Barrel House, Dubuque IA

Great beer selection and great menu but terrible quality control on the food. This place could do *SO* much better in the food preparation department for their awesome menu. Barrel House! For Pete's sake you have everything in place to be a great place to eat! Why oh why do you not ensure your food is prepared well!? Your burgers are nowhere even close to Red Robin. Your burrito thing is lame and minimal. It's obvious your appetizers are from mass bags. You put minimal toppings on your nacho fries every time and they look disgusting and cheap and like you all don't care at all. I could go on. Do the owners ever inspect this place? ! How could you put your name on the food quality here? !? I really want to like Barrel House and do appreciate the fantastic beer selection, but please start respecting your customers and ensure the degree of food prep quality one would expect from the menu and exteriors of this place.

Decreased a star. Both online and printed and posted sign on the door says kitchen open until 11. Arrived before 10pm and they said their kitchen was closed. Drove across town to be lied to twice. Don't appreciate it.

Update #2. I would decrease another star but can't bring myself to go all the way to 1 star, which I reserve for the most egregious offenders. THEY DON'T LET YOU CHOOSE TWO OR MORE SAUCES FOR YOUR "HEAPING" PLATE OF WINGS. Does this need further commentary? They state right at the host (ess) station that "We CARE, " and it's a silly acronym for four ways they put the customer first. How is not letting the customer choose AT LEAST two sauces for their "heaping" portion of wings, "putting the customer first"? Is it THAT HARD to toss your wings in two sauces? ! Seriously. Idgaf your reason. Either take down your stupid "We CARE" bs or offer a modicum of customer service that literally 100% of all other places with wing offerings provide. The next bs this place puts me thru we're losing our last Michelin, er, Google Star.

-yours truly
male Karen

We had dinner at 7: 30 on a Tuesday night. The food was good, service good the only complaint, they put all the bar stools on top of the bar, ready to sweep the floor and turned off all of the TV’s before we received our check. I think this is very poor service and does not promote a relaxing atmosphere.

The Carolina Burger was like having your very own mountain man slapping you in the head with his flavor axe! That's all you need to know. Good luck!

Have been to Barrel House many times. This time I tried the Honey Chicken Salad Sandwich - really good! Have great service every time. Mixed drinks are hit and miss. Lots of options on the menu for food.

After a 40 minute wait for food, my chicken avo salad had not much chicken, not much salad, and the avocado was hard and almost crunchy. My husband's patty melt was a hockey puck. We were both very hungry or we would've walked out. Disappointed to say the least. Looks like it should be a good place, execution not so much.

First time trying and I'll be back. Walked in, got seated right away, and a server came and asked if we had any questions or wanted drinks. The server was knowledgeable and friendly and the drinks and food came out quick.

Everything was really good. I can easily recommend the Portabella Mushroom Sandwich, Boneless Wings, Red Bull Coconut Rum signature drink, and Bent River Hippie Sour beer. They dont skimp on the ranch either.

The Boneless Wings with Moonshine BBQ had an almost tangy not overly sweet flavor. The Hippie Sour had the perfect amount of sour and what tasted like a butterscotch finish.

3% upcharge for using credit. Overall a great experience.

This location of Barrel House does a fine job of serving up good food and good service. We’ve been here a few times and have regularly had good service with food, but have had to remind staff a few times that mixed drink orders were put in (usually hearing they were made but wait staff wasn’t informed they were ready right away). Otherwise, it’s been a good place to get a bite to eat, and we will be back again.

Great place! Celebrated Father's Day, a couple birthdays, and a wedding anniversary all at once! Good food and service, gluten-free options for pizza and sandwiches. Third time we've been to a Barrel House, twice at this one, once at the one in Cedar Rapids. A "keeper! "

Came in by myself for a Mother's Day dinner - I was told that this place had great food! (I was staying in Galena for a kid free weekend.) There was a wait, but the hostess said I could sit/order at the bar instead. I was waited on quickly and ordered my appetizer and meal. My ice tea was great, but my food never showed up. Another couple - who came in after me - had their food served right away. I tried to be patient. Maybe mine took longer? Though I still hadn't gotten my appetizer though either.

45 minutes later and I hit the end of my patience and asked to leave. I give 1 star because at least they said my iced tea was on the house.

In hindsight, what they SHOULD have done was say, sit tight, it's almost ready, and your entire meal is comped. Happy Mother's Day to me!

Great food, great service, I’ll definitely go back next time I’m in town. There are more foods on the menu I want to try!

Three members of my family ordered the barrel burger, the kids seemed to like it, but my husband said it wasn't very juicy and our burgers at home are better. I enjoyed the Ruben and the sweet potato fries. Everyone loved the regular fries. The potato chips tasted overcooked, burnt. Everyone seemed to like the fish fry and I liked the cole slaw. Service and atmosphere were great.

First off, not a huge menu, but decently sized. I got the reuben and sweet potato waffle fries. Was very good food, but it was a bit on the pricey side for what I got. I've honestly had better for less (cost). But it was still good! Wish the corned beef was less shredded and more shaved, and there honestly wasn't a lot of 1000 island dressing on the sandwich. I did get a side of dressing, but if I had known it would have cost me $0.75, I wouldn't have gotten it.
Was extremely convenient to pay with Google pay! Made paying my check extremely quick and easy, and it also helps free up the waiters/waitresses to help other guests when they don't have use the mobile system to swipe/insert your card.
Overall, I'd say 4/5. Probably won't be back, mainly because of the prices, but it does have good food.

Met another couple here for drinks and dinner. The food was pretty good, but the service was top notch. Kiara did an excellent job!

I ordered the lotta Mac and there was only a little, especially for $17. It was also very bland with no flavor. One of the people I was with got one of the chicken sandwiches and it was alright but very messy. Overall not bad and would probably come back…also giving this 4 stars since our waiter never checked on us and it was hardly 30% full because of the holiday so he was just at the bar talking to coworkers. Also we requested printed receipts and he never came back with them or to get his toast receipt device…

Restaurant with a wide variety of beer on tap. Server was great! Very friendly. Food was just okay. Burger was a bit overdone and under seasoned. Mac and cheese was good but I wish they had mixed the broccoli in and not just put it on top. Side salad was great! Clean restroom. Started to get busy as we were leaving at about 6pm.

Great lunch. Big burgers and nachos were good. They were out of pulled pork unfortunately but we made due. Server was nice.

Arrived around 1: 00 to have lunch with my parents. There were very few patrons in the establishment. Have had lunch here previously (early March and early April) and the food and the service were exceptional. Today was a completely opposite experience. Our orders were placed. 2 of 3 meals were brought out. One entree was overcooked and we had to wave down the waitress to have it replaced at which time she asked if I had received my order (first two entrees were brought out by someone other than our waitress) to which I responded "no I had not received mine". She took the overcooked meal and indicated she would check on my order. Come to find out my order was not put through. After waiting some time, our 2 meals were delivered, again by someone other than our waitress (remind you - very few customers around) and needless to say my dad was finished with his meal. When finished, I had to go to the bar to request a to-go container as our waitress did not come by to see if we needed anything, not even during our meal to see if we wanted beverage refills.
Other observations during our time there:
A dad came in with a young daughter and was seated in a booth across from us. He waited for, at least, 15 minutes and no one came to take their order. He finally went up to the bar and placed their order.
A woman and her teenage son were in another booth and, evidently, had been waiting quite some time for their food as she checked her watch and was heard saying she was going back to the kitchen to see what the issue was.
A single guy came in and was seated at another booth near us. His drink order was taken and brought. Waitress didn't return for quite some time and when she did, didn't realize his order hadn't been taken yet.
Not a pleasant dining experience.

It was pretty good. My only concern was that there was a hair in my burger, I just took it out and kept eating and everything was fine.