Dog Haus Biergarten — Restaurant in Peoria

Dog Haus won't leave you in the dog house.

Another Thursday and another day of killing time exploring nerd stores with Tim. This time we stopped by the Dog House for our afternoon feast based on Tim's suggestion.

Previously a SmashBurger location, the layout is very much the same if you've been here before. I was expecting this place to be more of a restaurant but its more of a fast casual place. You order at the counter and they will bring it out to you. Tim and I needed a few minutes to look over the menu but once we placed our orders, it took maybe 10 minutes to get our food. I think the cashier was also the cook.

Since Tim ordered first, I saw his burger come out (something garlic-y) and saw they used hawaiian rolls for buns. I was super hoping mine was on normal buns as the rolls were way too much bread for my liking... but alas... mine had the same 4 rolls for buns. No worries, The Hot Chick sandwich I ordered still looked pretty good and smelled tasty. Side note, the sandwiches don't come with a side so you have to pay extra for fries.

There was a chunk of chicken hanging off the burger so I bit that first and instantly regretted skipping on a drink, thinking I could put down a burger and a fry before I could snag a tea or coffee while out and about. When they said it was a spicy chicken sandwich, they weren't kidding. After I let the burn subside, I got to the actual sandwich and I gotta say, it was pretty tasty. The sweet rolls helped mask the spicy side of the sandwich almost to the point of neutering the heat too much. As a spice head, this was a bit of a bummer for me. Tim devoured his garlic burger and cheesy tater tots like it was going out of style. They are his go-to and said it was just as good as every other time he's had it.

There is a bar you can sit at if you want. But the casual nature of the place leads me to think that not a lot of people enjoy the adult beverage side of things. But again, maybe it being 3pm on a Thursday is different than what goes on at 6pm on the weekend. The rest of the interior was your standard fast casual restaurant in the 20th Century. There was a fun sign to take a photo with, which you can see above.

My only real issue with this place aside is the price. For the fries and burger, it was about $16 or so after tax. It's not that the price was too high for the meal because you definitely get your money worth for the quality... I just wish there was a way to make it a combo so you aren't having to pay full price for each individual item. I would've gladly paid $15-17 for this meal as a combo. Individually, adding a drink would've easily pushed it to $20+ territory and that's just too much for a fast casual restaurant,...

Visited 02/24/23. This is a relatively new restaurant to the area and my wife and I were out shopping and decided to try it out. It was a Friday night so it was very busy. Since this was our first time we weren't sure what to order so asked the cashier what her favorites were from the Sausage and Chicken sections. I went with the "Das Boat" recommendation and my wife picked the Honey Chipotle chicken tenders as the cashier said both the Honey and Nashville hot were excellent but that the Honey Chipotle were not as spicy but still had good flavor. For sides I had fries and my wife ordered the tater tots.

The dinning area isn't very large and it being a Friday and a new restaurant to the food scene it was crowded so we sat at the bar to eat and I ordered a Stella Draft beer while we waited for our our food.

For it being a new restaurant the food came out in a reasonable amount of time and was hot. My Brat, which had sauerkraut, caramelized onions, and spicy brown mustard was served on a Hawaiian type bun and was excellent and my fries were solid as well. My wife's chicken tenders were nice sized portions i.e. big and had a really nice flavor (i tried some) and her tater tots were as expected.

Key areas: Service - Cashier was friendly and provided helpful recommendations. The bartender(s) were friendly and attentive and also provided recommendations for our next visit. While the restaurant is new and the employees are still learning they were all helpful and eager to please...vs. indifferent to you dinning there which was a nice to see. Food - Lots of options to choose from. It came out hot and the portion sizes were good...no complaints there. On my next visit I plan to try the chicken next. We also heard from one of the other patrons that he's eaten there multiple times already and that he really enjoyed the burger but was trying out additional items that night. Vibe - They were busy which was a good sign. It also looked like they were doing a brisk takeout business. Interior is on the darker side but had a good vibe for having a bite and catching up with friends over a beer, etc. Probably would make a good Happy Hour restaurant. Price – Reasonable/what you would expect.

Overall, the first impression was solid. Given that they are "new" I'm sure there will be kinks to work out around staffing/service/etc so your mileage may very but our experience was positive and we'll be coming back. Food wise there are enough unique options from chicken, burgers, sausage that you are bound to find something to suit your mood and they are all done in a creative ways. A solid entry to the Peoria...

The only thing I can compliment about this establishment was the friendliness of the staff. Nothing else deserves mentioning and was an extreme disappointment. Upon walking in there were two young ladies waiting to take my order. I first clearly placed an order for my young son who was with me from the kids menu with a drink and then ordered the Holy Aioli with a side and cup of water for myself. I was handed one cup and a table number. My total was $16.99 I filled the cup for my son and looked for a low table of which all 3 were occupied. The rest were all high top. We sat down and were greeted by a gentleman wiping tables and stocking. After about 10 minutes my meal arrived but my son's did not. I told him I would wait to eat with him and that they must be putting the finishing touches on. We snacked on my fries which were luke warm at best. After 5 minutes of continued waiting one of the young ladies who took our order came over stating the other young woman never rang up the kids meal. 🙄 I said...ok?! Two more minutes (as I'm thinking this will me comped at this point) here comes the other young woman, that will be $8.75 ma'am. While my food continued to get colder (it was barely warm to begin with) my son needed to use the restroom. The restroom was filthy. And we had two paper towels left to use to dry our hands. The fries were the best part of either meal. My burger was ice cold and the flavor was nothing to rave about. My son's hot dog looked as it had been spinning on a turner all day. To say I was disappointed is very underrated. As we were leaving the manager (I believe) asked how we liked everything. I told her it wasn't great and all she said was ok and walked away. I will not be back. If you want good burgers and fair pricing, this is...