The Tin Top Restaurant and Oyster Bar

This place is a solid choice for upscale, creative seafood near Gulf Shores. I ordered the Royal Reds with smoked Gouda grits (holy **** these are good) and Lima beans with Andouille sausage. It was magnificent, arousing my loins and my palate. My dining partners had the firecracker shrimp and some type of grouper dish. Both were very pleased with their entree. The fried green tomatoes were delicious as well.

Locals eat here in flip flops - no dressing up here! It truly is a fantastic, authentic seafood experience. I didn't give it five stars because it is very dark inside and the parking situation is wonky; you will have to park across the street.

I saw a friend of mines T-shirt depicting Tin Top and asked if it was nice. He confirmed it was some of the best seafood in the gulf coast region but was clueless on how to get there. No worries my navigational skills would get us there and the GPS didn't fail. We arrived Labor Day weekend with no wait to be seated and fresh grouper as their catch to be served. The fresh oysters were flawless and the shrimp coco loco were a unique twist that kicked coconut shrimp thru the uprights, awesome. We tried the grouper grilled, fried, pecan crusted, and with a garlic parmesan top; all were perfect. The sides were classic southern style collard greens, lima beans, gouda smoked grits, fried okra and green tomatoes. These were excellent compliments to an already great meal. Desert was triple chocolate pie which was gone in a blink.

This is one of those times when you wish zero stars was an option. While my buddy loves this place I was appalled at the service and smart alec attitude of on one of the waitresses.

There was a wait to get seated which we expected, and we had a new waitress with a trainer which should have been no big deal but it was. The trainer left her alone to take our order when he came back she could not remember what my wife ordered, no biggie she's in training we were glad to repeat the order.

My buddy and I both ordered the lobster bisque, when it came out his was hot and mine was lukewarm, they took it back and brought out a hot one no harm no foul, or so one would have thought, however it was just a sign of things to come.

A table that was next to us that got seated as we were placing our order got their food before we did. After a much longer wait than that table our waitress came out and told my wife that they were out of baked potatoes. I said "Wait a minute, that table next to us got seated when we were placing our order how did they have all their baked potatoes and my wife can't get hers?" She apologized but offered no explanation so my wife said well just cancel my order.

The waitress at the table next to us comes up to her people and says you all got the last baked potatoes and I had to steal those.  So as she walked by us I motioned her over and asked "So when you say you stole the baked potatoes I guess that means that you stole my wife's since we ordered as your people sat down." She then has the nerve to say "All I can say is I'm faster than your server." Now there's not a doubt in my mind that she's either buddy buddy with someone in the kitchen or she slid her order in ahead of ours, either way it was inappropriate and unprofessional.

When the waitress appears with entrées for my buddy and I, I tell her I don't want mine, if my wife is not going to get her order take mine back also. The trainer appears and says to me "I'll get your meal taken off your check." I should hope so considering I didn't  eat it.

What made it so aggravating was of course we ordered as the other table sat down and their waitress was so flippant with us, I guarantee you I'll never darken their doorway again and I recommend that you don't either.