Three Brothers

Reviews

• Mike W.

  star star star star star 10 June 2026

  Our first time at this restaurant and we were not sure what to expect.
  Outstanding tasting food, reasonable priced for the amount of food we received, very good service and a family atmosphere.
  We will be back.

• Alice W.

  star star star star star_border 6 June 2026

  What a lovely place! The atmosphere makes you feel very much at home and is very authentically hip/cute in a non-kitschy way. This is a perfect place for a date night or gathering with a small group of family/friends. The atmosphere here is truly special and worth visiting. The food is good, but not out of this world.
  
  On a Friday night, the place was full by 5:30pm with diners who had all reserved tables. We called ahead and ordered a meat burek to have as an appetizer. It was ready immediately, piping hot, after we ordered our drinks. Definitely highly suggest this for sharing! The burek is very big and just meat/filo, so it'd be quite heavy to have as an entree itself. I think this is worthwhile to try. But, to be honest, I'm not sure I'll order it again given its price.  And, the bottom of ours was a bit burnt. The goulash, sarma, and grape leaf entree were all excellent. All of us loved the two potato dumplings that came with the entrees. Very nice texture with a chew! With dinner, you get a basket of rye bread and butter (I believed this is cultured and whipped butter?) that were great.
  Main thing I didn't love: everything was very heavy on salt (as other reviewers have also mentioned).
  
  As a non-alcoholic beverage, I ordered a blackberry seltzer, which I loved! It was probably just syrup and club soda, but for some reason it was just the perfect little drink with a little fruity flavor and light sweetness.

• Alexis B.

  star star star star star_border 24 May 2026

  When I saw Three Brothers on Yelp, I knew we had to go when we visited Milwaukee over Labor Day weekend. And I loved it.
  
  It's one of the most charming restaurants I've been to lately. In an age when hipster white subway tiled restaurants are taking over, Three Brothers had a thousand times as much as charm with about 1/100 of the effort. It's a small restaurant. Dimly light (our table was lit by an old Schlitz lamp). Tables were happily talking but the restaurant wasn't loud. The restaurant has Old World furniture, a mirror-backed bar, and understated yet sophisticated decor. Basically, it was one of the homiest restaurants I've been to in ages.
  
  Then the food. The Serbian salad was simple and tasty. The goulash was fantastic: tender meat, salty caramelized onions, and light/fluffy dumplings. We also shared the crepes for dessert (with chocolate hazelnut filling), which were lovely as well. We shared a half carafe of wine, and I also enjoyed a shot of slivovitz.
  
  We started with the spinach and cheese burek (we called ahead to let them know we wanted one; otherwise it's an hour wait for one to cook). The burek was the only thing we ate that night that I didn't love. The burek has layers of filo dough inside. I don't care if you cook that burek for 2 hours - those interior layers of filo dough will never cook or get crisp! The cheese in the burek didn't have a lot of flavor, and there wasn't very much spinach. So, ultimately (to me), the burek mostly tasted of uncooked filo dough. But I loved every other bite we had at Three Brothers.
  
  The service was wonderful as well. They don't take reservations online, but you can call and make a reservation. We made our reservation about two weeks out (for Saturday night of Labor Day weekend). We also let them know we wanted a burek when we made the reservation. I'm glad we made a reservation! When we walked in (a couple of minutes early), our table wasn't quite ready, but they had it ready within a couple of minutes! But there weren't empty tables! Three Brothers is popular. And it was full. I'm not sure if we could have gotten in that night without the reservation! It's tiny and there aren't that many tables!
  
  This was a lovely meal. The food was great. The atmosphere was lovely. The service was great. It also wasn't a very expensive meal! If I lived in Milwaukee, I'd be here all the time. It was my first time eating at a Serbian restaurant, and based on my experience at Three Brothers, I'd love to eat at a Serbian restaurant again soon.

• Alison P.

  star star star star star 17 May 2026

  Really feel like I can't rave enough and also kicking myself that we waited so long to try Three Brothers. My husband and I had a 7:00 reservation on a Saturday; we were reminded when making the reservation that it's cash/check only. We had recommendations from a friend and everything we had was spectacular. The Serbian salad really took the cake for me and I'm definitely going to try to recreate it. The spinach and cheese burek was also phenomenal!! We each had a piece of it to bring home. Bring friends and share things; this place is not to be missed!!

• Jerry M.

  star star star star star_border 16 May 2026

  The Three Brothers is a most interesting dining establishment. The building itself is a throwback to the competitive nature of the beer industry in the 19th Century. Breweries found it profitable to have "tied houses" that is, taverns that either belonged to the brewery itself or tied the owners, by contract, to pour only that brewery's product. This tied house was built in 1897 and owned by the Schlitz Brewery. The building has several reminders of its ties to Schlitz, including the belted globe that tops the bartizan above the entry.
  
  After prohibition, breweries were forbidden to own taverns. The Three Brothers Tavern opened here in 1958. Today, it is the Three Brothers Restaurant specializing in Serbian cuisine.
  
  The dining room is little changed from its days as a tied house, a Schlitz chandelier hangs above the bar and a lighted Schlitz statue adorns an upper corner. It was also preserved as an HO scale model in the 1970s. The structure has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977, because it is a virtually unchanged example of a tied house.
  
  The dining room is small, reservations are highly recommended and well worth it. Several entrees require about an hour to prepare, so you might want to call and order those items in advance.
  
  We arrived on a Saturday late afternoon without a reservation. The place was virtually empty and we were told there was only seating at the bar. I was surprised but happy to be seated at all. (When we departed, the dining room was jammed with Saturday evening regulars!)
  
  We started with a half carafe of house wine. I ordered a Serbian bier, a lager brewed from grits. It was heavy for a lager with a slight sweetness to it. No, it didn't taste like corn at all, no more than Bud tastes like rice. I enjoyed it throughout the meal.
  
  For our entrees, we ordered stuffed zucchini and grape leaves. I haven't had stuffed grape leaves since Kosta's closed years ago. Both were outstanding dishes, exploding with flavors with each bite. My only complaint would be a the dishes were a little heavy on the salt. Don't tell my cardiologist.
  
  We finished the evening with a chocolate truffle, a flourless chocolate cake that was rich and delicious. Other unsampled items on the dessert menu included baklava and strudel, so no doubt I am going to have to return, if for no other reason than to have another dessert!
  
  One of the entrees that takes over an hour for preparation is the burek. A young couple seated next to us had called in advance to order Beef Burek. They devoured it in no time at all and raved about it. There are variations for the burek, including a cheese and spinach filling.
  
  Three Brothers is a unique dining experience from the building to the menu to the staff that operates like a well oiled machine. Do not miss this unique restaurant!