Catfish House — Restaurant in Millbrook

The atmosphere of the place is great. It's in a neat spot and the decor is very rustic and "country". I got the seafood platter special, which was pretty good. We got 1/2lb of crab claws, and fried pickles as appetizers. The main thing I can say is that everything seemed to be fried together and had the same taste. The oysters tasted like the shrimp tasted like the catfish tasted like the hush puppies, and they all tasted mostly like stale grease. The pickles were good, although a bit greasy and covered in salt. For a $20 appetizer I honestly expected the claws to be a bit better than the flavorless, tough, and dry little things they were.

The 2 teens working the front were in their own world and not particularly attentive to anything that was going on.

Our server was top notch and kept our drinks full and conversation easy.

The white beans were amazing. I can honestly say they were the prime redemption of our visit, alongside the quiant atmosphere of the place.

Overall I'd go back if my kids wanted to, but after hearing all the rave reviews that lead us here in the first place, I'm not gonna go out of my way to recreate the mediocre experience we had. Maybe we hit it on a bad night, a Tuesday, but I feel the almost $250 we spent could have been gone a lot further in value, and...

Atmosphere: The Catfish House is a contrived, low budget, country TGIF with lots of kitsch.

Service: We were quickly seated, but unfortunately our party of 20 (+) was assigned only one waitress. She was pleasant enough, but the service was a bit on the slow side. As such, much of the food came out warm or at room temperature.

Food: Every table gets a pot-o-beans, coleslaw and hush puppies. The beans were as unremarkable as beans could be and the coleslaw was entirely forgettable. The hush puppies were the highlight of the trio. Not good or great, but okay. I ordered crab claws, onion rings and the whole catfish. EVERYTHING was bland. The crab claws and the onion rings (both good) were not served with any sides or dipping sauces. The catfish (like the hush puppies) was just okay. For drinks, I asked what beer they had on tap. All I received in return was a puzzled look. At that, I settled for the sweet tea which was watery and weak.

Price: My tab came in at $34.00 which was about 60% too much. The food is more like $12.99 buffet fare - nothing more.

Overall Impression: If you don't get out of Millbrook, AL much; I suspect that The Catfish House is the highest of fine dining. The Catfish House was not worth the trip (even from Montgomery) and definitely not...

I tried this restaurant for the first time on Friday February 21. I want to start with I am not a fan. They require your full party to be present before being seated, yet you wait several minutes even after being seated to be attended to. We had a party of 4. To be seated took a total of 15 minutes and the crowd was not large at the time. Once seated we waited a while before they brought out the hush puppies, beans, and cole slaw for the table. I ordered the fried pickles for an appetizer. It took 45 minutes to get that to the table , only for them to be very salty and I immediately sent them back (without asking for more or a replacement) it was 15 minutes or so later when they finally brought the food out (a total hour wait time for food, absolutely ridiculous). I ordered the popcorn shrimp (which was dime sized, never had such premature shrimp) and stuffed crab. Neither were seasoned, both tasted like they were pulled fresh out the water and fried, no seasoning, just bland. An apology for the inconvenience was all that was offered. I care not to...