Catfish or Tilapia?

Fish turns up three times on our menu, and twice you are asked to choose between catfish and tilapia. Most people pick without knowing there is a real difference. There is, and it is worth thirty seconds of thought.

Short version: catfish is firmer, sweeter and tastes more of itself; tilapia is milder, softer and takes on whatever it is cooked and served with.

Where the choice comes up

• Fried Fish on the appetizer menu — your choice of catfish or tilapia
• Fish Burger — the same choice, dressed with pickle and tartar
• Fried Fish Po’boy — catfish, dressed with lettuce, tomato, mayo and pickles
• Fish Stick — six pieces, on the appetizer menu
• L5 on the lunch special — the fried fish po’boy, with a side and a drink

So the po’boy decides for you, and the other two do not.

What each one is actually like

Catfish is also one of the most widely farmed fish in the United States, which is why it turns up on Southern menus far more than anywhere else. NOAA’s FishWatch profile for channel catfish covers where it comes from.

The practical rule: the more is going on around the fish, the more catfish earns its place. In a dressed po’boy with mayonnaise, lettuce and pickles, a neutral fish disappears entirely. On its own with tartar, tilapia is perfectly pleasant and a lot of people prefer it.

What the tartar is doing

Tartar sauce gets treated as a default rather than as a choice, which undersells it. It is mayonnaise with something sharp chopped through it — pickle, capers, onion — and its job on fried fish is exactly the job dressing does on a po’boy: acidity against fat.

Which is why the Fish Burger comes with pickle and tartar, and why the fried fish po’boy comes dressed with pickles as well as mayonnaise. Both are solving the same problem twice, deliberately. If you find fried fish heavy, the answer is usually more acid rather than less sauce.

Cocktail sauce is on the sides menu too, and it is the sharper of the two — worth asking for if you want the fish to taste cleaner rather than richer.

Ordering fish for someone who does not like fish

This comes up more than you would think, usually with children or with someone who had bad fish once and never went back. Two things help.

Tilapia first, because “mild” is doing real work there — it is about as far from a strong fish as you can get and still be eating fish. And battered rather than grilled, because a coating puts distance between the eater and the thing they are nervous about.

Fish sticks are the other route entirely. Six pieces on the appetizer menu, recognisable, and nobody has to commit to a whole fillet. They are also the sensible order for children, who tend to object to the size of a fillet more than to the fish in it.

The thing not to do is order a dressed fried fish po’boy for a hesitant eater. Mayonnaise, pickles, lettuce and tomato on top of catfish is a lot of competing flavour, and if the fish is the part they are uncertain about, they will find it anyway.

Fish beyond the fillet

The rest of the seafood on the menu behaves differently, and it is worth knowing where the lines are. Shrimp comes fried, buffalo or garlic-fried, by the half pound. The build-your-own seafood boil is a different proposition again — shellfish, seasoning and a bag, rather than anything battered.

If you want seafood without the work, fried fish is the low-effort end of that menu. If you want the work, the boil is where to go.

One practical difference between fish and shrimp that is worth knowing: a fillet is one large piece with a single coating, and shrimp is many small pieces with a lot of coating between them. That makes shrimp the crunchier order and fish the more filling one for the same weight. If you are choosing between the two for a table, fish holds up better on a plate and shrimp shares better.

Po’boy, burger, or on its own?

Same fish, three formats, and the format changes it more than the species does. In a dressed po’boy the fish is competing with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and pickles, so catfish holds its own and tilapia gets lost. On a burger bun with pickle and tartar there is less around it, so either works. On its own off the appetizer menu, with a sauce cup, the fish is the entire order and the choice matters most.

What to order alongside

Fried fish is lighter than most fried food, so it takes a bigger side than you might expect. Fries are standard; onion rings work; a salad is the move if the fish is battered and you want something sharp on the plate.

What not to add is another fried thing with a coating. Fish and mozzarella sticks and fried pickles is three versions of the same texture, which is a lot even by the standards of this menu. If you want a second fried plate, make it something with a different shape to it — onion rings rather than another battered fillet of anything.

The short version

Catfish for flavour, tilapia for mildness. Catfish in the po’boy — which is what it comes as anyway — and either in the burger or on its own. If you are ordering for someone unsure about fish, tilapia battered, or fish sticks. It is all on the appetizer menu and the burger menu.

Fish, three ways

Fried fish, fish sticks and a fish burger — catfish or tilapia on two of them.

Appetizers

Fish, shrimp and everything fried.

Po’boys

Including the fried fish po’boy.

Explore the Menu Order Online

Frequently asked questions