R.J. Gators

It pains me to post this review as I like to support local business & R.J. Gator’s is such cute restaurant BUT don’t order the Key West Bucket or the Gulf Coast Bucket, at least not based on our experience last night:-(
My husband ordered those two dishes as Take-​Out. We live about 2 minutes away from the restaurant, so the food is still warm by the time we sit down to eat.
The fish coating was so thick, greasy, and hard, so hard it was impossible to break into it with a plastic fork. It had been cooked at such a high temperature, that at the thickest point in the fish, it was mushy & raw! The fries were fine, but there is enough for an army. The cold slaw was average, but warm from being in the box with the fish & fries. The cold slaw should definitely be bagged separately.
The grease content was obviously more than we knew, because in the middle of the night, we both had indigestion.
I want this restaurant to succeed, but our business will be taken elsewhere. Frozen Mrs. Paul’s, fish from the grocery store, would have been a better dinner choice.

This is the first time I came here and I enjoyed myself. It wasn’t very busy on this particular day. We sat in a booth which had a small gator on the back of it. Kitschy. I had the Gorgonzola burger. It was amazing. The bun was pretty dry but I didn’t eat it anyway. I got the sweet potato fries which were delicious. Their sweet tea is pretty darn good too. I would return to this place to eat again.

We ended up here because as Ohioans we wanted to watch the Cavs game… not our typical scene but we sure are happy that we did. The servers and manager went above and beyond for us for no particular reason. They were pleassnt, attentive, and professional. The bar has a 2 for 1 drink special that was a pleasant surprise. The food was pretty good and they have quite a large menu. We would definitely recommend and will return next time we are in town!

My family and I just went there today which is mothers day and thought i was going to have a great meal considering i have been here many times before and had great service. Our appitizers and salad came at the same time and 5 minutes later the food comes out. The mashed potatoes were so dry and hard that we put 5 silverware and they stood straight up and didnt move. how disgusting. We requested to speak to a manager and our waitress Amber had an attitude about it. After paying a lot for the disgusting meal the waitress comes back and throws my receipt down and says happy mothers day with an attitude and walks away. As we are getting up to leave we notice she is holding the door for us. Obviously she isnt doing this to be nice cause when we walk out she makes a smart remark that she doesnt do this to everyone. How rude of her, its mothers day and i was so embarrased to take my family here. Trust me i will never go again.

Yum! I’m gluten free and I loved that my husband and I could both enjoy great food without worry. Our server Brooke was awesome! Kept our glasses full and food in front of us from beginning to end. We will definitely be back.

Only reason I’m giving 2 stars is because the service was good and the portion of fried shrimp was worth it. However, the 2 for 1 special is nothing but a gimmick and nothing turns me off more from a place than being misled on specials. Their signature pasta was extremely bland and simply not tasty. My vodka cranberry was all cranberry. The fries that came with the Buffalo shrimp was decent but the shrimp tasted just like something I’d get from captain Ds. Highly doubt I’ll be returning.

Love this place! It’s one of those places you can go to often and always expect great service and great choices. They have amazing drink specials, a wide variety of food choices, unique entertainment night such as trivia night & music trivia and amazing service! Our favorite server is Leann however we’ve never had a bad service experience here. If something isn’t right they will work to quickly make it right! I regularly recommend this restaurant to my friends and will continue to do so!

So amazing I’ve tried almost everything and have never been let down. They also have a late night menu that is great pepperoni pizza dip!!! Mmmmmmmmm

This isn’t fine dining, but it’s a spot that you can grab a beer, watch the game, and have a bite to eat without any complaints. Pub grub is all good, and the chicken wraps are good.
The place is a little older, and could use some refurbishment but the décor definitely follows the bayou theme.
Price meets value. I’m always satisfied here.

The greetings you receive from Gerry at the front door, love him, got the prime rib tonight. Very tender and delicious. Again Gerry makes the place, he’s a keeper.

We had a great experience here! We got the Cuban, flatbread, and coconut rum bbq wings. We ate every bite! The food was delicious and the 2−4−1 beer and wine made it even better.

Let me begin my review by stating that we are not related to or socially connected with anyone associated with RJGators.
We eat at RJGators practically every evening. This restaurant is not the most convenient for us, but it is definitely our favorite. The food is consistently good; the prices are very affordable; and the staff is terrific. While we’ve gotten to know and like many of the employees throughout the facility, we always dine at the bar and therefore know the bartenders quite well. The entire bar staff is absolutely Bradenton’s finest.
I’d like to address some of the negative comments I’ve read here from other customers.
One said that the restaurant was dirty. This comment in particular concerned us greatly because it was so far off target. In our experience, the restaurant is exceptionally clean. Customers will often make a mess out of their dinning space, as is the case in all restaurants, but the staff immediately cleans up the area for the next dinners. I don’t think you’ll find a cleaner family restaurant around.
Some people complained about the quality of the food. Reality check: this is not a five-​star, glamorous, French cuisine restaurant … and you won’t be paying seventy-​five bucks for a steak either. RJGators is a darn good restaurant that you can afford to bring the entire family to and enjoy a terrific meal.
Do they sometimes serve a disappointing meal to someone? Sure. That happens at every restaurant. However, it troubles me when I hear someone complain about a business, but didn’t bother to tell anyone in the business about the problem. This may not be the case in other restaurants, but at RJGators all a customer need do is tell the server or manager about the problem and the staff will try to resolve the problem. We’ve seen it ourselves.
We highly recommend RJGators. Great food, prices, ambiance, and staff. Hope to see you there!

Not sure how this place is rated top in its city but this restaurant is on the bottom. Dirty, tasteless, unnatural like food. Everything we ordered was worst than the next. Not going back.

They re-​opened after being closed for many years, I don’t see the cleanliness to be any better than it was. When the lights are turned low during the day, I don’t care to eat in a restaurant that can’t keep the lighting up? The menu is mostly fried items, nothing to write home about or even here for that matter. Always have discount coupons to lure in customers, and the BOGO drinks keep them busy. But I’ll pass it by every day!

Do not eat here! Just drink here. If only there food was as good as there bartenders.
This places food is just awful! Every time I try something here it gets worse! I got the all you can eat crab legs this last time in hopes that they weren’t going to be as bad as the first time I tried them when they first started advertising them. Well I was wrong, they were repulsive. It came with fries and corn on the Cobb… The fries were put on the same tray as the crab legs that were saturated with so much water that it was impossible to crack a leg. Obviously you can put two and two together and get that the fries were soggy and the corn was so water logged I thought I could vomit just from the touch! Everything I have tried here is disgusting. It’s a damn shame!

Rolled in here for a quick lunch. The Chicken Quesadillas was a solid and the Enchilada was delicious.
Plenty of week night specials, consider Tuesday’s .70 wings as a starting point.

Always consistent great food great service. Typically large portions I have yet to leave hungry a lot of specialty dished that are surprise surprise Gator themed and all of them made top notch. Highly recommend to anyone.

Let me start off by saying the drinks at this restaurant very good the food on the other hand was a bit confusing. I have never had a coconut shrimp with yellow rice black beans and plantains in my life. Seemed more like a Spanish restaurant and happened to have sea food.

This is one of our favorite spots. Nancy the day time bartender/​server is awesome. Our food is always hot, fresh and delicious. The service is outstanding. regardless if you are on a time crunch for lunch or a relaxing meal the service is fast, friendly and attentive.

Staff was sweet and the food came out in a reasonable amount of time. We had the gator tail for an appetizer and that was delicious. I had the hook, line, and sinker. It’s fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, and coconut shrimp. It was pretty good, but not the best shrimp I’ve had. My boyfriend got the fried clam bucket. He said it was decent. Overall I’m not overly impressed, but not disappointed either.

First time visiting RJ Gators and we had a wonderful experience. Staff was friendly, service was speedy and their menu offers many lovely treats. I ordered the coconut shrimp with broccoli & fries. The shrimp was perfect as well as the broccoli (really surprised me). My daughter ordered the fried grouper, she loved it. Their food is reasonably priced and we can’t wait to go back soon. I may even try the gator!

Went there years ago wen it opened the first time. We went twice and it was lousy food and poor service. It also had shabby looking interior. It’s not surprising it didn’t make it and closed in about 2 years.
It was closed for about 5 years and the same owners opened it again. Exact same décor, same menu and same slow service snd not very good food. We only went back once since the ‘grand reopening’. For the life of me I can’t understand the number of cars in the parking lot. Must be snow birds as no local should ever consider this place.

Haha, yeah… RJ Gators. Wooooo!
So,… They have AUCE crab legs on Saturdays. That is, until they run out. When we were there, they ran out and were turning away customers before my very eyes around 7:00pm. So, if you want some crab legs for only $ 26.99, then I recommend getting to RJ’s right at 5pm on the dot.
They will only bring you one cluster at a time. I am a fatty, so I can consume 8 clusters total in one sitting, no problem. And, then get ice cream afterwards and eat all of my sides. You get my drift. So, the entire eating process was very time consuming; eating, waiting, eating, waiting, and so on. Is this a tactic to make me eat all of my French fries? Well, I am up for the RJ Challenge then.
The on tap beer specials are ok, BOGO on Sam Adams and Yuengling if you are not into strictly Bud.
Tuesday nights are $ 0.50 chicken wings, and their wings are big, breaded, and badass. Those wings, I can maybe eat 10 of, cause I am weak in the non-​seafood area. Anyways…
RJ Gators used to be a chain of about 30 restaurants, and then they dwindled down to two doors; one in Bradenton, and one in Texas. Now, this Bradenton location is the last one left! The interior is starting to look outdated, especially with the carpeting and all. All of the décor is a strict theme that RJ would have no other way— straight up Okeechobee swamp. At first, I thought it was some Louisiana bayou kind of theme, but was quickly corrected. The best part is where you go into the bathroom, where they play sounds from the swamp. Like, splashing, growling, birds, and snarling sounds.
Aside from the awesomeness of the atmosphere and elegant patrons, I mainly come here for the specials.

Great for meeting up with friends or family or watching a game. Good bar and great food!

Great place to come and eat and drink. Everyone is so friendly. We just found a new place to hang out

Had a great time and the food was awesome :)

Early bird specials are a good deal from 11:00 to 5:00 pm service is good but very slow. It took thirty minutes for us to get our burgers and there was only 2 other tables occupied. Burgers are a good size but the side portions are small. The waitress was nice but never came over to see if we needed refills or anything else until we were done. The place was empty so I would have expected faster survive. The regular menu looks good but pricy for what you get. I would say if a couple dollars were knocked off the dishes then it would be worth going back for a second try.

Was expecting an average run of the mill bar & grill but it was definitely much better. We arrived about 1pm on a Saturday for a late lunch. Had fantastic food (mushroom Swiss burger for him, coconut rum BBQ chicken wings for me), great service with lots of friendly people & some amazing signature drinks (highly recommend the voo doo juice).

Went here for a trivia and game show night on a Thursday and the place was packed. I actually had to wait a few minutes before they could seat me.
Got my food a bit slowly — I’m guessing because of overflow — but it was worth the wait. We split a big order of chicken fingers and our friends had wings or burgers and fries.
The chicken fingers were big and tasty and from what I could tell, my friend enjoyed a huge burger which he couldn’t finish.
We did not win the game show trivia championship, but we will next time!

Food was disappointing, service was slow and young children sitting at the bar. We have been to RJ Gators in Central Florida and that one is awesome. When I saw that this restaurant was opening in Bradenton, I couldn’t wait to try it. Big Disappointment in Bradenton… won’t return.

I counted down the days until this restaurant opened back up in Bradenton. It was my first stop when I went back to visit in December and will be my first stop again in March. The service was outstanding. The food was top notch. The gator-​rita was strong (just the way i like it). All in all I could not be more excited to have R. J Gators back open and I am so glad the owners have made sure to pay attention to the details like service and food quality! Run… don’t walk to R.J. Gators ASAP!