BLACK BAND Distillery — Attraction in Peoria

Oct 25, 2022 - Revised 5 star to 3 after tasting new menu. This used to be a place that I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone visiting our small city. Tasting menu needs work, Surprised how the recipes were not worked out and fully tested before launch. Heavy handed seasoning, burnt bits with a huge mix of cultural appropriation was not what I had expected. Items ordered: Cabbage & leek dumpling (don't you mean bhaji?), Hamachi Tartare with (stale) Chicken Skin wafers, (over) Roasted Bone Marrow (where's the marrow?), Pork Belly Confit, and the formerly amazing but now over salted brown butter sea salt fries. The drinks thankfully are still good. * For the random person reading this review, I don't visit one a year but multiple times since my last update below in 2021. * In order to not get salt burnt like I did, Order one thing at a time, see if it's good then order more if you like it.

Sep 8, 2021 – That Double Smash Burger is so darn delicious. Surprised to discover that they also had noon alcoholic drinks so I ordered a lemonade.

Jul 21, 2021 – FYI, they don't do takeout. So no fries unless you eat there.

Jul 17, 2021 – The food here is excellent, as are the drinks. To start, we had a tasting flight, a morning old fashioned with maple coffee-infused syrup and candied bacon, a classic manhattan followed by a few tasting plates, a Welsh rarebit (griddled sourdough, bone marrow bordelaise, raclette, leeks & oyster mushrooms), and a double smash burger with bacon, egg and fries on the side. If there is one thing you absolutely need to get here to snack with your drinks, it's the shoestring fries. They do them so well. Brown butter, sea salt & herbs. They were so good we left them...

We were excited to dine at Blackband tonight Saturday 8/23/25. It was not the experience we are used to from past visits. Our first drinks at the bar took a little while longer to get but were worth it. We had reservations at 6:15 and were seated promptly. That was when things changed. We were seated for a good bit of time before being waited on. Once our server came to us we went ahead and ordered our meal at that time. The olives came out and were delicious, spinach and artichoke followed and also very good. It was probably around about 20-25 minutes before our first large plate came out, it was the steak kabobs. They were cold and tough, the rice was delicious and the only thing warm. The vegetables were also cold. We were hungry and gave the benefit of the doubt. We didn’t hear or see our server for at least another 30 minutes after we finished the first plate. It was another 15-20 after that before she came back and said the kitchen was running behind. Another 20 minutes goes by before we are told the are plating the food. Probably another 10 before it comes out. We had the cod tostadas. They were good, bit at that point we weren’t even hungry anymore from waiting so long.

Not sure if just an off night, I expected more for the price and past experiences. We were bit billed for the cod tostadas but still had to chase our server down for the bill. We were at our table for a little over 2 hours and we really one got to enjoy cold chewy steak. We watched a table of 10 be seated well after we ordered and enjoy their food as we sat waiting to be acknowledged. I am sure we will be back in time, but it will be a while before the sour taste of this...

Definitely not veteran friendly. Saturday night about 12 of us went in after it was recommended by my brother who is a veteran. We were on our way to the Marine Corps ball so we stopped for a drink or two. When we arrived all the seats were taken at the bar except for two so two of us sat and the rest of us stood. We each ordered a drink and my husband bought a bottle of bourbon. We then ordered a second drink, the GM came over and said that we couldn't stand there at the bar. I said there isn't enough seats for all of us and he said I'm sorry about that. He said that we would have to leave, I said can't you see that all these men are veterans, (1 in his dress blues), he said well I'm sorry about that but they can't stand here. He said I can offer you seating outside, mind you it was 45° with 50 mph winds and all the women add on ball gowns. I said to him really, he said sorry I said I can't believe that you are asking men to leave here that fought for your country. After we had already spent quite a good amount of money then they ask us to leave, the bartender could clearly see there wasn't enough seats to accommodate us all when we first walked in but she had no problem serving us. I posted several comments on their Facebook page and they were immediately taken down, I guess they don't like honesty. I highly recommend veterans to not go into this...