Catfish Country Restaurant — Restaurant in Bartow

It is definitely a country vibe to the place. Everyone is friendly when you walk in. They come to your table with hot biscuits and coleslaw. The biscuits were biscuits, the coleslaw was a little sweeter than I like but not bad slaw.The decor is old time and fishy.. pun intended! Started with the nibblers, I asked about the calamari if it came just rings or rings and tentacles because I hate just ring calamari. The server was honest and said she has seen it come out both ways but she would go ask just to be sure. She came back with the answer that at the present all they had were the rings, so I passed on the calamari. I went with the fried green tomatoes and my friend had the alligator nuggets. Everything came out piping hot, no sitting in the window and waiting for this food, right from the grease to my table hot. I love that! The tomatoes were good a little more batter and fried harder than I preferred but the flavor was good and the horseradish sauce was a nice touch. My friends nuggets had some very extra chewy pieces that made it not so fun to eat. The breading was extra crunchy, decent flavor, however there was a slight after taste in the seasoning like they used that old flavor enhancer called accent. I chose the all you can eat catfish fried hard and my friend went with the frog legs. She said the frog legs were alright, she ate them so they must have been. I don't do frog legs so I didn't try and can not speak on them. My catfish was good, fried hard and tasty, the side of fries were deliciously freshly fried golden brown, again from the grease to my table. the hushpuppy was nothing to rave about it was a little below ok more of a garnish. I could not finish the 4 pieces of fish that I started with so I did not attempt and was not charged the all you can eat price. It really was a lot of food. The portions are very satisfying. All this being said, I will return to try some of the other items on the menu, preferably not the fried stuff. All in all it is a good place to get your fried fish...

I saw the sign outside with the big word “catfish”, so I thought this is probably gonna be really good when I got in and I asked the hostess what type of catfish they have she said she didn’t know but she could find out— I waited and she never found out— I got seated the waitress came over I asked the waitress what kind of catfish do you serve , and she said “I don’t know farm raised” and I said yes ,that may be true but I need to know what type of fish is “farm raised “ she said I’ll go back to the kitchen I could tell this was an imposition— she came back same answer “farm raised”…. nowadays if it’s farm raised what it is, is swai, not a great fish. So I decided to rule out catfish because that type of catfish to me is just not anywhere near as good as the ones that we normally used to get in life here in the United States well I got this trifecta dish here with scallops and apparently a halibut stuffed with crab meat and shrimp I had fries and then- one - measly hush puppy, and a big bowl of coleslaw the highlight was the coleslaw the one measly hush puppy and the fries - shrimp so puny there were only about four scallops and I’m not sure those were really scallops - I think they were skate and The stuffed Fish was literally a dollop of stove top stuffing or something or other with chopped up pieces of Surimi, which is fake crab meat made out of Pollock and soy beans or something so essentially it’s a one and done I just don’t see any reason to go back for artificial food and shrimpy portions I mean the stuffed halibut or whatever it was - was literally a dollop of stuffing that was garnished with a couple of strips or fish on the outside — it literally was not even a fish fillet — certainly very sad for Catfish Country. I also got a “mild” case of food poisoning. Inconvenient and worth mentioning. Yet this...

Yesterday I really wished I picked a different place to take my family. I got a pretty big family so we got to put tables together to fit. So cat fish country employees did that but they had no respect what so ever. I’m dad and I sat in the end that was maybe 8 inches from a post where my back met another family’s table side which I thought was close before I sat down but my family is 7 deep so I said I’ll sit here to keep the peace between family’s no real problem there but these employees on the other hand they squeezed by touch my side every time they pass by and I tell ya I probably counted 13 times. I was so close of losing my marbles cuz as I normal person I would never keep walking thru touching someone as the tried to enjoy their dinner with there family. Bad part is there was 3 employees that thought it was ok to keep using this path. After dinner I spoke with the owner and he didn’t care much. So I’ll probably never bring my family to this place for dinner again. I just think this is the worst time to touch someone or mess with someone cuz most time it’s family time and I am one of them guys that don’t get much time with my family cuz I have to work endless hours...