After visiting all the different restaurants I did, I have realized why we need food critics. I have found some really good places with not so good reviews online. But also some really bad places with great reviews online.

I was disappointed that a lot of the places I wanted to visit had closed down, and it just made finding that special secret restaurant difficult. 

I will stay on the hunt for more good places to eat in Gainesville because those new places that I found are now my regulars, so I will need some new places soon. 

The last place on my travels around Gainesville for the best hidden restaurants was up on 39th Ave. There I found the best onion in Gainesville, The Red Onion Neighborhood Grill

This place was found by accident. I meant to turn at the next street over, but Iturned into this little area where the Red Onion was. 

I think this is one of the best finds of my travels. Like a lot of places in Gainesville, the menu was huge. Upon the waiter recommendation I ordered a cheese burger with onion rings instead of friends. 

This was the best decision ever. The onion rings were made out of red onions, like the name of the restaurant, and the batter was so crunchy and crispy. The onion rings were great, espcially since they came with a onion ring sauce. I don’t know what the sauce was, but it made the already great onion rings better. 

The cheese burger was really yummy to. It didn’t have sweaty cheese, like Joe’s Place. It was also cooked just how I like it and the burger melted in my mouth, if a burger can actually do that. 

The prices on the menu for the Red Onion were pretty much the same as the one’s on the menu for Joe’s Place. I would recommend the Red Onion over Joe’s place any day. I think the sweaty cheese made the burger a little unappetizing.

Google reviews only give it four stars, but I would rate it five stars.

This restaurant is on the corner of 39th ave and 24th blvd and you can get to it on the 8 and 408 bus routes. 

Its pretty close to Joe’s Place, if you’re coming from campus, it which case, you should go to the Red Onion instead. 

https://www.facebook.com/theredoniongainesville 

My boyfriend took me on a date to a quaint place downtown Gainesville, Liquid Ginger. 

Its kind of pricey, but if you’re on a date you don’t have to worry about the price. 

This restaurant is a Chinese restaurant and at this place you pick the mean you want and the rest is set. You get a salad, soup, a sort of bento box with the giant portion of the meat you chose, and then dessert. 

My boyfriend gave the steaks two thumbs up and I would defiantly give the chicken I got two thumbs up too. 

The staff there are really nice and pleasant and always around to fill up your drink. 

My boyfriend found out about this place from his boss. His boss gave him a great review. He said that it was one of the best places for Chinese food in Gainesville. This meant we had to go and see if this place was as good as he said. 

The menu is really long and there are so many different things to choose from. The have about a page for each main course, steak, chicken and vegetarian.

This place is also famous for its selection of teas. While we were eating, the couple at the next table came in just for the tea and an appetizer.  

Liquid Ginger is tucked away in the corner of downtown Gainesville. It’s in a great place though because after you’ve finished eating you can go and walk around downtown looking at the sights. 

The time that we went, there was a concert going on downtown and it was nice to walk around and here the live music playing at the stage.  

I would go to this place again, as long as it’s on a date. Being a college kid, I don’t really have the money to eat all my meals there. Every once in a while it is worth the price tag. 

Since Gainesville is a college town, Gainesville has many sports bars. It was time to try one of Gainesville’s off the map sports bar.

Joe’s Place, on the corner of 39th Ave. and 51st St., prides itself as being able to draw “people of all ages and lifestyles with its signature bar and grill many items and family-friendly atmosphere,” according to their website.

I decided to go there with my friends for lunch and during the lunch hour, the place was empty. It was good though because we got seated straight away.

We got the menus and we were surprised about the amount of difference choices they had. They even had a salad bar, which according to the other reviews, is really good.

In my mind, sports bars should be known for their hamburgers, so that’s what we ordered.

When we finally got our hamburgers, they were quite yummy, but like many of the other places, I couldn’t finish all the food and had more than half a burger to bring home.

The price of the food wasn’t that bad, the prices were pretty average.

There were two things that I didn’t like about my food.

First, my hamburger was not cooked as well done as I asked. It still had some red meat in it.

Second, when I got my hamburger it was sweating. I didn’t know food could sweat, but it was and it put me off a little bit.

Joe’s Place is on the bus route 43 and they deliver too.

I did like this place, but I think I prefer Five Guys instead. It’s closer and you don’t have to pay for the extra toppings. 

Our normal place for take-out Chinese is China Star, which is the only place that students really seem to know when it comes to take-out Chinese.

I decided to try a different Chinese place, First Wok of Gainesville.

As of now I have only tried two different take-out Chinese places in Gainesville, but I think I can now say that all take-out Chinese is the same. They come in the same boxes and the prices are the same.

The First Wok of Gainesville, like all other take-out Chinese places, delivers. Everything was the same as China Star. They took the same amount of time to deliver. They took have nearly the exact same menu. They are just as friendly.

I guess this means that choosing take-out Chinese now just depends on which one I want to go to. The only real difference is that China Star gets a 3.5 star rating on Google and First Wok gets a 5 star rating on Google.  

The restaurant is in the shopping plaza on the corner of 34^th St and Williston Road, not that you really need to know because they deliver. Delivery is the best especially since it will start to get cold soon and I certainly don’t want to go driving around Gainesville in the cold.

http://www.menuwall.com/fl/gainesville/first-wok/62

http://www.chompmenus.com/Menu.aspx?RID=MTQ4MA%3D%3D&N=Rmlyc3QgV29r&DID=NQ%3D%3D&AT=OA%3D%3D&URL=&CC=&AC=MA%3D%3D

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=first+wok+of+gainesville&fb=1&gl=us&hq=first+wok+of&hnear=0x88e6202169bf2c2b:0x80e7795d28108d96,Gainesville,+FL&cid=16074719011367267824

Out roaming the streets again, I went to have dinner at Las Margaritas (on the corner of 39th Ave. and 43rd St.).

First complaint: NO PARKING!!! We waited 15 minutes for a space. 

I went to ask the manager and i got a very rude response. He gave me two options. (1) wait for a space. or (2) have them valet your car.

Under normal circumstances I would love to have my car valeted, but the two gentlemen in charge of the valeting were quite scary. 

I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I felt quite certain that if I valeted my car, I might never see it again. 

I put that past me though and we found a space and went inside. 

Second complaint: WE HAD TO WAIT. 

They told us 10 minutes, which is fine. Please do not leave me waiting for 20 minutes without saying anything to us. 

I’m fine with waiting, but tell me a realistic time so I can decide whether I really want to wait. 

So we finally got our table (for a party of three) and got menus and drinks form the waitress.

At this point i felt a de javu. Didn’t this look exactly like Mexico Lindo? Yes! Las Margaritas looked exactly like Mexico Lindo.

Third Complaint: THEY ARE RUDE!!!

I would like to order my food and spend money at this restaurant, but i was rudely told that (even though the menu says that onions are part of my meal) I cant have onions because I want beef instead of chicken. I also got a role of the eyes and a huff when i ask for non of the extra toppings. 

Well excuse me! It is just as easy to be pleasant as it is to be rude. Please don’t be rude to me because someone else has made you mad. 

The waitress brought us so chips and salsa which was great.

BUT there were moldy chips in the basket.

Fourth Complaint: MY MEAL CAME TO THE TABLE WRONG!

I asked for no cheese sauce or sour cream because I can’t eat them. However they are doloped right on the food, not even on the side. 

I informed them of the mistake and I got a new meal, which I hope didn’t have spit in it. 

but my Fifth (and final) Complaint: THIS MEAL MADE US QUITE ILL!

So after all that, I ended up quite upset. I didn’t take any leftovers home and neither did anyone else with me. 

If I was going to rate Las Margarita’s I would give it ZERO stars and two thumbs DOWN!!!

If you want some good Mexican food, go to Mexico Lindo. They’re nice and they deliver! 

I have never had so much fun eating.

I went to Yamato Japanese Restaurant with all of my roommates and we all enjoyed the whole experience. We made a reservation, even though we didn’t have too, and I cannot stress how much fun this was.

The restaurant is at 526 NW 60^th St. by the mall and you can get to it on the 5, 23, 75 and 400 bus routes.

We got there and they sat us straight away and they immediately asked what we wanted to drink. Once we got our drinks the entertainment began. The place has a hibachi tables and as soon as we had all decided what we wanted to eat the cooking began. People say you aren’t supposed to play with your food, but our chef played with our food making mountains our of rice and faces with the vegetables. The chef joked around and made our meal so exciting. I know a fire man would not want to hear this, but our chef made fire fun.

The food was delicious and I would there again in a heartbeat. The food is a bit expensive, but for a special occasion, its defiantly worth it.  

For my second eating adventure I needed to eat pizza. I couldn’t be doughy Domino’s/Pizza Hut pizza and I didn’t want thin crunchy pizza either. I wanted home-made pizza without having the hassle of making it myself.

This was the perfect opportunity to find a good pizza place in Gainesville that wasn’t on the map of a UF student.

That’s how I found Piesano’s Stone Fired Pizza. Piesano’s has two restaurants in Gainesville, and I went to the one closer to campus.

The one downside of this place is that its six miles away from campus and there is no bus route that goes that far north in Gainesville.

From the google search, I hadn’t realized that it was an actual sit down restaurant, but when I got there it was really quite nice inside.

The menu had so many different options for pizza, but also so many options of other Italian dishes. After seeing the menu I changed my mind and had to have a calzone. I’d never had a calzone so why wouldn’t I try one? I love pizza!

After ordering, the waiter asked if I wanted Piesano rolls. Who turns away free food? The waiter comes back with dinner rolls that had Italian dressing, garlic butter and parmesan cheese on top. They were so yummy! I was hesitant at first, but I want to try and make them myself because I want to eat them all the time.

The calzone took about 15-20 minutes, but I was ok with that because they had made it just for me. It was huge. Image the size of an American Football, and it was bigger than the outline of that.

The calzone tasted so good, I was glad that I couldn’t finish it. I needed to take half of it home because I couldn’t finish, but that was fine because I had it for lunch the next day.

It was just as yummy the next day.

Being happy with a full belly, I got home and was disappointed that it was an outing to get up there to this awesome pizza place.

I don’t have to worry about that though because the deliver! Finding that out, made my day. 

I will defiantly be back there. SOON! Maybe next time I’ll get delivery.

http://www.piesanostogo.com/

According to the Google review for Emiliano’s it “offers the best in pan-Latin cuisine. From traditional Spanish, Caribbean and Latin American dishes to innovative original creations featuring fresh, local seafood, meats and produce.”

The review said that it was $$, but if it offered the best that I was willing to try it.

Two of my friends and I went to the restaurant with no reservation, but was pleased to see that only three tables were occupied.

After asking if we could eat here and how long it would take we got a very rude answer of “maybe”. This we didn’t understand because the restaurant was no way near full.

The host begrudgingly took us to a table where we had to wait 10 minutes for someone to come and ask us if we wanted drinks. We got our drinks, but had to wait another 15 minutes for the waitress to return so we could order our food.

They must have felt we hadn’t waited long enough because our food took more than 30 minutes to arrive, which annoyed me because none of us ordered anything difficult or strange.

We were extremely disappointed when we got our food because the portions were tiny! This also confused me because how does it take 30 minutes to make food that fits on a plate with a 6-inch wide plate.

The waitress was very fast bringing us the bill and letting us pay, which at this point the restaurant was still pretty empty.

I have to say that I was really disappointed with this place. I won’t go back and if anyone asks I will tell them how much I hated my experience because the people were rude and slow.

They do deliver and you can get to it on the bus, since this place is downtown, but I wouldn’t recommend going.

http://emilianoscafe.com/

http://www.allmenus.com/fl/gainesville/62970-emilianos-cafe/menu/

I love Spanish food. However, my experience of Spanish food is limited to Tijuna Flat and Moe’s. This was my chance to find somewhere new. 

I hopped in my car with my friends and drove the five 1/2 miles from UF campus to Mexico Lindo. This cute Mexican restaurant is in Tower Square which is on Archer Road about two 1/2 miles south of Interstate 75. 

This place doesn’t take reservations, and on Friday night we had to wait 10 minutes to be seated because this place was really busy!

We sat down and could not believe the size of the menu. There were so many things to choose from and things that I couldn’t begin to pronounce. 

After looking over everything, I decided to try something I knew to see how it compared to the other Mexican food I enjoyed. 

The amount of food we got on our plate was huge. None of us could finish it and we all brought home leftovers. 

The meal was great! I was everything I wanted. The only problem we had was the waitress didn’t really understand us and it took a bit of explaining for her to understand what we wanted. 

When I got home I googled them. I found out they’re on the bus route from Butler Plaza to the Oaks Mall, so if you don’t have a car you could take route 75 before 7:30 p.m. 

To late for the bus, but still want Mexico Lindo? They deliver and you can order online!

Great food and delivery make this a great restaurant for college kids.