Today I’m coming at you with another central Illinois restaurant review. I was passing through Bloomington last week for a meeting and had heard raving reviews about DESTIHL Restaurant and Brew Works so I decided to stop here for dinner afterwards to see what all of the buzz was about.
The restaurant is easily accessible from the interstate and well-maintained on the outside. It’s located right by the mall in a stand-alone building. The interior has that modern chic industrial-style feel with tons of natural light pouring in through the windows. We were seated right away by a friendly hostess.
I am just going to go ahead and apologize now – I did the best I could with getting pictures of the menus, but I was getting an awful glare from the overhead lights no matter which way I turned.. Sorry! To see their menus in full, click here! Anyway, our server, Danielle, came over right away and filled us in on their beer list. She was super knowledgable about the menu and very helpful in choosing the right beers to match our preferences.
I opted for a flight of four – the Normal Blonde Ale, Doubleberry Cobbler, Wild Sour Series: Here Gose Nothin’ and asked Danielle to surprise me with the last one and she chose the Weissenheimer Hefeweizen. I would say the Wild Sour beer or Hefeweizen were my top picks.
I had eaten a late lunch so I decided to pass on ordering an appetizer, but they all sounded phenomenal and I would definitely make sure I save room for one next time. You can’t go wrong with bacon so I would probably opt for the Beer-Battered Bacon or the Meatball Sliders. I liked that DESTIHL definitely has more unique options for appetizers than I’m used to seeing at most restaurants.
For dinner, I settled on the jambalaya and it was fantastic. It was super spicy, but absolutely delicious – major flavor here! It also came with a cornbread biscuit and cajun butter, but the bread was a bit too dry for me. If I were to go back, I would probably try either the the grilled mahi-mahi tacos or one of the stone oven pizzas – they look incredible. Overall, I was really impressed with the wide variety of menu options. They also host a weekend brunch menu on Saturdays and Sundays until 2 pm.
I had already passed up the apps, but I wasn’t leaving without dessert. They offer a variety of desserts and I was torn between the Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake and T.R. Nelson’s Banana Cream Pie.
We couldn’t decide on just one to share so we ended up ordering both – easily the best decision of the day! The mousse cake is a (very) chocolate-y and sweet cheesecake-like dessert with the perfect balance of peanut butter flavor served on a bed of mixed berry jam sauce. This is a must if you love chocolate and/or have a major sweet tooth! I took half of it home with me, but it didn’t even make it through the night – seriously so good! I also got to try my friend’s banana cream pie and it was just as tasty. It is caramelized bananas over a light pastry cream atop a pie pastry drizzled in caramel sauce. It is much more of a light and fluffy dessert, yet still packing just as much flavor as the cake. Our waitress recommended this one to us and I would definitely recommend it as well. Another thing to note about the banana cream pie is that a portion of the proceeds from each sale of this dessert gets donated to the Nelson Memorial Fund. Troy Nelson, one of the founders of DESTIHL, passed away in 2008 of cancer so DESTIHL graciously pays it forward by providing to charities and people in the community who need it from this fund.
Overall, I was very happy with my experience at DESTIHL. Their slogan is Support Flavor Boycott Bland and I have to say that is completely spot on. To find their beer selection at a store near you, click here! Their beer is distributed all over the U.S. so there’s a good chance you can find some wherever you are. They also offer three convenient locations (two restaurants and one brewery) between Bloomington and Champaign, IL – all location details linked above!
Looking for other restaurant recommendations throughout Illinois? Click here!
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