Firewater BBQ & Brew- Crest Hill — Restaurant in Crest Hill

I’m sorry but.. it’s a no from me. I was really looking forward to eating here. But this was honestly just disappointing. Let’s start out with the service, We came in and waited in line until it was our turn. The cashier had her mask under her nose. She was working and changing receipt paper and, to be polite we waited for her to finish before approaching. She did not acknowledge us. We had to ask her if she was ready to take our order. She took my boyfriends order and we ordered sides and, He told her he wanted to add a sampler. She ignored him and, so we didn’t get to order that. She took his order and, then again did not acknowledge me. So I had to tell her that I wanted to order as well. As a cashier and someone who works in food service myself. You need to actually train this employee to take a order and put her mask on. It’s fair to say that was pretty rude and disrespectful. He ordered the heavy Brisket sandwich and I ordered the heavy Texas tacos. We ordered fried pickles and the three cheese Mac. So.. Let’s get into the food... Wow... The brisket tasted like it as if it was boiled. No smoke flavor or smoke ring. It was like pale pale brown like tan... if we both had heavy portions three pieces of thinly cut brisket wasn’t it. He had about five or six pieces on his sandwich no sauce. We both agreed that the quality here the food was lacking. We could also tell the ingredients are from aldi. My tacos had a light sprinkle of cheese and hardly any bbq sauce. Sporadic chopped onions and only one of my tacos include bacon bits. We got jalapeños on the side, they were not spicy. My fried pickles and chipotle dressing were okay. The three cheese Mac consisted of Macaroni spirals and, nacho cheese sauce and the jalapeño juice and sprinkled aldi cheese on top. Why would you not list on your menu that the Mac and cheese is spicy? I tasted it and I couldn’t even eat it. Not because of the level of spice because it was just that bad. The beer selection is lacking and over all this was really disappointing. We ate our food but left after. No one bothered to ask us how the food was. We just ate what we could and threw away the rest. I just can’t even fathom how people come here. The interior is nice cool burned wood walls but for being a business that’s been so well established, the old frames with no pictures other than the original advertisements that are just not very aesthetically pleasing. Overall Just not somewhere I’ll be returning to with my partner....

Firewater BBQ is EVERYTHING you hope it will be (and more). You'll dream about this BBQ. It will become what you compare all other BBQs to.

Its origin story is as epic as the taste, but that's not why I'm writing this review. The service of Firewater BBQ provided an extraordinary experience for my husband's 50th Birthday party recently.

Karen was a joy to work with on the menu and the room details. Michael was on site the day of the event and diligently made sure everything was perfect. The support staff was legendary. My guests were talking about each and every one of the helpful staff next day.

My brother in law was so impressed to be referred by name when he would go up to get another beer. Many staff provided something I forgot to bring like a knife to cut the cake and a lighter to light the candles, stapler even. They pleasantly helped me in the middle of a busy Saturday night rush. When I forgot the cake plates, the lady at the counter kindly provided paper boats to use for slices.

To be clear: when I called to arrange the room, Karen explained that the buffet service is set up for food, but no "service". 👍That was my expectation, and I was overjoyed to have the room. However, many times staff would check in with me to make sure everything was going smoothly. And I mean many many times. I so appreciated that they were so helpful. The knife, lighter, stapler, paper boats were all outside the expectations for a party such as ours. But they helped me cheerfully, anyway, because they cared about us having a great time. I smile to think about how they even convincingly play-acted when we arrived for the surprise. And they had everyone's safety and enjoyment in mind. It's telling when the host and all the guests feel so comfortable.

The people at Firewater BBQ are "the secret sauce". They are stellar!!! We love this place.💞💕💓Keep up all the great work, team. It shines!!!!!

Truly a fantastic experience with incredible food (Really delish) and service from start to finish....

My husband & I ate here around noon today. I have been really wanting great ribs, I read through some reviews and decided to give this place a try. I ordered 1/2 slab with cole slaw & fried pickles. He ordered the two meats which were the brisket, jumbo chicken wings with onion rings. It took quite some time for us to get our order but I can wait for good food. Well... my ribs were barely warm, tough and dry. I didn't finish them. Didn't care for the coleslaw the pickles were good. My husband said his brisket was good but the portion was very skimpy! Wings were great and the onion rings were too. I would probably consider going back for what was good and maybe to try something else. There was a woman at the front who carried herself as someone in a position of authority, blonde and a voice that tells me she's a smoker. Anyway, I overheard her being short and impatient with a caller ordering over the phone. When she hung up you could hear being critical about that person inquiring about a military discount. At another point there was another young lady taking a call about a missing item and I heard the same woman walk up and insisit the missing item (fries) were there but in another minute said they can come in and get them, so they weren't. I ALSO heard her complaining loudly to include profanity about someone showing up 20 minutes early while it was busy! This is what I found more disturbing than the mediocre food. As a customer waiting for food, I should not have been able to hear all of this and clearly this womans customer service skills...