Ford's Garage Gainesville — Restaurant in Gainesville

Me and the family recently visited Ford's for the first time as a family. I had never been before so I had no idea what to expect. I will say that the decor of the restaurant was not at all what I would expect of a sit-down restaurant. I do understand that the idea behind the aesthetic is a garage or a kind of man cave aesthetic. However, the rough unfinished wall look that they were going for with the grout spilling all over every brick only made me think of how much dust and debris those walls must contain and was very glad that we were not seated next to one. Additionally, the neon green under lighting on most of the low level dividing walls made the food particularly unappetizing to look at anywhere near the lights. The room was extremely noisy, even with less than a third of the place full and otherwise just felt very amateurish.

Tammy our server was very polite and when we had issues with our dinner was quick to correct them after we finally got our food.

Which, was part of the problem. We were in just shy of two hours before closing time. Plenty early enough to not be harassing the servers or cooks by asking for food late. And we ordered pretzels and burgers.

The pretzels were slightly over cooked, but edible. The appetizer came rather quickly and we had high hopes for the evening.

Unfortunately, the three burgers took at least 20 minutes to come to the table and when they did, came without sides for everyone who ordered fries. Yes, French fries, the staple no addition or substitution staple side with the rather staple menu items. Apparently we learned out our food had been waiting on fries for a bit and the server had the decency to try and get us at least part of our food while fresh instead of letting it die entirely in the window.

Unfortunately nothing was cooked right. The spouse and kid ordered medium and received a very rare nearly raw burger. When cut, the burger had a dark exterior, a pink ring, and a light red cool center. Both of theirs were the half pound signature burgers, I ordered the third pound burger. Mine was better cooked, but still barely warm in the middle and was not hot enough when plated to even melt the cheese. I ate min because I was hungry and like mine closer to rare, but the rest of my table had to have theirs refired. The fries came out when we sent the burgers back, so they had food to eat while I ate mine. I swapped fries for the "creamed corn" which turned out to be canned corn with diced onion and jalapeno added and some odd watery sauce that was pretty flavorless except for onion and jalapeno. I won't make that mistake again.

When finally the refires came out, the cook obviously pushed it closer to medium-well than medium but everyone was too hungry and happier to have not-raw hamburger so we finished up.

My partner got the pretzel bun beer cheese burger and was not pleased about how much garlic was used, but was hungry. She was also surprised it had an onion ring, when the menu had said fried onion strings, but said the onion ring was actually pretty good. The kid enjoyed her standard cheeseburger.

The bill for 3 sodas, pretzels and the three burgers was 70$ before tip. It took us much longer to eat due to the misfire in the kitchen and we tried to determine later if that was just an off night, or how Ford's Garage really is. Jury is still out on that one.

Over all, very not impressed. The burger options are almost all some extremely over complicated mess (nearly all have avocado and some had peanut butter???) the decor was more appropriate for a knock off cheap chain theme restaurant including a replica car over the full service bar that made noise, spun it's tires and belched smoke/steam? at one point in the evening, making me glad we weren't at the bar.

With the over-wrought food choices, the prices, and the location you would expect a more mature or thoughtful design for the place. By the prices they want to charge, you would think the food would be better cooked, prepared, plated and checked. I will say the service saved the night, (Thank...

Ford’s garage Gainesville: a 95$ hodge podge in the garage.

First I must say Chloe was a sweetheart and very helpful. She was attentive and checked on us, refilled our drinks and actually made time to make conversation. Very refreshing!

Meal list: Ford’s garage nachos Full rack pork bbq ribs and Mac cheese, jalapeño creamed corn Cherry cokes a bit Chemical-ly but close enough I guess (cherry cokes must be done right! A travesty to have poorly mixed ones but we were thirsty so down the hatches they went. All 4 of them.)

My travel companion got 8oz sirloin, jalapeño creamed corn, and French fries. The fries I tried were crispy and fried well. Great fries!

Chocolate shake was definitely my consideration for dessert but with the way I saw the meal mostly disappointing in certain regards I wasn’t going to risk a 6-10$ milk shake. Though I felt I earned it with my 20 hour travel day. Ugh. (Which is why I was a pig during this meal) 😎🤠😎🏆🎆

Had to salt the nachos. They were Fairly bland overall. The Pico de Gallot was flavorful but no kick at all, the Spanish to English means “peck of the rooster” for goodness sakes. Don’t be afraid to dream with those jalapeños! I hope the jalapeño cream corn makes up for that lack of heat! Nachos were Very stingy on the toppings. Even the bbq sauce was barely a drizzle on a $16.50 plate of nachos?? It’s like they took spoonfuls of toppings and randomly thru them on. Sparingly…. Spooningly??

Pulled pork Meat was scarce and the pico was in one main spot so I sacrificed and let my party eat most of that. Disappointing…

Way too much nachos for way too few toppings. But this is such a common occurrence! It should not be this way for almost 20$ for an appetizer.

Mac and cheese was piping hot But just tasted like …butter. Zero cheese flavor. Very sad for a mac and cheese dish! The cheese taste was the sole reason I ordered it and it was simply butter noodles. Huh??

30$ full rack of ribs comes with one side?? And a seemingly very small portion of ribs for a 30$ dish. Much too small! But they were hot and tasty and crispy so that helped make up for the lack of side(s).

The jalapeño creamed corn had a level 2-3 kick. Fried chip garnishes on top were super greasy and stale. Ugh. And the dish was lukewarm. Whyyyyy? I left it 90% uneaten and still had to pay for it.

In regard to delivery— food was rapid fast. We barely got thru our nachos and our entrees showed up. Nice!

As far as atmosphere The bathrooms had “Tire” sinks. Very cool!

There was what must’ve been a model T Ford outside with cool paint applied to it. The main sign on building is very showy and well done. Easy to spot when hunting this spot down. Blue and purple lights adorn the dining area and large, factory appearance fans move the air around from above. Engine blocks sit atop a long table area and there is so much options for seating. Outside cafe-type tables. Bar area, booths, large corner booths, plenty of tables and chairs. An impressive gift area by the door for souvenirs. Even the tables are stamped ‘officially licensed ford products’. Nice touch!

Overall a fun experience, albeit somewhat hohum food. Service was very nice. I recommend...

hostess obviously annoyed that we asked for a quieter table. told us we would have to wait at least ten minutes to be sat. we agreed. another hostess sat us right away within a few minutes.But then the wait began. Eight minutes before anyone approached our table, greeted us or offered us anything to drink. when our server returned with our beverages, we had questions. she said," oh, you need another minute" and walked off. 6 minutes before she returned. took order, did not respond to any questions- like can i substitute x for z. told me what order came with and then listened to the same question from my mate. accepted his substitutions. is this long? yes this is long. because I worked as a server when I was damn near homeless and a bartender, worked three different jobs.Ihustled .my resume includes the ritz carlton hotel company and restaurant & bar management. fine. i'm hungry. i'll eat whatever. place is not fully sat- but our order took 26 minutes. i had plenty of time to observe. like my silverware got a looking over. decent restaurant grade cutlery wrapped in a clean shop style towel. cute. but it's dingy. i know what silverware that has been soaked, rinsed & run through saniters. it has a hazy cast from food fats. it's a little griss- normally server sidework to polish silverware...or bus..or bar back- but i did it myself. an experiment- a little icewater and the corner of my shop towel napkin. Voilà- sparkly clean. food finally arrives. i could have got a frozen dinner and microwaved it with better result. the gravy tasted canned and had that gummy cornstarch thickener texture. joy. greenbeans just undercooked. mash potato is grainy and absolutely frosted with sliced green onions. all of it warm, not hot. my better half got a montecristo sandwich with mac. he said the mac and cheese was bland and had almost no cheese- like the pasta had cheese sprayed on- dry. unpleasant. warm, not hot. the sandwhich was fried dark- with some actual burned ( black) points on the edges. he said ," it tastes good- but it's deep fried ham and cheese with bacon- it'd be pretty hard to uc that up." server was perfunctory and all of the staff looked unhappy, aggravated, checked out, mad. hard pass. what does FORD stand for? fix or repair daily? found on road dead? i left her a decent tip, 20%. normally i leave 50%. if you're going to treat me like an annoyance and leave my food on the line cooling- I'm not rewarding you. there are good restaurants and cheerful servers. this...