This place has the look of a typical bar or tavern which is great. I went on a Thursday evening. It was not too packed. I had a chicken quesadilla and tacquitos. They were both pretty good. About what you would expect from a bar kitchen. The prices were pretty average. This place has a small stage, full size bar and pool tables in back. The drinks are moderately priced and have specials. I'll definitely be back to check it out again.
Review Source:I would give this place 5 stars except for the service. The bartenders actively avoid/ignore you when you try to catch their attention: it takes walking up to another part of the bar to actually order a beer and some food. Not really friendly either, you can tell they're just there so they can get a paycheck.
Other than that, decent atmosphere, lots of TVs and bar games to play, and excellent food and drinks. VERY hot wings and cold beer in frozen mugs for a reasonable price.
One star ONLY because of the HORRIFIC STAFF!!
I loved the venue, the entertainment was great; Food and Drinks were made well.
The Staff was a WHOLE different story! Not only was I a waitress/bartender for 8 years, but I have been in customer service for over 12 years and a manager for 6.
The staff was the worst I may have ever encountered!!! We went to the bar for drinks... it was fine. Than we went to play pool and wanted to order food, after no one coming over in an hours time, we had to find someone to take our order.
The the waitress finally came over, we said, we wanted to order food and she said, " Well make it quick I have all this to cover"- In a VERY rude tone. If it had not been for my BF knowing the band, I would have walked out than!
That attitude continued until we left. We were made to feel like we were an inconvenience.
THAN a few hours later, the waitress finally brought over our final bill after our last drink order ( we had been paying for everything as it was delivered). The waitress set it down as my boyfriend was headed to the restroom. She said nothing and set it down. My BF said he was going to the bathroom and would pay it when he got back. The waitress LITERALLY waited 2 minutes, my bf had not even return from the restroom, came back over and with an extremely unprofessional tone, looks at me and says, " You guys have to pay that bill". Excuse me!?!?!
At this point it was 12, not closing time (not that it is EVER appropriate to speak to customers that way).
I was literally  DISGUSTED by the rude, unprofessional staff. The two main girls we encounter are a mess & are ruining the experience of your tavern.
Despite not having wheat buns or sweet potato fries, which would have changed my order to a burger and fries, the chicken quesadilla was fantastic, likely the best I've had in Atlanta. Â
The atmosphere is ok, smoking and non smoking sections but still a bit of smoke smell in the "family" area. The bathroom is in the smoking area.
Waitress was a bit slow, but the food came quickly. Â After that she disappeared.
Seems like a nice bar area too.
I will be back to try more of the menu.
My first stop in here had me thinking about coming back. I sat at the bar and there was a name tag on the bar but the name has been scratched off so I decided it was ok to sit there. Â Food is ok nice beer selection. Seating for one - hey it's a tavern so plenty of seats at the bar. Patriots fans this is your spot for games.
Review Source:Lots of references to Taco Mac as a comparison to the North River Tavern. Perhaps in a parallel, opposite universe where the above average cleanliness; food and service of a Taco Mac is replaced with this. The building and atmosphere is authentically grungy - not part of some dive bar shtick.
Who knew the fabric rip in the universe folks are looking for is right here in good old Roswell.
North River Tavern is a place where you can get some decent bar food and pretty good drinks. Â I have seen all types and ages of patrons here including families with children. Â
I've had various items from the menu and all were okay, not fantastic, but good. Â Service has always been pretty good as well. Â
They have plenty of parking, a good sized bar, and a patio area. Â
I'm not crazy about the smell that smacks you when you enter though. Â Kinda like old cigarette smoke and just old. Â
This place will do if you want to grab a drink and get yourself a bite to eat.
I've been going to NRT for years now to watch sports, and what it lacks in food, it makes up for in people.
There are all sorts of different folks that go to NRT. . .from townies to young kids to mid-career folks like myself. Â And everyone seems to get along for the most part. Â
It can get crowded on Saturdays and Sundays during football season, and certain areas are blocked off for the fan groups. Â So if you're looking for a casual quiet bar on the weekends in the fall, this is not the place for you. Â (Then again, no self-respecting sports bar would be for you).
The food is not fantastic, but it is consistently good. Â I love that they have tater tots on the menu, which not every sports bar has. Â The beer selection is pretty decent, though they run out of popular brews quite quickly (e.g., Sam Adams Oktoberfest is gone by mid-September). Â However, management is good about catering to their regular, and to new people alike.
NRT has been my home away from home for many years, and I'll be a loyal customer for many more.
Was in town visiting some friends who are just as obsessive as me when it comes to sports. Since they are all originally from New England (and therefore their allegiances are my rivals), we knew we needed a bar with a lot of TVs and all sports packages. As a result, we went to NRT, where my friends are regulars.
The beer selection is not the greatest I've ever seen, but it certainly isn't bad. It caters to both the mainstream and craft beer drinkers, and all the drafts are available in regular and tall sizes.
Their menu consists of standard bar food. I went with chicken fajita nachos, which came with peppers, onions, queso, and grilled chicken. It was nice to have a different twist on standard nachos, which they also have. The portion size was huge; I picked at them for quite awhile and it didn't look like I'd put a dent in them at all.
The staff is nice, and service is quick (like I said, though, my friends are there all the time, so that may have had something to do with it as well). Elise, the manager, is super friendly and very cool to talk to.
The bar has a Boston sports slant (note the framed pics), but no one (except my friends) gave me any shit for wanting to watch my Yankees and Rangers. +1 for having NHL Center Ice, because, as we all know, hockey is just not that big in the ATL.
I only wish this was closer to where my friend lives, although it seems as though you have to drive everywhere in the area anyway.
I was looking for a place in the Alpharetta area to get a late night drink after working a night shift. Now all this OTP talk about it being a drag in the 'burbs... I gotta say, for a late night choice, they may be onto something... Lol. But the North River Tavern serves till 2:30 am and it's pretty cool that I can grab a beer, smoke a cigar, play some darts OR shuffleboard AFTER midnight! So this review is based on AFTER midnight!
I have found the girls behind the bar quite lovely to look at ( Hey, I'm a guy. Of course I prefer the short-shorts) and drink specials change weekly. The food is decent but I prefer the liquid refreshment option at this time of the evening anyway!
So... If you live in the Roswell/ Alpharetta area I would definitely recommend the North River Tavern for a great late night option and it's always a "mixed" crowd...;)
This past Wednesday, two of my good friends from work and I decided to go a little further north than normal for our semi-regular happy hour adventure. This is where we ended up, and it definitely fit the bill.
This place is really casual, but I didn't feel out of place wearing a suit. Their beer selection is surprisingly good, and they had a lot of the newer, less common local stuff on draught (Red Hare, Monday Night...). I wasn't expecting that, so it was very refreshing.
Since I had to work late, traffic was a nightmare, and I thus arrived somewhat late, I decided to go ahead and eat dinner. I had a chicken sandwich with some fries, which was all passable but nothing special.
They had trivia going on that night, which could have been fun, but we decided not to stay for the whole thing. The place is big, there seemed to be a lot of regulars, and I think it's just a cozy place to get a drink in the evening.
I may not be back, given the distance from my work and home, but I definitely think it's a great option for someone closer.
Good and steady!
I've been going here for years. I have teenage boys and they love it. Â
It is good solid bar food, nothing more, nothing less. Wings, nachos, burgs, you name it. The boy are partial to the nachos, which are giant! Maybe that's why they're call the Nacho Mountain? :)
A few video games and pool tables are also available. And the deck is a great place to sit outside during the summer!
Service is always friendly, even if occasionally slow. This place is what it is, but I'm fine with that.
You know that place that you LOVE, but in actually..you can't think of a reason why? No, I kid! North River is a really unique spot RIGHT on the edge of Sandy Springs. Like others have stated, it's an old Taco Mac and was a Steak and Ale prior to that. With NRT, you will notice 2 things almost immediately:
1. It's very isolated! True, there are other places up Roswell Rd...but in the NEAR vacinity..it's all by itself...so, depending on the person..that can be good or bad!
2. It has a really cool/unique architecture (think Snow White and the Seven Drunks) Cool patio on the outside, which is great on nice weather days.. (although Roswell Rd gridlock is not the best view..but what can you do right?)
So, back to the actual review..
This place has a lot of differnt types of people: middle age bar flies, football people, "HeyBro's", and even a few local business types grabbing a beer after work. The BEST thing NRT has going for it is that they always show UFC events...without fail. I honestly wouldn't go half as much without that. True, these events can elevate the douchebaggery levels, but I've never seen any incidents in the 5+ years I've been going.
Food is decent for a bar, not a "hey let's branch out" kinda deal, but once you find a few things you like...it's cool!
Service is probably the weakest point of the place. HIGH turnover rate, and the servers are either totally inept, or very functional...but you really don't get the vibe they REALLY care (However, the bartenders are sweethearts)
Overall, this is a really good spot to watch a game/fight. WARNING...Cops LIVE to pull people over after midnight, and the aforementioned isolation only makes it easier to get nabbed.. so think twice before you D&D
NRT= TRY IT!!!
I tried going here on a weekend and was barely able to get in the door! I've been twice so far (on weeknights) and am definitely a fan. It can get crowded and parking is kind of a pain, but for the food quality and affordability it doesn't really matter.
The restaurant is divided into smoking and non-smoking sections. There are arcade games, two pool tables in the back ($1.25 in quarters/game), some sort of virtual golf game, and TONS of TV's (just from my table I could see 15).
The service is prompt and friendly. Crowd is mixed between college aged frat boys and baby boomer bar flies. The atmosphere is that of a stereotypical bar- loud, energetic and smoky. They have events such as trivia night and Bingo.
Typical bar menu with a separate BBQ menu and lots of southwestern style options (nachos, tacos, etc.)
I've ordered:
Jalapeno Poppers- solid, cheap.
Taquitos- Chicken, melted cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and sour cream- also decent and affordable.
Boneless Buffalo wings- super cheap, just OK. The sauce is good but the meat was mostly breading.
Burgers- VERY good. Cooked perfectly, lots of burger options. I also love the krinkle cut fries.
Go on Thursday's for $5 Burgers! I went on a Thursday and they also had $5 Sweetwater and Terrapin in 22 ounces- HUGE! Not sure if this is every Thursday, but it was a great deal!!
We had to come back to the scene of the crime so that my friend who had endured El Guapo challenge could check out the real wings. I'd been very tempted to come back since Thursdays all the burgers are $5. Unfortunately I didn't come on a Thursday. The atmosphere was fun, watched a bunch of groups playing Texas Hold 'Em. The burger was just so so. I figured how could they go wrong with a fried egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce tomato and garlic mayo. It tasted a little bit like a breakfast sandwich but then once the yolk was running all over everything it just tasted blah. Â It would be worth it on a Thursday though.
Review Source:I have been occasionally patronizing this spot for a long time through all the name / ownership changes and it has changed very little over the last several years.
It used to be a Taco Mac and then, for a time I think it was a Summitt's Tavern. I think it might have been a Ryan's, Quincy's or Western sizzlin' a long time ago before i moved into the area.
On the good side it is always busy with a good mix of friendly folks at or near the bar. It  has always been of the better area bars in the North Sandy Springs / North Dunwoody / Old Roswell / East Cobb area for the Post College / Twenty-Somethings crowd - especially on the weekends.
The bartenders and servers are attractive and nice. The food is above average and the drink prices are good. The bands that play are usually pretty solid.
The bad part is that it is always very smoky and noisy. I recently stopped in on my way home from work and had the Turkey Club with fries and a 22 ounce Yuengling. The sandwich was very good and the beer as well. With tax and tip the bill came to about 15 bucks and change. I was a little bummed that they didn't give me Tobasco / hot sauce along with the ketchup. But the super hot brunette bartender made up for that deficiency.
Perhaps NRT really deserves three point five stars rather than the four I am giving it now.
North River is a pretty good bar for trivia. Â They seem to be very proud of their new Bar-B-Q plate, which is admittedly pretty decent. Â They sometimes have bands in the bar and they always have pretty much every sports game that's on for the day displayed on one of their 200 TV's. Â The other food tastes like bar food... their alcohol prices are moderate - they aren't cheap, but on Tuesday there's a special where you can get a free glass if you purchase the "beer of the night," which is pretty cool. Â Unfortunately, they don't list the beer prices on the menu, which is incredibly annoying; but I guess there is some kind of strategy to this (I assume it is supposed to make people buy more beer).
The servers are friendly and the kitchen staff has come out to make sure one of their new dishes tastes good, which I respected. Â Parking is easy - plenty of spots. Â Outside of that, it's a pretty standard tavern. Â If I lived closer, I would go there more often. Â Fortunately, I live far away from the suburbs.
Edit: Corrected review to reflect proper free glass day (Tuesday)!
I heard this used to be a Taco Mac and you can really see the resemblances to it. The interior has gotten a bit grimy, but it was decently full the night I came so I'm guessing this ol' place had some charm left in it. the beer selection is alright and the staff was attentive. My always hungry girlfriend ordered the fried pickle spears. I usually discourage her from such brave acts unless I know some more, but sadly I did not catch her in time. I've had fried pickle chips, but never the whole friggin spear so I was a little bit taken aback. To my surprise though, they were quite good. I dig pickles anyway so I'm a bit biased.
The negative was this loud ass group of people next to us. I seriously felt my ears bleed from all their shrieking. It's not the bar's fault for rude and annoying people so I can't really take marks off for that. We sucked it up and moved to their coin operated pool tables. I did dig the atmosphere of the place though. Everyone was chill and relaxed and it didn't have the sometimes douchey feel of other ITP bars.
Liked it...didn't love it....might go back for fried pickles though....nom nom nom
It is great for what it is. Â They got about about 40 beers on draft. Â They have 5 dollar burgers every Thursday all day. Â They have a Monday and Wednesday night poker game at 8. Â On Thursday they have bingo at 10, and trivia on Tuesday, weds, Thursday, and Sunday @ 8 if that's your thing. Â It is one of the last bars you can still smoke in the area, so that is always a plus. Â I'm not a smoker but I enjoy getting my second hand on. Â They also have plenty of tvs around to catch all of your favorite sporting events or ufc fight.
My wife and I stopped by at 3:00p.m. for a late lunch.  We ordered a tacos salad with grilled chx and a 20 piece hot wing.  The salad was ok, we got it with salsa as the dressing.  The chic was a little dry maybe canned.  It was served in a crispy fried tortilla bowl.  The wings were fatties, nice and plump and fried to perfection.  Served with your choice of fries or celery, and blue cheese or ranch.  My only complaint on the wings would have to be the sauce wasn't  evenly coated over the wings.  There was dry spots which.was wierd because there was a pool of sauce in Tue bottom of the basket.  But this is a quick fix with a nice good toss in the bowl.
The price was reasonable, 16.95 for the wing and 8.95 for the salad.
Damnit it is everything it should be. Spacious with dark interiors, the NRT offers lots of choices- smoking or non, indoors or out, pick a beer from hundreds, and a huge menu that covers the whole bar food scene. They do the sports bar thing, have trivia, live music, arcade machines and entertaining people, My first visit, the guy next to me at the bar started a ruckus because they wouldn't serve him cause he had stiffed them on a check! I love shit like that!!!!!!!
You can always get a great burger at NRT. I like the fried clams, and the wings as well.
Laid back with kids for servers, the NRT has lots of regulars and one of the best patio's around. Get there early and enjoy watching the traffic on Roswell Rd while you sip a cool one.
I have mixed feelings about this place.
Neg- It felt kinda grimy inside (and looked and smelled that way too).. I don't know if that's the look they're going for. Â That with the old school arcade games and the loud hair band music.. Â this is what i would call a SUPER dive bar.
Neg- I also felt a little wierd and creeper here because all the other tables were 40s to 50s year old business men who work in some of the office buildings in the area.. that kept checking out the young, high school age, booty short sportin and "mostly" cute waitresses. Â
Pos- On the plus side, great service and awesome food. Â I would say this is above average bar food and my cheeseburger and fries were PHENOM. Â Have not had such a good burger in a longgg time.
Pos- This place is dark, hazy, smoky, and HUGE. Â I feel like it would be a good time at night.. very late at night. Â It has a huge back bar area, a nice patio area.
All in all I would say I'm a fan, but minus one star for all the flies. Â I had to make sure I was constantly moving at all times so that no flies landed on me or my food.. and I was sitting indoors..................
While I was visiting Hotlanta last month, I went to NRT three times. The first time was for trivia night. We're not just pretty faces, we have brains too and we came in third so they gave us a $40 giftcard. Why did that suck? Because you couldn't use it until the next day. Smart on their part since we went back a few days later to use it. A few days after that, I went for lunch & a few games of pool with my east coast love muffin. Plus, I've been there a few times during previous visits.
Here is my list of separate food reviews:
Chili Con Queso: chili con queso translates to "Chili with cheese". Was there chili? No, thank God since I don't eat red meat but it was just melted cheese. Not that melted cheese is bad, it was tasty.
Beer Battered Mushrooms: the mushrooms were relatively small but they weren't greasy nor soggy. Thumbs up in my book.
Cream Cheese Crab Bites: delish...nuff said.
Fried Pickles: eh. Not a fan of fried pickle spears. They could take a hint from Hooters & fry pickle chips. I'll never get them again.
Wings: hot diggity damn! One of the best trough of wings I've had...ever.
Grilled Chicken Wrap: my friend AJ got this and couldn't get past the first bite. She said it was awful. Skip it.
Veggie Burger: was like a chihuahua mating with a great dane. Liiiitle tiny burger....huuuuge bun. It didn't taste bad once I ripped off 1/2 of the bun to reveal the burger.
Shrimp & Clam Basket: not bad NRT, not bad. The clams were miniscule but I'm from Cali, can't expect outstanding seafood in GA.
Fish Tacos: definitely skip these. I can say that because we have unbelievable fish tacos here. Get them if you've never had a proper fish taco in your life.
Nachos: who can really screw up nachos? Not NRT. Their mountainous version of this bar-fare was enough for 3 people.
The staff was friendly & attentive, so attentive that my love muffin thought the bartender was flirting with him and calling him sweetie. That got squashed when she called me honey and love. There are some regulars that tend to sit at the sticky-out end of the bar that creep me the hell out but that's not NRT's fault. It will always freak me out to see people smoking in a bar since we have cities where smoking is prohibited but it's nice to have a ciggie while sippin' cocktails. I like this place, I just wish it wasn't so far from everything.
Good neighborhood bar with a pretty good atmosphere. Not too smoky and usually not too loud.
I'd like to review the food here more, but honestly every single time I've gone I haven't been able to resist ordering the Triple Bypass Burger. It's food that makes my stomach extremely happy, though my heart and arteries are probably none to happy about how much I enjoy a burger topped with bacon and a fried egg.
The beer selection is amazing, and the prices are fairly reasonable. Plus, I enjoy a place that offers you a proper glass of beer (read: a very large one).
I've been going here since the day it opened as Taco Mac, where there was only one pool table, and the bathroom was in the front. Â I have to say of all bars, this is the one I'd call home. Â I'm not sure if any of the original staff still work there, and for those of you who question how long I've been going to this place, anyone remember Lala? Â
Now, being a bit older, I don't frequent bars as much, and prefer fine dining, but this place is still a good choice in my book. Â They have a much better menu selection than when they were Taco Mac, and in my opinion, the quality of food went up significantly. Â There are more flavors of wings, which are incredible, the nachos are mountainous, and I even have a thing for the Blackened Salmon Salad. Â
Aside from the food, the staff is friendly and on top of things, and the bartenders who serve me are always on top of their game, friendly, and chatty (the way bartenders should be). Â It's a comfortable bar to hang out in, not a pickup spot where everyone is either edgy or creepy. Â
I'll go to this place just to hang out or to meet friends, and I enjoy it either way. Â There is always someone I recognize, if not from people I've met, at least from the staff that has been there forever. Â
Cheers (get it?).
North River Tavern is a solid neighborhood bar. It's dark and smoky and they serve up grease. Pool tables, darts, the usual. The waitresses are pretty good and you don't usually have to wait too long at the bar. The crowd is mostly the 20-something, post-college, lives at home or at least can't afford to live intown type. No offense intended, I was part of that crowd for a good year.
My only complaint is sometimes the live music is too loud, which can be annoying if
a) you weren't going there to see a band or
b) they are doing live band karaoke
But if that's the case, you can always check out the back room or the patio.
As most folks have mentioned, NRT is a former Taco Mac. Â What they haven't said, however, is that before the NRT was a Taco Mac, it was an honest-to-goodness Steak & Ale Restaurant. Â No lie. Â Hence the faux "Old World" styling and the big pseudo-Tudor windows and so on. Â This kind of throwback kitsch will always win a few points with me.
Since NRT used to be a Taco Mac, they still maintain a small fleet of beers on tap. Â These beers come and go with the seasons, and while NRT doesn't make as much of a grand affair of these changing beers, you can usually count on finding one or two new entries every couple of weeks. Â Beyond this fluidity of inventory, the NRT always manages to keep some of my favorites ever on-tap, like Left Hand Milk Stout and at least one of the various varieties from Dogfish Head.
The food is not as good as the beer. Â For this reason, NRT is best as an after-event locale, rather than a place to arrive and dine. Â For those times when appetizers are the most you're expecting, the standard fare of chips and salsa here works outs just fine. Â This is not to say that a burger is going to disappoint you completely, just that said burger is going to be simply a burger, nothing less and nothing more.
Something to keep in mind is the way that NRT is arranged. Â You're going to want to stick to the right-hand side of the restaurant relative to the doorway. Â That dining area has the biggest, best booths of the lot. Â But really, when the weather allows, your best bet is to go outside to the sizable patio.
North River Tavern is basically Taco Mac with a different name. Most Yelpers like to bash Taco Mac, but I like them, so by extension I like North River Tavern. The food is the same, and they have a lot of things going on besides just watching sports on TV, such as poker and trivia nights and sometimes live music.
I agree the location is pretty horrible, not close to much unless you live on the south end of Roswell, but if you need to come up there for something, its an easy ride from the 400/Northridge exit, or Holcomb Bridge, if you know the shortcut down Riverside.
Formerly a Taco Mac, but don't hold it against them.
North River Tavern is just as good as any other sports bar where you can eat some wings, drink some beer, and watch some sports on a big ole fancy big screen TV with one of them LCD things built inside to make the picture extra pretty. Â
They allow smoking in the restaurant, but only on the side closest to the high rise tables, dart boards, video games and pool tables.
Inside is mostly comprised of the huge bar, that stretches out about half the width of the restaurant on the back wall. Â
The patio area is probably my favorite part of North River Tavern  mainly because it contains another bar where you can order some tasty beverages from a bartender who  five feet away. You probably would not even have to get out of your seat.  Also has two big screens and lots of mini televisions that are sure to be playing your game. The area also has a heater that is usually kicking out some serious warmth for those who prefer to drink outside in the winter.  It was 38 degrees outside on the night I went to watch the Dallas vs. Green Bay game, but it felt like spring on the patio.
Waitresses were dolls. Â All of them very pretty and very good at what they do. Â When I switched my table from inside to outside, my waitress brought me my beer and my coat, which made me feel like an important customer who is a big spender......little did she know I am a poor college kid; however, I made sure to tip her 30% for the gesture. Â
I know they have trivia on Thursdays, and some other special nights with live music and drink specials.
This bar was formerly called Taco Mac, and I'm not sure which name suits it more.
It's a bar in the classic sense -- pool, darts, wood paneled decor, and the folks drinking Pabst aren't doing it to be ironic -- and yet they also have a very good selection of microbrews (with a particularly nice representation of Rogue brewery), for probably 100 beers in all.
The bartenders need to learn the "bartender nod" -- that classic gesture of "I'm busy, but yes, I see you there and I'll be over in a minute" but were fairly friendly when they finally got to me.
It's also pretty damn far from anything, which is an aspect of Atlanta that baffles me -- no one takes cabs, and yet none of the bars are in walking distance of where people live. Pity to have to stop after only trying two of their beers because I had to drive.
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