I was sure hoping for better when I walked into this place. I love the location, on 290 West , before you hit the tracks, in the old brick bank building. Parking out back. \r
\r
For starters, watch your step! The carpet is bunched up and as I walked , I felt like something was grabbing at my feet. \r
\r
My husband and I dined here last night, Friday. For all you can eat catfish, there sure weren't very many people there, only five tables. We were seated by a tall perhaps high school boy, hereafter known as Tall Boy. Another older couple came in and they were seated far away from us. Two ladies with five children came in. The hostess seated them right next to us, I was hoping that they would have been seated in one of the MANY other tables further away from other diners, where the children wouldn't bother anyone if they started screaming. I thanked my lucky stars they were well behaved. \r
\r
We ordered a plate of onion rings. They arrived in a basket, within minutes ,fresh and hot. I asked Tall Boy for a plate. The plate came out and it didn't look clean. Had greasy fingerprints in the center of it.. Tall Boy also kept taking our refuse (straw wrappers, etc.) by reaching in front of us, it was a little disruptive but he is young and learning. But he bugged me for some reason. He HAD to have been the owner's son as he wasn't a very ""with it"" waiter. Okay, back to the onion rings. They looked delicious but were very greasy. Flavor was just okay, almost bland. \r
\r
I asked Tall Boy for extra napkins with which to sop up grease from onion rings, he walked by me later, stopped, pointed at me and said, ""You asked me for something....what was it?"". With only five tables occupied in the whole place, he surely wasn't overwhelmed. Well, maybe he was! \r
\r
So I order a grilled cheese, mashed potatoes, corn and green beans. My daughter ordered the catfish, my husband the CFS (for you non-Texans out there, that's Chicken Fried Steak). My husband ate all his, said it was good. Same with my daughter. They both got the salad bar and it looked plentiful. Cucumbers, red onion. grape tomatoes, and surely the best home made croutons I have ever eaten. \r
\r
I can't comment on their meals but they both ate everything, but visually speaking, the catfish did look good but I have never seen catfish ""strips"" before. I thought for sure I would see filets. CFS looked greasy but Husband ate it all. That's no surprise though. He did pepper the heck out of the gravy and even I suggested to him that he needed to salt his gravy.\r
\r
My meal was okay. The grilled cheese was one slice of plastic wrapped cheese in Texas Toast. REALLY???? The corn looked like it had seen better days but was actually tasty. The green beans were run of the mill, nothing special but not terrible. The mashed potatoes came out with NO gravy which I thought was strange, so I asked for some on the side, which Tall Boy brought immediately. The cream gravy itself was VERY bland. I rarely salt my food and this stuff was begging for it. I could have sworn that what passed for gravy was actually something similar to what I use at home to thicken my own gravy. I ordered a piece of coconut pie (I thought I was getting coconut cream but alas...). It tasted pretty old and was very, very sweet. \r
\r
The funniest thing that happened was when we were seated, I asked the Tall Boy about Monzi's, which closed and the Giddings Restaurant took over its space. I LOVED Monzi's. Great elegant food, wonderful place. The Tall Boy said that people in town thought it was too fancy and they had to dress up ""like me"" he said, while plucking at his polo shirt!!!). Now that's just sad, and shame on Giddings for letting that wonderful gem of a diner slip away. \r
\r
Anyway, bottom line: the place is fine if you are really hungry which I was. You will get your belly full for a good price. At least it's better than a sandwich from a gas station.\r
People thought this was:
more