Red Bar Winery & Bistro

closed!!!

Sit back, go their with some good company and leave the rest to the food and beverages of your choices and you will have a most relaxed evening. Food is very good, atmosphere is excellent and the wine is some really good made right on site stuff.
This is worth driving to downtown Elgin instead of the less personal Randall Rd or visiting some over rated more expensive chain. Places like this need word of mouth and reviews like this to be able to give us choices in the future.
Would I go every night? No. Would I take my best friend here or some out of town person to give them a good feel of Elgin and of the far northwest burbs? Absolutely!
If you get a chance to talk with the owner, fantastic! You can see he is not in this to make a fortune (but it would not hurt of course) but his personality comes out and you get to know him and his true love very quickly

Worst experience I ever had. Waiter was not attentive. Took close to an hour and thought I was getting my meal but NO. Ended up walking out.

Came here for a local fundraiser and I am surprised that I have not been here before. Very nice dining and bar area. We sampled their house white and red wines and they were good. House made pizzas (Tomato/​Basil, Sausage, veggie and Bacon) were also very good. Friendly owners greeted us during our visit and made us feel very welcome. Street parking can be tight so park in the city lot just a few doors south.

Yes Yes Yes. This place has got it right. Really good food, just be ready to pay for it. Great selection of wines. Really better then 3 Vines in Sleepy Hollow.

This is a great restaurant, wine bar and place to hang out. The owners, staff and chefs are friendly, provide great food and a great atmosphere.
Pasta night is fun and you can’t beat the price for $ 8.95 (its on Tuesdays now). I havent had a meal that I dont like — the Ribs are really good and fall right off the bone.
The wines are great and if your unsure the staff will help you pick one — try the Glug for sure! Whats more is you can design labels to put on wine/​champagne to give as gifts.
Love it and it is a regular stop!

still dead…

My husband and I really enjoyed this restaurant. We love to find new locally owned places instead of going to chain restaurants and from their story of how Red Bar came to be we decided to give it a try.
We knew on Wednesday nights they had the Pasta Night special — but we didn’t realize it was the only thing you could order that night. I am pleased to report, however, the pasta was very good and everything was fresh. And you can’t beat the price of $ 8.95 for all you can eat, freshly prepared pasta. The meal also came with a salad (I’m not crazy about the house dressing but it was alright) and bread and butter.
I also discovered a new wine I love — Friday Monkey’s Shiraz. Delicious! The have quite a large selections of wines, as one would expect — so you should be able to find something you’ll like.
The staff was all very friendly and the owner came over to our table twice to check on us and see how we liked everything.
The décor is absolutely beautiful and the bar is, you guessed it, Red! It’s really a lovely little spot to have a cozy meal. We’ll be bringing the inlaws back with us next time.
I say give them a chance the next time you want to try something different. I’m sure as their clientele grows their menu selection will as well.

Overall, the food was good but the service OK. They served me a warm beer (the owner apologized and comped it), gave us the wrong salad, and it took a while to get the check.
The margarita pizza was really good. I liked that everything their desserts (and beer, I think) came from local merchants.
This restaurant is a welcome and much needed change to downtown Elgin. We will definitely go back to hopefully add another star to this review.