Legendary Catfish Hole Restaurant Lives Up to its Reputation

We all know the intent of commercials is to entice us to buy something or visit a certain place. And we’ve all probably had an experience where, when we tried the product or went to see the location advertised, they failed, sometime miserably, to live up to the hype.

For several years now I’ve been hearing the ads for the Catfish Hole restaurants in Fayetteville and Alma while listening to Arkansas Razorback games on the radio.  The description includes the word “legendary” which can be somewhat overused.  I finally was able to visit the Catfish Hole recently and in this case, there isn’t a better word in the vocabulary to describe their offerings.  The food is certainly legendary.

The menus vary somewhat at the two locations.  I visited the newly expanded one in Alma. The U.S. farm-raised catfish fillets are exceptionally good.  Perfect fried catfish, to me, is light and crispy without being greasy or oily.  They were perfect, served family style with hushpuppies, fries, coleslaw, pickles, onions, and green tomato relish.  We all could have made a meal on the hushpuppies alone but we managed to restrain ourselves….somewhat.  Like the fillets, they were crunchy on the outside while being moist and tender on the inside.  The fries were hand-cut with the skin still on and, like everything else fried we tried they were cooked exactly the way they should have been.

There is plenty to choose from if you don’t want fried items.  We’ll save those for another visit.  If you’re looking for really, really good catfish with all the trimmings, add the Catfish Hole to your list of places to try.  It lives up to its “legendary” commercial.