East Port Banquet & Meeting Center - Banquet hall in East Peoria - 703 Mariners Way, USA

Love Storm Shelter, it's a hidden away treasure. Food is really good, staff is great but sometimes understaffed :( that's everywhere, though. Cozy with great views!

WOW what a location. So romantic being right over the water. Perfect place for a wedding and or reception. We had such a great experience shoot photos and video for Richa and Brandons wedding and reception here. We hope we will be back again!!

The Storm Shelter was very nice, the lemonade shakeups were outstanding.

My fiancé and I called and scheduled a tour of the place with Janelle. When Janelle was ten minutes late, we called and a rude man angrily told us that if Janelle made an appointment with us, she would be there at that time. We gave her the benefit of the doubt and kept waiting. We were able to head upstairs to check out some of the facilities. We didn’t see much of it, but what made the biggest impression was the food stomped into the carpet. The place did not look clean, so… maybe it’s a blessing that Janelle never showed up. In sharing our tale, acquaintances hardly seemed surprise: they had apparently used them eons ago for their wedding and found their communication to be as poor as their timeliness. I was regaled with stories of them not showing up on time to open the hall so that they could decorate. Newly engaged couples should really look elsewhere.

I can't thank Barrack's enough for making my daughter, Emily's, wedding day exactly what she had dreamed of! EastPort Banquet Center has a gorgeous view of the Illinois River, as well as the Peoria skyline in the evening. The food was delicious. I received so many compliments on the beef brisket, as well as the pork loin and delicious plum sauce as well as the side dishes and varieties of cake. All of the staff were great. Several people mentioned to me how friendly, efficient and professional the staff was, all while ensuring everyone had what they wanted and/or needed. The fruit carvings you created were beautiful and added such a nice touch to the buffet. I also appreciate you special ordering the white chocolate raspberry cake, as well as the butter rosettes! An extra special touch to a wonderful meal. Again, thank you for going above and beyond to make Emily's wedding and reception so amazing. Colleen Marvin

I would have loved to give our overall wedding reception experience at East Port Banquet 5 stars. I’m giving it two stars for two reasons only. Jim Barrack, the owner, was great. Considering how busy he must be, we were grateful that he was very responsive and accommodating. The food was also excellent. Unfortunately, we had a very negative experience with the venue coordinator, Jonelle. She was very hard to communicate with and in the rare instances in which she did reply, we received inconsistent information; everything from the cost to the decor was wrong. We were disappointed to find out the day before the wedding that she would not even be present to coordinate the set up, which made the fact that the setup was incorrect that much more challenging. The quickest response we got from her was the morning after our wedding when she asked where flowers on the chandelier (which were not even supposed to be there because they didn’t even match our colors) were moved to. We also did not even receive a correct contract from her until TWO DAYS before our wedding. She caused us so much stress and it genuinely ruined our days leading up. Our day went smoothly because we outsourced a Day of Coordinator that helped fix every single problem that was thrown our way. Overall, we felt that Jonelle was unable to keep promises made, even ones written in the contract. We are disappointed with how unprofessional she was. She is simply not a good representation of Barracks. In hindsight, the fact that she did not respond to our initial inquiry should have been a clue. We were grateful for the beautiful location, delicious food and communication with Jim. If not for the venue coordinator, Jonelle, we likely would have given our experience with Barracks 5 stars.

A very nice meeting place on the Mississippi River in East Peoria. A wonderful place for a wedding.

Unbelievable experience. I do not have enough great things to say about the venue, the staff, and the food. The staff, every single one of them was genuinely there to help us with anything that we needed and was constantly making sure we were comfortable and enjoying ourselves. The food was cooked to perfection and there was option there for everyone, whether you were vegetarian, dairy free, gluten free, they had it. The place itself was beautiful and so clean, they let us stay until 11pm even though they had a wedding the next morning to set up for. Overall, an extraordinary experience and I would recommend them to anyone and everyone.