Catfish Parlour South — Restaurant in Austin

Grew up eating at this restaurant in its original location. Both my mother and fathers families regular this place, often in large groups 12+ people and the last few times I've been there with them, the check was just short of $1000. After reading about how they mistreated a special needs customer, I will NEVER go back again. And you can believe after posting the disgust I feel for this restaurant...no I should reword that, the staff themselves are fair, the disgust I feel is for the OWNERS Jay & Carol McKinney, none of the rest of my family will be coming back either. Ignorance does NOT excuse discrimination.

And for those of you who are upset because of the out pour of support for this family...I can assure you, if they will treat an innocent pure person who has no fault this way simply because they don't understand, or they don't like them or because their restaurant has an appearance to uphold and someone who is "imperfect" in their eyes is ruining that appearance you can be damned sure they can and will treat you the same. Its not because she was disturbing anyone, its because they didn't want her there plain and simple. I've been in there during lunch on Saturdays and have experienced first hand people that don't watch their kids letting them run all over the restaurant screaming, playing, knocking things over, throwing things and bumping into people. NOT ONCE were those parents asked to leave...they weren't even asked to control their kids. I outta know, I was one of the several customers that complained about them! After complaining a manager/supervisor came over (he was making rounds to a bunch of different tables telling them the same thing) and said he was sorry about that but he could not legally say anything to them because it could be viewed as being DISCRIMINATORY towards the customers (it was a small group of about 3 or 4 couples with about 2-4 kids each) by singling them out but offered a free appetizer for the trouble. Like I said, discrimination plain and...

Wish I could say something positive about this “Austin” classic with a vast history(apparently) well the place is clean and decorated decently. The food for lunch was absolutely terrible, their name has Catfish in it, you would think at least their Catfish would be fresh and juicy and amazing. Well that is not the case. Tiny pieces, fried 20min ago, all the side were for sure frozen and most likely from Sysco. The Hushpuppy stix were dry, absent of any flavor and bread for that matter. The Lunch deal was confusing to say the least, walk to little Window, pick a meat, all Sides are buffet style. Well they were all not good..... even the fries were frozen like you buy at HEB in the freezer section. My first and def my last time ever making the twenty minute drive for what I thought was going to be some good cornmeal catfish. And just to be clear to the “Owner” I have never reviewed this establishment nor have I ever made a diff account to purposely bash a business. I just write honest reviews I speak it how I eat it and if it is not good...... I do not Just make up Lies. I do however find it very interesting when Owners of places I have left negative reviews either apologize and want to make it better(good/present owners) or they get all defensive and ALWAYS have the same banter about, you tried to bash last month, they defend their horrible food with, public Fav or “Rave” reviews or some other Bs. All this shows about the “owner” is that they are not present, don’t care or just hVe no taste buds left. And it looks really bad to people that...

My son has been wanting to take me here for years and I finally got to go today. I love the old-school look of the restaurant and the older music they were playing, it was great.

The menu was fairly straightforward with mostly Seafood options along with some chicken and I believe a chicken fried steak. Plenty of sides to choose from to go with your meal and the ones I chose were very good. The food came out quickly and was hot and flavorful. Staff was very friendly and professional.

One thing I found neat was they brought out hush puppies with different dipping sauces when they seat you. The hush puppies instead of being little round balls are in the shape of mozzarella sticks so I was a little confused at first until my son explained what they were, but they were very good because they weren't all doughy like the little balls can be.

I ended up getting a catfish, jumbo shrimp and oyster platter, all fried. The catfish was very good and Very flavorful. I'm not an oyster fan but I did eat two of them and those were actually pretty good. The jumbo shrimp was amazing but I love shrimp LOL I did not try the desserts which consisted of cobblers, bread pudding and ice cream from what I recall but I would like to try it sometime. I was too full to eat anymore and I had to bring a lot home as it was. Overall I enjoyed the food and the atmosphere and I...