Cody's Original Roadhouse - Ocala, FL — Restaurant in Florida

Visited on a Monday evening around 7 p.m. We drove a distance to eat specifically at this restaurant for its menu variety & the experience we wanted to share with out of state guests. We were greeted by one of the servers named Daniel. He seated us and after some confusion between servers, he also became our server. We cannot say enough good things about his efforts and service. I was disappointed that the last two times I'd visited including this one that the Michelob Amber Bock draft was not available. As the driver, I then chose not to have an offering from the bar. The 3 others in my party took Daniel up on the 2 for 1 cocktails. Two of the three selections were enjoyed, but an order of Cosmopolitan was not prepared well and was tried by 3 of the four in our group for a consensus. My mother-in-law brought it to Daniel's attention, and he quickly substituted it with another selection without any issue to great satisfaction of my sometimes finicky mother in law. Very quickly the dining area was nearly full. It appeared as though Daniel was then tasked with the lions share of the den (pun intended). His coworker seemed to be struggling with the volume and without much noticeable attention being reduced for his other customers, Daniel threw down numerous assists without sacrificing service to his tables. 3 of the four of us at our table had a combined 20 years of service in the hospitality industry and one topic of our conversations over dinner was the impressive efforts by our server. He seemed to effortlessly pick up the pace to match the demand in an ever changing landscape of the dining room service area.

Two in our party had never dined here before and the menu was overwhelming in selection. Minds were changed multiple times. During the order process, Daniel was very patient, clearly intimately knowledgeable about every selection chosen, and quick to offer suggestions during the ordering flow without a rushed pace or any frustration on his part despite the exceptional number of tables he was juggling and welcoming in around that time.

He didn't panic, get flustered, miss any specific detail or get confused. This was a testament to someone who clearly valued good service and experience. We ordered two Ribeye steaks, the center cut pork chops (x2 8oz offering), a fish plate, and mid meal we ordered a chicken fried chicken plate to go for our son who could not join us for the in restaurant meal. Every plate received high compliments. Those with the steaks marveled at their pleasant surprise of the cut of meat, preparation, and entree portion. Everyone spoke about the salad which came in a large serving bowl mixed tableside. I had the pork chops 1 prepared teriyaki style and one blackened. We all left very full and took leftovers to go. Daniel was quite attentive, and still manged to have friendly conversation with us and several of his surrounding customers to learn a bit about each and have a genuinely friendly exchange with all throughout his duties. Our entire experience was memorable including our server taking the ladies orders first until walking us to the door and holding the door for my elderly father in law while my wife and mother in law powdered their nose before our relatively long drive home. My in-laws remarked at the southern hospitality, the pleasing decor of the restaurant (my father in law has owned car dealerships and is an unapologetic gear head). The restaurant, meal, server, and experience dominated much of our conversation on the drive home.

We were very pleased with the flavorful meal, selection, and value. Still bummed about the Amber Bock situation, but you know what they say..."First world problems". We are just blessed to be able to frequent an establishment when so many are currently unable to due to the famous government shutdown of 2025 now in its 4th week. Thank you to Cody's and our server for helping us think about more positive things over an exceptional meal...

To preface this review, I'd like to give thanks to our server George for his excellent service tonight, he did as best as he could!

To start, we had a party of eight and reserved one (1) hour before. We arrived at 7PM, the time of our reservation. We were told our table was clearing out and would be ready in a few moments. No worries, it's a busy holiday weekend so we totally understand. However, it took about thirty minutes before we were seated. Okay, no rush, we're at our table and we are ready to get started on drinks. Nope, about fifteen minutes go by before any server greets us. Okay, it's pretty busy so I get it, maybe the restaurant is running short of staff today. We were then greeted and put in our drink orders. About ten minutes go by, no drinks. Another server, George, comes up to our table and informs us that while our drink orders were written down, none of them were put in. Great, love that! So George asked us about our drinks and manages to bring them out to us, thank you George! A few minutes later, the original server comes back with our waters and sodas. Sure, let's have two of each drink, it's happy hour anyway so yippie! At this point, it's clear there is a communication issue between staff. But for now, we have drinks and we have finally put in our food order after about an hour of being seated. Finally, we get our bread, and honestly I didn't even know this place served dinner rolls. However, the rolls were doughy in the middle but still edible. Bad batch, that's fine, I'm just here for a couple appetizers and my meal. The appetizers came out and we're good, my mozzarella sticks tasted great, the calamari was good and the scallops were delicious as well. We finish our appetizers and now we eagerly wait for our entree's. And we wait, and wait some more. Nearly two hours after being seated, we finally get our food. However, each steak meal was overcooked badly. Instead of medium rare for most meals, the orders were medium well to well done or burnt for one person. One guest ordered ribs that were dry while some of the sides were questionable in flavor. The table agreed that my meal, the Mushroom Swiss burger, was the most egregious meal. When I saw each meal was overcooked, I decided to cut my burger in half to see if my medium burger was cooked to my asking. Instead of a mouth-watering burger, I got an overcooked and under-seasoned puck of meat. The swiss cheese was not melted, and the best thing about the burger was the mushrooms which had good flavor, but all on the plate instead of the burger. Needless to say, I did not finish my meal. Aspects of the restaurant were good, but the meals alone showed a lack of attention and care and on the chefs part. I cannot imagine being our server, who seemed to be the only person running the section we were seated it. He was attentive, personable, and seemed to be the only one who cared about us. Some plates had the wrong sides and entrees entirely, and we almost got another tables order twice, one of drinks and one of mozzarella sticks. George understood our frustration, and none of our anger was directed towards him. He was as fantastic as he could be while tending to almost fifteen other tables with about 30 to 40 people total. While his service was much appreciated, we as guests were sorely disappointed by the restaurant for the long wait for our drinks and food, the lack of quality for our food, and the miscommunication from staff.

While our table did talk to a manager, she didn't seem to fully grasp our displeasure from the experience. We did put in a good word about George, but that's about all the good words we had. We ended up being at the restaurant for nearly three hours, and it felt as if our time and money had been wasted, even after our discounts were entered. I wish the restaurant the best of luck for future services, but we will most likely not be returning to...

Another excellent roadhouse restaurant. Great food, good fast service, quite the atmosphere. Will be going back.

Well, I went back. And now I have to edit my review. I'm sad to say that I did not have a good experience this time and had to take my food to go in the end.

My husband and I had plans to go see a movie and have dinner and decided to go to Cody's first. Let me preface this edited review by owning and admitting that I have a rather strong anxiety problem. Other people's moods and attitudes have deep impacts on me and particularly my appetite and ability to eat. I realize that's my problem but bear with me to see why I don't believe it was all on me here.

Our waitress was such a sweetheart and very attentive. However our food took an inordinate amount of time to come. People that had arrived after us were leaving before we ever even saw our food. We had a movie to catch and I was getting anxious. My husband asked our sweet waitress if our food was coming soon and she went to check on it. She came back and told us they were bringing it soon. Okay.

The gentleman who brought it out was not happy about it. He tersely asked who had what then walked away without another word. It made me even more nervous and we just asked for boxes so we could attempt to still make it to our movie. She was apologetic and told me the man who came was their GM, Mr. Alvarez and she would let him know how we felt. I saw her speak to him and he seemed more annoyed and still didn't come talk to us about our experience.

Now I work retail, I'm a pharmacy technician and deal with customers who have had and are having a bad experience every day. I know first hand that the customer is not always right. I have had to explain things to offer understanding many times and it often soothes said misunderstandings easily enough. But communication is necessary and deserved.

I got no communication and was therefore left with a poor impression of the management of this establishment. Whether it was intended as shortness toward us or not, there was a misunderstanding that occurred (I hope but I mean maybe he was irritated by us, I just don't know) and I expessed this only to be soundly ignored.

Now I associate Cody's with nasuea and anxiety and will not be going back or suggesting it to anyone else. They already showed me they don't care, but I needed to say my peace anyway.

Second edit, I am recovering this afternoon from a rather violent case of food poisoning that had me wracked with pain, vomiting, and so much more. It was one for the books and Cody's was the only meal I had yesterday. Be...