The Motel Bar

Good place for a drink after work. The Motel Bar isn’t anything too special, but it works. Good beer selection.

I like this place and I think Im gonna spend a bunch of time here. Its close to me. But also, it has a cool vibe that is different from other places in the hood. It has a little edge and thats a good thing, especially around these parts.
I stopped in for a beer and stayed for a couple more. I enjoyed that the bartenders who each had not only edge but speed and efficiency as they slung drinks and witty banter around.
I didn’t see anyone eating but the food options look awesome in other reviews. I think I will be back and try it.
This is a great spot for after work drinking. Also, looks like a solid option for a date. There are couches on each wall with date-​looking folks enjoying each other. I think I might have to give that a whirl!

The Dan Soto burger is HUGE, make sure to share (or be very very hungry). So the menu says that no pickle will be served with this sandwich. I guess you better be OK with that!
It’s a half a pound of ground angus beef cooked in GARLIC BUTTER (YUM) with a fried egg, 2 slices of cheddar cheese, bacon, avocado, truffle may (double yum), grilled onions and a tomato on a whole grain bun. My girlfriend and I shared this and it was seriously the perfect amount of food for us. We were stuffed! I would recommend trying this burger, for all your burger fanatics out there.

Simple no frills bar with really nice outdoor seating. The crowd that comes here is mostly office workers from the huge 600 W building but the service is normally great and the food isn’t bad.
They have daily specials that you should ask about which aren’t always on their menu, such as their amazing Burrito they have on Thursdays. Check it out, this is a nice little bar.

Great place for lunch. Very reasonably priced with a great menu selection. They have outdoor seating so when the weather is great I recommend dining outside.

Cool place to stop in for lunch and a drink. Nothing special but they have some good vegetarian picks.

Just moved across the street and the bartender let sit there for 20 minutes not taking my order while a douche bag did a magic trick. Did I mention there were five people in the bar. Will never be in this place again

This is one of those dive bars that was close to work with easy access, cheapish drinks, and fun people to watch, who were either just getting off work looking for a pit stop before on to dinner, date, or a group outting or just a night cap. They have outside seating and good prices for specials (we would get a beer and a shot sometimes) and a pretty good beer draft list. Food was typical pub type nibbles that were pretty average and reasonably priced. Seats easy to find at the bar around 6pm but harder to find as the evening wears on. I think altogether this place is ok, and the service makes up for it. Good for after work drinks.

I agree with other reviews, this place is ONLY in business because there is no competition.
A friend and I decided to take a stroll to the nearest bar and The Motel Bar was it. With a name like this, I guess I should have expected a stale smell and an inattentive employee?
The service was just plain bad. We wanted a mix drink or a good martini. She wasn’t offering any suggestions or asking what we had a taste for. I had asked about a drink called the Pink Lady. Again, the bartender didn’t say much but that blue sapphire was gin (since I’m not a gin drinker I wasn’t aware what the brand was). I said it sounds like it would taste like a strawberry milkshake, the bartender said it would taste ‘good.“
To my disappointment, the drink tasted like straight gin. Now many that’s what it is supposed to taste like but I was expecting something different. My friend told the bartender that it didn’t taste as expected and she just looked at us in strange manner. Didn’t ask if I wanted another drink, didn’t suggest anything to make it taste better. So I had to ask if she could maybe put more grenadine in it. I didn’t know what else to do. Still got charged the full $ 10 for a nasty drink. Not only was my drink distasteful but the bartender didn’t even seem to care. She sat back playing on her laptop the entire time. Needless to say, next time I will walk right past this place and go to Japonais by Morimoto.

First Unilocal review, but this one is long over due and needs to be called out as one of the worst services and biggest rip offs you can find. The only reason they are still in business is because they have no competition around them and service a large office building, but after today they have officially lost my business for good (it’s been a long time coming). For a $ 12 salad you would actually expect lettuce in it, correct? Well watch out, they’ll charge you an additional $ 2 for «extra» lettuce which should have been there in the first place. Worst customer service and restaurant (if you want to call it that) ever. Oh and if you pay in cash they round their prices up, so beware of that little angle they like to play as well.
Oh and I just found out that one of my coworkers got food poisoning there on March 16^th — this place keeps getting better and better!

Love the ambience of this bar!!! Riesling was kind of dry and not what I expected, I was told that the old-​fashioned could’ve been better from my best friend but other than that everything was good. Morgan (the server) was surprisingly good considering she was the ONLY one on shift during what I would say was happy hour if they have that thing in chi town.

I’ve been here for drinks a few times, but only twice for real food, and neither time was particularly enjoyable. The service here is very good, and I definitely would come back for a drink and some fries.
1. Chicago’s Best Burger (Wednesday special, $ 8). Not terrible, but the meat to bun ratio is definitely tipped too far on the bun side, I only got one piece of lettuce and the meat was dry. The fries were good, though, and the food was plentiful.
2. The BBQ Chicago pizza — so much bbq sauce. I had half of it at lunch and saved the other half for dinner, and the bbq sauce was absolutely overwhelming both times. Definitely a pass for me.

The food is so-​so, the music is pretty good, the drink selection is average and even though it is not very expensive, it is more costly than a restaurant/​bar of this caliber should be.
Last summer I was having a drink with my friend who is 9 years sober (so he was just having a diet coke) and the chubby, White Sox shirt wearing hostess basically asked us to leave because there were a bunch of binge-​drinking douche bags from Groupon who wanted are seats outside.
Accordingly, if you fall into the camp of «I think I’m more important then I am», you’ll probably like this place.

You ever notice when a place is operated by an owner or boss that’s a horrible person, it just poisons its way down into ever facet of the restaurant. Case and point: Motel Bar.
The owner is just. a total prick. I’ve heard numerous stories of his rudeness to customers, the owners and operators of the food trucks parked in front of the building, the staff of the restaurant, the building security, the building property managers. and that same attitude, rudeness and disregard slides down into his staff. Maybe it’s a snowball affect, but when the customers are at the bottom of the hill, no one’s going to win. I would never go there myself, and make it a point to tell others to place the place up. There’s other, better bars on Chicago Ave a little further from the office.
And FYI dude, a truck selling breakfast sandwiches and coffee at 11am is NOT affecting your crappy bar’s business. You throwing a giant shit-​fit about their presence right in front of your establishment does, though. Get a life.

The food is not good. The service is even worse. And as if that didn’t put a nail in their coffin, these jerks have the nerve to call the police on the food trucks that are legally parked in the legal food truck stand in the area simply because they can’t stand the competition.
Here is my advice to you, Motel Bar. Make better food. Have better service. If you can’t compete with a $ 3 cupcake or a reheated tamale sold from a truck, you should be embarrassed. You have air conditioning, bathrooms, liquor, and waitresses… and you’re afraid of food trucks? Food trucks are small businesses that are having a hard enough time surviving in this city without your complaints.
You suck. The customers are choosing the trucks over you because: you suck. The customers do not belong to you, and they should be able to choose to eat where they want to. It’s called capitalism. And that is why you will fail. If I could give you zero stars, I would.

I’m going to jump right into the pros and cons.
Pros!
French Martini Awesome!
Plentiful out door seating
Nearby parking on the street
French fries are Delish!!!
Cons!
Service was awful !! Our waitress was Inpatient and somewhat annoyed with our questions about the menu. It was obvious that she was having a bad day. I would still recommend despite the service.

I love to fry my pasty Irish skin on Motel Bar’s patio on my lunch breaks. It’s a great patio.
The food is pretty good.
The drinks are pretty good and average in price.
Interior décor is pretty cute and servers are always friendly.
Overall, it’s pretty good… Service is just slow.
Did I mention that it’s a great place to meet up with friends after the clock hits that special time where you run out of your office like a bat outta hell?!

I’ve always wondered about the name of this place — «The Motel Bar». Is this place a bar that is connected to a motel? Oh — I guess it is supposed to be a place with the vibe of a cool and funky bar that might be found associated with a cool and funky hipster motel. My co-​workers and I bravely wandered in for an early weekday lunch one day, not looking for either a drink or a motel room. Their menu promotes «cocktails /​pool /​AC» (yup there is a pool table on the premises) but note that lunchtime food is not pushed. The walls are covered with cool artwork, posters and even a gigantic (and functional) wall clock, so again not a hint of any food whatsoever.
So we were pleasantly surprised by the food. I had a Jamaican pulled pork sandwich, served on a kaiser roll. The bbq sauce was not too spicy so that was a plus for me, and the pulled pork was also topped by pepperjack cheese. The cup of coleslaw was fine and creamy. I upgraded the side to an order of onion rings, which were tasty and did not really need the cup of anonymous dipping sauce. Others at our table happily consumed flatbreads and salads. The Motel Bar is probably a cool place to hang out with a cocktail during the evening, but we scooted out of there by noontime.

I met my friend here who works for groupon for a daytime lunch. It was busy on a weekday but the service was friendly, quick, and fantastic. They have daily specials with 5 – 7 dollar burgers, and something different for a special each day. I got a huge chicken salad which was just perfect. Not overbearing with any dressings, and everything tasted fresh. I am surprised by the mediocre reviews. I have been to many ‘bar’ type restaurants — if this is known as one and am not always happy about the food and service but this was great. Salads were popular here as it seemed like that’s what 75% of the people were eating. I would definately come back again.

Ugh, what’s a girl got to do to get a bug in this place? And by bug, I mean grasshopper.
When I arrived early for my brazilian at Allyu Spa downstairs, I was told that they couldn’t get me in and I had to wait for my 7 p.m. appointment time. Instead of trekking alllllllll the way home, I figured I’d go upstairs and take a painkiller/​have a drink.
At first glance, Motel Bar is a place that is almostnotquite Los Angeles, with a mishmash of clientele– business, hipster, older than dirt. And then there’s me, fresh from a day of putting hospital beds together and taking pictures of simulation dummy penises. I was dressed like a lesbian in fall, which is maybe why I was completely ignored by both the male and female bartenders.
Eventually I received not one but two drinks (spaced out), but the personality of the female bartender was severely lacking and I felt like I could have spent my hard-​earned money to share a flask with a homeless person. At least he/​she would have been civil/​entertaining/​high/​more intelligent than I’ll ever be.
I doubt I’ll go back… but one never knows. Those brazilians are painful!