RJ Gators Florida Sea Grill & Bar

Avoid. Great location so it looks enticing. Food is a D… Menu is awful. Not many choices. Frozen seafood that is soaking in grease. Said ‘gulf’ shrimp but they were clearly farm raised. Margaritas were so sour we had to return… Honestly we thought it looked like a fun place but turned out to be very disappointing…

Very disappointing. Pretty much a tourist trap on The Villages. We were told our wait would be 25 — 30 minutes. It was over an hour. The pagers don’t work more than a few feet away but they don’t tell you that. The water was terrible; I could not drink it. Food was mediocre at best. Nobody in our party of 4 was pleased with their meal, and we had 4 different entrees. Our server was very pleasant, though.

Lesson learned: always check your to go order before you take it.
I’m visiting my parents and wasn’t feeling up to going to the tree lighting tonight since the weather was very, very humid for December. My folks stopped for dinner here and got me a to go buffalo chicken sandwich (grilled chicken instead of fried). Only when I opened it up, there was no buffalo sauce at all, and no celery and blue cheese like the menu said.
I would not choose to eat here again based on my experience.

This place is fun if you can get past its location (The Villages-​need I say more). I had lunch with the family during the week and was pleasantly surprised by the weekday specials (nothing over 10 bucks!!!) Food quality is good and the service is excellent. The view of the lake is great if sitting outside is your thing (advisable if the occasional whiff of BenGay bothers you). All joking aside, this place is really great and I know I will be back.

I went here for the first time for my man’s bday. Party of 8, and the drinks were bogo. The mojito was watered down and the bay breeze was better. We got a bunch of different plates and they were great. Really nice burger joint with rocking music. Service was slow but well stock drinks and free salted peanuts helped.

Not bad for a light lunch. Unfortunately seasonal vegetables are not in season this close to summer (?!) BBQ and coconut shrimp were very tasty.

Great sports bar with an excellent menu! Happy hour all day long, all this plus a lake view! Pub grub and full American menu has many choices. I stop here for the wings and ice cold mugs! When the bride comes to collect me, I treat her to dinner! NOTE, hours are 11 AM until 10 PM, not noon!

Must of been an off day, but you get what you pay for. Cheap menu items and 2 for 1 drinks. But drinking a beer from a frosted mug with ice chunks in it doesn’t seem right to me. Ordered the patty melt and the bread wasn’t even toasted. All the food was cold. The fried shrimp was probably smaller than the size of a penny. The taco salad had huge chunks of the iceberg lettuce core that you could probably ride like a surf board if you went out in the man made lake which we over looked. Ran into 2 waitresses that wore their emotions on their sleeves. Other than that, the bar looked cool, but those frosted mugs are too old school for me.

The fact I ate at an establishment with actual «gator», that is alligator, on the menu boggles my mind. I have walked by this place countless times with zero desire to stop and try their greasy offerings. This week, however, I walked by and noticed a brand new granite bar anchoring an outdoor patio overlooking the lake. A lovely site! It invited me to meander on over and take another look at their menu.
Well! With the remodel, came a brand new menu which lured me on in. Sure, it still has all the standard fried fare but also has some interesting fish entrees along with an actual vegetarian section.
We did start with some grease — the onion rings as they sounded like they’d be similar to the bloomin’ onion over at Outback — which are always fun to eat. Sadly, they were the ordinary kind but weren’t bad at all with the tasty dipping sauce accompanying them.
It was happy hour so the house chardonnay was on two for 1 and you generally get very healthy pours in this neck of the woods.
We chose 3 sides for the vegetarian plate: black beans, plantains and hush puppies. I forget what the other options were but think there were another 3 or 4 choices. I can’t complain as the food was totally fine. I will return again for the lakeside seating and to try some of the fish dishes.
For the life of me, however, I don’t really understand how places like these become chains and have followings. Where do the patrons come from?
Oh, and we got the JOY of seeing an actual gator in the lake! He was next to the dock and all these tourists were dangling themselves over for a better look. I won’t lie that we weren’t snickering about whether one would fall in and feed the gator. He seemed to be enjoying letting the tourists toy with him. We yelled out to him that we weren’t eating gator and he shortly meandered on off into the sunset.

I love this place! Come here every time I’m in The Villages. Love the food, ambience and service. Cannot recommend highly enough.

Went there for a «little one free» night out with my husband. You have a choice of indoor or lakefront seating, we were feeling adventurous so we chose outdoors.
I felt like we spent a lot of time waiting on our server. The food was quite pricey so this is definitely a special occasion spot. A burger and fries plate was $ 8.50 and the prices just go up from there.
The scenery was beautiful, the manager was friendly, and the staff were nice. I think we just caught them on an off night.

Needs improvement badly. While the place is brand new, the waitresses could use some lessons in courtesy and etiquette. I had the ribs — sauce on the side with broccoli and a salad. Ribs dry and hard and way to much seasoning. Sauce on the side was so hot (spicy) you couldn’t even eat it. The broccoli was boiled and thrown on the dish… no seasoning, lemon, butter. The salad was brown and wilted and the tomatoes mushy. My husband had the whitefish sandwich and said the fish was good, but the yellow rice was clumpy and sticky. We had ordered ice tea and I ordered a pepsi. For refills she brought the ice tea and brought me water (?). Service was slow and the place was not crowded. This was the first and last time for us.

Pretty average food. Lunch specials are priced just above fast food for good reason. Nice place to grab a drink with friends after a round of golf and catch the game.

I went to RJ Gators the first day I was in the villages. What Can I say. I was excited, southern food and a great upbeat atmosphere, what can go wrong? Nothing. The food was great. I got the gator tail nuggets, which was the first time I had gator. They were great, had great seasoning and tasted really good. Also, the beer was priced really well, so all in all how can you complain?

Was pleasantly surprised by RJ Gators. Our server, Lawrence, was fantastic. Super nice guy, somewhat of a comedian. Food was pretty good. We had burritos, salad and a burger. Started with fried pickles for an appetizer. My drink from the bar was fantastic. Great location near the water and near the Sumter Square. Because it’s a corporate restaurant, you definitely get that feel, but it was still good and fit the bill for lunch. We had a better meal here than we did at many surrounding restaurants that weren’t corporate.

Was here last week. Did not receive our entrees (party of 3) until almost an hour and a half AFTER we sat down. Waitress would walk by and not even ask if we would like more to drink or even apologize for the very long wait. It was almost like we did not even exist! My friend had to ask for another beer THREE times before they finally received one. Manager did end up not charging us for our meal, nor did she charge the countless other tables that were receiving the same service.

Great place for a view and drinks. Would not recommend eating here food pretty below average.

Really great food at a very reasonable price. Loved the atmosphere, the location is fun and the staff are great. Had fun and enjoyed the time at RJ Gator’s!

We are fans for sure. We had a wonderful lunch outside along the water. The Tapizza’s were obviously made with fresh ingredients, simply delicious. The shepherds pie was also excellent. Service was awesome, my drink never went dry. The draft beers were VERY cold, and the selection was ok too. Another great thing about this place was walking off our lunch around the shops of Lake Sumter Landing afterwards. What a great little area for a visit. Live music, a theatre, a wine bar, and lots of unique shops.

I come here every time I come to the villages because the food is good and the beer is cold.
Every mug of draft beer I’ve ever had here has come in a frozen mug. I don’t mean cold. They’re frozen. And I love that. The price point is so reasonable. I think around 5pm I paid $ 3.39 for buy one get one Bud LIghts. How can you beat that.
Food — try the alligator bites. I like them fried, although the bartenders also say get ‘em grilled.
For sure, it is my favorite apres golf spot.