Having just had a conversation with an employee in one of the Gainesville locations about the decline of quality of food and service, we ironically ended up here to meet my son. Things didn't start well. Two employees at the host(ess) station were talking about some seating issue and never even acknowledged my presence. Then, all of a sudden, things began to go "uphill" rapidly. One of the hostesses came over and apologized, explaining what had been happening. Not a great reason, but certainly courteous of her to explain. Then she went on to seat us comfortably in the back of the restaurant. The server appeared fairly quickly, and was VERY courteous from the first greeting. She was very patient as we got ourselves all "sorted out", checking on us from time to time until we were prepared to order, then quickly (and correctly) processing the order and getting it to our table. Julie gets the "gold star award" today for excellence and professionalism. ON TOP OF THAT, the FOOD looked SO MUCH BETTER than any we had seen at a Sonny's in a very long time. We started eating at Sonny's restaurants when he first opened and it soon became our favorite place to eat...nearly weekly. However, after selling it to a corporation in Orlando back in about 1990, the service and quality slowly deteriorated until we had all but quit eating there at all in recent years. Today may be the beginning of a "comeback" for us! The appearance was great, the quality was very good, the value was market... The ONLY negatives were 1. no salad bar at this time (yes, we've warn the C19 thing out, but it is what it is), and 2. it was rather chilly inside. We will be back.