Kitchen Bar: top notch food, bartenders

Taking over for the now defunct Dooley's Pub, the Kitchen Bar in Schaumburg has been a fixture of the Schaumburg-area bar scene for a few years now. Located next to the Holiday Inn off of Roselle Road just south of 90, this martini bar/lounge is a favorite of the after-work crowd and after-hours night owls.

A lot of people have a love-it-or-hate-it attitude about Kitchen Bar, with myself falling somewhere in the middle depending on my most recent experience. The complaints usually center on parking and service, which depending on the night, can be either top-notch or downright terrible. The top notch service usually happens at the bar, where the bartenders are friendly and very helpful ...whereas in the seating areas, it's sometimes hard to know whether you have a waitress or not.

Some big pluses are the food and the kitchen which is usually very good and usually open pretty late. Kitchen Bar offers live music as well as DJs on the weekends; just be sure to not sit too close to the stage or you might just go deaf. They also have outstanding martinis; some favorites include the Ruby (a grapefruit martini) and the Down & Dirty (dirty martini with blue cheese-stuffed olives). Thursday is $5 martini night, so there's usually a nice crowd then, as well.

Overall it's a nice place, offering a niche in Schaumburg as a great place to sip martinis with a very special someone. While I still prefer the Fox and Hound just down the street, this place is nice to go to once in a while for a change of pace, though the staff at Fox is far superior.

Kitchen Bar

1540 N. Roselle Road, Schaumburg

(847) 839-3044