The TOP — Restaurant in Gainesville

Disappointing Experience at The Top:

I have been a long-time customer of The Top, but my recent experience has left me extremely dissatisfied. This marks the second time in just three months that I've encountered a frustrating issue with the restaurant, and unfortunately, it seems that customer satisfaction is not a priority. Upon arriving with a party of six, we informed the hostess that our entire group was present. It is the restaurant’s policy to not officially start the wait time until the entire party is present. However, despite this information, our wait was grossly underestimated. I had previously believed in The Top's commitment to underpromise and overdeliver, but this was certainly not the case. To make matters worse, when a table for six finally became available after an hour, only two other people were seated at this table for six. I had to personally intervene at the host stand to rectify the situation, and although they efficiently moved the incorrectly seated diners, the damage was already done. Despite the commendable efforts of our server, Felix, to salvage the evening, I felt compelled to speak to the manager, Callie. Unfortunately, her response was far from satisfactory. She seemed unconcerned about the recurring issue, as this was the second time in three months that a large party of mine faced a similar problem. During our conversation, Callie offered compensation in the form of a round of drinks or appetizers, which would have been appreciated if I hadn't already paid for these at the bar during the excessively long wait. Despite my calm and respectful demeanor, Callie showed a surprising lack of willingness to address the recurring problem or enhance my experience as a loyal customer. In conclusion, this experience has left me feeling like nothing more than a number rather than a valued patron. The Top has failed to live up to its reputation, and I am thoroughly disappointed with the lack of improvement and consideration for loyal customers. Unfortunately, I will not be returning to The Top anytime soon. Special thanks to Felix for his efforts to salvage an otherwise...

This was one of our favorite spots in Gainesville, Fl before tonight. We would like everyone to know how they are conducting business during Coved-19. Employee at the street handed my wife a rules sheet and she put it down on the counter, he asked her to pick it up because he wouldn’t. Then we go inside and get our temperature taken by host/manager and she takes us to our table, she was very nice. The waitress comes up to take our drink order and she jumps back 3 feet from our table and says, quote “you have to wear a mask to talk to anyone in this restaurant” she wasn’t nice about it. We almost left but decided to stick it out, wrong move! We had to put on and take off our mask every time she came to the table. The table next to us experienced the same thing as us and were complaining about the same thing. Continuing, I ordered the pesto sun-dried tomato nocchi, it literally came with 5 sun-dried tomatoes. I requested more and she dropped it off and said, “I won’t charge you this time but it’s a garnish for next time” I spoke with the manager/host and she said that was not right and the pine nuts are the garnish. Although manager was nice, you could tell she was just entertaining me and didn’t really care. I said, I understand we are in a difficult time but we felt very uncomfortable with our waitress, she said our waitress is one who is concerned and will talk to her. I went on to say nobody else who interacted with was like her and she said “yeah, we are open for you” I wanted to say, if your going to treat people like this, don’t open for anyone. Manager basically gave me lip service, didn’t care about my entree being dry and basically didn’t seem to care. One more note, you will be charged 18%, I usually tip between 20-25% but I guess when the server knows they are getting an 18% tip, they don’t care about service. I would not recommend anyone eat here during this time. Hopefully they get back to the restaurant we...

I have lived in Gainesville for quite some time and always told myself I wanted to try this place. Tonight was the night. I will start this review for what I liked about the Top and end with what i didn't like. I liked the atmosphere, definitely a good quality restaurant. The bar was a really nice area and it felt more of the upper end of Gainesville bars. Not so much of a college feel ,but it was a good escape. The selection of draft beers was decent. I am a HUGE craft beer guy and i must say I wasn't expecting the variety. There wasn't a ton of craft beers but the selection was good and unique to most other craft beer resturant bars, in which offered sour ales, sort of a rarity. The food was mediocre. I was surprised to see spaghetti squash and spinach fettuccine noodles.These are unique foods that are healthy that I generally cook at home by hand myself, but not something offered at other restaurants, however they were both undercooked. The service was just simply awful. it wasn't terribly busy, and from where I was sitting I could see my waiter talking to other employees for good amounts of time in the doorway.Both of my great beers took over 10 minutes a piece to go and grab. These were both ordered throughout the meal so I figured maybe the first time he simply forgot but the second one was no excuse. My girlfriend and I ordered the appetizer, no joke it came out with the meal. The waiter was no were to be found at any given time but was EXTREMELY quick to check us out at the end, which was good because at that point we just wanted to leave. Overall, the abstract: This is a nice one time resturant maybe for a first date to give a good impression but I wouldn't go back. There is simply to many restaurants in Gainesville to offer a similar experience for half the cost and...