Well this Sonnys was recently refurbished and had just reopened last week or earlier this week.. layout still the same, just decor and walls were redone to reflect the newer style that sonnys was going for. They were running a few specials , opted for the AYCE sliced pork. coleslaw and beans were good. Sonnys food just doesnt hit like it used to,was still good, the barbecue sauces saved the meal and gave it flavor. We were sat down right away, wasnt too busy, our waitress was friendly and checked on our table a few times.and made sure to bring sliced pork out when we got low. The only negative thing that we dealt with was we did not like the cheese curd appetizer, wasnt like other cheese curds we have had at other restaurants, too crunchy, some had no cheese, just the crusty end bits left, it was like it was the last batch in the bag that got thrown in the fryer. And possibly left in the fryer too long. We wont be ordering those again All and all it was a pleasant experience. Other than the appetizer issue. read more

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We needed a place to stop quickly along the way and have a meal. This was an excellent choice. Fast service and, most importantly, very delicious food. Now this is a new spot on the map where we'll be stopping. read more

Sonny's BBQ - Half Chicken - Barbeque Near Me - Gainesville, Florida

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We came in on a busier Thursday night.. Heather was our server and let me tell you the service was impeccable!! She suggested the Coca Cola burnt ends which is a seasonal dish and they were bomb! What a good experience, we have been to others in the area and were not impressed but, we will definitely be returning! Thank you so much for the nice little date night dinner spot!! read more

We love this Sonny's. It's on our Must Go List when in Gainesville. This is the original Sonny's and the best one. Our server, Amy , was fantastic. Ask for her. She's a doll. read more

1/17/26 This is the second time going to that shythole ordering the Brisket, the first time the brisket was chopped up like chicken salad, dry and tasteless. I gave them another try and spoke to the manager about the supposed brisket trying to figure out why they insisted on destroying a beautiful, expensive cut of meat. I asked for this order to be sliced, I looked at the order before I left, it looked alright but i wanted a bit of fat, no luck. Got home and it tasted like cardboard and no ammount of sauce could save that bland disgusting order. This is the Sonny's on Waldo rd. read more

Our food was amazing. The pulled pork perfectly cooked. Heather our server did a great job. Great attitude

HEATHER WAS AMAZING!!! i told her, out of all the sonny's I've been too. The food here was spectacular. Definitely coming again with my fiance. The atmosphere here make me feel like home. I appreciate the service HEATHER thank you read more

Heather was fantastic! Excellent service! Very friendly! Wonderful meal! Decorum nice!

This meal was terrible again. I ordered 2 baby back lunch meals. My meat was burnt and hard. It should be tender and tear off the bone. I couldn't eat 2/3 of my meal because my sweet potato wasn't cooked tender on one side. My food tasted as if it had been re-warmed from another time. My husband didn't get his baked beans ordered. Sonny's do better please. read more

Ordered online and food wasn't ready when i arrived at specified time. Waited 25-30 minutes just for them to realize they had my order set aside and mislabeled. So i waited long and my food was cold. No effort was made to correct the issue. Food was still good but a coupon or free side would have been nice for the inconvenience. read more

Great service and management here. Food is perfec! If you drive by and don't stop in your taste buds are missing out on a very delicious experience! read more

So, I have been to this Sonny's many times in the past, and it has always been good. This time around, I was with a large group of people... we took up an entire side of the restaurant. So imagine medium levels of chaos, since that is just the way things are with a group that large. They were out of a number of things (it was a Sunday evening, close to the end of the day for them... not that surprising) including the country eggrolls that I asked for. No big deal, I can switch around, and I get it... they were not prepared for a large group like this. Instead I went for the smoked wings and corn nuggets. The wings were good... I kind of wish they had a sauce to go with the wings, but no matter... they are still tasty. The corn nuggets were excellent as always. I truly believe that Sonny's has the best corn nuggets of any restaurant I have ever been to that has them. We ate our food, caused mayhem, then cleaned up our tables afterwards because no wait staff deserves that kind of mess. Remember folks, always take care of your wait staff if you are a large group, because just handling all of your group is a daunting task. read more

Sonny's began at this place in Gainesville! We started with onion rings. Great sauce came with them. Carolina pork sandwich was great. Wife had the cob salad with brisket. The salad was the star. Cold crispy iceberg lettuce with lots of toppings. Amy, our server, was so friendly and helpful. read more

heather was amazing and took really good care of us Would come back just because of her But food was amazing and service was fast

This is the original location for Sonny's. Food is good although sides are small portions for the price. BBQ is not quite up to PAR compared to other places. Wife's food was not quite right but other orders were correct. Service was good and friendly staff. They were busy so took 35 minutes to get food. The BBQ pork was good, chicken sandwich was OK. Great mac n cheese. Meat combo trio was very good. Ribs are very good. BBQ sauces are pretty good. Probably needs some updating. Plenty of parking. It's a good place and one of the only BBQ spots in that area. read more

Sonny's BBQ - Original Sonny's - Barbeque Near Me - Gainesville, Florida

Again we enjoyed this place to dine in with family and friends. Nostalgic memories as we did this as kids

Great food and great service Lilly was so nice Will come again for sure. Always have a great time read more

Our server Caitlyn was wonderful and our food came out super quick! We're always happy to come visit this Sonny's location!

Great tasting food and get your moneys worth. Have ate in several Sonny's but wanted to go to the original restaurant. Nice staff and attentive. read more

Hard No. Ordered take out and upon showing up I was told they were out of wings. No problem but they didn't give me a refund. The employee had to go to the back to get help from a manager which took an eternity. Why wasn't a refund issued before I arrived (I paid online) or why wasn't the employee empowered to issued refunds? I also noticed the drink I paid for was missing but another employee was kind enough to get it for me when I asked. After spending twenty five minutes inside the restaurant to get a pickup order that was ready I got home to find several things missing. Not a single BBQ sauce was included. Not.A.One. Odd from a BBQ restaurant. So I had bone dry pulled chicken to dine on. Yippee. The husband had bone dry ribs. No sides came with my food....just a hunk of cornbread without butter. I did order sides. In fact I was required to. Didn't the person packing my food find it odd the box only had chicken and cornbread? With my donut holes there was none of the "signature sweet tea glaze" that is supposed to come with them not that it mattered. They were burnt to a crisp. Mind you I tipped these people $10 for ruining my overpriced dinner. I began tipping on takeout orders during Covid but I think it's time to stop when people cannot be bothered to even try. I learned my lesson. I won't be back. read more

The food was delicious and the delivery was great. Service was awesome. Portion sizes were amazing and unexpectedly huge.

Always love stopping by Sonny's for the best BBQ in the Southeastern US! Service by Heather was excellent, and my Smokin' Gun sandwich delicious read more

Absolutely enjoyed my meal tonight. Heather was very sweet and attentive. She checked on me regularly and made my dining experience pleasant. Dining alone can be a drag, but Heather was amazing. read more

The meat was okay, the sides Mac and cheese were nothing special. I ordered the brisket dinner. It cost $20. It contained four slices of brisket, pretty fatty. The sides were tiny. I ate it and felt hunger afterwards. I probably won't go back. read more

It's such a homie vibe here. We always bring the whole family when we come that way. Get the brisket we love it. The servers are so good to the kids as well read more

I drive trucks and when i come thru Gainesville which is my home town I stop at the best Sonny's in the country. The staff is sweet along with my order or sweet bbq. read more

Sonny's BBQ - My rib plate - Barbeque Near Me - Gainesville, Florida

Alexis at Sonny's on Waldo Rd is great. Always has a big smile and cheerfully greets me and my staff. She's a 10 out of 10, or in this case, 5 Stars! read more

The food was very delicious and Roxanne was helpful at making sure I had everything I needed. I will definitely be back.

The food was delicious. I eat from Sonny's often and it's always great!!! I always enjoy Sonny's no matter what I get.

Great afternoon of good food with co-workers and will definitely eat from this restaurant again soon.​

We had a work great lunch catered from Sonny's ! The baked beans, rotisserie chicken, garlic bread and coleslaw was top notch! Everything was delicious! read more

This is the original location, which is pretty cool. I would stop by here coming in and out of the GNV airport. The food is consistently good, cute and clean ambiance, great service. Love this spot! read more

I've come a couple times now it's a hit or miss on food and service. I recommend the brisket and pork, it's better to come by at lunch time.

The food was delicious and appreciated by the Duval Early Learning Academy staff during our appreciation luncheon.

I went to Sonny's original barbecue place on Waldo Road. I have never been there before. The service was five stars. The food I'll give it two stars. read more

Sonny's has the best bbq. It's family oriented and the food is amazing. We love all the servers there. We come each time we come to town

Heather was a phenomenal waitress. She was extremely attentive and friendly. Thanks for the great service Heather!

First off let me start by saying our waitress was super sweet and handled everything well, and I wish I knew her name. She was a taller woman with blonde hair, that much I know. Moving on, we haven't seen a Sonny's in a long time (we just moved to Gainesville) and me and my partner were really excited to come try one here. Needless to say the food wasn't great. Wasn't horrible, but they definitely weren't turning the food like they were supposed to, and kind of half-did all the food (the tater tot bowl was small/meek and tasted like old chicken) but that isn't what I'm writing about. Food is food and we ate it. What I am writing about is the management. When we ordered our food, the wrong meal got brought out to our table, and I didn't realize it till I lifted the bun. So I patiently was waiting for our waitress to come around so that we could amend it and bring out my meal. (I didn't wanna run after her or flag her down because that's rude). I might of turned around just to see if she was about to make her rounds to the tables once or twice just so I could properly let her know. But instead what I see is nasty looks from the women standing in the To-Go counter at the front of house. I ignore it, and the waitress eventually comes and was super sweet and immediately tried to get it rectified. As she walks over to the To-Go station she was talking pretty loud so I just happened to hear her saying she needed a meal for me. And I see that it WAS THE MANAGER GIVING ME NASTY LOOKS, as she says out loud "I was wondering what that lady was staring at, looking at me confused like I got three heads."... WOW!!! OUT LOUD!!! A MANAGER!! So at this point I'm a bit flustered. And I'm not about to cause any drama in a family restaurant, because clearly this lady doesn't have any professionalism or manners. So I asked for her name from my waitress. So "Kale", or however you want to spell it, if you see a customer who seems like they need help, maybe you should check on them. Or at least if you're going to be rude/unprofessional you could at least bother to lower your voice/move out of the FRONT OF HOUSE away from where that guest is sitting. And before you say something about not being able to step out and greet me/check in, there were three women at that very to-go station on a Monday. To top it all off, afterwards she sat there at the counter on her phone with the younger girls at to-go for quite a bit. So as a fellow waitress, I just want to say that the unpleasant comments and the overall unprofessionalism you went out of your way to show tonight is not only appalling but disappointing. It gives people who work in the service industry a very bad look. And I don't even understand how you are a manager considering you don't seem to have the qualifications. Overall, if you have a problem with your food just know "Kale" the manager loves to make rude comments about her guests, and no she isn't going to check in on you. I hate to be that lady but that seriously ruined my night. read more

Sonny's BBQ - Pulled Pork Sandwich that I didn't order.. I ordered a Cuban Sandwich - Barbeque Near Me - Gainesville, Florida

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This was our first time at the original Sonny's. Food was very good and Heather took great care of us!

I'm always going to love Sonny's BBQ but I will say I'm older and I prefer the older menu. The new menu doesn't have the Family Feast which is our go to and we stopped at 3 on our vacation and the price was different at all the places and I do understand that sometimes that happens but 10.00 difference is a lot! The food is always good. I would just like to see the prices on the menu. However for anyone looking for some great Bbq and a place you will remember this is your place! The sweet sauce on the sliced pork served up on garlic Texas toast is a taste that you will find nowhere else, believe me I've tried so every chance we get within an hour of a Sonny's we are there. You will never find a dirty bathroom or a bad server at Sonny's this would have been 5stars had the item been on the menu so stop by any Sonny's and you will love it! read more