Great nostalgic experience of the old time drive-in restaurants of the past. Great selection of food and don't miss out on the root beer in the cold big mugs, a true treat! The staff is always nice and the location is right off Knoxville with easy in and out access and plenty of parking. A great time for the whole family!

We waited over 30 minutes for a meal and we ended up needing a refund because we had to go back to work. The cooks were all eating in the back and multiple peoppe just standing around. I used to LOVE lou's but they just lost 2 customers. Very disappointed!

Great little local place. Try the chili cheese dogs, or the tenderloins.

Have loved Lou’s since high school. Appreciate the current owners keeping up the tradition. Enjoyed the hot dog special tonight which came with delicious root beer and a double rainbow!

Finally stopped by for lunch. Service with a smile. All the girls were friendly with customers, answered questions, provided suggestions. Super busy but got our order rather quickly. I highly recommend a frosty cold rootbeer. It's delicious. Real beef patty on 🍔. Fries perfectly cooked. Will be back next season.

Review Date: June 8th, 2013 A seasonal place that sells Christmas trees during the cold weather days. That’s right, Lou’s is a place you can get food during the warm days and Christmas trees during the cold days. At least, I’ve always seen them selling Christmas trees in the fall and early winter. But, this was a bright and sunny summer day and my father and I were wanting to try Lou’s for lunch. If you don’t know Lou’s, its kind of one of those old places that you order at this small building and then you eat outside, in your car, or get the food to go. Think an ice cream shack, but a focus on food instead of soft serve delights. I could picture this place in the past being one of those places that you ordered from your car and a lady wearing skates would be the one to bring your food out to you. Not so much anymore. We pulled up and had to look around for a parking spot. The parking situation here isn’t ideal but with the space they have and the layout of Lou’s, it’s the best they can do with what they got. We hopped in line and waited our turn. The menu here is not any different than most places. Again, think ice cream shack but with the main draw being the food instead. I knew I would have to try their root beer. Something in my memory told me that this place was well known for that and I knew I would have to try it. I also like root beer, so that’s another reason I wanted to try it. I think we both got your standard burger with some french fries. With the heat, we didn’t want to spend too much time trying to figure out what we wanted. Burgers, fries, and a soda. A classic lunch. Despite the crowd at Lou’s, we were able to sit down at one of the few tables that had an umbrella. For two Irish guys, this was a blessing. While we waited, we took the lovely photo used above. It was a bit of a wait as they were busy and places like this usually cook their food to order. That was fine by me as it gave my dad and I time to chat and people watch. At long last, they called out our name and we quickly grabbed our food so we wouldn’t lose our table. The first thing I tried was the root beer. It was a great root beer. But truth be told, all root beer is great to me and tastes the same for the most part. So, the root beer at Lou’s was great but didn’t taste much different than others, in my opinion. After using the root beer to cool down a bit, I started working on my food so that wouldn’t cool down too much itself. First up, burger! You don’t come to these places expecting to be blown away by gourmet food. You come here for the experience of eating at a unique place, the low price, and the staple foods they offer. That is to say my burger was just that. It did everything a burger should do without showing off. It tasted good but didn’t feel the need to blow my socks off and sometimes that is all you need. The same can be said about the french fries. Not every meal has to be the best ever. Sometimes getting exactly what you ordered and expected is all you need. Lou’s is a fun place to stop at in Peoria for a meal that will be exactly what you expect and nothing more. Should there be snow outside, you can stop and get a Christmas tree instead.

Great place for old fashioned diner food, they even have carhops. Prices are good. They are famous for their root beer. I started going there over 50 years ago and now my son loves it as well. Very friendly staff also.

Lou’s Drive In is my favorite food spot in Peoria. I have not had a bad experience in the 20+ times i’ve eaten here. The workers are really nice and you get your food pretty quick. The food isn’t special but I LOVE the hot dogs they use even though the quality might not be the best. The root beer on the other hand is the best I’ve ever had. I would buy gallons of that stuff if I could. Overall Lou’s is an amazing restaurant with great tasting food and excellent service. I have a lot of nostalgia with this place and I will keep coming back a couple times every summer. PS: If you leave 1 star reviews for minor inconveniences you're a bad person.

Unfortunately we didn't have a great experience. There was zero adult supervision (as in teenagers were running the place. Zero Management in general.) So as expected there were some discrepancies. We waited over an hour for our food only to find out, only when we checked on what was taking so long did we find out that they had thrown our order slip away (we spent over $45) when they found out they only offered us a free beverage. They didn't put a rush order on our meal so we waited another half hour. Then when we did get our meal, we just weren't impressed, (fries, stale, burger dry, not much to the tenderloin.) Not for the price and not for the wait. We'd only been there once before... And this was the last time we will ever go.

Root beer was syrupy with very little fizz. Corn dog and fries (mom says they taste like steak and shake fries used to) were good! Hot tamales were good but a little on the small side. The servers were nice and it was very pleasant sitting at the counter.

Glad we started coming back here again. My daughter absolutely loves it and this is one of her most enjoyable treats. The food is always great, the service is fantastic. If you only come here for one thing definitely make sure it's a root beer float, it's the best thing on the menu. The cheeseburgers, the fries, the tenderloins, you name it everything is great. Wish it was open longer then just a summer season

It's September 5, 2023 and I am going through CONEY DOG WITHDRAWAL. Such a great tasting treat. Add a Lou's great MUG OF ROOTBEER and you can be a JOLLY GOOD FELLOW...OR LADY!! When you think of all the great food you can ENJOY at LOU'S, it is truly a pleasant memory of SUMMERTIME. TILL THEN...

Have visited 2 times this year and both visits were bad. The root beer had a mildew taste. The hot dogs were flavorless (even a 5 year old wouldn’t eat it) and tasted reheated. The cheeseburger bun was dried out and the burger was WAY over done. Lou would be ashamed. We gave them 2 tries, and hate to give up a long time treat, but we won’t go back.

Every year we count down the days until summer starts and Lou's opens! They always have good food that is served fresh! It's great to have such a wonderful place with great service and a quality menu of classic choices here in Peoria!

Was driving by and saw Lou’s Drive - In and had to stop and have lunch. This place is right out of the James Dean / Happy Days era. The people behind the counter were kind and helpful and the food came fast. That’s good news and good enough for you to give it a try. However if your looking for a Chicago Style hot dog basket you’re going to be sadly disappointed. From the hotdog to the fixings you’re not gonna find a Chicago hot dog here. The Fries were kind of a bummer too. No flavor & luke Warm. But I don’t want to end on a negative note… next time I’m in Peoria and I’m in this area of town I’m stopping back in because the place is pretty cool and it was really busy so I’m sure I’ll find something I’ll enjoy next time.

1st time here. I had a cheeseburger that was like the burgers they sell at swap meets for 8.00 just the burger! My hubby had the hot dog basket for 12.00 that came with sm. fries and small drink. (No refills either) not even Vienna dogs. It took 30 min to get. So too much money for low quality food...

Food was great! Burgers are awesome, loved the Chilli cheese dogs. The Chilli is some of the best in my opinion. Root beer is phenomenal, super creamy and delicious! Only complaint it was a little high priced. Paid $80 for only 4 of us to eat, but i guess you pay for quality and for that I won't complain, everything we ate was top notch!

Excellent old school fast food stand. The service and food were excellent. Had a burger and fries and it was made to order. Friend had the hot dogs. You don't have to get chili dogs. They can do a more Chicago style if you want. The fries were hot, crisp and fresh

Food was great. Root beer was excellent... We ate cheeseburgers and fries and they were delicious...We sat up at the bar and it takes you back to the good ol' days.