Top O' the River — Restaurant in Gadsden

2/2/2020 Not the restaurants fault but our GPS took us on a round about tour of the area before it finally took us to the restaurant.

I live on the NC coast and we take our seafood seriously. To start with, cat fish is not sea food. Serving fake crab meat is a joke. This place would not last a week here.

I had a hard time enjoying my meal as the person behind me kept hitting the booth wall.

The good.

The wait staff was pleasant. Wife got fried shrimp which where good. She said the cole slaw was also very good. I ordered a side salad which was large and came with plenty of dressing. We also got a pan of cornbread and white onion pickles. The pickles were not bad and tasted like they had been soaked in white vinegar. Would have been better if they had been soaked in apple cider vinegar.

The bad.

The cornbread was close to being dry and tasted like it had jalapeno in it. Hard to tell as the lighting was low. I have nothing against jalapeno cornbread, just not a fan of it. Also it was almost dry.

I got the seafood platter as I wanted to see what they were serving as seafood and it claims to be the biggest seafood platter anywhere. Just because you serve your seafood on a large platter, does not make any good. Came with a large portion of french fries, a few tiny doughy hush puppies, shrimp in prepared three ways, catfish and grilled (?) fake crab meat. As I said before catfish is not seafood. Other wise it was good, not over fried with a nice batter. The fried shrimp was good but the peal and eat shrimp tasted like they tried to use some sort of seasoning that got lost. I tried a couple of the grilled (?) fake crab meat pieces and they were ok when hot. A few minutes later when they cooled off some, they were like rubber.

Folks, you can do better...

Follow up post March, 2022:

We have visited Top O' the River several times since my original review (below). We visited a couple weeks ago on a Saturday with family visiting from out of town and again today with family members who live locally. Both visits were very enjoyable and the food was fresh and well prepared. Today's visit was made especially enjoyable by the awesome service provided by our server, Kristian. We could not have wished for better or more attentive service. He checked on us regularly and provided everything we required for a most enjoyable meal. We were very impressed with his professionalism and attention to detail.

Original post:

We visited Top O' the River in Gadsden on a Wednesday evening. The restaurant was not very busy yet and we were seated immediately. Our server, Kelsey, arrived at our table promptly, took our drink orders and delivered them a few moments later. Our dinner orders were placed and our food was delivered quickly. Everything was delivered exactly as ordered except for one item which was overcooked. Kelsey offered to replace the item but we declined. A few minutes later, Kelsey delivered a replacement item wrapped in foil in a container to go. Our dining experience was extremely pleasant and was made even more so by Kelsey's awesome service. We communicated our appreciation for her excellent service to a restaurant manager prior to leaving. The combination of great food and excellent service assures that we will return to Top O' the River again...

We arrived at the beginning of dinner time on a Sunday, after the after church crowd. There were plenty of available tables by the windows, but the hostess seated us in the corner by the cashier window, where no one else was, & it was dark & no air was circulating. It was SO HOT that it was difficult to breathe & we were fanning ourselves. The server, Ally, told us she'd tell the manager. She messed up our order right off the bat, did NOT refill our teas AND when we asked for more cornbread she hatefully stated "I'll have to charge you for it" as she walked away!! So what if you charge for it! We STILL wanted it, but no chance at getting it unless we left our table & went to the kitchen ourselves. We went here freshly showered and it was soooo HOT, HUMID & miserable indoors, that we all had to shower AGAIN when we got home!! 🙃 Y'all, it was HOT! What kind of establishment serves HOT food plates, has NO AIR CONDITIONING... in AUGUST.... in ALABAMA & is way overpriced❓ This place! The floor shakes when the servers walk, which could be a safety issue, & makes some people queezy. It'sIke trying to eat on an amusement park ride. And the ramp outside to get in is soooo unbelievably dangerous! Use the money you're saving on a/c & build a new safe ramp! Or just visit one of their other locations where they don't have...