The Burger Barge sacrifices taste and flavor for clogged arteries and obesity.
It has quite an atmosphere, but I don't think its one that I enjoy. The view is ok if you like the look of crappy and depressing.
I ordered the Andre Burger, which came topped with pepper jack cheese, onion rings, nacho cheese, jalapenos and "dock sauce." Not sure what the dock sauce was, but the menu warned that this burger is "giant in flavor."
To quote Clueless, searching for flavor in an Andre burger was as useless as searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie. Or as useless as finding a boyfriend in high school circa the mid-90s.
The only thing I tasted was a bunch of meat and cholesterol, without much zing or nuance in flavor. I barely ate half the burger.
We ordered the Luciano cheese blobs, and those were okay. Once they got cold, they were un-eatable.
My partner in crime ordered the Bluebeard's Burger and didn't have anything good to say about that either.
I much prefer a burger from Ulrich's Rebellion Room. Even Burger King would be a better option.
Yes it's a hole in the wall dive bar but it has an extensive selection of great burgers and good onion rings with an alright family atmosphere (at least in the dining room, don't know about the bar areas or what appears to be a beer garden). Â I can't speak for the other menu items or the drinks 'cause I haven't tried anything else here and probably won't. Â After all, I figure it's called the Burger Barge for a reason. Â Have I had better burgers elsewhere? Â Yeah, but they did cost a lot more too. Â For the money, the burgers here are awesome.
Review Source:While visiting my girlfriends in Peoria they suggested we go to Burger Barge for a late lunch - they are both big fans. I love the atmosphere of this place, i love my dives. Kitschy decor and guest decorated napkins line the walls. They ordered cheese blobs for us as an appetizer and I got the Bacon Lucy Burger. I enjoyed the blobs, basically just deep fried cheese served with ranch, but I love my cheese. Wasn't as impressed with the burger. It was topped with loose meat, bacon and liquid cheese. Good, just not great. Service was adequate, she wasn't overly friendly. Overall I would definitely be willing to give it another try.
Review Source:"Best burgers on this side of paradise"...Par-a-Dice casino that is.
I had my doubts. Â It is Peoria. Â It is across the street from a sleezy casino. Â But what the heck, there's a Burger King down the street that can be plan B.
Divey no nonsense burger joint with a thatch roofed bar complete with Landshark and Bud Light with Lime ornamental lighting. Â Service here is not lacking. Â Friendly. Â Helpful. Â Attentive. Â
$2 Bloody Mary bar on Sundays. Â Generous vodka pour. Â Enough said. Â I loaded mine with pickles, olives, celery, and multiple bloody Mary mixes. Â Man, I make one mean bloody Mary!
Onto the food. Â Walking in you can smell the deliciously well seasoned meat patties grilling away in the kitchen. Â Their menu is ginormous! Â It was hard to decide but I went for my two favorite toppings, bacon and mushrooms, Illinois Burger ($6.79)! Â Sides here are all a la carte and the onion rings are NOT to be missed!
I've driven past this place for years. Always thinking I would try it some time, but not adventures enough to take a chance, given the run down appearance and the surrounding stagnant water pools.
After reading the reviews here, I decided to give it a shot. The staff was attentive, very friendly, even a bit flirtatious. I had the small burger and onion rings while sitting at the bar. Â A nice break from the usual chain drive throughs, and enough funk to remind me downtown Memphis.
The food was okay and came in a reasonable time.
The walls are covered with paper napkins that have hand written messages scribbled on them. I wasn't up to reading any of the messages on this visit - seemed to much like staring into a trash can. Maybe next time.
If you don't like hole in the wall dives, don't bother coming here. Â However, if you want a great burger, strong drinks, and don't mind sticky floors and generally unclean facility stop on in. Â I come here at least once a year and have yet to be disappointed. Â However, I stick to ordering burgers, hence the name. Â They have very unique burgers. Â Two of my favorites are the Tavern Burger (Burger, Ham, Bacon, Fried Egg, Grilled Onions, and Cheese) or the Captains Burger (Burger, Pastrami, Dock Sauce, etc.). Â The Rum Runners are outstanding and the Gigi Tea is too strong, hence the 2 drink limit ;-). Â Have people in my party had a bad meal here, sure but they ordered seafood dishes. Â Not to say the meal was bad, it's just fried (i.e. previously frozen) entrees. Â The burgers however are very fresh and mine have always been hot and very tasty beef.
It's a dive bar with great burgers. Â If you want something more upscale, cross the river.
We came to Peoria from Chicago for the day and wanted dinner before heading back north.  My husband wanted a burger and I wanted outside dining, preferably on the river so Burger Barge sounded perfect, particularly after scanning through some of the reviews. Wow were we disappointed!  On the bright side, the service was friendly and prompt but that's about it on the positives. I chose the Texas Chicken Barge in a half assed attempt to be healthier. I literally ate one bite. The chicken was hard and tough yet appeared undercooked with an almost gray color to it. It was slathered with jarred Pace picante sauce, guac and 2 slices of jack cheese they just placed on top with no effort at meltage...not cool! My husband was sweet enough to share his Andre Burger but that was mediocre at best (ballpark cheese sauce and Cisco jalapeños are NEVER delicious!) and the meat on it also tasted old for lack of a better word. Oh and if you're looking for an even halfway decent Bloody Mary, keep right on truckin' cuz you won't get it here!
Bottom line....I feel a little sorry for the scores of people who are standing out front waiting for a piece of this place. But perhaps they are blissfully ignorant of what good food is out there to be had!
Since I have recently moved to the area, I had heard alot of hype about this place, so I finally tried it out. I was first irritated when walking in and the tables were all squished together, and the walls were covered with greasy napkins. I ordered the bacon burger.. it was overdone, dry, and crumbled, creating quite the mess. I would have been happier with a Micky D's burger, especially considering the price tag that came along with it. The place was also full of flies. EW! Overall, I will not ever choose Burger Barge for my Friday night pick!
Review Source:BURGER BARGE is a great hole-in-the-wall restaurant that everyone needs to try once. Â You'll be hooked, I promise! Â I always get a burger when I go, and I'll tell you what - they are probably one of the best in the area! Â They're big, meaty, filled with a pluthera of different toppings. Â They even put a knife in the burger when they serve it because you'll probably NEED to cut it in half to be able to handle it. Â
Great place to go with a bunch of friends and look out over the Illinois River. Â Good place to go for some drinks and fun. Â I believe they have the BEST vodka/cranberry drink in the area. Â
Average prices. Â A meal will probably cost ya around $10 once you order a sandwich and a side. Â
A couple MUST TRIES include: Â cheese blobs (cheesy, gooey, goodness!) and frips (a plate full of fries AND homeade chips) Â
This is a favorite Saturday lunch spot for me and a group of my co-workers. Â 'Specially once the drinks get flowing and the geese come up for a nibble.
YES GEESE! Â GEESE AND DUCKS! Â They come right up to you looking for a handout. Â You can't leave the BB without feeding the critters. Â :)
Fried Food. They have a fried food appetizer tray that consists of fries, chips, fried shrimp, mozzarella sticks, and jalapeno poppers. All the grease ones heart could desire. The burgers were pretty good too. I opted to get the regular burger so that I could compare it to other burger establishments. Rating: average. I recommend getting one of the fancy burgers, because the regular burger is nothing special.
Sit on the back deck, the view of the river is cool. We were there during a thunderstorm. Great setting for drinking beers and watching the storm roll in.
Oh my goodness, how I craaave Burger Barge. Â Went to college at Bradley and after moving back to the Burb's, Burger Barge is one of the main things I miss about school, besides the binge drinking, of course. Â There are a huge variety of burger's to pick from, many with delicious fried foods topping them. Â The appetizers are also delicious, try the frips. The decorations are so fun, it's like an episode of Sponge Bob inside.
I'm drooling thinking about it.. seriously, go!
I have no idea where to even begin this review. Â This place defines dive. The outside would scare you away with the deflated shark, condemned house with a restaurant sign and randomly scattered Christmas lights, if you didnt know the food was amazing. Strange and interesting drink and food menu. Odd variety of tropical cocktails and margaritas. Beers including Keystone Light and Stag. PBR is top shelf here. The burgers had a strange mix of toppings as well. I got a Shroom Burger. A burger with deep fried portobello mushrooms and barge spicy mayo. It was FABULOUS. However, the first burger put in front of me was the BBQ pork plus burger with coleslaw and a side of onion rings. I took the burger apart to double check that it wasnt mine and had a few onion rings. When the waiter returned I informed him of the wrong burger and he picked it up and gave it to a gentleman at a different table. YES HE DID THAT. I also heard a waitress tell the cook to f off.
A beer and burger was $10. Not bad for an entertaining evening.
Dive.
Should be on an episode with Guy for Diners, Drive ins and Dives.
Also known as a greasy spoon.
Food is delicious ; wild variety of burgers with tasty toppings.
Atmosphere is comfortable, but the interior decorating is a sight in itself.
Personalize ur napkin, and they will put it on display.
Price is reasonable too.
We love this place and have gone often since moving to the
Peoria are. It's really a funky, fun and most the time crowded place. the burgers are huge, and just as they should be for this type of food. Not for the faint of heart! Be prepared to eat much, laugh a lot and have a great time where The locals go!
A very very strange place. Are there building codes or architects in Peoria?
The food is good, a strange collection of burger choices and fried foods. It is on the water, or at least as close to on the water as you get in Peoria.
Skip McDs( and the other 50 burger chains in Peoria) and try Burger Barge.
My daughter and I were driving through Peoria for a tournament and while on the interstate we searched our handy YELP app on the smart phone to find a local burger joint. Â Something unique and not a national chain (nothing against those because my family loves eating there too).
We found the Burger Barge! Â If you were to look up "local burger dive" in Wikipedia, the Burger Barge would be at the top of the list.
Getting there is a bit tricky but if your turn off right onto Black Jack drive at the casino and hang a right, you'll find the Burger Barge at the end of the frontage road.
We didn't mess around, we both ordered the Captain's Burger which is a loaded cheese burger with Pastrami and a large order of rings. Â Excellent food, we sat in the Tiki Bar area because there was some live entertainment that Friday night and the server was friendly and nice.
Like my other review of Emo's Dairy, I'm sure the Peoria locals know this place well, but if you're traveling through this nice Illinois river city and it's lunch or dinner time, make the trip and enjoy the burger . . . Â especially if you like to try local spots.
Thanks to a fellow reviewer here on Yelp (Thanks Ron!!) I was armed and ready to order my mini moo when I met up with a group of friends here over the weekend. The weather was awesome and the place was packed! We waited over an hour for food but with 12 of us there and plenty of drinks coming our way, we hardly noticed. My Illinois style mini moo was perfect and had a nice mix of frips and fries accompanying it. I was too chicken to try their specialty drink that has a "limit 2" but will put that on my bucket list ;) Very nice addition along with the outdoor tiki bar/smoking area-would come on back here for some of those limited cocktails and a band some night!
Review Source:This is one of the few restaurants in the Peoria are that is accessible by boat- By far, in my opinion this is the BEST. Â They used to sell their burgers off of a pontoon boat in the river, but the health department started giving them problems, so they moved to their current location.
Recently they opened the "Tiki Barge" which has a more open feel. Â They also had live music when we were there, on a Sunday!
Last time I heard, the meat was from a local provider, you know the one on War Memorial- with the big black fiberglass cow? Yeah, that one-
Now, here are my food suggestions- Â hidden near the back of the menu is something called the 'mini moo'. It's a burger that is half the size of the huge assed heart attack they normally sell. Â It's available in the same way as any of their other burgers, my favorite is the chilli cheese burger with a bit of mustard.
Also, you can get a mixture of chips and onion rings, they call them "chings".
As long as the furniture doesn't break and you love meat than this is the place for you. With a wide assortment of burgers their giant baked spuds there is always something new to try. Don't judge the place by it's outside appearance as the Burger Barge isn't a meal it is an experience. So grab a seat on the outdoor deck and be sure to order the fried clams
Review Source:This place has gained a good reputation in the area for burgers. Â Anyone wanting to dine in elegance needs to look elsewhere. Â This place is a dive. Â Which, in itself, lends some charm. Â Not so charming, though, when we went last weekend on a 95 degree day to find they have no A/C. Â That alone will keep me away during hot weather from now on.
A lot of people tout this as the best burger around. Â I don't believe that, but it's alright. Â The food selection is pretty great, and my husband enjoyed his tenderloin, which was quite large.
Well, to be honest, If your looking for a burger in Peoria, this is the place to go. Â It was cooked good, just the right amount of greasy, and cooked right around medium. Â The reason Im giving it 4 stars is because I ordered the Anchor, where it was a burger on top of the fries coated in chili and cheese. Â I didn't know I would be receiving a heart attack on a plate. Â lol
  Again it was good, but there was just WAY too much cheese on there.  They put shredded cheddar on the fries at the bottom, which was good, then a layer of chili, good, then the patty, ok, then more chili, wow, and then a VERY thick layer of liquid cheese, and this was where it was a little too much.  If you love your cheese, dive in.  But for me, even with my artery clogging meals of the past, this was too too hefty. Â
  But let me rehash. The taste was there, and its about as divey as can be, even to the point of the bartenders drinking with you.  Its a good experience, and definitely a decent burger, but Go normal, don't drop anchor, or youll be dropping anchors for the next day or two. lol
Burger Barge keeps it simple, and I'll do the same in this review.
Wherever you live, you need to know a humble place that will serve you a delicious burger without pretension. This isn't the place where you go for a $15 Kobe beef burger. This is the place where you go for a greasy, dripping, artery-clogging masterpiece.
Burger Barge is that place in the Peoria community. It's a shack near the river, which adequately sums up its decor. It's a burger dive.
It's always satisfying. You know what you're going to get. And you can sit outside in the sand. (Don't get your hopes up--it's a patio, not a beach.)
It's one of the few places in Peoria I miss now that I've moved away.
The Barge is the perfect place to get a delicious, cheap specialty burger (think Fuddrucker's, but half the price). Â The menu is extensive, and it will take you a few minutes to decide what you are going to clog your arteries with. But damn, I can't get enough of this cheesy decor and the Cheese Blobs.
Review Source:Scott the bartender behind the "Tiki Hut" bar is AWESOME! Â He was very friendly and so attentive. Â He suggested I have the Long Island, which by the way is 1 of 2 drinks they limit their patrons to 2 only, and it tasted like liquid candy. Â This time I ordered a corn dog and onion rings. Â I love corn dogs and you rarely find them on menus so when I do you better believe I have to get them! Â It was perfect, sweet corn batter and salty hot dog. Â Mmmm!
Review Source:It is 2:30PM. Chicago is under a foot of snow, and I'm staring at my half finished bowl of Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable Soup (that's right, the ones with the ABC's). Most people would be dreaming about sunning themselves on St. Lucia, or mai tais in Fiji... Me? I'm dreaming of frips and blobs.
In school, Burger Barge was that thing we used to treat ourselves: "Sweet! Finals are over... the barge?"... yes! Or "Matt/Mike/Kevin/Joe Schmoe... what a dick! You need THE BARGE!" And so we'd go. We'd eat our little hearts out, take half it home, hit the bars, and reheat the rest a approximately 4:20AM (gotta love 4AM last call...). They serve meat and fried food, and they do it really well. Now living in a world of burgers from Kuma's, Hot Chocolate, and The Gage, with fancy ingredients and wacky bread... I miss the simplicity of Burger Barge.
So... if you ever find yourself in Peoria, IL, and are craving a bit o' grease and meat, do yourself a favor and make it to this shifty little shanty.
Are you hungover? Â Did you just wake up early to go to the casino and now need some food? Â Well whatever your reason for being out here at lunch time, you have no choice but to go here? Â Why, because its damn good. Â
Not sure what you want? Â Get the "Buy the farm". Â Its a porkchop, a 9 oz burger, and a chicken breast all piled onto one bun. Â If you think that sounds too healthy because of that lean chicken, the "Red white and Moo" has two burger patties and a porkchop on one bun. Â Only in America!!!!!
What a delightful little dump. When I lived in P-town I couldn't get enough of this place. The best time to go is when it is warm enough to sit out back. Go ahead and bask in the glow of the cheap tiki torches and look out at the serenity of the murky Illinois while eating cheap pub food off of a tray. Yep, no plates here, but you can get pretty much any topping you can think of on your burger, plus you can get CHINGS! Chings = chips (homemade) + onion rings.
Review Source:My friends have told me they get good burgers here. Â My wife and I have been there three times. Â Twice the burgers were so burnt they crunched when you bit into them. Â Both times, they took them back and gave us replacements. Â The other time it was OK, but nothing to rave about.
Apparently people think it's good, because there always seems to be a crowd there. Â For me, I'll go somewhere that's more consistent.
Every Peorian's guilty pleasure when it comes to great burgers and other wacky shit. Â Looks like a sea shanty on the outside, and not much better on the inside, but the food & atmosphere are great. Â Photographs, hand-drawn pictures and writing all over the walls & ceiling by friends and local pro athletes add even more.
Offers a wide selection of starters, specialty burgers & build-your-own and other creations. Â My favorite burger is the Blue Beard's Burger (bleu cheese, onion and bleu cheese dressing. Â I substitute bacon for onion.) Â Burger is big enough, but if you want to pony up an extra $1.50, enjoy some great fries, their homemade hand-cut chips, or a combo of the two- "frips." Â My only complaint is that they don't toast, grill or do anything with the buns; they just leave it as is and it always tastes cold compared to the rest of the sandwich.
Their Spud-Toons are good two...basically two huge baked potatoes mashed together end to end, and served with your choice of up to four toppings. Â One day, I will try the "Buy the Farm," which is a sandwich with your choice of cheese, and a burger, pork chop and chicken breast all one on bun. Â One of these days....*drool*
Great service, everyone wears orange. Â There's outdoor seating on a makeshift beach, and a dock off the Illinois river, so you can pull up if you're out on the weekend. Â Best "sea shanty" food in the area!
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