Top O the River

I ended up in the area on a day trip and had intended to go to another restaurant but it was closed in Sunday. I really wanted seafood so I decided to try this restaurant. The restaurant itself is pretty nice. It overlooks the river and this is a nice touch for a seafood place. After being seated I looked over the menu and quickly realized that this is more of a country restaurant than seafood. All there menu really offers is catfish (grilled or fried), shrimp (grilled or fried) and chicken (grilled or fried). The cornbread that is offered complementary is pretty amazing but everything else was pretty much just so-​so. The waitress was really pushy and collected our plates before we were even done eating. I truly felt like I was being rushed from start to finish. My overall opinion is save your money or go somewhere else. This place isn’t worth your time unless you lover fried catfish, shrimp or chicken tenders.

The service was good. Sweet waitress who checked on us often. My Skewered Shrimp were excellent. I highly recommend them. My husband ordered the seafood platter. He said the worst thing he had… was good. The cold slaw they bring before the meal is outstanding. Cornbread was good. No complaints. Although we did get there at 7 pm and things were not that hectic. By the time we left at 8 pm, the place was packed… on a Thursday. There is a reason why. The food is delicious.

I love the fish platter. Their greens are not fresh greens, but they are delicious. The cornbread need to have a little more moistness to it. The slaw and onions are fantastic. The service is excellent. I would definitely recommend this as the restaurant of choice when in Gadsden.

Stopped in on recommendation of friend. Great service and nice atmosphere but the food wasn’t what I was expecting. My husband had seafood platter. Only thing that was very good on that was the boiled shrimp. I had shrimp scampi and fried shrimp. The scampi were a bit rubbery probably cause they may have been cooked too long. Not much flavor. The fried shrimp were not butterflied so they had veins and were more of a panko crust than hand battered. I’m from Gulf coast so I’m use to their fresh seafood. Cornbread was great though.

Top of the River is amazing! If you don’t like TOTR it means something is wrong with you and not them. Everything here is good and well priced. EVERY single time I’ve been here it had been delicious! Even if it takes a min or two to be seated, it’s worth the wait. An eclectic group of customers and all sorts of dress, but everyone leaves happy.
If you’ve never had it, do your self a favor

Honestly, this place has some really good southern style seafood. I shared the platter (I can’t remember the name… Neptune’s Feast maybe? Ha!) and it was the perfect amount of food for two. You were able to choose the components of the platter, so after much debate we settled with the «krab» seasoned in butter, hush puppies, fried catfish, fried shrimp, two crab cakes, shrimp scampi and a baked potato. Everything was delicious, but the shrimp scampi and crab cakes were a real hit!
I also loved the skillet cornbread (it was sweet with jalapeños and whole corn), the greens, and the pickled onions. Be sure to sample those as well!

I can’t count how many times that I have been here, but it is consistently one of the best around. The food is always great and the atmosphere is fitting for a local place. The catfish and seafood are fantastic. But here is a free tip: get the fixins prior to your meal. It includes a pot of greens, slaw and cornbread serves in tin pans. True southern food at its best. You can’t go wrong with any if the items, so go an enjoy your meal. What are you waiting for? Go now!

No-​nonsense southern fried catfish and good cornbread. Simple and to the point. Very large portions.

mmm, corn bread. I’ve had cornbread from Alabama to Atlanta and this place has the best I have ever had. Probably odd that I would first talk about cornbread but when its good, its good. I wish I lived closer. The rest of the food is also very good. I have been here 3 times while visiting Alabama for fishing. A friend of mine knows the owner and introduced me to this place. This is a big restaurant and every time I have been there it has been super busy. That says a lot about a place. Most of the seafood is fried and tasty. What isn’t good when its fried. My wife had the chicken which was juicy and flavorful. Besides the corn bread the other item which I found to be outstanding is their collard greens. I was having a meal with a group of fisherman and there were a few orders of greens for the table. For guy from the north, they looked like a wet bowl of lettuce. I was too busy eating my corn bread and fish. I was finally asked enough times to try them. Oh my goodness. That’s all I had the rest of the night. Their greens are amazing. Sweet, sour, meaty. Just awesome. I have head that they don’t have a freezer here and that everything is made fresh. It sure taste that way. Next time I am anywhere near Alabama, I’ll be back.

One of our family’s favorite places. We love the cornbread, slaw, and pickled onions. There’s always plenty of food — sometimes more than we can eat — and we have never gotten anything that was not up to standard.
One item that we found to be a pleasant surprise was the ribeye steak. It’s excellent! We wouldn’t have expected that from a catfish place.
I would have given five stars if it were not for the fact that it is usually crowded and noisy, and parking can be a problem.

It’s rare when I eat at a seafood restaurant, but this place was worth the visit. First of all, there’s lots of room, fish tanks inside, and a view of the river. Second, the food was excellent. No matter what you order, they bring you a metal pan to treat yourself to a skillet of cornbread and slaw. Slaw was homemade and really creamy and to add some flavor to it, ask for pickled onions to mix in with it makes a perfect blend of sweetness and vinegar. I had the combo plate with fried catfish and fried chicken fingers. Catfish was freshly battered and served hot. The batter was light and had a good mix of batter and fish. The chicken fingers were also freshly battered and was very good. 4 hush puppies came with my plate and I couldn’t get enough of them. You get a choice of baked potato, fries, or onion rings with your meal. I don’t like to eat seafood, but when I do, I choose catfish from Top of the River.

Not bad, not bad at all. Definitely a place you can get your fill. Everything I tried here was delicious. I definitely liked the pickled onions and cornbread they brought out. View of the little lake in the back with fish and ducks and turtles swimming around is awesome. Entrees filled with fried deliciousness are great.

When we were served the standard pone of cornbread, pickled onions and slaw; the waiter asked if we wanted butter for our cornbread and I said «yes, if it is real butter». He said:“It sure is“and handed me two cups which were labeled «_​_​Spread with first ingredients water, liquid and partially hydrogenated soy bean oil». Okay, so this kid is ignorant about food. Our main course was served quickly. Before we were finished with our entrée, the waiter was offering our check and standing by for the payment. Seriously, we still had more food on our plates than we had eaten and we were still chewing. We took the hint and left but were stuck in the parking lot for nearly an hour trying to get out. The food is good but not worth the rushed service and chaos.

The food was great, but the experience was horrible.
Two of our nine people in our party were running late and TOTR finally seated us against their ‘all parties need to be present to be seated’ rule, after us convincing them that we wanted to order appetizers and drink while we waited. Once we sat, we were immediately rushed to order our main meals at the same time as our drinks. We didn’t, and ordered drinks and apps and waited a while. While enjoying those, we were asked 3 times to put in an order while the other 2 family members had not even arrived. After 20 minutes of being hovered over, we finally ordered and just as we had, the 2 others arrived. As soon as they sat, the waitress came over to take their order without even time for them to open their menu.
Hardly 10 minutes went by before our food was out, and it was delicious. As the food runner/​manager? came over to put our food down, he literally yelled at our party to pass the appetizer plates forward while some people were still eating. Maybe 15 minutes went by and the waitress came over and asked if we wanted to go boxes and cups, while everyone was still clearly eating. She came back with a couple boxes and the checks. Did not even ask if we wanted dessert or more drinks.
As a person in the food and beverage industry, I understand the importance of turnover but this was the worst experience at a restaurant I have endured. Also, none of this was at the hands of our sweet waitress who was obviously doing exactly was she was told to do by upper management. While it is important to get more customers through the door, Top of the River needs to learn to value the experience of the ones inside already.

WOW. these people will feed you. I got the catfish special ½ lb The slaw corn bread and greens were good. Picked onions were different and good as well. Good value. Good food

This place gets packed fast. The food is good but it all starts tasting the same since all the fried food basically has the same batter. I can say their slaw is amazing. This place isn’t the best seafood I’ve ever had but overall it’s pretty good every now and then.

Pretty darn tasty. I ate my food to fast to take a pic. But I had the fried Gulf shrimp which were fabulous, and the stuffed crab which was ok. they bring cornbread and coleslaw as free apps. The cornbread had jalapeños and corn. But not sweet enough for me. My coworkers had the fried catfish and fried crawfish and were impressed.

Skillet cornbread and fresh slaw finely chopped and sweet just the way I like it are brought to your table before dinner along with pickled onions. The Creole Shrimp dinner is exactly what you would expect, but I wish it had a bit more seasoning. Slightly dissatisfied with the pinky nail sized broiled crawfish tails, but the strongly flavored juice in the dish made up for it. The place has a nice view of the river with in door seating, I didn’t notice outdoor seating. Service was friendly and wait times were low.

I LOVE Top O’ the River! My family has gone to TOR almost every weekend in my childhood, although we usually go to the one in Guntersville. In fact, I had an insatiable craving for it, and we drove 50 miles just to eat here last night. Their hours say they open at 4 on Saturday, but we got there at 3:50 and they were already seating customers, which I was very happy about. We got seated at 3:50, they had our food out by 4:05, and we were out of there by 4:30. Talk about fast service! I almost felt a little rushed.
Anyway, on to the food! I always get the broiled catfish, and it’s great, but I am really a huge fan of their cole slaw, corn bread, and pickled onions! I could make a meal out of that alone. However, their sweet tea, hushpuppies… well, everything, is fresh, yummy, and a good value if you ask me! Husband and I had two meals with sweet tea, and the total was around 35 bucks.
If you want a great meal with a view, this is the place for you!

I’m not crazy about fried catfish, but if I’m going to be in the mood for fried catfish this is where I’m going. The fish, tartar sauce & hushpuppies are great! The slaw and pickled onions are a good version of each and are a nice add on. The prices are more than reasonable and the portion size is good.
Having said all that, there is nothing else remarkable about this place. The cornbread is terrible, the sides are either a baked or fried potato, and not a notable representation of either. The ambiance is terrible, the restaurant is noisy as can be, food is served on tin plates, and overall the building just feels dirty.
I highly recommend the takeout station, which is super efficient and always seems to be accurate in your order and staffed with helpful employees. There is even a nice parking area right by it, reserved just for you to pick up your order. I love getting takeout from here!