Recent years have found African American soul food restaurants opening on the South Side and the suburbs. Menomonee Falls now has Arlanderz Soul Food (W186N9539 Bancroft Dr, Menomonee Falls).
The strip mall eatery has a familial, homey resonance. An order of smothered chicken consists of two-to-three sizable pieces marinated in a light gravy and tender enough to easily pick from the bones with a fork.
Sweet potatoes arrive mashed, and baked beans are prepared with hamburger instead of pork fat (greens, however, may be made with either pork or turkey) and a mildly spicy house-made sauce (purchasable by the bottle).
Arlanderz also offers wings in hot, root beer-based sauces and waffles topped with chicken. Corn bread comes in a wide muffin form; its texture and slight sweetness mix well with the gravy and sides.
The peach cobbler dessert isn’t made in the common crumbly fashion but with thickened fruit mixed with small slabs of crust, akin to a cut-up German kuchen pastry; unorthodox, but it hit the spot.
