Vernon's Kuntry Katfish

5901 Highway 105 West, Conroe, TX - (936) 760-3386

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Posted By Michael Stern on 2/4/2009 9:41:00 AM

Opened in 1984 as a one-room, ten-table café serving only catfish, chicken-fried steak, and hamburgers, Vernon’s Kuntry Katfish has expanded multiple times over the years. The dirt parking lot has been paved and a large vestibule has been added with chairs where people can wait for a table. On a good day, a thousand meals are served, and Monday through Friday at lunchtime, there is always a wait.

Catfish (or, as spelled here, katfish) is the big draw: thick pieces of glistening white meat known as shank fillets, cut from fish farm-raised in Mississippi. Each piece is tightly hugged by a flour and cornmeal crust with just enough seasoned zest to amplify the meat's essential sweetness. Even the menu's anomalous broiled catfish, merely seasoned but without the added luxury of the mudpuppy's traditional breading and hot-oil bath, has a voluptuous richness reminiscent of prime beef.

A majority of customers have catfish at the center of their plate, but among the loyal clientele is a large minority of chicken-fried steak aficionados. Vernon's crisp-crusted slab of breaded and fried beef is easy to slice and a joy to savor, gilded with a spill of peppery gravy. All lunches are accompanied by a choice of yeast-raised biscuits, warm cornbread squares, or hushpuppies. The hushpuppies are especially tasty; each bite-size sphere has a firm, dark crust within which is cakey cornmeal laced with bits of sweet onion and hot jalapeno pepper. They are accompanied by a small dish of pickled green tomatoes that are put up exclusively for Vernon’s from a recipe developed by one of the kitchen staff.

Vegetables are not to be slighted, the daily selection including such downhome delights as turnip greens, northern beans, field peas, and pickled green tomatoes. And do have some banana pudding for dessert. It's one of the greats.

Scorecard

Overall: Excellent - Worth a Detour

Large Catfish Plate	3 Vegetable Plate
Banana Pudding	Frog Legs (1 pair)
Fried Green Tomatoes

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