What is the best restaurant in Fond du Lac, WI for a special dinner?

Sebastian’s Steak House on South Main Street is the steak house option, serving steak, seafood and handmade pasta, and one reviewer singles out the prime rib.

Which restaurant in Fond du Lac serves breakfast all day?

Rolling Meadows Restaurant says it serves breakfast all day, every day, and Faros Restaurant & Cocktails runs an all-day menu with breakfast on it.

Is there a restaurant in Fond du Lac open late?

Faros serves an all-day menu until late, and the Coliseum and Fat Joe's list late-night bar hours, though you should confirm times before you go.

Where can I get a Friday fish fry in Fond du Lac?

Travel Wisconsin lists a Friday fish fry at Fat Joe's Burgers & Brew, and Wendt's on the Lake in Van Dyne is known for its lake perch.

Where should groups eat in Fond du Lac?

Rolling Meadows has a private room that seats up to 30 for groups who call ahead.

Restaurants in Fond du Lac, WI for Steak, Diners & Burgers

Prime rib on Main Street, all-day diners and burgers near the lake, drawn from reviews and the restaurants' own pages.

Dinner in this town has two settings, and a good restaurant in Fond du Lac, WI usually commits to one of them: the diner booth that smells of coffee early in the morning, or the Main Street dining room where the prime rib arrives after dark. The city sits at the southern tip of Lake Winnebago, and its name is French for the bottom of the lake. Wisconsin supper clubs are known for Friday fish fry, old-fashioned cocktails and live entertainment.

This guide covers the sit-down options: steak, red-sauce Italian, all-day diners and burger bars. Pizza, breakfast, coffee and drinks each get a closer look in their own guides, and the whole city is mapped out in the things to do in Fond du Lac guide.

Steak and Italian for a proper dinner out

Sebastian's Steak House

Sebastian’s Steak House on South Main Street is the steak house choice, and it opens for dinner service.

The kitchen says it makes its breads, soups, sauces and dressings fresh every day, and the menu runs to steaks, fresh seafood and handmade pasta.

Inside, a bar and a few tables sit by the entrance, some tables face a fireplace, and booths fill the back half.

One reviewer who usually orders the prime rib speaks well of it and calls the portions large.

Be realistic about the pace. One reviewer mentions a wait of around 40 minutes for a table, and another found a steak cooked past the doneness requested, so book ahead on a weekend and tell the server how you want it done. The restaurant also sells gift certificates online, which suits a birthday present for a local.

Benvenuto’s Italian Bar & Grill

Benvenuto’s Italian Bar & Grill is the red-sauce answer on the south side of town.

The kitchen is known for housemade soups, meatballs and Italian-American classics, and the hotel's dining page lists bruschetta, a meatball sub, salmon and a Tuscan chicken Caesar.

It is the on-site restaurant of a Radisson-branded hotel and conference centre, so it works for a team dinner or a late arrival.

One reviewer could eat just a third of a meat lasagna because it was so big, and a group of parents waiting on a kids' event ended up staying at the bar all night.

If you are staying at Country Inn & Suites, about 0.6 miles away, this is the easiest sit-down dinner from your door. Reviews are mixed on consistency, and some diners call the food average, so treat it as a comfortable, convenient meal and not a destination.

Diners that treat the whole day as one meal

Not every good restaurant in Fond du Lac wants a reservation. Two diners on opposite sides of the city cover breakfast, lunch and dinner without much ceremony.

Rolling Meadows Restaurant

Rolling Meadows Restaurant is locally owned and serves breakfast all day, every day, with a drink included on its breakfast plates.

The menu stretches from skillets and sandwiches to traditional dinners, pasta, fish and a children's menu.

A private room seats up to 30 for groups who call ahead.

Reviewers mention the vintage booths, a house breakfast skillet and a Friday fish dinner, and one suggests it suits people who have time to sit and talk rather than a quick stop.

A couple of reviewers complain about prices and a slow morning with an empty coffee cup, so go on a day without a deadline. Benvenuto’s is just 0.1 miles away on the same road, which makes this the natural breakfast to pair with that dinner.

Faros Restaurant & Cocktails

Faros Restaurant & Cocktails on North Pioneer Road has been family-owned since 1996.

Travel Wisconsin lists breakfasts, lunches and dinners with comfort food classics and daily drink specials.

Its Greek-American menu runs all day until late, so confirm hours before a late trip.

Reviewers praise the breakfast buffet, the eggs Benedict, a meatloaf stack and a poblano corn chowder, while one found the room a little run down.

It sits about 1.7 miles from Rolling Meadows across town. For breakfast alone, the breakfast spots in Fond du Lac are worth a separate read, and The New Stretch Restaurant out by the airport adds corner windows for watching planes take off.

Burgers and game-day food downtown

Downtown Main Street and Division Street hold a short run of places where food shares the room with a TV, a pool table or a band. The drinks side of these places gets its own treatment in the bars guide.

Fat Joe's Burgers & Brew

Fat Joe’s Burgers & Brew on Division Street builds burgers on pretzel buns and has a rooftop bar and patio when the weather allows.

Travel Wisconsin lists a Friday fish fry, all-you-can-eat wings on Monday and all-you-can-eat tacos on Tuesday, plus games, pool and darts.

Reviewers like the French onion burger and the mac and cheese burger, and note a build-your-own option with a plant-based patty.

One group watching a Packers game wished the screens sat closer to the tables.

Coliseum Sports Bar and Grill

The Coliseum has been a neighborhood sports bar since 2005, with 15 LED TVs.

The menu leans on burgers, hot dogs, signature mac dishes and 19 wing flavors with housemade ranch.

Reviewers single out the fried pickles, a chicken mac wrap and a Nutella dessert pizza, and one mentions Tuesday beer and Taco Thursday specials, which are worth confirming before you go.

Some visitors found the table service slow, so the bar is the quicker seat.

The two sit about 0.2 miles apart, and Hotel Retlaw is a short walk from Fat Joe’s if you want to head home on foot.

Sully’s, about 0.6 miles south on Main Street, is an Irish-style bar and grill with half-pound burgers and a hot sauce called DOA that a reviewer calls very hot. Fond du Lac Beer Co. cooks burgers and sweet potato fries in a historic building and brews its own root beer.

Which one for which night

Choose by the evening you want, not the cuisine. Pick Sebastian’s for a birthday or an anniversary, where booths and a fireplace are the point. Pick Benvenuto’s when you are tired, near the south-side hotels and want a big plate of pasta without driving anywhere. Pick Rolling Meadows or Faros for a long breakfast. Pick Fat Joe’s or the Coliseum for a group that cannot agree, since burgers, wings and a game on screen suit a mixed table.

Walleye Weekend, held in Lakeside Park in June, and Fondue Fest each September can bring a busier town, so check dates before you plan. If you want the lake in front of you with dinner, Wendt’s on the Lake in Van Dyne has been run by the Wendt family for over six decades and is known for lake perch.

Practical notes before you go

Sebastian’s, Rolling Meadows, Benvenuto’s and Faros all list a free parking lot. The city's website links downtown parking lots and permits for anyone planning a longer stay on Main Street. Reservations are worth a call for Sebastian’s on a weekend night, given the wait one reviewer describes. Hours and weekly specials change, and the venues' own sites carry the current times, so confirm before a special trip.

For craft beer and cocktails rather than a full meal, where to drink in Fond du Lac is the better read.

Take-and-bake pies and slice nights fall under pizza in Fond du Lac.

A coffee before the diner rush is easy to find among the coffee shops in Fond du Lac.

Anyone building a weekend around dinner can start with hotels in Fond du Lac.

Come back to that opening split, and the city makes sense: a booth and a bottomless cup for the morning, then a Main Street dining room with a fire going once the light is gone.