Hannah is amazing to work with! Her and Shane make an excellent team. They made our wedding feel like the most important event that the business had coming up, even though I know they're quite busy on a regular basis. The guests loved the food! We had the sliced brisket, pulled pork, ranch backed beans, and the pasta salad. The meatballs and grilled vegetable skewers were a big hit as well! The catering team kept busy the entire time the event was going on, which made me really feel like they cared. Everything was so seamless as far as service. I loved how the company clearly just wanted us to have a great time, and didn't try to just sell us on everything just to make money. Great experience.

I used Hickory River to cater my wedding reception at the Peoria Zoo in June, 2014. In short, I can't say enough about them!

First, Hannah and her husband, Mike, were the point people through the process, and they were great. We wanted to do sort of a "classy barbecue" style--we wanted real china, water glasses, etc., which we were able to rent through them. We did appetizers through them as well, along with a salad bar in addition to the main meal. They were great at figuring out how to set everything up, especially since they have done a lot of weddings at the zoo before and were very familiar with the set up.

Importantly, there was SO MUCH FOOD. When the DJ announced people could go back for leftovers, no one moved because Hickory River had filled their plates so full the first time. Best of all, they packed up all the leftovers and sent them home with us--there was probably enough for 50 more meals, if not more.

Overall, tons of food, great price, easy to work with, and the food tasted great. They were also great at recommending how many appetizers to order, etc., based on how many people were coming, and we never felt like they were trying to get more money from us. Kids are charged half price, which was a big savings because we had a lot of children there. You can also do a tasting--we went with the turkey and beef brisket, with scalloped potatoes and green beans.

I would use Hickory River again in a heartbeak--it was really one of the highlights of the day.

The food was amazing! VERY flexible when working with prices. Will make anything for meal, even if not on the menu. Also helped to manage the dessert bar.

I was so happy to use Hickory River Smokehouse for our catering. We were doing an outdoor casual wedding ( our groomsman were in jeans and khaki vests). The planning was easy, we sampled all food and sides and made our choices. The day of the wedding they arrived promptly right when they said they would. They were very professional and the buffet line was simple. Plenty of food prepared for everyone too. The food was also kept hot until all 200 guests were through. I was impressed AND it tasted just like it did on the day we did our trial. 5 stars for their food!

My only complaint is the way they cut my cake. I was actually embarrassed! Apparently they began cutting slices of cake that were HUGE! One of the guests had to go up and tell them to start cutting pieces smaller or there would not be enough cake for everyone. Next, they literally mutilated the cake! It looked like they had just taken an ax to the cake and served globs. I spent a LOT of money on my cake and was disappointed that it didn't look "Pretty" when the guests came up to get a piece. When I realized this was being done, it was too late and they had destroyed the cake.

So my recommendation. YES to catering, but NO to their cake cutting service!

Love the food but found ourselves frustrated communicating with Hannah. We had multiple food vendors at our wedding, and Hickory River was not the most willing to accommodate our a la carte requests.