Fudpucker’s

This place is GREAT for quality food and tons of fun for the whole family! There are wait times because it’s such a popular place but very worth the wait. The alligators are a great pass time while you wait, you can tell the gators are very well cared for and the handlers make the experience very safe for the kids. The entertainment, food and fun gets five stars from us and we will definitely be back again and again!

Come here and check out the gators. After you’ve gotten your fill of that… leave. The service… it’s ok. I’m not one to complain about a delay in service on a packed Saturday night during tourist season. But it’s longer than your average applebees. This is where the food comes in. It’s just not that good for the price you are paying. Dry chicken, overbreaded gator, cole slaw from KFC, mac and cheese you could make at home, and over cooked veggies. You obviously use Unilocal… check out the other 100 places in the destin/​fwb if you want good food. If you want a place your kids will enjoy and you’ve lost all sense of taste (and you no longer care about enjoying life) come here.

Great atmosphere, especially for kids! Alligators were fascinating. Fried pickles were yummy. Son and I split the chicken tenders and we had some left over. Bathroom is a little difficult to get to.

Let’s start from this. If you want a free meal, go ahead come here, except you’ll have to wait for over an hour and badger your waitress and then call for managers to get your food on the table :))))
I was super mad after waiting for a food for an hour and my son literally fell asleep waiting for food! I’ll stop right here, because I could t really enjoy anything at this place and not coming back ever! Really doesn’t worth wasting your time here for a poor service…

Food wasn’t great. Service was really slow. Place was so dirty. Definitely more like a bar than a place for kids.
Just a tourist trap. Never again will I go there.

We love Fuddpuckers! We had the best waiter ever Brenden M.. Staff was friendly and food was delicious! So fun for my grandkids to feed the alligators and explore the restaurant! Don’t miss if you are in Destin!

The burgers here were AMAZING! Its kid friendly and tons of gators to feed. Its kid friendly but still fun. The bar has great drinks!

The kids (8 and 3 yrs old) enjoyed seeing the alligators and playing on the small playground. Our server was great. These are the only reasons I would even give two stars. Food overpriced and pretty pathetic quality. There are other places to spend that kind of money and still have happy kids. Won’t go back. (Ex– $ 14 burger and fries– $ 25 for 12 smallish bacon wrapped shrimp and fries– $ 5 grilled cheese kid meal)

You would definitely come here for the experience, not the food quality nor the flavor. The kids love to feed the alligators and see the reptile exhibits. There is also the option of having a picture made with a baby alligator.

If I could give no stars, I would !!! This place is horrible. STAY AWAY. Gummy old shrimp, dirty silverware, old fishy smell and horrible food. Locals told us this was the worse eating place in Destin when we told them we went there. Everything on my plate and my daughters plate was OLD. Old steamed broccoli, gummy old fried shrimp for my shrimp po boy, old macaroni. It looked old and tasted old. I did not want my daughter to eat anything at all on her plate or mine. Do NOT GO HERE. This place is disgusting. You will be mad. My family was with me and they all said there shrimp was gummy and nasty. We had NEVER tasted shrimp like that before. I will never ever go there again in my life.

Do not ever go to this horrible crappy place that taste like turd every thing there is crap if you want to see alligators go somewhere els because this place is BS

This place is the epitome of a tourist trap. And those can sometimes be fun, if the quality of food & service can support the hype. Not so with this restaurant. I honestly would not have come here at all, but I was vacationing with a large group, and someone else picked this location for lunch.
My children seemed to enjoy the gator exhibit and arcade. The attached arcade (Fat Daddy’s) was fun — very standard arcade, great for wasting a little time on a rainy day, perhaps. The gators I was torn on — my kids had fun feeding them, but I felt bad that there were so many animals crowded into such a small enclosure. It seems inhumane.
The food, in a word, was awful. For a place named after a fish (triggerfish, aka «fudpucker») you would expect that their seafood would be good. In the end, the only people in our group who were happy with their meals were those who ordered burgers. How backwards is that?
The hands down worst issue, however, was their lack of knowledge concerning their gluten-​free menu. Three of us, out of a group of twelve, are gluten intolerant (celiacs disease). My daughter in particular can be sick for days if she is exposed. I hate being *that person* who has to be nitpicky about going out to eat, but it sucks to see my kid super sick. The website boasted gluten-​free offerings, but in the end all they truly offered was grilled fish, shrimp, and a few limited sides. And, you know, that’s still not the end of the world — those things done right can be really tasty! What we received, however, was anything but. I paid $ 20 to receive two very small pieces of bland, dry fish & a completely dry baked potato (as in, no butter or toppings). My mother received the same fish with a half a cup of undercooked rice, which she sent back for a potato, for $ 20. My daughter, on the upside, did seem pleased with her shrimp. None of us initially received the pineapple slaw listed on the menu as part of our meal. After asking our waitress why we did not receive the slaw, the manager came out and said the kitchen staff didn’t send it (or butter, sour cream, and cheese for the potatoes) because of the allergy warning on our tickets. So it seems that the kitchen staff was not aware of what was on the gluten-​free menu, or even a basic grasp of what «gluten-​free» means. In the end we ponied up, paid for the meals, and tipped our waitress well, but asked to speak to the manager who had us fill out a comment card. PLEASE DO NOT advertise yourself as gluten-​free if you don’t have a good understanding of what that means. For some people, sure, it’s the latest fad, but for others it is a serious medical issue.
OH, and in the end, I ended up feeling sick & bloated for the rest of the day, so I am positive something on the fish seasoning contaminated me. My mom didn’t eat her fish (just paid $ 20 for a small cup of slaw & a potato), so she didn’t end up feeling sick.
There are so many other GREAT places to eat in Destin that have fantastic food and great gluten-​free offerings. This whole lunch felt like a waste of money & time.

The kids enjoyed the live gators and it passed the time of waiting an hour for a table, but to see the albino gator and the other single one in the wooden cage was sad. The food was just alright and not impressive. Expensive too. Not a whole lot of seafood to chose from, mostly food anybody can get from home and nothing special, like one would expect from a restaurant at the beach.

I would say just to visit this place bc it is neat to see! There are live alligators in water below you, arcades, performances, bars, a mermaid to take pictures with outside ($ 1) and it is built is an interesting way. Aside from the atmosphere I would say everything else is mediocre. I ordered a drink at the bar (it wasnt busy) and the bartender immediately gave me my bill. Definitely not a great move to rush people or not ask if they want another drink. Service at bar was fast once you get the bartenders attention but would was slow. My captain and diet coke was $ 6 and wasnt too strong. Id say it is worth look at though and going for the atmosphere. Try the fried gator!

Save your money. Come in checkout the alligators then walk around a bit. Neat place. Food is where it fell apart. Gator wasn’t very good. Shrimp tasted like dish soap. Blah Hushpuppies.
However Jalapeño burger was good with the fries and had good service.

First the atmosphere is that of a laid back hippie fishing trip if not there for a club night theme… The greeter at the door acted, spoke and reminded me of shaggy from Scooby Doo… The seafood feast was huge, only wished I asked to not receive the gator gumbo… The gumbo was overly spiced which made it tough to choke down on each bite… Also drinks seemed to be watered down… My sons chicken meal looked like a challenge even for myself… My wife fud burger looked delicious… Despite the small drawbacks we finished our food to end up pay near 90 bucks for a party of 3…

Defiantly not my top pick, but with kids this is the place to go. We had an hour and a half wait and it went by fast with all the activities the kids can do like feeding the gators, taking a pic with one, and admiring Pearl the albino gator.
Gator tail with a sweet chili Thai dipping sauce was our app and was good but pricey for the amount given. 15.99 I believe for maybe 10 pieces.
I ordered coconut shrimp and it was pretty dang good considering the source. Lol. The bf and his kids had cheeseburgers and fries that they enjoyed.

It is completely sad to walk in here and see all the alligators enclosed in a tiny, dirty water enclosure. People can pay to hold them, their mouths bound tightly shut while people/​children squeeze them. They have fake fishing poles that people taunt them with as well. Heartbreaking that these owners gladly make money at animals expense.
Loud bar atmosphere with parents drinking and kids screaming and running all over. Overpriced low quality food. Filthy arcade games that look like they never get cleaned.
Please don’t go and support this place.

Five stars for what it is, a bit of a tourist trap with live alligator pond on the lifting of the restaurant. But the food was great! Warm crab dip was awesome for an app, and our server Kacie was very prompt and attentive. Had a group looking for seafood, burgers and other sandwiches and everyone was satisfied.
I also had the alligator gumbo– delicious and very filling.

I came here to eat some gator. I found what I was looking for. You can too!
Fudpucker’s and the Fat Daddy Arcade next door are worth a visit if you’ve never been to a place that has live gators and lots of off the wall gifts to gawk at. Definitely a good place to bring the kids, just don’t come here looking for upscale dressy gourmet — that’s another venue — which suits me just fine, as I’m a t-​shirt and jeans sorta guy.
Here’s that I found in this rather abnormally quiet place this Monday for lunch around 2pm, just before the spring break folks arrive…
Gators, a whole oasis full of little ones, along with a few interesting old-​timers, including an albino.
Pleasant staff who readily answer any questions you have, as well as a full indoor bar, complete with a closed-​circuit television channel that played several old music video favorites of mine from the 80’s. A nice touch — one that goes well with spiced rum.
The alligator poppers appetizer was what I’d expect — gator cooked like shrimp or chicken. I particularly liked the Thai spicy sauce and the buffalo sauce both — though I should have remembered to bring my ghost pepper powder to add some heat. Ah well, no worries, moving on…
I then had the Fudpucker Gator burger — pork and gator together on a tasty bun with a nice remoulade sauce and spiced Cajun fries.
There were a few locals in the place along with a family or two, though that’s what I love about eating in between the lunch hour and dinner — less people — and better service.
Cheers!