Firebirds Wood Fired Grill — Restaurant in Gainesville

I always give a place at least two tries because I understand there can be "off" nights. This place is awful. As the reader can see from the pictures, I and my friend were the only ones sitting at the bar. This review applies to the two times that I have been there, and have been the only one at the bar. We walked in, sat at the bar, and the two female bartenders were so busy talking that seven minutes (yes, I timed it) went by until I had to call them over to order a drink. We go through our first drink, waited 16 minutes (yes, I timed it) and had to call the bartender back to order a second drink. We got our second drink, but our empty glasses were not removed. The bartenders and staff were so busy socializing with each other, that they were ignoring their customers. A customer from the dining room came to the bar to chastise his waitress because she had not returned to the table. One of the bartenders was also busy trying to create some silly drink that tasted like a strawberry smoothy with chocolate sauce smeared on the outside of the glass. It was awful. The first night we went we ordered the tuna appetizer. It came and smelled very fishy. We tried it and it tasted very fishy so we returned it. The rest of our appetizers were cold, but we didn't say anything. The second time we went, we ordered appetizers and they were at least warm, but barely. I think they sat on the kitchen counter waiting for pick up too long. We also ordered dinner. While we waited for it to arrive, we fully expected the bartender to remove our empty glasses and appetizer plates, and ask us if we wanted another drink. Nope. Apparently that is too much to expect (see photos). The dinners arrived and the waitress who brought them stood there waiting for us to take them out of her hand. We told her that the dirty dishes needed to be removed before she could put down our dinner plates. She put our dinners down on another part of the bar, returned to us, and asked, "What would you like me to take away?" You can't fix stupid, folks. We had to tell her EVERYTHING. She took everything away, brought our dinner over, and did not bring silverware. I had to wait for the bartender to stop talking and laughing with her friend in order to get her attention and ask for silverware. Not once did anyone ask us how our dinner was or whether we wanted another drink. I have no idea why waitstaff in this place is not trained properly. Needless to say, I will not...

Oh my word! - actually no. Words cannot express the amazing experience we had tonight at Firebirds.

My husband and I have had a really… hard? Hmm… eventful and emotional few months. He moved into a new job in December that takes him out of the house 10-12 hours per day. We became parents of 2 boys under 2 late January - and I lost my father to heart failure unexpectedly the day I went into labor with our baby. It’s been a spring.

This is the first time we’ve let ourselves get away in a WHILE - and it’s the 4th wedding anniversary from our 10 person backyard COVID ceremony!

We’re staying at a nearby hotel and I did a Google search for prime rib (a favorite of ours - and something I haven’t had in about a year because of the pregnancy) and Firebirds popped up as a suggestion.

I made a reservation on Google and then I called to follow up with a request that they save us a portion of the prime rib (since it’s also Mother’s Day weekend and probably very busy!) I mentioned we were coming for our anniversary dinner.

When we got there - we were taken to a table near the back in a quiet space where there was a beautiful setup waiting for us!! (See picture) we were both SO taken aback and grateful. What a wonderful way to set the mood and the atmosphere. Even if the food had just been “ok” we would have walked out smiling.

The food was NOT just “ok” it was phenomenal.

We started out (after they cracked open our champagne) with their mouthwatering BLT salad and freshly baked crunchy crust, but melt in your mouth perfectly salted bread with whipped butter.

The prime rib was medium rare slow roasted juicy goodness with hot au jus and creamy horseradish.

I had a salt encrusted loaded baked potato and hubby had their mashed potatoes.

Then they gave us a dessert (to take home because we were so full on the delicious dinner)

We were greeted multiple times by the manager who was so very kind and joyful. We also got plenty of well wishes from our server and other staff members as they passed.

We felt like royalty and it made our anniversary dinner memorably spectacular!

We are tremendously grateful and very happy we chose to eat...

This was our first time at a Firedbirds. We decided to sit at the bar for happy hour before our reservation. The bar staff was friendly and fast, our drinks were made well. We ordered the pork belly appetizer. It came at cold, rubbery and no flavor. We sent it back, for $13 it wasn’t even worth eating.

At our table the sever was attentive. We had the lobster Queso, it came out hot and was very tasty. Our salad (blt) was nothing to write home about. It had too much dressing and the dressing was a tad too salty.

For dinner we ordered a steak with lobster and the shrimp pasta. A food runner brought out the steak dish but not the pasta. She asked if we needed any else and I stated we needed our second meal, she looked at us and walked away. Shortly after our server asked what happened and why we didn’t have the pasta dish. We told her it didn’t come out so she said she would have it out in 2 minutes. About 5 minutes later the manager Bret came over. Stated he was sorry, the food would be right out and to ask for him if we needed anything then took off. He stayed clear of our section after that (before he was walking all around with his iPad). After the steak and lobster meal was finished my pasta came out. The pasta was cold and bland. I ate a few bites and asked for a box.

I figured I would just keep drinking my calories so I ordered an espresso martini. A few minutes after I ordered it the waitress came back and stated she didn’t know why it was on the menu they will no longer make that.

I’m At this point we just asked for the check. And she said OK, Like I said the server was nice but she couldn’t read the room that we had a negative experience and didn’t offer to help our experience in any way.

After receiving are almost $200 bill we decided to ask for Brett again. We had also spent $40 at the bar. The food was mediocre at best and they want to charge Michelin star prices for bland and cold food.

Brett did comp us but for going out to try and have a nice meal after almost a year, it was not a good experience or worth the prices.

We will not be back. We can spend that type of money for a very nice...