Kiwi Cafe & Bar

First, the bartender who was working this past Saturday night was AMAZING!  She was stuck working by herself when there was a TSO concert accross the street at the BMO Harris Bank Center, and she did her best, but couldn't even stop to breath!

Now, 3 stars... first, I like the place, TVs to watch the game, bar and food... can't go wrong.  The food was surprisingly good, to be honest, I wasn't holding out a lot of hope when I saw that the woman working the kitchen looked like she was going to passout and the bartender was moving a mile a minute, but my husband and I were pleasantly surprised that the cheesy beefs we got were so tasty.  The beef was moist, and while they just tossed some shredded cheddar on, it melted quickly and the flavor worked great with the meet.

For a bar... husband got a Rolling Rock and said it was slightly skunky, I had a Mike's and it was as fine... my guess is that  there's not much call for Rolling Rock in the Rockford area.

I don't know that I would go out of the way to pop in here, but before a concert it wasn't bad... although it may have been worse if the show had drawn more people... who knows!  If we go to another show at BMO, we might pop in for a bite to eat before.

Although this place has kiwi in it's name(which is what New Zealanders are often called)  and has a kiwi bird which is the national bird of New Zealand, this place has nothing to do with NZ or New Zealand cuisine. Which is good since this place's food isn't the best. This is the first place where I've ordered a sandwhich (or a panini in this case)  and although I was as hungry as I was, I couldn't bring myself to eat any more than half of it. My wife tried it also, and couldn't eat it either. This is the first time I have ever been compelled to write a bad review.

I found myself in downtown Rockford for a concert at the MetroCentre and after a few blocks I started to despair finding anywhere to get a quick dinner after parking.  It seemed a relatively deserted section of town, and the one place suggested to us by the parking attendant was excessively packed.  We'd just about resigned ourselves to the concession stands in the MetroCentre when I saw the bright green of the Kiwi Cafe across the street.  

We walked into the busy cafe and were told to seat ourselves by one of the two hustling waitresses.  After perusing the menus for a good ten minutes I returned to the bar to check on service and possibly place drink orders, but at this time the waitress finally made her way over.  While at the bar I'd given the once over to the bottles lined behind the bar, and I can't say I saw much that struck my fancy.  There were no taps present, and the bottle selection consisted of macros and the odd import - Budweiser, Miller and Heineken so to speak.  There's nothing particularly wrong with this arrangement, but coming from Madison I'm more used to a greater selection.  I asked the waitress about any options I may have missed, and her response that "we've got a lot of different options" met with a suppressed laugh from this insufferable beer snob.  She couldn't exactly name what they had, but I don't believe it went beyond the eight or ten I saw on the bar.  Instead I went with a Johnnie Walker Red on the rocks.

I ordered the muffaletta panini, an interesting combination as every muffaletta I've previously ordered came on either a large sub roll or round bread.  The combination of the pressed panini and the ham, salami and olive salad proved to be a winner.  The sandwich came with a bag of salt & pepper potato chips, perfectly serviceable.  My father went with the hot beef sandwich, a specialty of the Kiwi Cafe, and I felt a few pangs of jealousy upon seeing it.  He demolished it in short order, though he did later say a fork and knife may have been necessary.  

I'd ordered another drink when the sandwiches were brought out, and the waitress returned with what appeared to be a full drink, saying that this one was free since it was the last of the bottle.  This brought back memories of college, when I'd try and scope out the nearly dead soldiers on the bar back in hopes of getting a free half-pour.  That worked maybe a third of the time.  After dinner was done and the drinks finished, I did have to return to the bar to pay the bill.  It seemed to me that the pre-show rush had somewhat overwhelmed the staff.  However the food was great and came out quickly, and overall that's what matters.  I don't know if I'll be in downtown Rockford again any time soon, but for my money there's only one place I'd go if I were and that's the Kiwi Cafe.