Martini’s On Water Street

My boyfriend and I came into Martini’s for the first time and we both had a wonderful time. The bartender was very nice and helpful. The drinks were amazing. The music was awesome. We found our new place in Peoria. We will be back!!! We would highly recommended Martini’s for music and to just sit back and enjoy yourself maybe meet some nice people here. Great place!!! A++++++

I went here a couple of years ago with my friend and some other people I didn’t know because I was horribly depressed, and getting out of the house with a good pal sounded a lot better than drinking bottom-​shelf vodka while staring at my bedroom wall until passing out. I paid a stupid cover charge to essentially construct inventive mass murder/​suicide plans engendered by the deplorable, fun-​having organisms around me while sipping on a glass of Jameson I swear to fuck I paid $ 9 for. I’m not kidding. I figured a place that caters to ignorant, yuppie pricks and trust-​fund college students would at least have a decent 15-​year scotch, but nope.
The highlight of the evening was my cousin yelling at me from a building across the street and inviting me up to party with her and her arty friends in some studio apartment on Water Street. I proceeded to drink whiskey with them until waking up the next day unaware of where I was.

I ordered a double old fashioned with buffalo trace bourbon (my favorite bourbon) and it was perfect!
My gf ordered the dirty monkey martini. It was delicious even for me, who likes stiff drinks. It tasted like a chocolate covered banana.

Cheap, good, strong drinks. There’s a lot of space in there, so it never really seems packed; I’ve always been able to find a seat at the bar. I enjoy live music, and sometimes they have 2 guys on guitars singing. There’s plenty of parking available in the lot outside.

Great place for live music in the summer. It is pretty expensive so I recommend a drink or five before going there. If it’s cold out the inside can get pretty packed. Each martini is like 8 bucks so if you are ordering a girl one order the worst tasting one possible so she will sip on it longer. Overall, it is worth a stop. THEY ARE THE ONLY BAR ON WATER STREET THAT CHARGES COVER. If your broke that sucks, but if you are not, it does help keep a lot of the Peoria Riff Raff out.

This is a cool place– love the décor! They also have the specialty stuffed olives. I had a dirty martini with the blue cheese stuffed olives and it came a little too dirty but was still good. I didn’t try any food. They have an interesting drink menu. Service was ok. I’ll be back.

Ive been here twice. The first time with a bachelorette party and the server messed up our drinks. She was rude about it too. The second time was a date on a saturday around 6 pm. The place was a ghost town with just a couple of people sitting at the bar. The service sucked, given we were the only two not seated the bar. After 15 min. and several looks our way from the bartenders, we finally had to go to the bar to order. Rude. I was also not impressed with the old tables/​booths. Our booth had multiple rips in the seats and felt trashy.

Being that this place is called Martinis, the drink list did not disappoint. I needed a good 15 – 20 min just to pick one, there were pages of options! I went with a s’moretini, my fav. The first one I got had chocolate syrup and baby marshmallows in it. The second one was good but missing the extras :/​They were fairly busy Saturday night too so expect a wait. The patio was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed hearing the band. They had a small space to get your groove on too. Loved the location as well. This was my first night hopping around water street and I loved it. I could def see this being a perfect date night spot, finishing off with a romantic walk along the riverfront *hint hint for the men who are terrible at planning date nights.

It’s really sad because it’s such a beautiful place! There is soooo much potential here, but there are a lot of things that Martini’s needs to fix:
1) The music is ridiculously loud inside. I’m 28 and listen to my music very loud, but this was uncomfortably loud. Not to mention, there were only 7 of us total in the bar. LOL Awkward! OH! And this guy kept playing ghetto gangster rap… my 59 year old in-​laws really appreciated that… LOL!
2) The cover charge? Get rid of it. It’s not worth it at this place… They are just hurting their wait staff. We are extremely generous tippers, and that 20 bucks we just spent to get in wont be going to the staff.
3) I have to agree with Jen B’s review from a year and a half ago. I had two martinis and both were not only weak, but wrong and not very good! Oh, and they were TINY. I’ve had shots that were bigger ;) At first I thought, «$ 9 for a martini? Heck yeah!» But because they were SO small I would consider them expensive.
4) Hire better staff. The staff inside and outside were goofing off nonstop. It felt very juvenile and extremely unprofessional.
5) The band outside just sucked. Sorry. It was all old people performing older songs… really weird… because most of the people were young/​younger. My in-​laws liked the music outside, but the crowd was a little rowdy and we couldn’t find a table.
Really our whole experience was just… awkward and uncomfortable.
I don’t think we will go back unless they make a few changes:
I would like to see the INSIDE treated as a true martini bar with cool, laid back music and dim lighting to match. Sip a good, strong Martini and chill out… mmmmm…
Keep the OUTSIDE cool/​fun/​young. Hire bands that everyone can enjoy, and play music that is current (ish) and makes me want to toss back a few shots and dance.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed :)

We used to go a lot for half price Monday but then the prices went up and the strength went down. They also only have pizza on the menu. It’s a good once in a while place.

Oh Martini’s, what is happening to you? My last two visits here, Wednesday before Thanksgiving and a recent Saturday night, were far, far less than stellar. So far less, I will be taking a long break (read: the winter) from your doors. I have noticed the «martinis» have gotten so weak that I can have 4 – 5 and not even feel a buzz compared to about 2 mixed drinks down at Kellehers. And at $ 7 for the mini-​glass of fruit juice they are serving me, that really adds up. Not to mention the great service I noticed on a Saturday night that they weren’t especially busy: ol’ boy behind the bar was sneaking up on people who had set their drinks down and turned their backs and he would swipe them, then dump them out, forcing them to buy more! My friend caught him once and told him knock it off, that a half full glass with unmelted ice was not «abandoned» when she was standing right next to it. I thought that was enough of a warning that I set my fruit juice martini down while we took a picture. Nope, gone in 60 seconds. Closed out my tab, sans tip for that idiot.
Also, my friends went on in ahead of me while I got my phone from my car and they were all charged $ 5 cover. I came in alone a few minutes later and the door guy just glanced at me. I’m not sure the criteria for charging cover here but maybe consider making it a consistent rule so you don’t piss off the patrons. Plus I felt like an idiot for crowing about how we didn’t have to pay cover because we came so late. Doh!

Prices are kinda pricey… but it is called martini’s. not sure what I am bitching about since I now live in San Francisco and Martini’s prices back in peoria are actually cheap as shit compared to here, but on with the story. It’s a nice place to go have some drinks and esp good times on half price martini monday. the beer patio is long and sometimes will have live music.

It’s a cool place inside, and I appreciate the outside patio. The staff seems pretty friendly. It’s just way more expensive than I like my drinks to be, even if there are more martinis than I can possibly imagine. It’s a cool place to go for your first drink before heading elsewhere.

They have so many martini’s. There is no way someone can go here without finding something on the menu that they would like. I’ve only been on Monday’s when they have their $ 4 martini specials. As a college student, I doubt I would go on any other day of the week in which I would have to pay full price.
The bartenders are friendly and the service is good.
I have been here as early as 7pm on a Monday, and as late as 10pm. Around 9:30 they have a singer and instrumentalist come in that plays covers of well known songs. I like their performances, but find it hard to enjoy conversation with my friends when they start playing because of the noise level.
Very great place to go and I always look forward to going.

Popular place during the summers on Mondays. Old white men flock on weekends here to creep (its true if anyone disagrees with me) without looking creepy. Probably is the cleanest bar to going to… including the bathrooms… in downtown Peoria.
The service is average to slow on busier nights and honestly more suited as a starter bar before going to the next place. I suggest you going with fun people too or Martini’s can be sort of boring and feel stuffy.

Good martinis. Have only been there on summer nights. The outside place is one of the few in Peoria.

Beautiful building, outside and in! Great atmosphere. Music at the correct level. Great bartenders — dealt with two of them over two different nights. Both very attentive and talkative while never dominating the conversation.

Martini’s is a fun lounge place to just sit and chat with friends. They also have live music. The martini selection is fabulous and whenever I go, I try something new.
My favorites so far– Bomb Pop martini (just like the popsicle), Sweet Tart martini, and the Watermelon martini.
YUM!

Definitely a gem in Peoria. I feel like I’m back home in Chicago and not in this little po-​dunk area. This martini/​piano bar is in an old train station with gorgeous high ceilings and a great comfortable old feel to it.
I’m always VERY impressed by these bartenders. That’s saying a lot considering I was a bartender for quite a few years. There’s 100+ martini’s on the menu, and I swear to you these guys have most of them memorized. This place is always busy, get there early. Those bartenders deserve every penny they get, they run all night.
Last time we were there there was an EXCELLENT band playing, «Highway J». If you can find them in Peoria they’re definitely worth the listen.
If you happen to find yourself in Peoria, I would definitely suggest stopping into Martini’s. It’s one of Peoria’s best. If you don’t like Martini’s, fear not. They have an excellent selection of bottled and hard to find beers. Enjoy… and tip your bartenders!

Located in an old train station, Martini’s is a solid Peoria choice that easily serves the needs of a wide variety of people.
If you want to sit outside, they have tons of picnic tables for you. The night I was there, they had a band playing outside and by the time we left there were a good number of people dancing near the band, genuinely enjoying themselves.
There was also another band inside, which is cool, but the inside isn’t really that big and there was no place to escape the music. I was there visiting a college friend and we could only talk in-​between songs since the music was so loud (and not that good. They played «Closing Time» over an hour before actual closing time… confusing).
Their drink menu is huugee… so much so that it’s really difficult to pick anything. Quantity is not nearly as impressive as quality though and in the latter department, Martini’s is mediocre (it’s difficult to make incredible drinks when there are 100’s on the menu).
All in all, it’s decent, but coming from Boston (snobbery…uh oh!), Martini’s just made me miss my own hometown nightlife.