Gators Dockside

OK so I used to eat at gators dockside it from 2008 to 2012. We probably went at least once or twice a week to get the grilled wings as I remember. Haven’t been to one in about four years because the one near Alafaya trail wasn’t the same anymore. The food fell off to me!!! I wanted some good wings while I was in the Winter Park area, so I decided to give this one a chance since the ratings were ok. We walked in and it wasn’t too crowded but the bar was filled up. We got seated pretty quick and drink orders taken pretty fast. It took a minute for the food orders to get taken because the guy was waiting on tables while talking to other employees. It’s all good thou as, we were not in a rush this time. We got our food out in about 10 min and, it was exactly what we ordered and tasted good. They seem to have a lot of employees on the particular shift but it was getting crowded so I will give them that. I was going to say at first a lot of employees were just standing and chatting around. I didn’t like the appearance of the restaurant though. That’s the only flaw I would say is that they need a restaurant designer or upgrades. They have my business again thou. At least this one does

Family-​friendly bar & restaurant with solid service and average food. If you can think of it, chances are Gators has it on their menu… it’s damn extensive (like Cheesecake Factory in having a little bit of everything, but not in quality) and probably the reason why the kitchen doesn’t do a very good job executing it. We find that wings sometimes are precooked and not fried to order which makes it very dry. Ahi tuna is pretty bad (not fresh and overcooked), so don’t even think about it.
Overall, food is average, service is good. It’s a good place for corralling your kids and still have a drink.

Always good service and excellent food no matter what hour.
Great place to sit down and have a couple of cold ones while watching the fights.!!

I ordered the fried shrimp basket and I felt that the shrimp had too much breading and not enough flavor. The fries were on the softer side, not really crisp. I didn’t try the coleslaw because it looked like soup. The fried calamari was fine. My boyfriend ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich and asked for no tomato, and he received tomato but no pickles or onions, which were supposed to come with the sandwich. It was a little more expensive than I expected it to be as well.
However, the service was pretty good. We had two other people other than the server bring food to the table and ask us if we needed anything else. Our server was also friendly and attentive. The atmosphere was decent and clean. It’s just typical American food, bland and fattening. I also wish there were more vegetarian options but I guess I should have expected the options there were from this type of restaurant.

Solid neighbor family friendly sports bar. I love coming here with other dads and their sons for to watch a great game and to have good food. When the game is too much of a headache and making a mess at home is a headache come here and return home quickly after the game is over with a full belly and still with a full wallet.

LOVE the wings. My favorite is the 4 alarm suicide. Also love the onion petals. Actually I haven’t had anything there I didn’t like. Service is good, and it’s a very fun, casual atmosphere.

These two stars have nothing to do with the food or any experience I’ve had at gators. Normally a 4 star review as they make some pretty fine wings. My frustration comes from their website and getting a message from
keeps popping up and won’t go away without me having to put in my phone number and other details. Please fix this.

Good food, always busy. Monday tonight is totally worth it for the price you pay. Prime location but try to arrive early, so that you had to hunt for parking. I recommend using different flavors for wing night.

We were in the area visiting family and Gators Dockside was recommended for great wings. Now I do need to say we got take out so I did not get the full experience. (That is why I am only going to 4 stars.) We got five different flavors and each one was great. I especially liked the Chipotle Honey BBQ.
The wings were cooked well. The meat was juicy inside. They were not greasy. This is a pet peeve for me since many places that «specialize» in wings cook too much at once, and they come out swimming in cooking oil. — Well done. Then they were sauced just right. I wish we had these wings back home.
I am looking forward to coming back again. Maybe next time we will come in for the full experience. Either way, this place is on our list for a return visit when we are in town.

We went over the weekend for lunch with a total of 7 people. We had no wait and the restaurant was not very busy. It is a typical bar food type place however they do have a lot of other options.
We ordered 2 appetizers for the table, nachos and the combo platter that had a few different choices. Both were pretty decent, typical bar type food.
My husband ordered a cobb salad, which was huge and he said he really enjoyed it. I ordered wings and a side salad. The salad came out wrong, I asked for no onions and they had them but the waitress quickly realized it and took it back right away. It only took a few minutes to fix. The food was hot and it was actually really tasty.
I saw that there was two rooms for seating along with lots of televisions with sports on. I also noticed that they had different specials depending on the night but none that I saw on the weekend. I noticed some other people’s reviews about the service and it may have just been the night or the server.
Our was very friendly and checked on us a few times. She even brought me a refill of my ice tea without me asking, which is an A plus in my book! Like I said, we had 7 of us, all ordering and needing different things and she took great care of us.
Its a good place to go for some bar type food. There seems to be something for everyone to order, burgers, salads, wings, sandwich’s and so on. It is really close to our friends home so I am sure we will be going back at some point.
My only concern is the parking, it shares the lot with a few other businesses, a hair salon for one, so the parking was definitely tight. Luckily we found a spot right away but I could see how it could be a challenge sometimes.

Terrible service food was ok but took 45 minutes and the place was empty except for our table and a few people at the bar. We asked to speak to the manager and Steve came to our table. I don’t even think he was the manager because he was so arrogant. If you want ok good and crappy service with make believe managers, then this is your place.

Went to this Gators for the UFC fights and ordered a «Grand Daddy» pitcher of Budweiser. The waitress instead brought Bud Light, not a huge issue in and of itself, but I mentioned it to her immediately and she asked me how I knew, I explained that it has a quite obvious taste difference and color. She said she would check with the bartender, when she returned she said the bartender doesn’t remember but is pretty sure it was Budweiser. I asked her to just bring me a pint of Budweiser for comparison, once it got to the table I showed her the obvious color discrepancy and explained there was a clear taste difference. She now said «I don’t know what you want me to tell you, I watched the bartender pour them both out of the same tap» which is a blatant lie as early she had to check with the bartender and even the bartender said she wasn’t 100%. Then she proceeded to tell me that their draft beer is watered down to help with longer storage, which again is just incorrect. Then finally she said that often beer from the same tap can taste different for many reasons. Which again is just a blatant lie.
Waitress charged me for the pint and full price for the pitcher, which in all honestly was fine, and I still tipped 20% to show I wasn’t complaining to get a free beer but to bring something to her attention in a courteous manner. Then after I paid my bill, mind you 20% tip, I asked to talk to the manager and was told «it may be awhile as we are closing soon so he’s pretty busy»
Watched every UFC event here but can say that this was so frustrating and such a poor experience that I probably will not return.

Hot garlic grilled wings are awesome! 65 calories per wing. Make sure you ask for them to be re-​tossed. Definitely an older location but They just upgraded the tv’s and thank god no more karaōke after 10pm. Could barely hear yourself talk.

My husband and I came here for the first time tonight after searching for a good wings place to replace our favorite back in Colorado. Sadly, the Colorado place did broasted wings, and I don’t think we’re going to easily find broasted chicken here, at least not from my preliminary web searches. (If anyone knows a place, let me know!) But in any case, we really enjoyed the wings and the ribs here and will be back.
We split a half order of the baby back ribs with the sweet BBQ sauce. Our server warned us that the ribs «had a little kick» because of the spices dry rubbed onto the ribs themselves – and we told her that was just fine! The ribs were great: falling off the bone, lots of sauce, and the spiciness level was just right. They come with sides of coleslaw (meh), garlic toast (meh), and french fries (decent but your average fries, honestly). But we weren’t there for the sides. We were there for meat on sticks. And these ribs delivered.
We had started off with a half order of fried pickles; the half order doesn’t appear on the menu, but when our server noted that I asked my husband «will you eat any fried pickles if I get some?» she did say, «You can actually get a half order.» It was the perfect size, to be honest. Maybe about 10 – 12 fried pickles came in the half order and they were hot just out of the fryer, nicely breaded, and with a good cup of ranch dressing on the side to dip them in. Definitely if you like fried pickles, try these guys. They were great.
The wings were pretty good as well – it seems the sauce you choose really makes all the difference. When you get an order of 10 wings, you can split it up into two sauces, so 5 wings in one sauce, 5 in another. This allowed us to get two orders of 10 wings with 4 different sauces total, so we could try a good variety of sauces. Here’s what we tried:
Medium BBQ: Great. Not too spicy, in fact. Nice and thick and stayed on the wings well.
Parmesan Garlic: Ehhh, just okay. Really it only tasted like wings basted in butter. No real parmesan or garlic flavor. I’d skip this one to be honest.
Gator’s Own Scooter: This was really good. It tasted to me like a traditional hot wing sauce mixed with sweet Thai chili – it was a little like buffalo wing flavor but with a sweetness to it. I’d definitely get this again.
Traditional: Tastes like your average Frank’s Red Hot sauce but cut with a lot of butter. Probably wouldn’t get again.
We got our wings buffalo style. You can get three different styles, including grilled and breaded, and you can get all flats or all drumsticks for a dollar more. Sauce is extra on the side, as is celery, but I never use either and so I felt better about not throwing them away/​asking them to not have to bring them out.
Our server brought by a dessert menu for us to look at even though we were stuffed. There were a few good looking options on there, including a salted caramel cake and a peanut butter chocolate pie. Maybe next time when we don’t stuff ourselves with a variety of meats.
They advertise an all-​you-​can eat wing special on Mondays, which looked like a good option (around $ 12). The interior was bright and spacious. Lots of TVs, several arcade games you could play. Lots of families around us with kids, so definitely not a seedy sports bar.
Oh, and they have one of the more interesting flavors for wings that I’ve seen: Peanut butter and jelly! The server said it’s the Thai chili sauce mixed with peanut butter, or something like it. I tried a sample and it was not bad – sweet, and there were chunks of peanut in it. I’d try a few wings in this sauce sometime and see if they were good.
Very tasty – we’ll be back for sure!

Great food and great service! They pay attention to the details. The entryway to the business is always clean, and so is the restaurant.

I’ve been twice in the past couple months! Love the food. Staff is friendly.
*They also sponsored my sons preschool soccer league! If you haven’t been, check them out! You will enjoy!

I never really been to many bar and grill types of places but i been to gators about 4 times allready and they have great sandwiches and burgers for sure!!! An very very delishous appetizers and im a very picky eater but i loved that place :)highly reccomended for sure :)

Service was good but the food was just ok. I tried the mozzarella sticks, crab dip with pita, and the Cajun chicken pasta. The crab dip was pretty good but everything else was kinda below par. My pasta had to be reheated because it came out cold and needed more sauce. They also do not have late night specials on the weekends which is pretty silly. The food didn’t take too long to come out though.

I love the fact that this location has so many TV’s for any sport you want to watch. They also have great wings — grilled, fried, or breaded — and a multitude of sauces. I haven’t eaten anything other than the wings here (why would you?) and my only complaint is that their beer selection really sucks. You’d think they’d catch up to the times and at least have some Cigar City or Dogfish Head, or anything other than domestic stuff/​Budweiser/​Coors/​Miller.
The parking lot gets packed when it’s busy, and it definitely gets packed during peak season (i.e., football games), but it’s a great place to sit back and watch a baseball game or whatever sport you prefer.
Lastly, the setup is such that you can bring your kids and sit on the far left side, and you’d never even notice the bar area packed with loud, obnoxious, screaming football fans. Or you can head to the bar and play pool or other games. All in all, it’s a better-​than-​average sports bar where you can also bring the family.

The grilled wings were really tasty and the waitstaff was friendly and attentive. I do not recommend their cosmos. I asked for Grey Goose which I got the but the juice wasn’t cranberry… it was some dreadful Hawaiian Punch type deal and drinking it made me think of bathroom cleaner. It was terrible and I had to send it back. I wasn’t wowed by the place by any means but it was pretty decent and I will be back for the Thursday trivia night.