Where to Eat in Peoria Illinois

I played bass this weekend in Illinois with the soon to be famous Mitch Houston Band. I learned a valuable lesson. Its actually something I've been learning over and over for the last several months. Lately I have been asking the server at the restaurants I go to what they recommend for me to eat. I have realized, however, that waitresses have particularly very bad taste in cuisine. So far, the last 4 eating experiences where I have asked for a recommendation have been particularly bad.

We ate at a place called Sully's which was a little pub in downtown Peoria with a pretty cool feel. It was smoky, dark, and had a dart machine. All good qualities in a pub. Mitch ordered a burger, Michael ordered ribs, Krista ordered fettuccine, and I ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich after a raving revue and extensive recommendation from our server. She has no taste buds apparently. This thing was 8 or 9 inches in diameter, pounded out wafer thin, and deep fried. It was served on a plain bun. No sauce. No lettuce. No tomato. No nothing. A plain, dry, bigger than my head, fried piece of tenderloin. Weird. Flavor wasn't that bad. In fact, had I had a small pan, a handful of porcini mushrooms and some port wine I could have made an out of this world Jager Schnitzel. Unfortunately I wasn't the cook. But how do you eat a big dry fried pork tenderloin with no sauce? Everyone else raved about how tasty their food was. They all nearly choked on their food laughing at my plight too.

Hoops is a good place to eat though. It was a little smoky pub that served Chicago style pizza. It was very good. It was smoky though. I'm not a smoker, but it almost feels better to walk into a little pub like this and be enveloped in smoke. OKC has a no smoking rule in its restaurants which is nice and all, but the little pubs should be smoky. It just doesn't feel right without the smoke.

Maybe I should open a restaurant. I would make sure my wait staff knew how to make recommendations. I would serve a variety of wine sauces with several types of mushrooms. I would cook the pasta al dente, and my waiters would never recommend the worst thing on the menu. There actually wouldn't be a worst thing on the menu.