Top O the River

Whoa they give you a LOT of food here. I had the catfish and ordered greens, too. Didn’t realize it already came with sides. It was more than enough to share, so I went home with as much as I ate, and I’m no lightweight. Staff were also super-​sweet and competent.

Drove over from Atlanta on a suggestion of a friend. Amazing is the word. Starting off that the wait was about 5 min at 6:00 on a Saturday night I’ve waited longer at fast food places to place an order. Started with a cornbread skillet, cold slaw (I prefer sweeter but everyone else liked it as is) and pickled onions (first time) these items are served AYCE. I ordered combination of catfish, broiled shrimp and fried shrimp. The fried shrimp were very fresh I didn’t like the broiled shrimp even though I ate all of them. The catfish are the prize here. You know they’re going to be good when our waiter asked how would we like them cooked. They came out hot and out of sight tasty. On the bone the only way to order. Spiced perfectly no extra salt needed only your teeth biting into these badboys. The combination came with two big ones the regular plate comes with three. That is what I’ll order next time. The service was prompt and consistent. Our waiter was Philip ask for him he is Great. The manager came out to speak to us. He as been there for over 20 years. The place is well managed. I watched some of the other servers and they were consistent with Philip. Large enough for big parties. When all of the old catfish places have closed up this is a great find. It’s be in business since the early eighties. You don’t stay in business for that long if you’re doing it wrong. Do yourself a favor enjoy a ride this summer and enjoy.

Recommended by motel on interstate and after a 15 minute drive to a catfish /​seafood house on a mountain 4 hours away from the ocean I can say the meal and service was excellent. No side salads avail but a bucket of coleslaw and cornbread was. The shrimp was cooked well and I will be back.

We ate there again last night and the food was wonderful! I’m not sure what happened the last time that we were there? We didn’t order there ribs however just because they said that they changed the recipe and the waitress said most ppl send them back if they ever had the ribs b4 they changed them and know how good they use to be! Overall we had a great dinner ! Happy valentines day!!!

Great food. They give you good serving sizes. You’ll be full! The whole cat was fantastic!

Never disappointed coming here! The only place I know that people will line up out the door to eat catfish! We were here for early dinner today. Arrived at 3:45 and was close to the front of the line to get in at the 4:00 opening. Started with the cornbread, slaw, small pot of greens and fried pickles. The Riverboat Special was our main meal. Every bite of everything was Delicious !!! I will look forward to going back again.

I definitely loved loved loved the free unlimited cornbread and cole slaw. They are so delicious — in fact, I believe they are the BEST part of the meal!
Catfish is also very good, although I really prefer mine with more cornmeal. We ordered the seafood platter, and was quite disappointed when the «crab» that was served to us was imitation crab. eek.
However, everything else was good. The servers were upbeat, the place is huge, we got seated right away, and we definitely enjoyed coming here.
But man! that cole slaw and corn bread itself is worth the visit.

This is my second time being at this restaurant. This restaurant is filled with character. The fish tanks are filled with blue catfish, it is a must see. Automatically, they bring out (free) a skillet of cornbread, coleslaw, and pickled onions. You can just eat that and be content because it is wonderful. I have to stress, add Pot O’ Greens to these items. They are soooo freaking good. This time I ordered the shrimp scampi dinner. This dish was extremely good. The shrimp was cooked to perfection. I didn’t want the baked potato or any other side item because I had all I needed with the cornbread, slaw and greens. My son had two whole (bone-​in) fried catfish and shrimp dinner. His plate was overwhelming. There was so much food that he had enough to take home for lunch. He got the loaded baked potato with the northern beans. All in all, everything was good. I was missing one thing, a wheelchair! I needed it so someone could have rolled my butt out of the place after we finished eating. I was stuffed and you will be too.

Stopped here for dinner based on a recommendation. Holy seafood, Batman! It’s not much to look at, a big family restaurant that’s worn around the edges, but once you bite into your food it doesn’t matter.
I got the fried pickles to start, and a half order was huge. They were good, but I should have skipped them and left more room for the food onslaught to come. The server also brought the slaw, cornbread and awesome picked onions. The onions were the best — the cornbread was a bit dry and the slaw was slaw.
Then the seafood apocalypse arrived. Fried catfish on the bone (which is awesome — it’s easy to eat, don’t be scared); boiled shrimp that were tasty and great in number; broiled crawfish that had a bit too much «butter sauce» on them, but got better with some lemon; and stuffed crab that was OK but I should have skipped. Add hush puppies that were left almost untouched and some spicy navy beans that were good but too much on top of the rest, and you have a recipe for defeat (and a very, very full stomach). I almost finished it, but ended up waving the white flag rather than slip into an immediate food coma.
Top o the River is some really good seafood at a very reasonable price. Just know before you step in the door that your eyes are certainly bigger than your stomach. You have no idea what you’re in for until they set that big silver platter in front of you.

Hands down the best catfish around! I have to drive from Birmingham but it is so worth it! They have everyone around here beat!

This place has the best fried catfish fillets I have ever eaten, hands down. The fried and boiled shrimp and the sides are great as well. Don’t be scared by the big crowds; they move them through very fast.

Went with some co-​workers and friends after hearing several good things about the catfish here and we weren’t disappointed with anything. I guess the worst thing about the place is it seems pretty old inside. Clean, but just old.
Like a lot of others, we enjoyed the coleslaw, pickled onions and corn bread before the meal. Very fresh and a nice touch before the meal. Don’t know why you would need any other appetizers besides these, but they have several.
We had fried shrimp, grilled shrimp and catfish, and they were all well prepared and hot, which I always consider a plus. The hush puppies were cooked just right, not over done or greasy.
Our server, Amber, was great. Very attentive and took great care of us.
Overall, worth the drive and I’d certainly go again.

This place never disappoints! Catfish is awesome! Free coleslaw and cornbread, what an appetizer. We drive all the way from Atlanta to eat here! Zach brought our food and was very nice. WDE !

People in Anniston seem to really love Top O’ The River. It’s a huge restaurant and is always pretty busy. We came here on a Wednesday night around 6:30 PM and there was a 20 minute wait. Our server was really sweet, but she did forget a few things we asked for. No big deal.
Cornbread, Coleslaw, and Pickled Onions come before your meal for FREE. :) In my opinion, this was the best part of the meal because I wasn’t too impressed by the entrees we ordered. These freebies made the price of the entrees worth it.
Here’s what we ordered:
Riverboat Special ($ 12.95) — This is a half-​pound of fried catfish that comes with hush puppies & your choice of a baked potato, french fries, or northern beans. We got the northern beans.
Two Item Combo Platter ($ 15.95) — The two items I ordered with this were the Fried Catfish & Fried Stuffed Crabs. This platter also comes with hush puppies & a side.
The hushpuppies were pretty good. The rest of it wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t anything special… just your regular fried foods.
We also ordered a side of Collard Greens. They were okay, but I prefer the collard greens from Dad’s BBQ.

Slow service, 30 minutes for fried food is ridiculous! Food was frozen not fresh!!! Best thing about the meal was the baked potato. No variety. If you don’t like catfish, don’t eat here. Wife had popcorn shrimp and it looked like it was an old order that was refried. Asked another server for our check and was told we would have to find our waiter on our own. Go somewhere else!!! Better service and quality at Long John Silvers!!!

My daughter and I stopped at Top of the River last night. We were in town for the week and were looking for some southern style seafood. Not only is this restaurant HUGE, but the portions are enormous as well. We were lucky, this evening, that we picked a slow night and were seated right away. Our server was Sara, and she was the sweetest and most polite server we could have asked for.
Unfortunately, unlike Sara, the food was not completely reliable. We had the fried catfish, greens, and fried pickles. The small order of fried pickles was enough for five people, and unfortunately, they were kind of dry and tough. The ones we ate at Zaxby’s recently were much lighter, fresher and actually tasted like pickles. The collards were good, but not as good as the ones we had at Brad’s BBQ in Oxford. But the catfish was the star. It came out hot, lightly breaded and was clearly very fresh, It melted in your mouth, The hushpuppies that came on the catfish platter were doughy greasy and gummy… just plain bad. Hindsight being 20/​20, I should have just stuck with the coleslaw, catfish and pickled onions.
If you are looking for awesome catfish, but very average sides, this is the place. The portions are off the charts and would satisfy the biggest appetite. The prices are a little higher than average, so it would be nice if they allowed substitutions for the sides. I was told I couldn’t get collards instead of beans, even though they were priced the same on the menu.
It is a very comfortable restaurant with very good service. I just wish the food was as good.

Ribeye was AWFUL and manager refused to take it off our ticket. The steak was dry, ask for medium it came well done. Highly disappointed.

Great food portions are big a must visit restaurant n u must have the catfish.
The cornbread is great along with the slaw
I would not order the crab plate is imitation crabmeat but I had the catfish with bones they gave me 3 fish with spicy white beans they were great wish the had beer

When you go to a restaurant and hear they specialize in a certain dish, it would be near foolish to get something else. SO, I got the fried catfish (whole). And when they say whole, they mean TWO whole catfish.
Juicy. Perfectly seasoned (or not seasoned). Delicious. I also tried the broiled catfish. It was good. But I did walk away preferring the fried catfish.
Oh and let me backtrack a little. As a little pre-​meal treat, they bring you awesome corn bread in this cute small cast iron skillet and some really yummy coleslaw (and I don’t even like coleslaw).
They have delicious onion rings and fried dill pickles too as appetizers.
We went on a not-​so-​busy time, so I’m not sure how the wait is (since we didn’t wait) but it’s a pretty big joint, so think they can manage to fit you in.
I hope we make this place a tradition each time we go out to see my in-​laws.

Great seafood!
The food was great! I had fried catfish and some tasty fried pickles and my BF had seafood platter. We both enjoyed our meals and plan on having this as a «Usual» location to dine at whenever we are in the area.