The Catfish Place — Restaurant in Saint Cloud

My ex-Father In Law would drive from Tampa to eat at The Catfish Place. I went along on several of these food voyages. We always enjoyed the trip and the treats. It has been several years since then, so I decided to stop in while passing through.

I got seated not long after they opened at 11 am. Lisa took my order, she was very professional and polite. I ordered the Luncheon Special, Fresh Catfish for a very reasonable $8.49. For my sides I chose a Baked Potato and a Tossed Salad. Hush Puppies were included. Oh yeah, and tea. They bring ya a glass full, AND a pitcher full. NO waiting around for refills! Great idea!

Figuring this would be a smaller portion for a Luncheon Special I also decided to try the Soup of the Day, Broccoli Cheese. The soup was absolutely delicious. Great taste with lots of chunks of broccoli.

When Lisa brought out my lunch order, my eyes popped out of my head. I was looking at a HUGE platter of fish. AND the salad, AND the Hush Puppies, AND the Baked Potato. Lots of food. What a great value!

The Hush Puppies were my favorite part of this meal, besides the soup. They were light and crispy yet just melted away in my mouth with a sweet note that would make any puppy hush!

The Catfish? I liked it, but I found differences in texture and taste. One piece would be light and tender, the next was tough and chewy. It was about half and half. All told, I got more than enough to eat but I was puzzled by those tough pieces.

My least favorite part? You order a big ol' baked potato, piping hot. You unwrap it from it's aluminum foil cocoon, then split it open while the steam rises. Then, you slather it with a mound of......butter. But, what I got was not butter. It was what the single serve Sysco container called 'WHIPPED SPREAD 48% VEGETABLE OIL'. I'm not a fan of anything other than butter. And for good reason. This WHIPPED SPREAD did NOTHING for the taste of my potato. I did not like it and I did not finish it. A REAL SOUTHERN household would serve, I truly hope, ONLY real butter. A good baked potato doesn't deserve anything less. C'mon Catfish Place! Butter is better!

Overall, I enjoyed my meal, but I do see some areas that need attention. Give them a try, and tell...

Great food, good service, best grits, awesome shrimp, good catfish of course.

Update - June 2022: We've visited over the years and I don't recall ever having a bad experience. We visited for my birthday Friday and ordered a pound of shrimp appetizer and two lunches. We ran out of tea before we were done with the shrimp, eventually the server came by and said she would bring some and never came back. About 20-30 minutes later another server said our server had to leave and she would bring us some tea and see about our food. Ten more minutes for tea and another wait for our food. When she brought the meals husband asked when we were going to get out salads. We ate although when the salads came now we are trying to finish hot food and eat cool salad.

When we had first arrived I looked at the menu board because they mention veg and soup of the day and I looked at the dessert list because I wanted to treat myself for my birthday, but after we ate it took another long wait for our check and a small box I just wanted to leave. We had been seated almost an hour and a half. Usually we are in and out in half the time. Looking around in all our waiting, the table behind and next to us arrived well after us and were in and out in about a half hour.

If our server had an emergency, we should not have been ignored so badly. They should have had someone let us know there was a problem right away instead of forgetting us. I watched the hostess and other staff cleaning tables and seating people and no one noticed we had no tea and were sitting there not eating (one girl did come and take the shrimp plates). We had arrived at 2:25 so it was not during a lunch or dinner rush.

If I was a new visitor, this would be a 1-star review. As we are long time patrons that drive from Brevard at least monthly, this was a one time occurrence (so I changed our review from 5-star to 4-star which is generous for this visit) but we should not have been kept waiting so long. It made a special...

The Catfish Place has been on my wishlist for almost nine years! True story! When I moved from Texas to Minnesota nine years ago, I was trying to find a restaurant that served catfish. Seems in north central Minnesota, it is walleye or something previously frozen. And then I found The Catfish Place in Saint Cloud! I thought, great! Only about an hour south of me! Then I started reading the menu... Gator from local lakes, what?! And then I realized this is in Saint Cloud FLORIDA, not Minnesota. Oh bummer! So, I filed it away for another day. Fast forward to today, and I finally made it here while on vacation! I wish it did not take me nine years to get here, but still worth the wait! Table for one and I got seated right away on a Saturday by a window. Sorry I did not write down her name, but my server came over right away and said she was new (her second day). She sure knew her stuff though about the menu! I ordered sweet tea to start (perfectly sweet for me, and I like my tea sweet), and it came out with a pitcher. Excellent! I then ordered the seafood gumbo, though it was a coin toss with the clam chowder, but I opted for something I cannot usually get at home. My gumbo came right out nice, hot, and delicious! I then placed my order of the three meat platter of catfish, turtle, and (of course), gator! Another winner here! When my plate came out, I thought (uh oh), how am I going to finish all of this food!? Along with double coleslaw (also very good!) and hush puppies. I somehow managed to finish everything, except for 2 of 3 hush puppies! Of course, all three things were fried, but there was no excess oil to be found! Perfectly crispy and hot! If it was not that I had another three hours of driving, I would have taken key lime pie to go. I am sure that is delicious too! Great service! Great food! I plan on being back again the next time I vacation in Florida! Support small businesses! They need us as much as...