A favorite Friday night hangout when I come in town. Great food, family owned and ran with a great wait and cooking staff. Everything is great on the menu and there is so much to choose from. Hands down one of my all time favorite places read more

Great proportions, great pricing & a fun atmosphere with good service. There's also a mini arcade for kids and adults and it has a Jimmy Buffett vibe read more

Really great food!!! They kept the classics from when down by the river. Sizes have shrunk and prices have gone up but.... that is America and everyplace is doing it. They have excellent food and service and great specials. I love the Illinois but tried the pickle burger I think it was called. I am a pickle freak and it was AWESOME!!! Very clean very professional!!! Will spend my monies there instead of dives like Meadows Ave Tap. read more

I know it's been a while, but this is the first time I went to this location. The other location down in East Peoria was really good. This one is horrible! The burgers obviously weren't fresh. The buns were even less fresh. I'm telling you I've had these peoples food before when they were at the other location it was great. This is not anywhere near the same. Do not go do not pretend to go. Do not even want to go. read more

Hate to say it, but this place is a "swing-and-a-miss" for me. This place seems like it's better known for the atmosphere than the food. The burgers didn't have any flavor, and it was obvious that they were frozen. My wife's fish also appeared to be frozen as well. read more

This is one of those places you drive by and would never go in but that is a big mistake. Hands down one of the best burgers I've ever had. Cooked to perfection and loads of fries. The 2 must haves when having a good burger. read more

Burger Barge continues to be a family favorite when we're in the Peoria area. We did note some changes at this recent visit that I thought would be good to highlight. First the menu was literally smaller in size, appeared to have fewer options, and prices hav increased (like at many other establishments). That didn't seem to impact our ability to find favorites and even try two new offerings. My husband went for the Big Bacon Lucy (one of his favorites), my daughter tried the new Bourbon Burger, and I went for the new Treasure Island Burger. The sauce of the Bourbon burger was spot on and really added to the flavor of the meat without overpowering it. The combo of items on mine was great together: Swiss cheese, ham, bacon, grilled pineapple, 1000 island dressing, and don't forget the plank sauce read more

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If you like frozen meat, shredded cheese and inedible fries than this is the place for you. For half the price you can go to a fast food chain and get better food and service. It's hot these days so expect cheek buns from the waitress. This place has no ambiance but the music is good. read more

First time at this location. It was kinda empty. The burger I had was pretty good. I think it was just a basic bacon cheeseburger. My dad got something similar and he was able to finish his. I only ate about half. read more

Im in town for a day. I was a little skeptical to try this place due to some reviews but I am glad I did. The mini corndogs were a good app. I had the Philadelphia burger and my dad had the moo shroom burger. We both finished our meals and thought the burgers were great. Seems that they are frozen but still tasty. I would give this place a try. read more

Tavern Burger has been my go-to for more than 20 years now. Great choices prepared well. Always a good time.

Both the food and service were very good! We both had burgers, which were cooked "just right".

A Peoria staple to stop at with the family. Love the new location with more seating!!!

Probably my fault for ordering a salad from a burger place but holy sh#t this was disgusting. I've never gotten a salad you had to eat with a spoon before. read more

Burger Barge - Probably my fault for ordering a salad from a burger place, but - Burgers Near Me - East Peoria, Illinois

I started my journey with the Bloody Mary Bar, where they give you vodka in a plastic glass and you can add your own ingredients. For a total cost of $3:00, this was a great deal! I ordered the Lucy Burger and tater Tots and my guest ordered the Original BB Cheese Burger with fries. One suggestion is to offer onion's with the Lucy, I asked the waitress for some and in my opinion it made the sandwich better. Great place for a burger, it was cold the day we came and they propped the door open to the back room area which made the main room colder. Looking forward to warmer weather. read more

Burger Barge - Original Double Cheese Burger and fries - Burgers Near Me - East Peoria, Illinois

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Food was extremely greasy. My stomach can handle a lot and it's the only burger I can't finish because I start feeling sick. Staff is really awesome! read more

Kind of dirty inside, Sat at the bar and it felt sticky. This was on a Saturday afternoon around 1:30 pm. Considering burger is in their name, I was completely underwhelmed by the overcooked thin piece of meat. Nothing special here. The fries tasted like they were cooked in dirty oil, which wouldn't surprise me. Thought I would check it out. Won't be back. read more

Good burger but won't get the ones with extra spices in the ground beef next time. It was a bit overpowering. The cheese blobs were excellent read more

The Burger Barge are what they are. What they are is a Dive Bar. If you feel comfortable in that skin, then dive in. Although I question if it's family friendly but I guess it is for the area. During my first ever weekend in Peoria several weeks ago, we had a free night to explore the "Barge" before heading over to the casino for some savory "7 & 7's". Several of us (including kids) drove over for supper @ 7pm. I will say to be aware of where they are located as it may be tricky the 1st time since they on a service road so the GPS may get funky on you. The parking lot is sufficient enough to find parking but spaces may be tight to be careful especially if you had a few. Their menu is deep with options for a Dive Bar with many apps and many more Burger options to go with. We started with Nachos which were horrible but you wouldn't think so given we almost finished them. Full disclosure, our table of 8 was starving. The cheese lacked taste and the tortilla chips were flimsy. This is a hard pass if I ever go back. For the main event, I chose the Original B.B. Burger BB favorites. The burger was topped with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and dock sauce. Not sure what the "dock sauce" was but I think it was a mayo ketchup combo. It was good and not cooked to medium rare as requested but it was still a filling meal! Prior to the main event, several of us did one of their Fish Bowls. I'd imagine during the summer being outside, it's awesome. During the winter/late fall time, not so much. The service was ok as my big hang up was not all of our table was served at once. I really do not like that should never be the case when eating out. Anyway, I'd go back but with limited expectations. read more

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Great burgers and a wide variety of choices to choose from! Service is great. I highly recommend trying this very casual dining experience.

Nicely seasoned burger, very good service and nice boat house type casual feel. Sat in back room and went on Saturday about noon and well staffed. Family restaurant despite bar in back room where we sat. Probably get sauce on side next time as was a thousand island type topping and tasty but I think I'd prefer catsup and mustard. Onion rings were awesome. Real onion and tasted like onion powder in batter to give extra onion taste. read more

The food, drinks and atmosphere are about as good as it can get! The only reason I docked 1 star is, just like what everyone else mentions, the service and they could also benefit greatly from updating their warn down menus. Everyone pretty much knows everyone and a majority of the customers are there at least once a week so it's very laid back. I am absolutely in love with the different burger creations and drinks! My family and I normally visit on a Sunday (about once a month) and I always get a mimosa and they are always great. My mom loves the Bloody Mary bar and all the different toppings. The burgers and apps themselves are always cooked perfectly, always consistent and it's always so fun picking a new burger to try. Overall, Burger Barge offers so many different burger options, there really is something for everyone and the drinks are fantastic. The location, being right along the river is also a HUGE plus! It's always so nice taking a short walk down to the river after eating a nice big meal. Burger Barge is a MUST VISIT for anyone traveling to Peoria. read more

The atmosphere is fun but better enjoyed in the summer since it's on the river. Lots of fun nautical theme decor and nice outdoor patio. They have alcoholic Shirley temples but couldn't make it without alcohol for some odd reason. When I asked if I could have it without alcohol I got a very firm NO. Service was slow-took us a long time to get our food. We got the thousand island burger that had ham, bacon, pineapple, and thousand island dressing. It was good! Who knew pineapple was good on burgers!!! We got a side of cheese curds with it and they were delicious. read more

TLDR: The place is named Burger Barge. It's not going to be a Michelin star experience, but it's got satisfying food and nice folks. They have a website with a menu. Do your research before creating your own expectations. I wasn't feeling high-end dining last night after a long day of work in the area. I had seen the Barge on my results last time through town and decided to look them up. So glad I did! My server, Jen, was on top of it and didn't give me any less attention for being a table of one. I started with spicy hush puppies. She warned me that they weren't especially spicy this week and suggested dock sauce with them (a bit spicier than the plank sauce they come with). Good call - it was great! There were like ten things on the menu which looked very tempting, but I finally settled on a 'Rusty Anchor'. Their anchor pies are open faced burgers over fries or tots topped with other ingredients. The rusty anchor comes topped with coney, cheddar, onion and cheese sauce. That was a whole lotta YES! However, even a big guy like me couldn't finish and not roll out of there. They have a whole list of virgin daiquiris and I was happy with my Watermelon daiquiri. There's even a few non-alcoholic mixed drinks which seem named and aimed at kids. Between the casino crowd and families with loud kids, it was a little loud for me after the big day, but nothing too bad. I would rate this a 4, but a lot of the low reviews are weak sauce. So here's a 5. Yes, the menus seem in need of repair, but it was fine. The place seems older, but it adds to the character. There's not really room for people to wait to be seated and people trying to leave at the same time. None of the little things detracted from my experience. I would come back again and encourage others to as well! read more

Burger Barge in East Peoria, IL is one for my all time favorite burger places. The selection of amazing burgers is staggering... The ambiance, well leaves something to be desired however... it's fine for guys, but I'd your wife or girlfriend is expecting a fancy place she will hit you with her purse. In short, it's an amazingly good "dive burger bar" They also have great onion rings and fries... read more

Great ambiance and atmosphere! Love this place. It is super chill and cozy. The restaurant is open on the weekends on Friday, Saturday, Sunday! My wife and I had lunch here on a Saturday afternoon (5/29)! They offered 2 dollar mango margaritas! We both had a few and they were pretty good! Can't beat a drink for 2 dollars! She ordered the bacon burger with fries and I ordered the Original BB burger with dock sauce on the side with Onion rings. I also ordered a side of creamy coleslaw. The burgers were juicy and cooked well done. Loved the burgers, fries, and onion rings. We both were not fans of the coleslaw! The coleslaw left a lot to be desired including flavor and had a bad after taste. My wife's burger had shredded cheddar cheese and we both thought it was unusual but she said it tasted good. Overall, we recommend stopping here for a good burger, fries, and onion rings. Our waitress peaches was great too! read more

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Nice selection of burgers. Everything was prepared to perfection. Nice little find in East Peoria.

Just went in on Saturday night for a birthday dinner. Took 10 minutes to get seated, not a crowd. The waitress took drink orders and disappeared, I had to go find another waitress after 15 minutes. Original waitress took food orders, then disappeared for 45 minutes while drink glasses were empty. Food showed up lukewarm. Will not be returning. Used to be a favorite of mine. Waste of 70 dollars. read more

Decided to give the reopening a shot a few days ago and sadly was beyond disappointed. The service was poor. No napkins, ketchup empty on three attempts from adjacent tables. Burgers came out--cheese wasn't even melted on sandwich and buns were cold. Order of O rings at $7 were a total of 6. Very dirty as well and burgers tasted as though they were pre-cooked and just warmed on grill. Won't be back ever...used to be a favorite of ours. read more

This was just not the same food I recall having when I was in college here. The food was not seasoned and it lacked flavor. The drink was huge but i had no alcohol it was basically a fish bowl of sugar. I don't know if it was just an off day in the kitchen or what but the food wasn't very good. Our server was kind and we got our food fairly quickly but overall the taste was lacking so that's the reason for my review. read more

Burger Barge - Fish bowl - Burgers Near Me - East Peoria, Illinois

By and far one of the worst burgers I have ever eaten. The fries were cold too. If I could give negative 5 stars, I would.

This is the best restaurant in Peoria. When people want to see a hometown local establishment, I take them here (and this location, not to those other spin-offs). The burgers are HUGE and tasty, and the price is right. My fiance and I both got burgers and fries for under $20 total. Adn as you'll see from the pictures, the serving size is gigantic. Tip: Get the dock sauce and/or plank sauce. You won't regret it. read more

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Had lunch here today with the hubby. I had the Luau Burger. Filled with ham, cheese, pineapple, jalapenos and BBQ sauce in it. The burger itself was perfectly done and seasoned just right. Very delicious!! You have your choice sides. I chose curly fries. They too were delicious. I also chose to drink a Blue Hawaiian and a frozen Pina Colada!! Yumm!! This place is located on the river front down off a one lane road in a shack. It's a bit ran down but I guess that's the look they are going for. The service, food and price were excellent!! We will be coming back for sure!! read more

Burger Barge - burgers at the Burger Barge - Burgers Near Me - East Peoria, Illinois

As soon as we walked in you could smell the food. This restaurant sits on the barge of the lake. Hence the name, Burger Barge. My father in law has been talking about bringing me to this place to give it a try for a long time now. He lives an hour away from here and two hours away from me. So it's kind of hard to make it work. Until today, we decided that we would go for lunch to give it a try. Like I was saying you come up to this blue building, it's not high end but it should be the food to lick your fingers literally lol. They have an inside dining area and outside that overlooks the lake or river. (Not sure which one). We decided to seat outside since it wasn't too hot not too cold. Weather was perfect today. The food.... they have so many different types of customized burgers. They all looked amazing, and smell so yummy . My father in law had the captains burger. Which is loaded with pastrami on a burger patty and grilled onions. It comes dressed up with their famous dock sauce. My fiancé and mother in law decided to share the Philadelphia burger. Which is huge and smothered with green peppers and cheese. They loved it. I love blue cheese everything lol. So I had to give the Bluebeard a go. It had one beef patty with bacon and Swiss cheese. Decided to add some grilled onions and it had bleu cheese dressing. It tasted so darn good that left me wanting more. But it filled me up pretty much put me in a good coma. We also ordered some fried pickles. They where fried to perfection and had a kick to it. We think it was something in the batter but let me tell you. This place can't disappoint you and if it does then you're not a fan of homemade burgers. Well dear yelpers I hope you enjoy this review and give Burger Barge a try when you're in the Peoria neighborhood. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. read more

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Good, no frills burger joint. Atmosphere says dive bar. Food is very good. The menu is huge, which makes deciding tough. Beer selection is bad. Only the cheap stuff, no craft beer in sight. I have been here twice, and will go again. The rating is definitely for the food. I had the Philadelphia burger, which is a burger topped with Philly cheese steak. I have had better burgers overall, but not many. It's worth stopping here instead of the casino or driving downtown if you are staying in the area. Portions are big and satisfying too! read more

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We pulled up and my husband asked me, "Where do you find these places?!" It's not that inviting. It looks like an overgrown shack but the food reviews were good so we pressed on. It definitely needs a good cleaning and the menus need to be wiped down. The décor, while coated in dust, is fun. It was a nice, breezy day so we sat on the patio and enjoyed the Bob Marley music they had playing. The menus are huge with many, many burger choices. They offer a Lucy, too, but it's not the same as a Minnesota Lucy with cheese in the middle. This one sounds more like a loose-meat/au jus sandwich. I chose a MozzPizza burger which came with mozzarella sticks and pizza sauce on it. Hubby ordered a Taco Chipso burger which was basically a taco on top of a burger. They were huge and really, really good. There are a bunch of chips/fries selections, too. I went with curly fries smothered in cheese and hubby ordered tots. Since they're a la carte, you might want to consider sharing an order. The baskets are huge. The service was so-so and the food is served on cafeteria trays. There are sticky/dirty beer buckets on the table with all the condiments you'll need and a ton of napkins (you'll need them with the messy burgers). So it's a dive but it's a dive with good food. read more

Burger Barge - A wee bit overgrown. - Burgers Near Me - East Peoria, Illinois

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Because of the larger number of kids in our party, we sat on the "fun" side. I really wished we hadn't. It's loud, everything is sticky--the tables, the menus, the seats. I ordered a bun-less burger that tasted as if it had been living in the freezer for the last year (major freezer burn flavor) and within 5 minutes of finishing it was the sickest I had been in quite a while (this continued well into the evening and the next morning)... I'm pretty sure that burger gave me food poisoning. I don't think I'll have occasion to be back, but if I do, I'll make sure to bring an extra bottle of hand sanitizer and to skip any food. The servers were all pretty nice though and took good care of our large party, so it wasn't entirely bad. Just not great. read more

Unpretentious, dive bar atmosphere - waitresses that appear to have been around, beer specials and big hamburgers. Nice to sit outside when weather cooperates-- insects can be a nuisance if you are out of range from a fan. read more

It was good. The inside has a bit of a Sponge Bob feel. There are quite a few arcade machines and games on the inside, so it definitely has a family-friendly vibe. (Unfortunately while we were there, there were about 3 "precious boys" that were on a rampage and pounding on all the machines, running around, etc.) The arcade is more or less within the dining area, so the chaos is right next to you while you're trying to eat. We went on a Sat for lunch; it seemed relatively busy with several larger groups. Our order was taken pretty promptly, but took quite a while (maybe a bit more than average for a sit down burger place) to get our food. But, as I said, there were about 2-3 larger groups of 7-9 people. Once their food came out, the other orders seemed to come out pretty promptly after that. The food was good, but I don't know that I would say it was excellent. This place has been around seemingly forever, although this is a newer location, and I had never tried it. I'm glad I did, but I don't know that I would go out of my way to go again. However, if you're in the area and looking for a good burger meal, this place would fill that need. read more

First off, the other reviews are right about the service. It a very, let's say, leisurely place. BUT. The food is amazing. Portions are huge. Items are unique. Even the basic fried stuff was cooked excellent. Just don't expect to get in and out of there in less than an hour. Also, request your burger how you want it. They don't ask and serve it medium well read more