Sonny's BBQ — Restaurant in Gainesville

I have seen a common theme throughout the feedback on the Archer Road Gainesville FL location . The Theme is “Stingy” on the portions. I ordered from this location online and went and picked my order up to discover on my 3-meat plate I was missing one order of brisket. My Turkey portion was significantly less than an ounce. I point this out to the person helping me at Sonny’s. He goes back to the cook and comes back with the brisket. It is a smaller portion than what I normally get when I go to 39th street (where I been going steadily for years and continue to go). No mention about ripping me off on the Turkey. I just explain to him there are no new customers. What you have you better keep, especially during these times. I explain to him by not addressing your Customers concerns you will lose them. He just looked at me and said nothing and I left. Once in my car I called inside to the store and asked to speak to the Manager. The GM got on the phone and I explained about the portion size. The GM thanked me for letting him know about it. Case closed. Lol….seriously. You ripped me off by giving half a serving of brisket and not even a quarter of the size of what I was supposed to get in Turkey and your going to try to do better. I paid for the meat and it was not cheap $22.00. So, you are probably asking why did I give them 5-Stars. I am a raving Sonny’s fan and have been for years. The people who work at the Archer location are friendly and professional hard workers. Unfortunately, the GM is at fault at this location not the workers. Workers are only doing what they are told to do. The thought then crossed my mind to report the incident to the Sonny’s on 39th. I did just that and it made a world of difference. The manager immediately agreed there is no new Customers and your one of ours and we are going to keep you a Sonny’s fan. Immediately the manager on duty Ethan Olive, offered to make it right. He told me we value every single one of our Customers. Sonny’s is known for excellent service and giving you what you paid for. I told him over the years their location had done just that and that’s why I decided to give them a call. The GM at this location and the whole team has always done me right. I think he recognized my voice because I definitely recognized his from my several visits to his Sonny’s. In addition, for this reason I give Sonny’s at Archer Rd. a five Stars because I did not want a low rating on the Archer Rd. location to give the other locations which are doing a 5-Star job Management wise a low rating. I would recommend to the GM at Archer Road to listen to your Customers and do the right thing by giving them what they pay for. You have a clean place and your people are your best asset. Lead and teach them to take care of the Customer instead of teaching them to cut corners on portions to make your bottom line look good. Everything at your location is five stars except for your willingness to listen and to hear what your Customers are saying. When your Customers are telling you your being stingy on portions or you gave them 1/4 of what they were supposed to get, then it’s time to start giving your customers what they pay their hard earned...

My wife and I went to this location on Saturday for lunch. Our server was fantastic so my review has nothing to do with our server. My review has to do with the food as well as the management. The restaurant was not full or busy by any means. For some odd reason it took over 20 minutes for my wife and I to get our food. My wife ordered the new Fried Green Tomato BLT and I had the Whole Hog Sandwich. Our food finally arrived and my wife’s sandwich appeared to have been smashed. It had little bread and the tomatoes were soggy and there were very little tomatoes at all on her sandwich. Her lettuce had a black substance on it that looked like mold. The best part is after all this wait our food was only Luke warm. My sandwich never made it to the garlic bread. My meat was literally sitting in the plate and not on the bread at all. My fries were not fries. They were hard end pieces that were not edible. We brough our issues up to our server who sent a manager over to speak with us. The manager came over and basically insulted my wife. He stated to my wife that the sandwich looked find and asked her "what is wrong with it?" My wife showed and explained to him in detail what was wrong with it and he basically blew her off and stated that is how the sandwich is. My wife turned and stated to the manager let me get this correct this sandwich was made to specs and he replied yes. My wife then stated so black moldy substance on my lettuce, smashed bread, and soggy tomatoes on a fried green tomatoes sandwich is acceptable. The manager paused and at that point my wife handed him the sandwich and told him he could eat it because she was not going to. My wife ended up not eating. I then showed him my sandwich and he basically blew me off also. I had asked my server for new fries but for some reason they were never ordered. Our server checked on us after the manager came over and my wife explained to her how rude the manager was. She then stated here is my General Manager. The General Manager stopped by and we yet again explained what happened. He decided to make excuses for everything we had a problem with. First, we were told that the Garlic Bread was not your normal bread and that was why the sandwich was not good. I was then told that you all could not get the normal fries Sonny's serves but it did not quite make sense or match up. I looked at other people’s plates around me and they had fries that I am accustomed to at Sonny's. I am not sure who I got what I did but honestly it is no surprise. This Sonny's has been in decline for years as has every Sonny's in Gainesville. This is why we do not frequent Sonny's and Saturday reminded us why we usually stir clear of...

It's very sad to see this place go downhill like this. I used to come here 7+ years ago with family and friends, but now I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone unless they need to be conviced to stop eating out. Part of my order was missing, food was MUCH less than what the menu said, the quality left a lot wanting. Even the drinks tasted weird. More details below.

I ordered a pulled pork sandwich, competition ribs, mac n cheese, brisket mac n cheese (missing), fried okra, strawberry lemonade, root beer, and vanilla ice cream.

Pulled pork sandwich: that looked like what people joke about bad school lunch look like, small, and on "garlic" bread- really just thick slices of square bread seared on a pan.

Competition ribs: Small, fatty, a lot of skin, and SIGNIFICANTLY less than the roughly 1950 calories advertised even at a glance.

Mac n cheese: Nothing "wrong" with it, but velveeta would've been better.

Fried okra: Tastes off.

Strawberry lemonade: This one freaked me out a little. It had a thicker consistency, syrupy but not as viscous as honey. Tasted like neither strawberry or lemonade.

Root beer & ice cream: Combined in the cup to make a root beer float. I'm not sure if they cut up the ice cream before dropping it in the cup or something but the ice cream was falling apart...