Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.
You may not realize from our articles, but Jim and I do eat fruits and veggies, and we actually go out of our way to get super fresh produce. We needed to stock up and headed to Valli Produce in Hoffman Estates. On our way there, we decided to try a new “local” restaurant that took the place of the Tilted Kilt on Higgins Road in Schaumburg. This venue is now the Local Kitchen and Tap.
Local Kitchen & Tap
1140 E. Higgins Road
Schaumburg 60173
(847)744-5300
thelocalkitchentap.com
Directions: Take Rte. 47 South to I-90 East, to Roselle Road South, to Rte. 72, East to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 30 minutes
We never went to the Tilted Kilt (to Jim’s dismay), so we really can’t compare the décor inside this restaurant. What we can tell you is, that this is a large building with more booths, tables, and high-top tables than we could count. The décor inside is modern.
We went there on a slow Wednesday afternoon around 2 p.m. We were greeted by our host who also turned out to be our bartender, waiter, and busboy. We’re not too sure that he also wasn’t the cook.
It was our lucky day when we looked on the menu and saw Wednesday was half price burger day. Because we are seniors, this dictated pretty much what we were going to order. Nancy spotted the “What the . . .?” for $17.00. This was two four-ounce beef patties with jalapeno cream cheese, caramelized onions, crispy jalapeno peppers, and bacon all topped with their homemade jalapeno aioli served on a brioche bun. It comes with your choice of fries or house made chips. Nancy chose the house-made chips. She fell in love with this burger. The charbroiled patties were crispy on the edges and cooked to perfection. You would think that all the jalapenos on this burger would make it way too spicy, but they gave it just the right amount of heat. Her chips were ever so thin and delicious, and she finished all of them.
Jim saw the Conant Culinary Burger Winner for $16 and wanted to give it a go. This was barbeque pulled pork between two four-ounce beef patties, smothered with Merkt’s cheddar cheese, topped with onion strings, all on a pretzel bun. The barbeque pork and beef patties somehow worked, but the pretzel bun was MIA. Instead, he got a brioche bun for his burger. He chose French fries for his side.
Because we got such a deal on our burgers and took half of them home in doggie bags, we decided to order desserts for each of us. Nancy wanted the Filipe’s Waffle Churro’s ($6). This was fried waffle strips dusted with cinnamon and sugar and served a la mode with caramel sauce. I wanted the Ice Cream Sandwich ($6) which was vanilla ice cream sandwiched between Jarosch Bakery’s scratch made cookies, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Our waiter informed us they were out of the waffle batter so no dessert for Nancy. Being the chivalrous individual that I am, I shared my dessert with her. Don’t pass up this dessert; it was heavenly.
Go online and check out their daily specials. Caution, it states on the menu, “due to inflationary pressures, blah, blah, blah, there is a 2% charge added on to your bill.”
Maybe because the service was slow or because they ran out of waffle batter, when we looked at the bill, our dessert was free.
FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible.
The price for our half-price burgers was $19.05. This is our personal best, and we have another meal from the doggie bags!!!
Jim’s take: Try dunking your fries into the red squirt bottle of barbeque sauce that is on the table, it’s delicious.
Nancy’s take: This was the best tasting burger I’ve ever had and paying only $8.50 for it, priceless…
Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at: thediningduo@gmail.com
