After three years of hearing about The Top, I gave it a try my senior year. This Saturday night I went in a group of six girls to The Top for dinner.
The Top doesn’t take reservations and since it’s one of the most popular restaurants in Gainesville, we expected the rumored one-and-a-half hour wait. But surprisingly, we only had to wait less than ten minutes to get our table.
Before we went inside, I asked my friend what kind of food they serve.
“They have a lot. Everything and hipster food too,” she said.
Hipster food, interesting term, I thought.
When we were seated and I looked at the menu, there were a plethora of items. Making a decision was hard.
Do I want pasta? Do I want sandwiches? And do I want to be vegetarian? Vegan?
I ordered the Southwestern Pasta which included spinach fettuccini tossed with sautéed onions, peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and a spicy cream sauce topped with Asiago cheese.
Spicy is the correct word for this dish. I am used to spicy food, but I couldn’t taste anything else in this dish.
I could not eat this meal. My friend ordered Broccoli Alfredo and I added her left over alfredo sauce to my pasta as well as use another friend’s chicken to help make the dish taste milder.
The ciabatta bread that was served with the pasta with was so small, thin and soft that it did not help balance the spicy taste for more than a few bites. It took two glasses of water and other people’s leftover ingredients for me to finish this meal.
My friends had better experiences. Those who ordered Broccoli Alfredo finished theirs a lot before mine. I had to stop after every bite to gulp water.
I may have ordered the wrong dish, but my first experience to The Top did not live up to its expectations.
The decorations and atmosphere of The Top are nice. It’s a large dim restaurant and unique décor.
There is a photo booth, which was out-of-order, and a foosball table as well as arcade game, all next to a large bar.
The calming atmosphere of the The Top may be why people go again and again. It has many food options, as well as vegetarian and vegan. There are games and drinks, depending on what you find entertainment in. The Top is a place that caters to everyone.
My experience was not on par to my expectations but maybe the chefs were having a bad day and lashed out on spices. Or maybe I ordered the wrong dish.
