River — Restaurant in Tuscaloosa

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 ✨ RESTAURANT✨ ✨RIVER✨ 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

THE SPOT 🔽🔽🔽 River 1650 Jack Warner Pkwy Tuscaloosa, AL 35401

Let’s talk about it!!

Alright Birmingham. If you’re feeling spontaneous, hop on in the car 🚗 and ride down the interstate to Miss Loosa (Tuscaloosa). This restaurant sits on the river on Jack Warner Pkwy and I must say, it was a nice experience.

Now the wait kind of annoyed me but it was worth it. For a party of 5 on a Thursday, we had to wait an hour. Whew! Get you a little snacky snack just in case if you decide to go 🥲

🔹My Order 🔹 ➡️CHICKEN (fried chicken breast, smashed potatoes, green beans, lemon-caper crème sauce)

🔹Sampled🔹 ➡️SALMON CHIPS (smoked salmon, white bbq sauce, pickled onions, fried capers, bagel seasoning, parsley) ➡️ALABAMA CATFISH (fried or seared) gouda grits, collard greens, fried onions)

So the Salmon Chips were actually an appetizer. They were kind of like loaded Nachos but instead of beef or chicken, they had smoked salmon. The white bbq sauce gave them a nice lil kick. I could’ve done without the pickled onions but they didn’t take away from the overall taste of the food.

The fried chicken breast from my order was soooo delicious. It was literally fried to perfection! They did what needed to be done. Trust me! Ion like no dry chicken, and I know y’all don’t either. This definitely did not disappoint. The Smashed potatoes were also the bomb. They had just the right amount of seasoning on them and weren’t cooked too hard. I could’ve done without the green beans but I ate them anyway. They gave ALOT of them so I left quite a few on the plate, LOL!

I sampled the Alabama catfish and when I tell you it taste like the fish your family will fry outside in the fish fryer. WHEW!! Had me wanting to send my plate back and order that or at least get a to-go meal. The grits weren’t that impressive but the catfish made up for it so you couldn’t really tell.

The ambiance here is nice and gives a nice special occasion or date night vibe. The river behind it is definitely a plus. Can get a nice photo op before or after dinner if you’re not too stuffed.

RIVER gets a ✔️ from Vic the Crit!

If you go, be sure to let me know what...

5 Stars for the service, 0 Stars for the management, averaging 2.5 & I will round up to 3 because of our service. I have dined here on 3 different occasions (once for brunch & twice for dinner). My first occasion was fun, with a great server who even suggested I return for brunch, which I did. My brunch server was equally fantastic and the menu was fine. When I returned for my third dinner visit, however, although my server (still a different individual from my previous two visits) was excellent, management stepped in and ruined our atmosphere. Each time I had made a reservation and arrived a few minutes early. First visit proved excellent. Second, we were told "It will be a few minutes." We stepped aside and watched for 15 minutes as others were arriving and being seated. Finally, I returned to the hostess & asked how much longer it might be. She looked on her schedule and remarked, "Oh! I forgot all about you!" (no apology) The server was excellent and made up for the hostess' lack of training. The most recent reservation we made was Friday night, when we requested a particular server. We assumed she wasn't working when a different server introduced herself at our table. She was, btw, excellent, but midway through our meal the server we had requested stopped by our table and told us she was not even aware we were here, much less that we had requested her. On to the management....We order two bottles of wine (one red/one white) and Drew appears to say his distributor has "let them down" and they do not have the white wine (chardonnay) available. we ordered an alternate. Later, we decided to order a second bottle of the red. He re-appeared with a substitution, explaining that diners were blocking his access to the wine we'd ordered, so he suggested this alternate. We tried it, but it in no way compared to the initial chianti we'd enjoyed. In his defense, the server did not charge for it. In any case, the servers are what makes...

No good. The place is ok, it’s the usual corporate design style without a personality, but at least they don’t have too many of those huge ugly televisions everywhere you're looking at. Also the service is the usual all fake corporate deal, where the waiters could no care less for you, but have to put up that fake smile, re-acting the entire repertoire of empty small talks, and constantly interrupting the flow of experiences you’re having with your date or folks. I’m referring to the usual annoying series of questions with the sole intent of spilling more money (one more beer? dessert?..). Nothing personal against any of the waiters, not their fault: they are trained and expected to behave as such. Three: the food. Very much disappointing, I ordered a $27 fried chicken, well you get better chicken at KFC, no doubt. The one I have was dried and tasteless. By tasteless I mean there was zero taste of chicken in the meat itself. I don't care how it tastes after you suffocate it with ten different sauces. I’m talking about the meat: same taste of those cheap frozen pieces of chicken you get at walmart = zero taste. For $27 I was expecting maybe a free range chicken from a local farmer. Yes they do actually exist and they have a taste, the good chicken taste I was looking for. Lastly the wine. I ordered a small glass of France wine I don’t remember the name, I still prefer to believe I’m wrong about this, but it really tasted and looked as it was watered down. Epilogue: sure go there, you might like it, as long as you have never experienced dining in decent restaurants before. There are several in AL, not many in Tuscaloosa, for sure...