{"id":1059,"date":"2012-11-20T12:57:46","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T12:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=1059"},"modified":"2012-11-20T12:57:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T12:57:47","slug":"the-catfish-place-st-cloud-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=1059","title":{"rendered":"The Catfish Place – St. Cloud, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe Catfish Place
\n2324 13th Street
\nSt. Cloud, FL 34769
\n(407) 892-5771<\/p>\n

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Is there a restaurant in your town that you drive by all the time where you’ve never eaten?\u00a0 For me that was The Catfish Place.<\/p>\n

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I’m not sure why it took me 10 years to try it.\u00a0 Maybe it was the name.\u00a0 Maybe it was where it was located or how it looked from the outside.\u00a0 Maybe I thought all you could get there was catfish.\u00a0 I really don’t have a reason, but I’m glad I took the chance and gave it a try.<\/p>\n

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This is one of those places that’s just as unassuming inside as it is from the outside.\u00a0 Very much themed around catfish, gators and hunting it has an eclectic mix of art and style.\u00a0 If you can’t get past the half\u00a0deer protruding from the wall painted to look like a forest, just ask to be seated somewhere else….. the food is worth it!!<\/p>\n

As the name suggests the menu is very heavy with fish, much of which is proudly labeled as locally caught.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If the more ‘exotic’ choices on the menu like alligator or turtle turn you off just keep reading, you’ll find many old standbys like shrimp, scallops, haddock and more.<\/p>\n

Our latest visit to The Catfish Place was actually inspired by my father who was in town for a visit.\u00a0 We asked him what he felt like having for dinner and he said he wanted fried shrimp.\u00a0 We kind of racked our brains for a bit trying to come up with ideas of where to go when finally The Catfish Place came to mind.\u00a0 I’m not sure why this restaurant was an after-thought but we hoped the fish\u00a0would be\u00a0good and it’s close to home.\u00a0 So off we went, Kevin, my father and I.<\/p>\n

Now before I tell you about our meal I have to admit something.\u00a0 I have an obsession. It’s fried pickles.\u00a0 Whenever I see them on a menu I have to get an order.\u00a0 I tell myself it’s just to see how each restaurant makes them; the truth is I love fried pickles.\u00a0\u00a0We added some fried clam strips and mozzarella sticks\u00a0to the appetizer order in case my Dad didn’t care for the pickles (which I secretly hoped he didn’t so I could eat them all myself).\u00a0 Everything was hot, fresh and delicious…..even my Dad liked the pickles!!<\/p>\n

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Kevin has a similar obsession with hushpuppies and he ordered an appetizer portion for the table.\u00a0 He loves them.\u00a0 Me, not so much.\u00a0 Apparently you’re supposed to put honey on them.\u00a0 This kind of grossed me out a bit and I just had one.\u00a0 I wish I knew in advance that they came with every meal.\u00a0 By the end of the night we were inundated with hushpuppies.<\/p>\n

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For dinner we all tried something a little different.\u00a0 I went for an alligator, catfish and clam combo.\u00a0 It came with more of the hushpuppies and two sides. I chose mash potatoes and the \u201cspecial\u201d, green beans with baby potatoes.\u00a0 The fish, shrimp and gator were all tender and tasty in a nice light batter.\u00a0 The potatoes were good, but the star was the green beans and potatoes – holy smokes were they awesome!!<\/p>\n

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My Dad, who was on a quest for shrimp that evening, ordered a senior’s shrimp platter.\u00a0 It also came with hushpuppies and he ordered corn and French Fries as a side.\u00a0 He liked everything and I was really surprised at how much food he received.\u00a0 I actually intentionally over ordered because I thought he wouldn’t get enough and he could pick off our plates.\u00a0 Not only was he full and happy he had left-overs.<\/p>\n

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Kevin got a shrimp, scallop and clam strips combo.\u00a0 His sides were the green beans and hash browns and of course the ubiquitous hushpuppies.\u00a0 He loved everything except the hash browns which were a bit under-done.<\/p>\n

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What I really like about this place is the fact that you can pretty much create any combo platter you want.\u00a0 You can choose from a multitude of main items and sides to get just the perfect meal you’re craving.<\/p>\n

In addition, the portions are huge and the pricing is very reasonable.\u00a0 The three of us left stuffed and had leftovers for two days and the bill was under $80 (including tip and a glass of wine for my Dad).<\/p>\n

If for some reason you find yourself in a small town called Saint Cloud Florida, I highly recommend a trip to The Catfish Place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catfish Place 2324 13th Street St. Cloud, FL 34769 (407) 892-5771   Is there a restaurant in your town that you drive by all the time where you’ve never eaten?\u00a0 For me that was The Catfish Place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[321,320,323,327,149,324,326,328,325,330,329,322,319,318],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1059"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}