Gator Q BBQ Wings & Things

Great service. Delicious wings with meat falling off bones. Owners are super-​nice, and with these quality wings they are sure to go far.

What an experience. Loved the plethera of sauces. I would give it a 5 based upon experience and fun stuff on the menu. But I have to be honest, I was not a huge fan of the smoked/​dry rub wings or the pork egg rolls.

Unlike most people who have reviewed Gator Q here, I was less than impressed. Granted, I’ve only dined here once, but neither my friend nor I were very impressed at all, honestly. We ate here on a Saturday night around 7:30pm and there were a number of other patrons inside eating so I don’t feel we were there too close to closing time, either. While the service was both very polite and prompt, I don’t see why people are excited – or even pleased with – the BBQ itself. We ordered chicken wings which we selected a mild BBQ sauce for and ranch dressing. The wings came out with the BBQ sauce not cooked on them as I’ve always had wings before, but apparently brushed on cold after cooking. The sauce was cold, thick, and really more like a marina sauce than any BBQ type sauce I’ve ever had. Neither of us liked it at all.
We both had ordered pulled pork sandwiches which came out promptly but I’d asked for North Carolina-​style BBQ sauce with mine which was served on the side in a small tub and was as runny as water. I expected a mustard/​vinegar-​based sauce but this was more like a marinade than a sauce. I asked for another sauce and chose the «sweet Carolina BBQ sauce» in hopes it would be thicker and it was much like the wings’ sauce: too sweet, too tomato-​based, and no other real flavors coming through. The pulled pork meat itself was ok, but not exceptional. I’d requested mac and cheese as my side and was very surprised it came out cold and more like a pasta salad than Southern mac and cheese I’ve had anywhere. The sweet tea at least was very good.
I would like to be able to recommend this restaurant: the people there are very nice and High Springs needs something like this, but per the other reviews here I was really expecting something like Akins’ in Bell or Pearl BBQ down in Micanopy – both of which are great – but the food here was very. .. odd. It wasn’t like something from a chain, it may well have been home-​made, but it just wasn’t very good. Perhaps they were having an off night or something and I expect I will try them again as they deserve another chance but still, not impressed this time around.

Fantastic BBQ! Friendly and helpful staff. Everything we had there was good. The wings where the best wings I have ever had. The BBQ sauce was all homemade and tasty. Everything was juicy. Everyone in our group thought it was WAY better than the local BBQ chains. Even though I am still full I can’t wait to go back. :)

Good bbq with reasonable prices. I will return.

They have great BBQ. Lots of different sauce options — they make all of the onsite. The onion rings are also excellent. My husband likes the smoked wings. If you like crispy wings be sure to let them know, otherwise they’re not crispy. Nice helpful staff!

This place is awesome. everything is delicious and the owner couldn’t be a nicer guy. I had the beef brisket, which was a special, so they don’t have it every night, but it was sheer perfection. Also, I had a wing, served to me as a sample, and it couldn’t have been better.
As soon as i got back to my hotel, I hopped on Unilocal,and was surprised to see this place has a 4 star rating. Who could possiby rank it less than 5 stars?
next time and every time i am in the area, I’ll be back!

My wife and I ordered take out from Gator Q last week. I can mostly only speak to the food, but the atmosphere is basically just what you would expect from a North Central Florida BBQ joint in a strip mall. There is, as others have said, Gator memorabilia everywhere, and the simple layout of tables and chairs keeps the focus on the food.
We both ordered pulled pork (platter for me, sandwich for her, and also a BBQ egg roll) and in hindsight I wish we would have branched out more with the variety of meats. The pulled pork had a smoky flavor but the flavor kind of stopped there. I would prefer if it had a little more spice or seasoning to it but thankfully there are many styles of BBQ sauce to accompany the meat. I do love that they leave the meat without sauce. Everyone has their preference and it’s much easier to try the meat and add sauce if needed than it is to suffer through a bunch of pork that is drowning in an unknown sauce that I may not even like! The North Carolina Sweet sauce is a good classic. We also tried Cockamamie that was kind of meh, it reminded me of thousand island dressing in a way. They have 10 different sauces so I’ll be sure to try others in the future.
I had fries and mac and cheese for side items. The fries were standard crinkle cut but they gave me a ton so I was happy. The mac and cheese was very good. It was almost like a cheese casserole with macaroni in it. It’s very rich and I wouldn’t want to eat too much of it, but it’s a perfect sidekick for the meat. My wife had cole slaw with the intention of putting some on her sandwich but the style of the cole slaw just didn’t suit this. I didn’t try it because I despise all things cole slaw, but my wife pretty much shared Johnny’s opinion. It’s too chunky and too dry.
As for the Texas toast, I was a little worried after reading the reviews from Johnny and T.S., but they may have changed the bread they use because it was definitely more of a traditional Texas toast that I’m used to and not just a piece of buttered/​seasoned bread. It wasn’t mind blowing but definitely not disappointing.
I’ll call this a 3.5 and round up to 4 based on convenience for us, and also the lack of competition in High Springs. I definitely wouldn’t drive from Gainesville just to go here, but it’s worth a drive from Alachua, or try it as a pit stop on your way to/​from one of the springs.

Egg rolls were not as great as others touted however, the Sloppy Q was good and the coleslaw was the best I’ve ever had! Love the Brette’s Special Reserve and Cockamamie sauces. Service could be better.

Great little BBQ place in High Springs. Read all the glowing reviews and so I had to try the place out.
As soon as you drive up to the strip mall location, you realize how tiny this place really is. And as soon as you walk in, you get sucked into all the Florida Gator memorabilia they have around. The service was fantastic (especially the owner of the place) She was great. She asked if it was our first time and even brought out an order of smoked wings for us to try (awesome). The service alone is 5 stars.
For the food, me and my brother wanted to try everything. We got an order of bbq pork egg rolls, smoked wings, and buffalo wings. (Forgot the sweet tea — dang). I ordered the 3 ribs and pulled pork platter with coleslaw and fries. He got the Pulled Pork, chicken, and turkey platter with fries and mac-​n-​cheese. The platters come with texas toast as well.
The bbq pork egg rolls were… amazing. It’s so unique, but it was also SO good. These other reviews arent lying… this is a must get. ($ 1.89 each) The buffalo wings were standard wings but they still tasted good. The smoked wings were great. They were tender and smoked using only dry rub.
Then our platters came out and the owner brought us sample cups of all the sauces they have. (They have so many including a variety of sweet, spicy, and creamy sauces — they also make their own ranch and blue cheese). All their bbq is dry-​rubbed. The ribs were good but I’ve had better. The pulled pork was also good, but were just a little dry. The smoked chicken was so tender and fell off the bone. Best smoked chicken I’ve ever tried (Sonny’s could learn a thing or two). Smoked turkey was good and it’s chopped, not pulled. The Texas toast was more like normal buttered slices of toasted bread. French fries are always great. The mac-​n-​cheese wasn’t too good. It wasn’t very cheesy at all. I didn’t like the coleslaw because it was chopped instead of shredded and wasn’t sauced enough.
Overall, the smoked foods were pretty good. The combination platters are decently priced (around $ 11). The wings were good and the egg rolls. Do i really need to bring talk about how good they were again? Well worth the drive. These people offered the best service of any place I’ve been to. Good stuff.

This place is just incredible, and well worth the drive. They smoke most of their food — and the taste really comes through. While the menu might look like any other BBQ place, the way it is prepared is slightly different. For example, the mac & cheese is slightly creamier — white-​ish sauce, with tiny specs of spice. Perfect. The cole slaw is served with chunky pieces of veggies, not the usual diced mess we see everywhere else. And the sweet tea… well, that’s pretty much your standard sweet tea. Except this place does that right, too (I’m looking at YOU, BubbaQue).
The wings are slightly larger than most places offer, and come fried or smoked — there might be a third option I’m forgetting. I’ve had both. The smoked wings and ribs fall off the bone. And the place isn’t shy about letting you sample their sauces — I’ll save the shpeal for them to get on about if you choose to go there. All are mixed there and not store bought — they’ll even bottle some up and sell them you to.
And oh, the BBQ Pulled Pork Egg Rolls. Very impressive menu item. I just ate one and it was probably the reason I was too full to finish everything else.
The décor is all Gator memorabilia. The bathrooms are large, and the sink (in the men’s room, anyway) features a large splashy faucet that almost gave me an unsolicited shower when I first went in. After I was covered in various sauces and animal remains, I realized that this was much more than a perceived inconvenience, and was something that had been planned for well in advance. The selection of that splashy spicket had no doubt been chosen due to its highly efficiency rinsing-​to-​the-​elbows capability.
This place is in a small strip mall. With Alachua behind you, it is on that short stretch of road where 441 curves right coming into High Springs — that little side road that goes straight to US 41 and the Great Outdoors Restaurant (which is now slightly less great due to Gator Q’s proximity).
One minor thing that bugged me though — the Texas toast ain’t what anyone I know considers Texas toast. It looked like plain toasted, non-​buttered Wonderbread. Not a big deal, but then again I did say preparations were slightly different at this place. It just looks a little odd with heaping piles of pulled pork between it.
They don’t have a beer & wine license, but apparently they are fine with you bringing in your own.
Easily a 5 star joint.