MOORE — I can count on one hand the amount of seafood buffets I’ve seen in Oklahoma. The number is even less if I only include those that are actually good.
However, after visiting the Catfish Cove, 304 N. Telephone Road, the list just got a little bit longer.
Despite its unusual working hours, the Cove offers patrons friendly service combined with good food. The minute you walk through the front door, the first question owner Derek Michael asks is “are you ready to eat?”
For the price of $13.49, you get all you can eat of crispy hushpuppies, fresh catfish, fried okra, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, corn fritters and other seafood delights.
Michael said their best dish is the homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade peach, apple and cherry cobbler. And it all comes served on a plastic plate to give it an outdoorsy feel.
“This is the food we grew up on,” Michael said. “It’s southern style, fresh and hot.”
The Cove has a different feel from seafood served on the West and East coast, which can be light and more natural tasting. The Southern style has a lot of fried elements to it.
So if you are not used to a southern flair, then the Cove may not be the place for you.
Michael and his mother Kell, opened the doors to Catfish Cove in April.
“Since then we have seen it grow and grow,” Derek Michael said. “We will have a line out the door until 7 or 8 p.m.”
Unlike many restaurants, the Cove runs from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.
One of the reasons is that they do not want their food sitting around all day getting stale, Kelly Michael said. Since they buy all their food fresh, they want customers to get it fresh.
That includes the catfish, which are domestic and pond raised.
The other reason for the unique schedule is that the owners of the family-run Cove have other jobs. They describe themselves as entrepreneurs who have been in the restaurant business their entire lives.
“We have been in it since I can remember,” Derek said. “My grandfather had a restaurant for a long time. We just decided to open up a restaurant.”
The Michaels chose a seafood buffet because there are so few in the area.
“This is our first restaurant like this,” Kelly Michael said. “We thought, ‘There is no all-you-can eat seafood in the area and these people know how to eat.”
