Riverside Cafe

Ordered our food and then was told it would be an hour wait for food. We will see. I just ordered clam chowder to hold me over it only took 30 minutes. The food was good we had blackened fish sandwiches. They were delicious. I would recommend this place if you are not in hurry. Tammy did a great job very friendly. The atmosphere was very nice.

This place made some major improvements. Instead of there being a courtyard they added a huge structure around it with palm style roofing. It really looks awesome and tropical. The food wasn’t bad. I had a grouper sandwich right out of the apalachicola on a soft Keizer role with tartar sauce, lettuce and tomatoes. It was seriously yummers! We started with the smoked salmon dip which was good however think it could benefit from some diced onion in there. You may be asking yourself why is this getting 3 stars? That would be the bathrooms. A few hundred dollars worth of tile would go a long way. The white paint is now brown from a lack of cleanliness. The sink was held together with screws and the experience of «taking care of business» was unfortunate. It’s obvious thousands were spent on upgrades but its unreal that the bathrooms were neglected during upgrades. I will return and hope to it least the have slapped a fresh coat of paint on in there.

Great location and service. one of the best views near Tallahassee– closes water to the city. Great drinks. Try the smoked mullet– a local delicacy.

Went in today for a beer and there was live music going on. After 30 minutes of bad music, the dj came on and said «there’s the smoking section.» He continued…“And for you Spanish speakers. There’s-o the-​o smoking-​o section-​o”. Maybe it’s normal in the south. But as a native Spanish speaker, especially as the only one in attendance, I found it offensive. A non-​Spanish speaker mocking Spanish by just adding an ‘o’ to the end of an English word? Seems to come from a place of ignorance and passive everyday racism… So in closing if you like bad beer, bad music and racist humor this is the place for you!

Food was great, service was especially great and the ambience was fun and interesting! What more could you want! Good job! Oh and if you’re a kid, no shirt no shoes required!

I have to give this place 5 stars… 2 times a year we head down from NJ and the oysters are great,… even the scallop basket with the fries is good… portions are good and the service is friendly and fast… i look forward to going here everytime… we are not drinkers so can’t rate the alcohol experience…

Right on the St. Marks River, great views. On a Monday night they are loudly playing a top 40 radio station. First mate basket was big enough to split, solid fried food basket but nothing amazing. Fries have a little Lawrys or something similar.

It was our first time at Riverside and it was amazing. The food was amazing. We had so many different items as well. Fried shrimp, oysters, calamari, etc.
However, the best part was the drinks. We had about five different types made by John Hargan, who was the bartender on duty. If I could give the drinks more then five stars, I would.
There was also live music. It was fairly good. It had guest and employees moving and dancing, which of course made a great atmosphere.
Price. Food. Drinks. Music. Perfect. Do yourself a favor if you are in the area, try this place.

We rode our bikes to St Marks from Tallahassee and there wasn’t a whole lot to choose from so we came here.
Thanks to previous Unilocalers we avoided the blackened fish. We ordered oysters on the half shell instead. Super fresh and fast service. In fact the service was amazing. Our waiter was super accommodating and very friendly. He had the most adorable daughter.
We also ordered a Bloody Mary. It was okay. A little weak but probably better for the ride back home.

1. Location gets a C its a little bit of a hike from tally, but a good little day trip can go to the light house, and the old fort.
2. The setting gets a B. Its not really nice, nor on a bay or beach. It’s a nice opened air wooden seafood shack on the river. It’s what a tourist trap Margaritaville tries to be.
3. Food gets B its not outstanding, but beats most of tally fish spots. Its good, but no Captian Anderson’s in PCB or Jonas in Thomasville.
4. Service gets a C. It can be slow due to the small kitchen
5. Bar Service gets a C. It’s average.
So overall it’s a C plus that I rounded up to a B. Take a day trip from tally to st marks and stop in. Kick back relax watch boats go by have some drinks and grab a fish sandwich or something. My go to is Grouper sandwich.

Worst experience ever! It took an hour just for them to bring out the appetizer and the server was very unprofessional.

We drove to St. Marks after spending a glorious morning at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. We wanted fresh seafood and figured the nearest coastal town would be a great choice. Wrong.
St. Marks had three places and we chose the Tiki hut looking place. That should’ve been the first clue. We were told there’d be a short wait and a few minutes later were ushered to our table hidden from the bar and the river/​estuary view.
We ordered unsweet tea, crab fritters for an appetizer and the «World Famous» blackened fish sandwich.
Well the servers were confused and could never figure out who had what meals. One poor kid walked from table to table asking guests is this yours. (Smh.)
Our crab fritters were okay but the worst was the «world famous» (in their on mind) blackened fish. The fish wasn’t fresh, it was cold and the blackened seasoning tasted as though it was added after it was microwaved.
The confused kid who brought out the fritters wandered up and down the dock asking who had the fish sandwich. «’tis I,» I responded. I removed the top bun so my wife and I could split it. The fish was paperthin and cold.
If I could give a half star I would. If you want beer and to watch seagulls strafe the dock, it isn’t bad. But at $ 24 it wasn’t worth the price for what we paid. We ordered the one sandwich, blue crab fritters and two unsweet iced teas. I won’t return!

Although the place looks kinda fun from the outside, the food is terrible. At least what we had was! The blackened fish «world famous» sandwich was not fresh. The only redeeming bits were the unsweetened tea and blue crab fritters that smacked of a hushpuppy. Clearly this is a place to get your drink on – not to eat. In addition it’s pricey. And slow. And while waiting the wait staff was confused as to what food was ordered from what table. We were asked at least 3 times if certain baskets of this stuff was ours. Not recommended. Next time I’ll try «Cooter Stew» across the street.

We visited this place back in May of this year since it was an old favorite of several from our party. I was wary after reading the reviews here but most all of it turned out to be true and then some. The food was mediocre, service was absolutely horrendous for no apparent reason as it wasn’t very busy when we first arrived. It took 20 minutes just to get noticed and we had a party of 12 people. Food orders were confused, and overpriced drinks never made their appearance sometimes.
The ambiance is total dive, which is fine by me as I am normally a connoisseur of dive bars but 3.50 for a domestic beer??? Really? The only saving grace was the location on the water, which is why they can get away with what they charge and the lousy service. That alone gave it a star. The band was mostly set up when we arrived but left the PA on, which was emitting a high pitched squeal until they took the stage almost an hour later. Nobody cared to tell them to turn off their equip. is there even management in this place? Does anyone here give a s***? Nope. That about sums it up.

World famous fish sandwich? Hardly. Even the waitress was embarrassed by the portion size and brought «extra» fish for the sandwich. Salads looked decent, if somewhat unremarkable. (lettuce, banana papers, black olives). Skimpy on the side of soggy fries. Beer was cool not cold. They post a sign saying to expect up to an hour wait for your food. Just a means to justify poor service.
Fried mushrooms were very good as was salmon spread. Bottom line? Get bottled beer and appetizers. Just don’t buy the hype.

has an authentic Bubba Gump Shrimp feel or a Corona Commercial. Don’t expect a beach or a break. They had a bunch of deep fried random fish and corn that I couldn’t identify but it was pretty good.

5 Stars for the Fried Pickles!!!
5 Stars for the fried Crab claws!
I love coming here and wish I could give it a better rating but:
The beer is WAY over priced and the service is hit or miss. $ 3.50 for a miller lite bottle? come on…
I’ve tried some of the other items on the menu and they have just been ‘ok’, mostly bland, boring and WAY over priced.

Stopped here for lunch on Labor Day. There were no seats by the River or inside with some air conditioning. We sat outside in the covered area. After 10+minutes of waiting, I went to the bar and ordered our drinks myself. Finally a waiter (who originally told us it wasn’t his table) came and took our order. The food came out fairly quickly but the sides were wrong and one order was cooked incorrectly. It took FOREVER to get the order corrected, and requests for salt, catsup and butter were pretty much ignored. And drink refills were also ignored. Pretty much lousy service. $ 48 for lunch with 2 beers each. And it took a long time to get our check. Next time we will sit by the River and just have a couple beers.