The Sicilian Butcher — Restaurant in Peoria

TLDR: The food was a little expensive but tastes good, and is okay for special occasions. The service was bad, the servers messed up multiple orders, and left me with a bad first impression. I do not recommend going based on this.

I was here for a friend’s birthday dinner with his family and friends, and it was a very disappointing time. The price of the food is about $20 to $30 per entree, so I expected to have good service for that price, but there was little to no service for our table. Our orders were taken around 6 pm and the first food to arrive about 20 minutes were appetizers; these were delicious and piping hot. The entrees came about 10 to 15 minutes later and were a little disappointing; my food was tasty but it was lukewarm by the time it reached me. I had the pork chop, and it was cooked and seasoned well but it wasn’t hot in the middle. I had also asked the guy taking our orders if the red onion mentioned in the menu was cooked and he said it was; it wasn’t cooked as it was part of the arugula and fennel salad that comes on top. As I don’t like raw onion, it was disappointing to be told that it doesn’t come with raw onions, only to find out that it does. While it isn’t that big of a deal, I feel like it means that the servers don’t know the restaurant’s menu as well as they should. On top of that, I was never asked if I wanted my drink to be refilled even once. The biggest disappointment was the lapse in service in regards to my friend. His food was handed to someone else at the table, and we had assumed that we could just give my friend the other person’s food as a switch. I guess the restaurant canceled that dish on the order and tried to remake my friend’s order without so much as telling us. The rest of the party received their food and ate while he had nothing in front of him. None of the staff felt like they should have updated us on the status of his food until he asked one of our servers how long it would be. At that point he had lost his appetite and asked for his food to be boxed up to go. The servers messed up someone else’s drink order too; they asked for Jack with a little bit of 7-Up, was told that they were out of Jack (after 20 minutes later) so he ordered something else, only to receive a Jack with a spray of Coke. I felt like the bad service had dampened everyone’s mood at that point, and people from our party awkwardly left after paying their respective bills. Someone did try to make amends by giving my friend a chocolate cake, and cannoli (I was told a person celebrating their birthday get a cannoli with a candle). While a nice gesture, I personally feel that this experience was bad enough that I have no intentions of coming back and I would recommend to people to not come here. I can understand a restaurant will be busy and that things can get chaotic, but I have been to other restaurants with similarly priced food with great service (even while busy). Food at this price point often come with some of the best service I receive, and this place missed the mark badly. I try my best to be understanding when a restaurant is busy but I don’t feel like it should be an excuse for messing up what should be a happy time for everyone at the table. Food and drinks coming later is understandable, completely messing multiple orders up without so much as a word on what happened isn’t as understandable. The food was good (even though it was a little cold) but the service was some of the worst I’ve had. There was little service, and what service we did receive was very bad. I can’t recommend going to this restaurant based on this horrible...

Great Italian restaurant! We had a rough start, ordered Nonnas Bread as an appetizer when we placed our drink order, server must have not submitted. When we ordered food we ordered the Italian Saganaki, and reminded that we ordered Bread. The Saganaki came out fast, it is absolutely delicious and the flame show at the table is cool. Still no Bread, and we had all been needing another glass of wine for a good 10 minutes. Then our main course showed up. At this point a manager, Jamie, stopped by, we let him know about the bread and refills which he handled very quickly. Main course for me was Strozzapreti Shrimp, really good! Wife had the Gnocchi which was also really good, best ever from a restaurant, soft and pillowly. In-laws had Manicotti and Lasagna, both of which were excellent. Jason also took half off our bill and gave us a couple of boxes of cookies, he definitely saved the day for our visit! Stopped on the was out and got Tiramisu and Gelato from the bakery, both really good. We will definitely be back, hopefully the initial poor service was an anomaly. Outstanding customer service from Jamie!

Update: Second visit had same waiter but he redeemed himself, much better service. Ordered Meatballs with Bologenese and Spaghetti, meatballs were tender and delicious, sauce was not what I expect in Bologenese, very chunky with little sauce, Spaghetti was good. Wife ordered Manicotti and loved it. Caesar salad was delicious. Ordered Saganaki again, so good! Great visit.

Update 2: Went for Saturday lunch, another good visit. Had the Zeppole Cacio e Pepe appetizer, really good, but lacking in essence of Cacio e Pepe, added a bunch of cracked pepper and that helped. Had the Short Rib entree with polenta and fried onions. Short rib was good but not great, not a big fan of polenta but this was really good. Best part of the visit was the side of mushrooms, so delicious, will get this every time I visit. Overall great experience. Jason is a great host, great guy!

Update 3: Overall good visit, the Saganaki Cheese appetizer is a go to, so good plus a little show. Caesar salad is good but served in a tiny bowl. Wife's Strozzapreti was good but sauce was a little bland. My Chicken Parm was a huge disappointment, monstrosity,was supposed to be 10 oz was twice that,dry, bland, breading was soggy and gross. Only ate a couple bites, thankfully manager removed from bill. Gnocchi Mac and Cheese appetizer stole the show, was soo good, as was the mushroom and...

We’ve been recommended this place for years but finally decided to give it a shot for our anniversary dinner. Given that my mother and her side of the family is Sicilian, I figured this would be the best place to get a taste of home so far from family. I want to preface this by saying the FOH crew and atmosphere were incredible (hence the extra star). I thought we were truly in for an amazing meal.

We ordered a bottle of wine, ordered our food (Gnocchi and Chicken Parm) and were shocked when our food came out in less than 10 min, barely enough time to finish a single glass of wine and have some good conversation. The chicken parm looked like it was dropped onto the plate 1ft away. Splatters everywhere, sauce dripping from the side of the plate, pasta scattered all over the dish… I’ve seen better presentation from school lunch ladies. However, I’m a firm believer that if the food tastes good, who cares about presentation, right?

After the first bite, I knew what we were in for. The breading was super soggy for something that should have just been fried minutes ago, the chicken breast was so overcooked it was like chewing gum. Surely the pasta would be better…who can screw up pasta, let alone an Italian restaurant? Once I got past the impressively unseasoned sauce I realized that this pasta wasn’t even al dente, it was super undercooked and the pasta itself was extremely bland. Like, ZERO salt bland. Isn’t the first step of any pasta recipe to salt the water like the ocean??

The gnocchi itself was just okay but had the texture and taste of a microwaved Bertolli bag you find at the grocery store. The ragu sauce for the gnocchi was that of a hamburger helper box. No depth, no intricate or complex flavors, just tomato and meat. To say we were underwhelmed, especially for the prices they charge, would be an understatement.

That said, their cocktail menu looked very good and we may be back to enjoy some drinks in a very beautiful location and atmosphere, but we will not be ordering their...