Great place and service. No inside dining to speak of, they have a dining room but it's rarely used. Seafood is top notch.

This is a must stop location when we go to the Rainbow river. The food, service and atmosphere are all phenomenal. First the food: the grouper sandwhich is top 3 I've ever had and I order lots of grouper sandwiches. The gator bites are just as good as the grouper sandwhich. Very tender. My kids never had alligator before and they loved it here. The dipping sauce for the gator bites is really good too. Wish I had it in a bottle in my fridge. The service is always perfect with the server being very attentive. We always sit outside so I dont know what the inside is like. The outside has a large wooden deck over looking the river. Plenty of umbrellas and a covered area. I wish this restaurant was closer to clearwater so I could go more often. Looking forward to going back. read more

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Checked this place out to wait out the rain prior to going kayaking. The restaurant is on the water but the view isn't that great and the decor is reminiscent of a beach shack. Finding a decent table on the patio was a challenge. All tables are huge and meant for large parties, not 2 ppl. It was also hard to have a conversation. They have a tin roof and the rain hitting it made talking impossible. They also claim to have a tiki bar but there's nothing "tiki" about it. The service was fantastic however! Our waitress Taylor took awesome care of us and was super friendly and courteous. We ordered drinks and a dozen of oysters and dang those oysters were amazing. Large, plump and fresh. We also got 14 of them somehow =). Overall: patio, full bar, decent menu, plenty of parking, live music Friday & Saturday. I would go back for those oysters and request Taylor ;) read more

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The food was great. The gator bites shrimp tacos and coconut shrimp were all amazing. We also had the seafood Mac and cheese but I wasn't to fond of the choice of cheese for it. The waiter was great and attentive. The one reason why I would give them a 4 star was because upon arrival all staff just stares at you like your an alien. There was an obvious culture shock for them. All and all food was good but not the people read more

The Blue Gator - Fish tacos - Seafood Near Me - Dunnellon, Florida

This was recommended to us for a place to grab a bite to eat after diving KP Hole/Rainbow River. The Blue Gator's menu has something for everyone and being our first time we asked for recommendations and the waiter really knew the menu and made excellent suggestions. We all had something different and between us we decided to share so we could try the different menu items. We started the meal off with an appetizer, the fried mushrooms, jalapeño poppers and onion rings. All were excellent! Just ask for extra dipping sauce. In our party we ordered The Anglers Delight with grouper, shrimp and scallops and a side of fries and cole slaw, an order of a Philly Cheese Steak with fries, a Cuban with homemade chips and a Turkey Bacon Ranch with side of tator tots and a bowl of New England Clam chowder (must have). Yummy! Everything was really amazing, flavors were spot on and portion sizes were nice and prices were reasonable. We will definitely go here again because of all the different varieties of appatizers, sandwiches and meals available. Plus our waiter was awesome keeping our drinks filled and was great about clearing empty items anytime he came by the table. Awesome job! This was by far one of the best restaurant experiences I have had post pandemic. This would be a terrific place to meet up with friends have some drinks and some great food. read more

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Wow what a great place. Nice view and the FOOD! I got the mushroom burger. Perfectly done. read more

Excellent food, service could be better , overall good experience very polite just not enough man power

A great neighborhood spot! The atmosphere is great. Food is good. Service is friendly.

We stopped to eat here upon a recommendation my MIL had after seeing manatees in Crystal River. We were seated immediately and order drinks. However had to wait 45 minutes for food. Once the food arrived, all was good except for missing tots. They soon brought those out and we got to eating. It was Tuesday so I upgraded my fish tacos to shrimp. Delish. My husband had wings and shrimp. Nothing left. My MIL had shrimp and grouper. Nothing left. She got the baby bakers and it was like getting a while baked potato. The server was very friendly and promptly answered any and all questions. Food was great, only drawback was the wait time. Definitely will return. read more

Well where to start. Sat down no one acknowledged us had to ask the manager to find us a waiter after 10 minutes. Ordered drinks and appetizers 2 drinks where brought over, And ten another 10 minutes. The 2 beers where brought a few minutes later. Appetizers arrived after another 20 minutes. Food arrived after being there for over an hour. Food was great. They need to update there menu on website as everything is at least 5 dollars more than advertised. So to sum it up food was great just takes forever service sucks. Spending over an hour and half is really not acceptable. read more

This place is amazing So when i first got to The Blue Gator i was greeted by some nice attendants, then we got to choose where we sat, i ordered the medium spice chicken tenders, when i say they were delicious i could eat 1000 and still love it 10/10 would recommend. read more

Overall great place to have a quick bite the drinks were amazing i have the berry smoothie it was delicious then i had calamari for my appetizers it had the perfect crunch and amazing with franks red hot then i had the mild chicken tenders they were bomb they were the perfect amount of sauce and perfect texture over amazing place to get a quick bite read more

Blue Gator has great atmosphere, great location, good portions, delicious food. You can rent a pontoon, aluminum John boat or hire a charter captain. There's a small motel next door and the Dinner Bell Motel across the street. We enjoy going to Blue Gator for lunch. read more

Great food and service, located on the river. Live entertainment. Prices are very reasonable

Before parting ways, Reid back to Virginia, and I off to Cape Canaveral for the Space Coast Marathon, we decided to eat here. Glad we got here early as seats filled up quick after we arrived. A a live band playing. The outdoor deck overlooked the Dunnellon River. We sat outside where the mosquitoes were biting but for some reason I didn't mind it too much. I ordered a beer and had a quick bite. I can't say the food here was fantastic. It's mostly fried / frozen main courses. The servers were young but friendly. This is definitely a kid friendly place. I'm giving this place higher marks for the ambiance. If you ever stumble into Dunnellon you must try it out. We did not stay long as we had hour long journeys ahead. read more

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Got in to Dunellen late and was hungry, really lucked out in finding this jewell. Main restaurant was closed but the Pub like deck was still open. IOrdered Clam Chowder and a grilled Grouper sandwich and they were perfect. Waitress was super friendly and on top of everything. Recommend this stop to all. read more

Food is ok but nothing great. The service was good and bad. Our first waitress was so bad they gave us another. My drink that I believe cost me $8 was horrible. If it had any booze it couldn't have been more than a drop. I know it's outside but allowing smoking around people eating? Really? I'll pass read more

Atmosphere was a dump. Cannot park in the lot. Drinks were $8 for a call drink. Not worth going there anymore. It is a rip off and food did not look good. read more

The river is beautiful, but the food was so badly cooked that the waitress took it back and had it remade. Nice of her but when the food came back out it was so awful did not eat Māori than 1 bite. Will never go back read more

We were taken right away, we got a few drinks and then ordered our appetizer which was the gator nuggets. BEST GATOR NUGGETS IVE EVER HAD. Seriously so full of flavor and freshly cooked. We then ordered our meal I got the ribeye sandwich it came with cheese and mushrooms and onion rings on the side. My husband got the grouper fingers and baby bakers and my son the fried shrimp and fries. We did have to wait a long time for our food but it was worth the wait and money. The food was fresh and hot and full of flavor and decent sized portions too. The service was great, friendly staff and helpful on what to order. Will be coming back here again when we visit again. read more

Flies lives matter too. It's an out door eating establishment. There's food, there's going to be flies. Ever been to a picnic? It's our go to place when in Dunnellon. And now they have 59 cent wings on Tuesday. What used to be thrown away once the bird was cooked has become a delicacy of sorts costing a buck or more a piece in most places. Geeesh. So this is a great deal. The fish and chips are not the deep fried beer battered kind. These have a light crispy coating on them, fried to perfection. The fish is flaky and delicious. We wolfed the fish and chips down so quickly I didn't get a pic. Ooops. If you're bothered by the flies, take a little piece of something and place it off to the side to feed the flies......we all gotta eat ya know. :o))) read more

The Blue Gator - What's left of the fish and chips and the 59 cent wings. - Seafood Near Me - Dunnellon, Florida

Typical 'we-deep-fry-everything' joint. Nothing special here. Since the place opened the quality of food has dropped, dramatically. It's almost one of those 'We can get away with anything, since we have no real competition.' The staff though always seems to remain friendly. read more

Food was excellent. I'd definitely go back. I had the blackened grouper and didn't regret it. The atmosphere is fun, too, especially if you like outdoor dining. read more

The Blue Gator - Blackened grouper, sweet potato fries, hush puppies - Seafood Near Me - Dunnellon, Florida

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My family and I tested this location out after kayaking Rainbow springs. We ordered a pound of the peel and eat shrimp (which was cooked well and tasted fresh), the fish and chips (catfish, which was also cooked well and we enjoyed) onion rings, the house salad with blackened chicken (my husband liked his blackened chicken quite a bit), the crab cakes (seemed to have, real crab mixed with imitation perhaps? Not my favorite) , and a few children's menu items. The service was timely and the menu was filled with reasonable prices. read more

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My wife and a couple of friends ate dinner here last night. We have eaten here several times previously. Our visit this time was extremely disappointing. First,our server had entirely to many tables. It took a very long time to even get our first round of drinks approximately 20 minutes. This was a sign of things to come. We had to hunt down our server to get anything we needed from drinks to napkins, cocktail sauce, and tartar sauce. It took our food 62 minutes to be served to us from the time we ordered until we received it. Then some of our food was missing and we were given one excuse by the server and another by the manager who delivered the food. My wife and I shared the Angler's Platter $28.99. Imagine our surprise when this so-called platter came out in a basket. To say it was skimpy is an understatement but you could even tell it had any seafood on it. This dish was served with 4 shrimp, 2 grouper fingers, some clam straps, a small amount of fries, 2 hush puppies, and a 2-ounce cup of cole slaw. The shrimp were smaller but had a good taste. The grouper finger was very small and mostly overcooked caked in hard batter. Their was little to no fish in the 3-inch slivers of grouper fingers. Our clam strips came our almost 15 minutes later than our meal. My wife brought up the fish issue to the manager, and she was quickly blown off and treated rudely. He said the fish get thin on the ends. My wife replied it was thin throughout the entire finger. The manager didn't say anything back to her even after she showed him. He just turned and walked away. This restaurant also adds 3.5% ?service charge for using any type of card. This is on top of the incredibly high prices with portions extremely small. We try and visit mom and pop establishments, but we will not be going back to the Blue Gator any time soon. A lot of things need improvement, but their is no excuse for poor food quality and 62-minute cook times but, more importantly, a rude manager. read more

I don't recommend eating here had a horrible experience not to mention how filthy and disgusting Had a roach wrapped in a web land in our food from the light fixture above us and they didn't do anything about it read more

Blue Gator has good seafood and great cocktails. I had the small fish and chips that were fresh and good. The homemade chips are a great addition. read more

It's sad to see this place go down as bad as it has. I'd assume it has either new owners or all new management. The food use to be amazing and is now absolute trash. The service is about the same as any sports bar except the girls already know the food sucks so they're just waiting on the complaints. My friend's chicken tenders were literally soaking in oil. Light there was at least a half a cup of oil in the basket with his fries. The waitress said it's a problem she's been having with the kitchen and had them fire him a new order. By the time the new order came out the rest of the party had already paid their bills and he was no longer hungry. They used to have an amazing mushroom Swiss burger they was so juicy you had to make sure you were leaning completely over your plate before eating it. It was by far the best burger around. It was so good the new owner or manager decided to remove it from the menu. You should have seen my amazement when I found out you can still order it. I had a huge smile on my face when I told the waitress I'll have the mushroom Swiss burger, medium rare with fries. What eventually came out to me wasn't extremely well done dry peace of some sort of meat. It may have been a bean burger, I wouldn't know, it was tasteless and so dry. You better have a water nearby. Luckily, they brought mayonnaise on the side and not on the burger since the mayonnaise had been in the little cup so long it had completely separated. Fortunately, they comped my friends chicken strips, although they still charged him for his iced tea I don't think any of us will be back until this place makes some serious improvements and if it doesn't soon, mark my words, it will not make it. read more

We came here after tubing for 4 hours down the Rainbow River for dinner. It was a great choice. The parking lot is very interesting, it is a little hilly. The restaurant has both outdoor and indoor seating, we sat outdoor by the water. It was very refreshing. Our waitress was very friendly, she made sure to keep refilling water for us whenever we ran out of water. We got a hamburger, blackened chicken sandwich, and fish and chips. My blackened chicken sandwich was delicious, but I have to point out that I don't think the chicken was seasoned enough: I just couldn't really get any flavor from it other than the normal chicken meat flavor. The French fries were good and fresh though. I tried a little bit of the fish and chips, there were four big pieces of fish for the full order (they offer a half order for the fish and chips). The fish was crispy, just how I expected. read more

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This place was recommended by shuttle driver for tubing. We waited over 2 hrs to get our food. Watched 5 tables come in after us ( as much as 1.5 hrs after) get food before us. When mentioned to who we thought was the manager ( turned out to be owner) she was rude. 11 people from our group left before food was made due to the ridiculous wait. A total of 19 of us came and sat at separate tables. Only 8 actually got food. We easily could have stayed and enjoyed adult beverages , dinner, and dessert. Sadly this restaurant ( who had signs stating under staffed, clearly wasn't with 4 cooks and at least 6-7 waitresses.) lost out on a huge opportunity to make money tonight and possibly in the future for future floats. I hope that this lost opportunity will be a chance to fix what clearly is broken. Management clearly doesn't care about the staff and it is obvious as we were told they have a hard time keeping people. Visit surrounding businesses I'm sure the management cares more. read more

Gotta love Monday chicken wings night. Great food, I've never been disappointed with their portions and the waiter/waitress are always friendly. The scenery by the river is awesome, definitely a family friendly & pet friendly stop. read more

Every time I'm in Dunnellon I make sure I stop at the Blue Gator. It's one of those places you just have to go. It's not without its issues, but if you can get over some little issues then you'll enjoy it here. Issue number one: the parking lot. It's so small. Maybe 20 cars can park there? Maybe. They have a lot attendant but it still making finding a spot an issue because the lot is just so tiny. Not great if you have a large vehicle. Issue number two: the way the seat tables is truly terrible. A table of eight may have to parties of three sitting there. So group one leaves and group two stays, and if you have a party of eight you have no table. Instead of sitting the two parties in smaller tables they sit them at these big tables. So you just gotta wait around until your table is ready. The food though. Totally worth the wait. While this place is basically a hole in the wall in a hole in the wall town, the Blue Gator really does a great job at entertaining you and giving you great service and food. I ordered the Angler's Delight which basically is a sampler platter that included cole slaw, fries and hush puppies. I had the grouper and shrimp, both grilled with calamari. The shrimp and grouper were amazing, especially the shrimp. The seasoning was so good. Our server was great and the live band was great too. When in Dunnellon, get your gator on. read more

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Found the Blue Gator on Yelp, yay! This place was perfect for that been-swimming-all-day-need-to-chill-out vibe. The restaurant is located mostly outside on the side of the Withlacoochee River. There is some seating inside, and it was fine, but in the back is a larger porch area overlooking the water. That's the place to be! The food is good and there is a mix of bar type food like burgers and a nice assortment of seafood. My husband had a seafood platter that included breaded frog legs and they were enormous. Interesting favors and definitely a florida cracker food type of menu. I had the fish tacos with cole slaw and hush puppies, it was a perfect portion size if you're hungry but don't have a huge appetite. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and found the beer prices super reasonable. Well behaved dogs are allowed on the patio outside, so cool that this place is okay with that. By the way, our sever was great and I noticed pretty much all the servers were super efficient because this place was slammed at 5pm and in to the evening. Parking is a little weird here, it's very limited. The restaurant had staff outside to direct you were to park. At first I thought it was valet, but it was just a guy telling you the best place to park, it seemed like a Tetris game in their parking lot. Really liked this place and would come back next time I'm in the area. read more

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Stopped in after kayaking on the river. We were hungry and thirsty and sunburned. We walked away very satisfied! Beer was cold, food was tasty and staff was friendly. Only outdoor seating so flies were a problem but when aren't flies a problem. They had outdoor fans everywhere so we were comfortable. Limited parking. Thanks for a great lunch! read more

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Wonderful service and great menu and relaxing environment. Employees are very friendly and quick to offer their services.

Apparently, COVID isn't a concern here. No one was wearing masks, staff or those entering. So, while everything is getting wiped off, and condiment containers are being sanitized then delivered (which we saw while waiting for our food), I'm unsure if I have now been exposed. So, while our food to go was pretty tasty (we were driving back and didn't have anywhere else along our way to stop) I don't think I would have liked to be sitting at a table. We got the blackened grouper sandwich, burger, and turkey bacon ranch sandwich, all of which were very good. There also seemed to be a manager or owner standing near the bar that, just standing there, seemed rather intimidating, and not at all helpful to the staff. Visited the area and can't wait to revisit, but will not dine here again. read more

We've been here 3 times so far. Food good, service good and friendly and nice location on the water. Sometimes have to park across the street, not a huge issue for us. We recommend this place. read more

"Homemade" chips were decent. Coconut shrimp shrimp were your Costco freezer section quality. Below average cocktails. Ordered my son a cheeseburger cooked medium, it came out raw red mush. Asked them to cook it to go, burger came back but no fries. $70 later and we'll never be back. Parking lot is a joke. Only positive is a decent view. If you've never left Dunnellon you might think this place is good. read more

Came here after kayaking down the Rainbow River. Outside seating, great atmosphere and cold beer. Out waitress was fantastic, funny and spot on. Food was delicious, I had the crab cake meal and they were very good. If you want to sit outside and enjoy a cold beverage and some good food, o would recommend it. We read more

Great local place with typical Florida seafood and bar type food and drinks. Located on the river so you can't beat the location.