Catfish Parlour

Today, I went by this restaurant in route to the Austin airport. Once inside we were immediately seated and greeted by a friendly waitress. We had a few questions about the children’s menu and the waitress suggested that we speak with the manager on duty. This manager was AwFuLL, RuDe, insulting and lack communication skills. Mr. Lee (manager on duty) was his name. When he came over to our table he started by immediately insulting us. We were asking him about the children’s menu… and his response was that we must pay for our food. That was not the question! I expressed that I did not ask for any free food or discounted food we were just asking about the children’s menu. He again expressed that we had to pay for any food that we ordered. I understand and I think that most people understand that when you go to a restaurant and order food that you pay for the food that you order/​eat. I am unsure if he thought that we could not afford to pay for a $ 10 meal or if he was just ignorant and made an assumption based on our appearance/​ethnicity that we could were asking for free food. We left the restaurant after being insulted and would never come back. Please don’t make the same mistake and walk through the doors of the TerriBle restaurant. Poor customer service!!!

It’s almost crawfish time. Bring it on! Whatever spices you are using, keep it up! Sooo delicious!

Truly a great spot to get some southern love and cooking. You can’t not relax in their cafeteria style dining room. Comfy seats, hospitable wait staff and an all around good vibe.
Food:
Now add in the fresh off the fire Catfish and wonderfully interesting slaw and you’ll find it is worth every penny (if you’re a side-​aholic)
I only had the catfish, got it spicy style… but it wasn’t very spicy to me (could taste it a bit).
Overall:
Gave them the four stars for all around experience. I think it was a good experience and exactly what I came in for.

Yummie food, large portions, and a decent price.
I’ve come here for lunch and dinner, dine in and take out several times and I’m always pleased. They’ve got good comfort food, if you dine in sides are unlimited. The sides differ from night to night with cabbage, corn nuggets, okra, broccoli and such. Corn nuggets and okra are my personal fav.
The cj shrimp and fried fish are delicious. Its perfectly seasoned and is even better with their tartar sauce. It’s lovely!
Service is usually good and fast.
There’s plenty of parking.

No bad, if you like catfish …
Place was crowded (noisy) with screaming kids, and babies. Had hard time enjoying dinner due to noise levels. Personal I thought the catfish was ok, but I had a couple in our group that said is was too greasy for them.
What do you expect for a catfish place?

Ordered a catfish and shrimp plate. Catfish was average, shrimp was average, beans were good. Nothing notable about any of the food. The service was good and our waitress was very nice and attentive. I liked the atmosphere, vintage signed and posters.

Good Food! Ice cold beer mugs! We as always eat the Cajun catfish and hush puppies! Grateful that this place is on our way home!

Food: Grilled catfish was delicious, and I like their coleslaw a lot because it wasn’t made with mayo! (Unless it’s actually something else). They have decent side dish options for healthy eaters (and tasty), which is awesome!
Environment: interesting wall decors to keep you entertained while waiting for your food or eating
Service: servers were friendly. HOWEVER, what threw me off (minus 1 star) was that the cashier asked me how much I am paying for tip in front of my friends (with an attitude)… If you want to adjust the tip on your system right away (which is a little strange to do it in front of the customer), please at least have the courtesy to do the math silently instead of asking your customer out loud… unless you are trying to embarass the customer on purpose. PS we already left tip at the table, so I was paying extra at the counter.
Next time I will probably just do take-​out instead of dining in to avoid this kind of situation…

I just state facts about my experience. I thought about going to this place yesterday, opted to try Scotty’s BBQ instead (see review on that shortly). What a blessing. I have no idea why people think this place deserves any stars at all. It was bland… had 3 (alleged) tiny spicy fillets and 2 (jumbo albeit fishy) shrimp. Unlimited fries, corn fritters, and cornbread sticks (aka hush puppies). As I continued through the line, I thought it best to by pass the array of vegetables, past the walnut-​watermelon salad on to the shredded lettuce (coleslaw) and tarter sauces (one was mint green, the other was house made and normal).
Though I haven’t said it yet, now seems like a good time: I would never return to this place. Food was mediocre at best and certainly not worth the 14.02 (plus tip) that was paid. Way better options in Austin!

I love the hush puppy sticks and the amount of catfish was very generous. Server was great, very polite and the atmosphere all together was warming displace of southern hospitality! I most definitely will come back.

Atmosphere was great. The food to me just OK. My server was fast and quick; however, at times felt rushed.
The shrimp cocktail was good. The fish filets were small. The hush puppies were pretty good

Not very good. The shrimp was less than appetizing. It is over priced for what you get. The staff is friendly but the food is not good.

I went in the other day and ordered the Large special plate. When it arrived I noticed all it had was Catfish and Shrimp… I noticed the catfish fillets have gotten really small. Not what I expected for a large plate. I started going to this place years ago and remember the Catfish Filets being much larger… The food is very good but I hate to have to fill up on Hush Puppies because the Large plate wasn’t filling enough…

I love this place. Been going since I was a child. Their hush puppies are addicting and they have fried okra! If you love catfish, ask for it crispy and it’s perfect.

Been coming for 35 years ever since I was little with my parents. No catfish better. Other options too.

Just ate catfish at this place and it was excellent. :-). The price was good too. Cold beer on draft

We were craving oysters that weren’t market price/​house price. You learn about the dangers of market price the hard way sometimes ($ 48 for a dozen oysters — are you KIDDING me, Sway?). Unilocal said Catfish Parlour had potential, and wouldn’t you know that it did?
While the menu isn’t boasting the latest seasoning-​, garnish-​, or sauce-​craze (hello kale, brussel sprouts and aioli) it was simple comfort food. I steered clear of the fried stuff so hard that I must have circled back around because I ended up trying some of the super platter with fried everything. It was… fried and a-​okay. The prices were pretty swell. The oyster platter is pretty fantastic for the price if you can overlook that there may not be much else here for pickier eaters. And mos def no aioli.
What got me was the service. We must have walked in 15 – 20 minutes from closing and were greeted warmly. Naomi was the sweetest waitress and, without knowing her situation, deserves a nice little raise. It’s been 2 or 3 months since we’ve been back and I haven’t gotten a hankering to return but if you’re nearby and wanting some accessible seafood give it a go.

I ate at this place several years ago and had a less than satisfactory experience.
I was looking for a place to eat seafood last Friday (during Lent) so I decided to give them a try. When I arrived it was slammed with a waiting list of 45 minutes. Fortunately, they have full service at the bar so I was able to get immediate seating.
They have a nice selection on their menu but I was in the mood for fried catfish so I ordered the «all you can eat» catfish & popcorn shrimp.
My servers at the bar were prompt and attentive. They start you off with a bowl of hush puppies & 2 kinds of tarter sauce (one regular and the other jalapeño). I don’t even like hush puppies but theirs are uniquely delicious. They look kind of like Burger King «chicken fries» so they don’t have that soft gooey middle that round hush puppies have — instead the inside is nice and crisp.
The catfish pieces were cooked just right. To me, the mark of a good piece of fried fish is how it tastes without any sauce. Their catfish is tender, moist & very flavorful. The popcorn shrimp were of equal quality and not dried out.
The meal comes with cole slaw and pinto beans. I don’t like Cole slaw but theirs is more of the German style without mayonnaise and it’s very good.
I returned a week later on Friday and decided to have the blackened catfish with crawfish étouffée topping. I had a side of steamed broccoli as well.
This was by far the «best» blackened catfish meal I’ve ever had in Austin (better than Pappadeaux or Quality Seafood & much cheaper. The catfish was tender moist and very flavorful. The étouffée topping made a nice compliment to the entrée.
An unexpected surprise was the quality of the steamed broccoli. It was better tasting than sides of broccoli I’ve had from Truluck’s, Perry’s or Pappadeaux. Plus the price is only $ 2.50.
Overall, the food quality was exceptional and far exceeded my expectations.
Prices are very affordable especially compared to other seafood restaurants in Austin. Service was excellent on both of my visits — severs were Karisma and Juan.
It’s casual dining and I would highly recommend Catfish Parlour to anyone wanting a great meal at a good price.

Great place for catfish.
The service was excellent. Our waiter was great– we always had a full glass to drink and he was very quick.
The food was very good. Catfish was fresh and crisp. If you like spicy try the spicy batter. It was good.
This was a great place to get over my fried catfish craving.

I know, I know. You purists will not like that someone enjoyed Catfish Parlour. We had another birthday celebration here and really had a great time. I had the blackened tilapia over rice with crawfish étouffée and it was delicious. Cold beer in a mug, great service by our waitress and plenty of room made this a nice change of pace. We could actually hear ourselves think.