Review of Gator’s Bar-B-Q & Wings in Daytona Beach, Florida

Gator’s Bar-B-Q and Wings

1500 W. International Speedway Boulevard

Daytona Beach, Florida 32114

(386) 254-2867

www.gatorsbarbqandwings.com

Gator's Storefront

In earshot but not quite sight of the Daytona International Speedway was the sight of a favorite restaurant of mine. In early 2009 I was so sadden to see that they had closed down. The location was soon replaced with Gator’s Bar-B-Q and Wings. It took me almost a full year to decide to stop in and give them a try, and man am I glad I did. When you step into ‘Gator’s’ you can see the set up is like any other sports bar. There is a full liquor bar to the right, dozens of televisions, an outdoor sitting area with high-top tables, and the usual banners of either your favorite team or the beer specials of the day. But this is not just another ordinary sports bar; they have a little something extra.

Bar Area

Sitting there in the dining area adjacent to the bar area, I was a little anxious to have our server finally help us. But, I did give her a little slack as to the fact that she was the only server and had a table that was demanding a lot of her time. She was kind and introduced herself in passing by our table as Melissa. She did stop long enough to take our drink order, and took off to get those while we looked at the menu. Looking at the menu we saw that Gator’s had several appetizers we wanted to try, good thing they have a ‘create your own sampler’. You have the option of any three for $12.99 or any four for $14.99. We settled on the any three, and chose the fried mac n cheese, the corn nuggets, and the fried mushrooms. It did not take long for this huge platter of starters to come out. With the corn nuggets and the fried mac n cheese, we got the usual. If you have had either one of these items anywhere, then you will have the exact item here, nothing special. But the fried mushrooms were fantastic, they were fresh and homemade. When Melissa was near the table again I asked her about the mushrooms and she did confirm that they are homemade and fresh. They use their own batter and never freeze them, thus creating a great fried mushroom.

Sampler Platter

We took a bit of time looking into what our main course would be, and I was torn between the wings and the one pound cheeseburger. After looking deeper into the menu I saw the pulled pork sandwich that is served on a pretzel roll for $7.99. I order this with the thought in mind, if you have Bar-B-Q or Wings in your restaurant name and on the sign outside, go with what they know. For the fact that the place was now virtually empty, I thought it took a little long for the food to come out. Not to sound like it took a long time, but it just took a little bit long than I thought it would. BUT, it was very much worth the wait. While we started to eat the server was cleaning tables from the lunch rush and letting us know about the poker nights, wing and beer specials, and the ladies night that Gator’s has. Back to the Bar-B-Q sandwich, it was moist but not sloppy. Thick and juicy, with a hint of a smokey flavor. The fries that came with it were not to my liking, but my friend said he thought they were great. The fries were not bad, and did seem to be fresh, just not my kind of fry.

Sandwich & Fries

If you are either vacationing at Daytona Beach or there for the races, you should definitely stop by Gator’s Bar-B-Q and Wings. If you use a GPS with this address you will get a Sonny’s B-B-Q instead of Gator’s. The menu is very extensive, with items from pizza, bar-b-q, wings, burgers, gyros, steak, ribs, several different salads and also different sandwiches. Overall the items are a little bit more than other restaurants, however you will not leave hungry and will probably take food home with you…. I did. The menu that I looked at does not have a specific kids section but this is not a place I would recommend to bring a child after lunchtime. For a couple of people you should expect to spend over $25 including tip, this is not with either liquor or beer, but with soda. Hmmm, the race is coming up…. I may be back there sooner than I thought. 

Gator's Porch

Review by Pie, email:  pie@piesplate.com