Best Chicken Parm in Milwaukee, WI

Chicken parm in Milwaukee, WI: our top picks

Milwaukee’s first Little Italy was the Third Ward. From the 1890s, Sicilian families filled the blocks between the Milwaukee River and the lake, and its parish societies threw summer street festivals. In the 1960s urban renewal and freeway building took the homes and the Blessed Virgin of Pompeii church, and the community scattered, much of it north to Brady Street on the East Side. Brady still keeps some of that lineage: Peter Sciortino’s bakery has been at Brady and Humboldt since 1948, and Glorioso’s Italian Market, opened by three Glorioso brothers in 1946, now sits across the street from its first address and passed to new owners in 2024. The festivals came back, in a way, in 1978, when three Italian American groups put on the first Festa Italiana at the Summerfest grounds, where it still runs every summer.

The red-sauce rooms are spread out now. Filippo’s Italian Restaurant opened in 1972 at 76th and Becher and moved in 1984 to Lincoln Avenue at 69th Street, an address the Journal Sentinel files under West Allis even though the mail says Milwaukee. It’s a family place in the old style, and chicken, veal and eggplant parm all have a spot on the menu.

In Bay View, Santino’s Little Italy opened in 2017 in a former corner bar on East Stewart Street, on the neighborhood’s northern edge. The owners wear suits and greet tables, old Italian films play on the TVs, and there’s a bocce court outside; expect wood-fired pizza and house-made pasta alongside the parm.

Downtown, Stella Van Buren opened the same year on the third floor of the Westin on North Van Buren Street. It’s an Italian-American steakhouse from hotel operator White Lodging, with input from Chicago’s Lettuce Entertain You, and chicken parmesan was on the menu in its first summer, next to the steaks and fresh pasta.

1. Filippo's Italian Restaurant (Milwaukee) — Parm Score 83. Chicken parm comes up in 1 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. It is on the menu, too. 4.5 on Google across 1,572 reviews.
2. SALA - Modern Sicilian Dining (Milwaukee) — Parm Score 71. Chicken parm comes up in 1 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. 4.5 on Google across 531 reviews.
3. Safina (Milwaukee) — Parm Score 70. Chicken parm is on the restaurant’s own menu (checked November 2026). 4.8 on Google across 358 reviews.

We ranked 10 restaurants within 10 miles of Milwaukee, WI. 5 of them have the parm confirmed, by reviewers or on their own menu, and Parm Scores run from 51 to 83. Confirmed places rank first; the rest are well-reviewed Italian spots where the parm is not yet confirmed, and pizzerias and steakhouses need a mention to appear at all. How Parm Score works.

More rankings: Veal parm in Milwaukee, WI · Eggplant parm in Milwaukee, WI