Top Shelf Bar & Grill Menu

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  • Tyler P.

    For whatever reason, Acushnet Avenue (or "the Ave", as townies like I are allowed to refer to it as) has the awesomely random capability of turning every bar into a restaurant or vice-versa without any struggle. Top Shelf is just another establishment in a long line of restaurants in the north end of New Bedford that just seems to blur the lines between night life and simple dining. Though it has a pretty great location, especially if you live in the north end of the city, they seemed to have forgotten the fact that it is virtually impossible to find a vacant lot that has a parking lot attached. Aside from the four parking spaces to the side of the restaurant, Top Shelf forces you to find your own parking spot on, possibly, the most busy roadway in the entire city. For those who live in the neighborhood, it's not too vast of an issue, but for those who have never inhabited a little piece of the "ghetto life", I'm sure you'll find it pretty difficult to settle your car somewhere. But, I digress. Top Shelf is awesome...as a bar. On a Saturday afternoon, I stopped by with a couple of family friends and was shocked to see that the sun never got the memo. It was dark in there. Really dark. I'm not talking "Oh, it's dim in here, but it's so goddamn romantic!", I'm talking about "holy shit, where did my friends go? Did they leave me? ARE THEY DEAD? NOOOO." On top of that, there were only about 3 people in the entire building....and they were all together at one table...and one of them was the owner. The full bar appeared to be completely stocked, which, as I said earlier, would make it the perfect night time hotspot. The decor was aiming for a sleek, silver-black-brown pattern, and I can respect them for trying. Basically, the reason why it was so damn dark was because it NEEDED to be dark. It was nice, but it wasn't anything to be in awe of. But, I digress. (1. What's up with the word "digress"? 2. Why have I been allotting so much time to discuss the interior decor?) The menu seemed full, and, to be completely honest, typical for New Bedford, but with a twist. There were chicken caesar salads, goat cheese and prosciutto pizzas, and massive steak sandwiches. I got myself a basic chicken caesar salad wrap, while my friend ordered themselves a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich. The portions: extremely large. When you get a chicken caesar sald, the chicken covers the greens. It's awesome. The portions are massive, yet not too big to be considered overwhelming. (Overwhelming? Am I going soft? There is no such thing as an overwhelming amount of food.) The wrap was delicious. The prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich was--if not creative--sort of disappointing. I had expected the mozzarella to be melted over the salty ham, but it had just sat on it, almost like a gelatin. It was good, but it wasn't that amazing. Hey, the bread was good, though! I must say, though, that the massive pizzas did look totally delicious. Both of our meals were only about ten bucks and came with fries. The service was average, with the waitress trying to fill me up on bread every time she walked by (which wasn't too often, considering the fact that we were the only patrons in there...) I'd go back to Top Shelf, but it's definitely not on my to-do list.

    (3)
  • Dionisio X.

    This place stinks like a bar, smelling that when your eating is so gross, the staff need to look more professional, limited parking, I don't recommend this place at all, turn and run!!!!!

    (1)
  • Riley A.

    I had been here once before a couple of years ago and had a good experience, so I decided to take my parents here for Mother's Day and complete regret wasting our time. It was absolutely disgusting and I will never return or recommend. We walked in and after standing around for several minutes (with no one even greeting us) we were seated towards the back of the restaurant. As soon as we were seated we were surrounded by flies... I was too busy talking to my family as we were walking in to notice where the flies where coming from until we sat down and I saw that they had a table set up near the bathrooms with 4 or 5 gray trays FILLED with DIRTY DISHES surrounded by flies! I was absolutely disgusted! We couldn't even talk without having a fly land on us! I didn't want to be "THAT" customer, so we politely asked to be moved to the front of the restaurant without even complaining about the trays of dishes. At this point we should've left, but being as though it was Mother's Day, I didn't want to ruin our time together, and even though that was a huge red flag, I tried to make the best of it. We ordered drinks, apps, dinner, and after dinner drinks. My dad tried to order two different bottles of wine off the menu, both of which the waitress came back and told us they were out of, our appetizer of potato skins was drenched in oil, our dinner steaks were completely covered in grease to the point where our steaks glistened, and as for our after dinner drinks, my mom's cappuccino was delivered cold, while my dad was served half the amount of a cup of espresso (and they once again didn't have two of the whiskeys he ordered). It was absolutely awful. To add to it, I had ordered a Portuguese Steak with round fries... the steak was dreadful and drenched in grease and the fries were also soaked in grease. Also the best part, was that my fries were NOT COOKED! I was served RAW round fries with only the edges slightly fried. My stomach was getting sick just looking at them. At this point everyone on the table agreed that I wasn't crazy and yes, the fries were not cooked... so my dad asked the waitress to bring another plate of round fries since the ones brought to me where undercooked. The waitress then brought me another plate, but instead of apologizing as she set my plate down, she said, "Here's your plate of well-done fries!". WHAT?!?? Well-done? Apparently, well-done must mean cooked to her... I couldn't believe she said that as almost to insult us for requesting a new plate. It was a completely awful experience, we tried not to complain and make it a good day for my mom but I would never go back or recommend. The food was terrible, the restaurant was dirty, and the service was awful. I still tipped the waitress 15% because it was Mother's Day and I felt bad for some reason, but never will I ever return. As bad as it was, I would've at least been able to give them an excuse had it been busy, but it was literally a ghost town when we had our early dinner. Now I know why.

    (1)
  • Kacey A.

    My first time at top shelf was my last. I walked in and when I sat on the barstool I almost fell off because the seat was so broken that it was difficult to stay on it. For my appetizer I got the shrimp cake and it was good but it could have used more shrimp than two little baby pieces. I got the Philly steak and cheese panini for my entree and that's when I got upset. They're very sneaky because I hate mushrooms and I didn't see them anywhere on the menu item. They had a ton of mushrooms that looked like steak that by the end of taking out all of the mushrooms there was only three tiny pieces of steak. Pathetic. And I have high hopes for this place.

    (1)
  • VC V.

    The drinks were good. I got a cherry martini and Abner got a bloody Mary. I have to say, I had a bit of a buzz after only one drink...and that never happens! We went for lunch. We both ordered panini sandwiches. Panini's should be a pressed sandwich, what we got was what appeared to be a sandwich on a very tall, hard roll. The sandwiches were good though, so we were okay, but it is not what we expected. I got the Top Shelf Panini with fresh mozarella, proscuito, spinach and olives. I asked our server what kind of olives and she told me black olives. The information about the olives was incorrect, kalamata olives are what is put on the sandwich. The distinction of kalamata olives needs to be on the description of the sandwich, as I would not have ordered that or requested a substitution had I known. Abner got a philly cheese steak. He said it was very tasty, but it was drowned in gravy, which made it difficult and messy to eat. The bottom bun was too soggy to hold. Possibly, the gravy should be put on the side for dipping. My son got the blackened salmon with sweet potato mashed and spinach and he said it was very good. He loved the veggies, but said the salmon was overly salty and difficult to finish because of that.

    (4)
  • Kay B.

    While the food hasn't failed me yet, the service has it's ups and downs. The last time I went there a few of us were joining a larger party. I had ordered a margarita which I attempted to drink, but it was god awful. Probably the worst margarita I've ever had in my life (I have had some good ones here, though), some of the others were still deciding on alcohol, but the waitress never came back to take any orders. It wasn't busy, but she seemed flustered by such a large group. There have been other times I've been in there when it was dead and the waitress seems to forget about you. One thing that bothered me the most during one of my visits was the little "day care" they seemed to have going on in the corner. A woman was helping one child with their homework while others were making noise and just being downright obnoxious. They did settle down at some point, but I don't want to hear a kid kicking a bench and making weird noises for ten minutes because he's bored while mommy works. Find a baby sitter or a day care. Don't bring your kids to work unless you absolutely have no other choice. Your kids don't want to be there as much as your customers don't want them to be there.

    (3)
  • Eileen F.

    Food is always superb and staff is great .Highly recommend it.

    (5)
  • mike r.

    I loved this place! Great hidden jewel in the north end. Inside and outside are so different its comical. The outside looks like a sketchy bar in Brockton, but inside its very nice....trendy upscale with a cool glass mosaic behind the bar. Service was outstanding and the owner came to check on the table and to see if we liked the food (we all did). Mostly Portuguese with typical leanings towards seafood.

    (5)
  • Ashley H.

    It's okay. It looks nice enough but I felt that there was not nearly enough seating in the bar area. About 10 of us met for a birthday celebration. We all had to stand around and kept getting bumped by the servers and customers walking by. The set up for the bar and dining area seemed like a complete waste of space. My number one complaint, the plastic cups. Wine and draught beer served in a plastic cup. Who does that? To top it off shots were given in paper Dixie cups. Yeah that's what I said. Talk about cheap. Those belong in one place, the bathroom! The clientele on Saturday night made me feel like I was on an episode of Jersey Shore. Not my scene whatsoever. That is a side note and has nothing to do with my overall rating. I have to say I would not go back unless I had to. Customers fork over a lot of money to drink in your establishment. The least you can do is put my beverage in a GLASS!

    (2)
  • Sheri L.

    I'm giving it 5 stars because everything was delicious and everyone we came into contact with were friendly and efficient. Met another couple there, and a waitress came pretty quickly to take our drink order. We sent her away a couple times (talking and not looking at menus) and she never once got an attitude, she was simply great for such a young waitress. My drink arrived wrong, but hey, who wastes good alcohol, so I said I'd keep it. She was very willing to return it, but instead offered my next drink comp'ed, so that was a cool start. The wrong drink turned out to be great, anyway. She also told us up front they what they were out of, another efficient thing and shows server knowledge and communication with the kitchen. She also told me the market price on my meal had gone up, and was I ok with that? Of course, since I wasn't blindsided, it was fine. I had the tuna, perfectly cooked, with a loaded potato, and both were wonderful. Hubby had the pork, littlenecks and shrimp, and it was a huge plate, and he loved it. Our friends had the cajun salmon and the chicken/shrimp skewer plates, and they were both happy. During the meal, the owner (who is the son of the owner of Antonio's, so no newbie to the biz) and since it was our first visit and we enjoyed our meals so much, he told the waitress coffee and dessert was on him! Only 2 of us wanted coffee, and we got 2 desserts to share since we were so full, but what a super gesture in my book. I have to disagree that it was dark, the lighting was perfect to us, there were lights over every table, and the bar is long, beautiful and fully stocked. The atmosphere is really nice for couples/friends, albeit a little loud (but hey, it was Saturday night), and I wouldn't recommend it for children, it is for an adult evening (but I don't consider this a negative!). Even though it's quite a drive for us, we can't wait to go back and try more dishes!! Much luck to this great new restaurant.

    (5)
  • Carolyn B.

    fish and chips...haddock...stuffed quahogs..all delicious. Our server Melissa was a little sweetheart!

    (5)

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Map

Opening Hours

  • Mon :11:30 am - 1:00pm

Specialities

  • Takes Reservations : No
    Delivery : No
    Take-out : Yes
    Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
    Parking : Street
    Good for Kids : No
    Good for Groups : Yes
    Attire : Casual
    Ambience : Casual, Trendy
    Noise Level : Average
    Music : Live
    Good For Dancing : No
    Alcohol : Full Bar
    Coat Check : No
    Smoking : No
    Outdoor Seating : No
    Has TV : Yes
    Waiter Service : Yes
    Caters : No

Top Shelf Bar & Grill

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