Mobileâs best fried catfish: Our top 5
Let’s talk about getting some catfish in Mobile. This is the South, so it should be understood that “catfish” means “fried catfish” unless otherwise specified. All clear? Let’s proceed.
For this top five, I tried — with partial success — to limit myself to catfish purveyors in Mobile proper. You won’t find me carrying on about Champy’s Famous Fried Chicken in Daphne, or Rocky Creek Catfish Cottage in Lucedale. Or David’s Catfish, which is probably worth a story of its own.
Let’s dig in.
The catfish plate at JJ’s Seafood & Chicken, with fries, turnip greens and fried squash.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
5. JJ’s Seafood & Chicken
5681 Nevius Road; jjsseafoodchicken.com
The only hard thing about JJ’s is finding a parking space during the lunch rush. Fried chicken is arguably the main attraction, but there’s a full spread of selections including burgers, grilled dinners, and an array of blue-plate sides.
You’d better believe they know how to fry a catfish. Dinners are $12.99 and $14.99 depending on the portion size; a fried catfish po-boy is $9.99. All You Can Eat fried catfish dinners are offered Friday and Saturday for $16.99.
Order this: You get two sides with your dinner. The mac & cheese needs to be one of them.
READ: Love fried chicken livers? This Alabama seafood joint has ‘em (and more if you don’t)
The fried catfish dinner at Wintzell’s Oyster House in downtown Mobile.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
4. Wintzell’s Oyster House
605 Dauphin St. (other locations in West Mobile, Saraland, Greenville, Montgomery, Guntersville); www.wintzellsoysterhouse.com
Wintzell’s is an oyster house. It serves oysters many ways, from raw to fried to Rockefeller, by themselves or amid a platter, on a sandwich or in a basket. Wintzell’s serves other fine things that you can’t get just anywhere, such as shrimp and steak and mahi-mahi and redfish. So it feels a little weird to go in and order the fried catfish dinner ($18.99.)
OK, fine. Let’s make it even weirder by sitting at the oyster bar to eat our catfish. The menu promises that this is “Alabama’s finest” freshwater-farmed catfish, and you get an ample portion that’s been cleanly fried. They’ll provide tartar sauce, cocktail sauce and a wedge of lemon. You won’t need sauce to cover anything up, so go with a little lemon juice.
Order this: If you really feel guilty about bypassing the saltwater-sourced options at Wintzell’s, remember they’ll let you add five shrimp, oysters or scallops to any entree for $6. Or just start with a cup of their excellent gumbo for $6.99. Problem solved.
Neighbor’s is a west Mobile go-to for fried seafood and fried chicken.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
3. Neighbor’s Seafood & Chicken
5830 Three Notch Road; www.facebook.com/neighborsseafood2021
Neighbor’s isn’t exactly a catfish house. It’s among the best places in Mobile for fried chicken, and the menu is broad enough that it’s a credible meat-and-three option. But “seafood” is right there in the name. Crab claws, shrimp, flounder and oysters are right there on the menu – along with catfish.
Your options include the fried catfish dinner ($12.99 or $14.99), topped with crawfish sauce ($15.99) or grilled ($13.99). The po-boy is $10.99. “All You Care To Eat” catfish (or flounder) is $14.99 for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. See you there.
Order this: Go ahead. Go for the All You Care To Eat option.
Slow-cooked Creole white beans over rice with fried catfish at Market by the Bay in Daphne.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
2. Market by the Bay and Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill
29145 U.S. 98 in Daphne, www.marketbythebay.com; 29249 U.S. 98 in Daphne, boudreauxscajungrill.com
Every time I do one of these best-of-Mobile stories and include a place that’s not in Mobile, I get fussed at. What can I say? Here at Gourmands Without Borders, we believe that food has its own geography, and from downtown Mobile it’s easier to get to Daphne’s Hamburger Hill than it is to Schillinger Road. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about two of the best fried catfish dishes I’ve had in my life.
Order this: the Smothered Catfish at Boudreaux’s ($24). The menu describes it as a fried catfish filet topped with crawfish etouffee over a bed of rice with braised collards. They leave out the part about heavenly choirs singing, but trust me, it’s there.
No, Order this: The Creole White Beans and Rice at Market by the Bay ($20 dinner, $15 including drink at lunch on Tuesdays only). Slow-cooked white beans with pulled smoked turkey, a meal in itself, topped with fried catfish. I don’t know how something manages to be composed entirely of the most hearty, down-to-earth ingredients and still be so decadent, but it’s a feat you want to experience.
Aside from the geographical violation, these options also diverge from the basic-fried-catfish theme here. But, again, I’d feel like a heel if I left them out.
Kravers Seafood in west Mobile is an offshoot of the original in Daphne.Lawrence Specker | [email protected]
1. Kraver’s Seafood
2368 Leroy Stevens Road, Mobile; kraversseafood.com
Google serves pretty well in some categories, when you ask for the best of whatever in a given city. The listings for best fried catfish in Mobile are a hot mess, even from some established rating sites. You get recommendations for places that closed ages ago, places that are in Mississippi, and places that might offer a catfish special sometimes but don’t seem to actually have it on the daily menu.
However, a couple of real-deal local spots always seem to make these lists, and Kravers is one of them. Now, this Kravers is a branch office; the original is over in Daphne and Baldwin County partisans do tend to be a little snobby about which one is better. Pay them no mind. Here you can get catfish on a seafood platter ($16.99 for the pick-two, $20.99 for the pick-three), in a basket ($11.99 or $16.99), or on a Po-Boy ($7.99 half, $14.99 whole). And since Kravers doesn’t do fried chicken, the focus on seafood is much stronger.
Order this: The Po-boy combo gives you half po’boy, fries and drink for $12.49.