Catfish Hill Restaurant
Wolfe Lane, off Hwy. 71 E. in Garfield, 247-2528Friday & Saturday, 6-10pm
A new generation of the Washington family operates this small catfish farm and country restaurant, but the fish is as wonderful as always. Order a whole catfish or several filets and they’ll arrive in a lacy cornmeal coating, crisp and crunchy on the outside, sweet and mild within. This is one restaurant where you can taste for yourself that the main course was raised with tender, loving care. Our worries that the proximity of the new airport would spoil the bucolic charm of Catfish Hill thankfully proved to be unfounded.
Catfish Parlour
4705 E. Ben White Blvd., 443-1698Daily, 11am-10pm
11910 Research Blvd., 258-1853
Monday-Saturday, 11am-10pm
These two large, informal fish houses have been serving up satisfying family-sized catfish meals as long as we can remember. Just leave your tackle box in the garage. When the gang’s hungry, take a crowd to eat in, call ahead to order tubs o’cats by the pound with all the trimmings, or arrange to have them cater your next outdoor fish fry. They’ll fry you up a mess of fish, shrimp, chicken, or chicken fried steaks complete with hushpuppies, fries, slaw, beans, and all the necessary condiments regardless of the size party you need to feed.
T.J’s Seafood
1900 E. Seventh, 469-9038Monday-Thursday, 11am-9pm; Friday & Saturday, 11am-10:30pm
This casual Eastside restaurant next to the Huston-Tillotson campus is equipped with a drive-through window for seafood lovers on the go. The menu here is a hybrid of Southern American and Asian fried foods, offering shrimp, catfish, crawfish, oyster and whiting in all manner of combinations with sides of fries, salad, and shrimp fried rice. We’re partial to the catfish po’boy and fries with a small order of plump, cornmeal-crusted crawfish as a chaser.
Terry’s Seafood Company
1805 Airport, 477-3233Monday-Thursday, 10:30am-9pm; Friday & Saturday, 10:30am-10pm
After years at the same corner location, the owners of Terry’s leased their valuable spot to a national fast food chain and moved their popular family restaurant up the street several blocks. When Terry’s is cooking, you can count on a steady stream of customers stopping in to enjoy very credible examples of the Southern frymaster’s art or taking home boxes of perfectly fried catfish fillets, shrimp, or chicken with all the trimmings.
Cherry Creek Catfish Company
5712 Manchaca Rd., 440-8810Sunday-Thursday, 11am-9pm; Friday & Saturday, 11am-10pm
Cherry Creek is a comfortable family restaurant with something on the menu to please everyone. There’s a burger for the non-fish-eater, and dieters can order boiled shrimp or fish from the grill. Fried food lovers can choose from catfish (filets or whole), shrimp, or oysters alone or in combo platters with hushpuppies, fries, cole slaw, and pinto beans. Southern-style po’boys come on a toasted roll dressed with tartar sauce, lettuce, and tomatoes and make a full meal with an order of fried green tomatoes as an appetizer.
Springhill Catfish Company
Hwy. 71 W. & RR 620, 263-3244Sunday-Thursday, 11am-9pm; Friday & Saturday, 11am-9:30pm
Buffet daily, 11am-2pm
If that visit to Lake Travis makes you hungry for fish, the Springhill folks will be happy to do all the work for you. The crew can all relax with a cold brew or a bottomless tankard of iced tea after a long day on the water and eat their fill of fish. The daily buffet always features fried catfish, vegetable and salad bars, a weekday blue plate special (chicken fried steak, King Ranch casserole, chicken fried chicken, enchiladas, etc.), and breakfast items on the Sunday brunch. Several good choices for non-fish eaters, as well.
Dixie’s Red Hot Roadhouse
6901 N. I-35, 451-5008Monday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday & Saturday,11am-11pm; Sunday, 11am-9pm
Dixie’s is a sparkly-bright, overly cheery chain outfit that works very hard to create an atmosphere of rural Southern charm. The service is friendly and efficient and the menu extensive. Choose from wood-fired steaks, fried seafood platters, fresh seafood topped with Louisiana-style sauces, or Southern roadhouse entrées such as meat loaf, fried chicken, and Coca-Cola barbecue ribs. We satisfied our catfish cravings with the giant catfish po’boy on a crisp French baguette dressed with remoulade sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles that comes with a tangled mountain of matchstick fries.
This article appears in April 26 • 2002.