Top O' The River — Restaurant in Guntersville

My BIL wanted to come here for his birthday, and we don't usually deny birthday requests, so we ate dinner here last Saturday. Hmm...it was about what I expected, which is to say below average for a high price point.

BIL and SIL got here at around 4:45 to get in line to aim for table service by 6:30, which is crazy to me. But their strategy paid off, because when the rest of our party showed up, we only had to wait a few minutes before they called us in. They don't take reservations and they don't seat parties till everyone is present, FYI.

The inside reminds me of like...a kinda country take on a really touristy restaurant like Rainforest Cafe or Hard Rock or something. Big, cheap looking animal sculptures and over the top decorations accompanied by standard, somehow always sticky and vaguely grimy chairs and tables. It's not really my speed, but it's obviously very popular, so maybe I'm a Grinch or something.

The menu is almost exclusively fried food, most of it from some sort of aquatic animal. You can get broiled crawfish, catfish, and tenders, but if you don't want catfish, chicken tenders, shrimp, imitation crab, or crawfish, you're basically out of luck.

I'm not a huge fish or shellfish person, so I went with the fried tenders. All meals come with hush puppies and your choice of fries or a baked potato. As if that wasn't enough, we also ordered fried pickles to start. You are also served one pan of skillet cornbread and a cup of coleslaw per 4 people. I LOVE fried food, but even I felt a little overgreased on my way out.

Service was okay - our server was nice enough, and prompt with drink refills and getting any dipping sauces we asked for - but the food was painfully slow to come out. It was about 1 hour and 15 minutes after we ordered before our meals were delivered, which isn't really acceptable. I get that they're crazy busy, but if the seating can accommodate 100+ people, you'd hope the kitchen could, as well.

As for the food...mine was honestly better than I thought it would be, but that isn't to say it was especially good. The chicken tenders were breaded in the same batter as the fish and shrimp, which I don't really like on chicken tenders, but it was okay. The meat at least was tender and juicy and the tenders were large. Fries were definitely frozen then fried and needed some more salt, too. Hush puppies weren't very flavorful but were nice and crispy. The ranch was a good addition to all items and I think was house made. Honestly maybe the best thing, lol. The fried pickles were pretty enjoyable, and the tea was fresh.

The rest of my party wasn't super happy with their food, at least those that I asked. Husband and FIL both thought the catfish was really dry at the thinner edges of the cut and soggy and dense at the thicker parts, which isn't really what you want.

Everything was pretty expensive ($17-18 an entree) for what it was.

I dunno, it's a novel experience and may be more to your liking than mine, but I personally don't really...

Tonight, my husband and I were served by Matthew. Initially, he seemed very polite and patient, providing excellent service. However, Matthew proved to be very defensive when we noticed the lack of hush puppies on our platter. Although he did bring back a few extra hush puppies, Matthew went out of his way to smuggly say, "I hope you have a better night," when we left the restaurant. I just kindly yet firmly said, "You too." To note, we still gave him a great tip, just because he brought back the hush puppies that were skimped on our platter with an explanation that the dropper for hush puppies was broken, so the cook had been putting extra hush puppies on the platters all night. I replied, "That would be a great idea to start doing that," affirming ours had not been given extra hush puppies as Matthew indicated. At this point, I was thinking, "How can hush puppies be such a big deal to give to customers? Aren't they the cheapest food to prepare and serve?"

Since we only dine at and regularly dine at the Guntersville location of Top O' The River Restaurants and only order the World's Largest Seafood Platter, we know what to expect from this platter. On most occasions, we order two of these platters to split between our family of four. I also count 1,200 calories every day, so when I am not full from the meal, I know that it is lacking. There was plenty of seafood, but tiny hush puppies were being served instead of the typical-sized hush puppies.

In short, Matthew needs to continue to be the polite and patient server that he first introduced himself to be, instead of the smart aleck waiter he chose to finish our night off with. From the way we were treated upon our arrival, we never expected that the lack of hush puppies would be such an issue that our drinks were never refilled. Matthew needs to be more selective as to the kind of customer he chooses to offer this sort of conversation to. I am a natural redheaded woman, so he was bound to get a comeback, just one that's more permanent like through...

I am a local and frequent flyer to this restaurant and I love Top of the River in Guntersville better than I do any of the others and this is a fantastic place to eat and people come from all over to eat at the Guntersville restaurant but I have to say that over the past couple of times I've been there that my catfish and I ordered the whole catfish was very overcooked to the point where it was literally too hard to eat and I don't like that and I always tell them to please cook my catfish light meaning it's got just a touch of golden on it but it's very tender to come off of the bone on both sides and for instance last night's experience left a lot to be desired in my book and I could hardly eat the six pieces that I ordered and I was only able to eat maybe two and a half pieces of my fish because of how severely overcooked it was, plus a dozen shrimp and the shrimp were a little overcooked also but I called and let them know about it shortly after I ate and I told them that the cook they had was overcooking the fish and I knew in my heart that other people that have been to the restaurant have experienced the same thing with overcooked catfish so I'm just hoping they get a cook that knows what "cook my catfish light" means but like I said I called to let them know and they made sure that I was comfortable with the fact that they would do better next time but other than this, I love this place and I have been going here for 25 years and I will continue to do so because JD is the manager and he makes dang sure that every person he has that comes to his restaurant are completely comfortable and satisfied with their experience with the food and the atmosphere and all of that and all of the staff are incredibly wonderful people and I love JD to death and he is a great manager and a good humble person and he was meant to be the manager there! I still love my top of the river in Guntersville and I will definitely be back again and again! Laurie Hudgins,...