Hidden Gems in Peoria: Kuchie's on the Water

 Hi yall, 

This week, my friend and I were in the mood for some bar food. We found this place called Kuchies on the Water which is a restaurant over in Creve Couer. It wasn't really far away from campus at all and took us 13 minutes to get there. Kuchies on the Water is a restaurant on the Illinois River and it reminds me of all the different restaurants I would go to on the lake at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

It has a feel inside that makes you think you're somewhere warm, especially with the waterfront deck and the river in the background. Some of the decorations they have to remind you of the beach or somewhere tropical as well. On their menu, they have a lot of typical bar food like burgers, potato skins, and pork tenderloin sandwiches but the thing that stands out to you the most is the shakes and bloody marys. These specialty shakes looked insanely good based on the photos they had displayed in the restaurant. The toppings on the shake added an extra flare to them that made it more unique than just a typical shake. These shakes would also be seasonal as well for example they had one recently for Easter that had peeps and candy as the toppings. 

Unfortunately, I decided against a shake because I didn't think I would have finished it and it was pretty expensive. We decided to get an order of garlic cheese curds as an appetizer to begin with and they were surprisingly really yummy but we didn't get as many curds as we thought. After that, I decided to get a topless beach burger which was an open-faced burger topped with BBQ pulled pork, slaw, and pepperjack cheese. It was an idea similar to a "Horseshoe" or "Ponyshoe" where you would have a piece of meat with friends on top of a piece of bread topped with cheese. The topless beach burger was much different than I expected it to be. For one I didn't realize there was slaw on the burger until it came out. I didn't mind it but the issue was that slaw is usually served cold and it being served with the warm burger made it a weird temp for coleslaw. I also thought the bread they served it on wasn't that great and made me wish I just had two buns instead. However, the meat was very good, and loved the fact I got a hint of BBQ in a sandwich. 

Overall this is a really fun place to go with friends especially because of the environment. 

Rating: 7/10

Hidden Gems in Peoria: Sushigawa

Hi yall, 

This week I decided to try a place over by the mall called Sushigawa. I looked at the food reviews and some of them had photos of the sushi that looked pretty appetizing. I've always been a big fan of sushi with my favorite kind being spicy crab rolls or spicy tuna rolls. As I walked into Sushigawa, it looked very authentic right off the bat. For one, the atmosphere felt cozy and had a lot of decorations representative of Japanese culture.

I felt confident in thinking this sushi would be really good. I decided to get a Volcano roll and a spicy crab roll. The Volcano roll had spicy baked maki and cream cheese inside it and the spicy crab roll had crab, avocado, and spicy sauce. I've always thought it was super annoying when there would be fewer sushi pieces than expected and I felt like this was the case with the specialty roll I ordered. I was expecting more than 8 pieces but unfortunately, I only got 8. I know this complaint may seem ridiculous but if I'm paying for $15 worth of sushi I would expect there to be more than 8 and on top of that I felt like the volcano roll was not that great.

However, the spicy crab roll was very yummy and made up for the other roll. The spicy crab roll had the perfect amount of spice and crunch too. I usually like my roll to be fairly spicy but I didn't even need to add more spicy mayo to it because the spicy sauce they added did the trick. I would also like to add even though 8 pieces of sushi didn't feel like it was enough for me, it certainly was because I ended up being full after I ate the last piece. This was a solid sushi place and I would definitely recommend it. The service was also really speedy as well. 

Hidden Gems in Peoria: Rumberger's Wings

 Hi y'all,

This week I went to Rumberger's Wings located on University Street. Every person who I've talked to and asked "Where can I get the best wings in Peoria?" has always recommended this place. My roommate recently said to me that they were the "best wings he's ever had". I usually have pretty high expectations when it comes to wings since I would often go to a wing shack back home with my dad to watch a lot of college football games when I was growing up.

Since it was the Final Four this weekend, me and my friend decided to get wings to eat during the games. I'm pretty traditional when it comes to wings so my go-to is usually just mild or medium buffalo wings. Upon ordering, I was really impressed to see that the wings were fairly inexpensive when it came to the price per wing. I was able to get 15 traditional bone-in buffalo wings for a little over $16 which to me felt like a great deal. We decided to do a carryout order and I didn't have to wait very long for the food to come out.

When looking at the food, the wings looked very delectable. To me, they felt smaller than what I'm used to but it didn't bother me too much because I got 15. After eating a few, the flavor and taste of the wings remained fairly consistent but after a while, my food got pretty cold because of it being a to-go order. I was able to warm them up in the air fryer and it tasted just as good. These wings were really yummy but are they the best is up for debate to me. I've been blessed with some pretty good wings in the past so I really take into account that when it comes to my rating. However, this place is much better than Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop in my opinion. 

Rating: 7.5/10

Hidden Gems in Peoria: Buffalo Wild Wings - East Peoria

 Hi yall, 

So I got sucked into going to Buffalo Wild Wings this week... little to say I will never go there again. I thought it would be fun to change it up this week and not talk about a good experience but rather a bad experience. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Buffalo Wild Wings, they are a sit-down restaurant chain that specializes in wings along with different sauces. Over the years there has been significant price increases to their menu and a loss of quality when it comes to their food. For one the portion sizes for the price are not great by any means. 10 small traditional bone-in wings for $16 is ridiculous in my opinion. It also just isn't good food. 

Me and my friend decided to go here to support our business fraternity's philanthropy week yet we were disappointed the whole time. Our waiter forgot to give us napkins and forks to eat our food. He also put in the wrong order for my friend so that was pretty unfortunate. I decided to get a chicken sandwich since that was the cheapest thing on the menu. I didn't really know what to expect from it but right as it came out it didn't look good at all. I for one thought the sauce would be evenly coated on the sandwich like how their wings are but no they just slapped some on there and called it a night. My fries were cold and undercooked. Overall, I had a mediocre experience and will not come here again. I don't think any of the proceeds ended up going to our business fraternity’s philanthropy either 

Rating: 1/10