers the vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free side of the menu. For sushi, Wasabi Lounge is on the mall's list, and Dumpling House rolls sushi alongside its dumplings and noodles.

Bars follow the same pattern. Bar Louie is the mall bar, Schmidty's has the leagues, trivia and live music up north, and the Elm Grove strip puts an Irish pub and a wine bar a few doors apart, with a beer garden nearby.

Breakfast, coffee and something sweet

For a slow breakfast, the Elm Grove row has both the sit-down brunch and the coffee. Zisters is the sit-down brunch, with eggs Benedict flights. Nona does coffee, smoothies, acai bowls and butter coffee, and Great Harvest Bread Co. bakes whole-grain breads and muffins from Montana wheat.

For dessert, The Chocolate Factory scoops ice cream cones, sundaes and malts and also makes subs and croissant sandwiches.

What diners rate on OpenTable

OpenTable's Brookfield page is a fair check on the mall-side dining rooms, and the ratings it showed in October 2026 put Fleming's Steakhouse at 4.7 stars from 1,399 reviews and Cooper's Hawk at 4.4 from 7,921. North Star American Bistro in Brookfield also rated 4.7, from 2,069 reviews. Bravo Italian Kitchen sat at 4.3, Wasabi Sushi & Lounge at 4.5 and Bonefish Grill at 4.6, so the chain names on that list are rated well by the people who book them.

Ratings move, so treat them as a snapshot and read the recent reviews before you book.

Picnic supplies for Fox Brook

If the plan is a picnic at Fox Brook Park rather than a restaurant, two grocery stores make it easy. The Bluemound Road Trader Joe's at 12665 West Bluemound Road is about 2 miles east of Brookfield Square, and the Capitol Drive Metro Market keeps hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, with a deli and bakery you can order from online and a seafood counter, according to its listing. Fox Brook has picnic areas and seasonal concessions, and the county asks every vehicle for a daily permit or an annual membership.

Where to stay near dinner

If you are eating around Brookfield Square, the hotels on South Moorland Road are under a mile from the mall, so dinner and bed are a short ride apart. Compare the hotels on Moorland Road by pool, breakfast and distance, and see what else fills a day out in Brookfield.