Housemade catfish and more in Buffalo.
by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop
The kitchen is a busy place. John Phillips has hand-breaded tenderloins and chicken strips that have to be dropped in the deep-fryer so they’re served hot and fresh. He tends to the steaks and burgers ensuring each is cooked to the customer’s liking. However, it’s the farm-raised fish from Mississippi that are the star of the show at his restaurant. Catfish is king in Buffalo.
John and his wife, Lisa, opened The Catfish Cafe in 2019 and serve more than 300 pounds of the popular fish weekly. Customers also flock to their restaurant — located in a former fast-food joint adjacent to a gas station — for their catfish, housemade sauces, burgers and steaks along Highway 65.
John is a Buffalo native who’s worked in restaurants since he was 16, including a stint at a Chili’s in Alaska. About 20 years ago, he started working for his boss-turned-mentor Gary Dyer at Dowd’s Catfish & BBQ in Lebanon. He stayed for 15 years, eventually earning the title of general manager.
“He taught me everything I know,” says John, a member of Southwest Electric Cooperative. “I was just a dumb kid when I started there. I learned so much about catfish and how to run a restaurant and treat people.”
John felt the pull of his hometown and wanted to bring his extensive knowledge of catfish to Buffalo. “I love the people here,” John says. “Everyone is decent and kind and you can’t beat that.”
John’s catfish won the Best of Rural Missouri contest in 2024 and is the main draw of the expansive menu at The Catfish Cafe. This starts with 5- to 7-ounce fresh catfish fillets he gets shipped in from a Mississippi farm. The fillets are split in two, lightly breaded with white cornmeal and seasoned with John’s proprietary spice blend. The Catfish Cafe has a 375-degree deep-fryer dedicated solely to catfish. “It’s kind of crispy and flaky with an airy taste,” he says.
The most popular catfish options are the three-, five- or seven-piece dinners. The freshly fried fish is paired with french fries and John’s housemade coleslaw. For $1 more, you can get your catfish served spicy — how John prefers his — after chilling in a marinade for 24 hours. If you don’t think seven pieces will be enough, opt for the all-you-can-eat dinner served with hush puppies, fries, coleslaw and tomato relish.
The Catfish Cafe serves their fish between two slices of bread as well. Both the catfish sandwich and po’boy start with a full 5- to 7-ounce fillet that’s cooked to order and served with classic toppings and housemade tartar sauce.
In addition to their tarter sauce and coleslaw, The Catfish Cafe serves housemade honey mustard, ranch, pineapple sauce and more.
“It just tastes better to make it ourselves and has a higher quality our customers notice,” says John. “We have customers pull through our drive-thru and order just ranch dressing to take home.”
If you can’t quite decide what you’re craving, the combo platter dinner is for you. It features a pair each of catfish fillets, hand-breaded chicken strips and fried shrimp and comes with your choice of two of The Catfish Cafe’s 14 sides — including favorites such as green tomato relish, hush puppies, coleslaw and hand-breaded potato wedges.
Beyond the catfish, customers love John’s pork tenderloin, which is pounded out by hand, dipped in buttermilk, breaded with Western seasoning, marinated for 24 hours and then breaded again before it is cooked. Other options include the Buffalo chicken, BLT and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.
Beef lovers fret not. John cooks up 17 different burgers and steaks on his grill. The burger menu features iconic one-third-pound options such as a classic cheeseburger, Frisco Burger and patty melt. Other intriguing options include the Jalapeno Jack Burger with peppers, pepper jack cheese and chipotle mayonnaise or the Fried Pickle and Ranch Burger with Swiss and American cheeses, ranch dressing and fried pickles — one of the restaurant’s most popular appetizers.
However, if you just want meat and cheese — and a lot of it — The Works is for you. “That’s definitely a crowd favorite around here,” says John. The behemoth burger features a pair of one-third-pound patties cooked to your liking and piled high with slices of American, Swiss, pepper jack and cheddar cheeses.
“For a catfish house, we sell a lot of steaks too,” John says. “Our most popular are our 12-ounce rib-eye and 8-ounce sirloin. We cook it with our own seasonings and serve it with garlic toast and two sides.”
Like any rural restaurant owner, John faces the pressure from constant rises in food prices and fees from vendors while trying to keep his prices fair. “We work very hard to get the best and freshest ingredients we can while still being affordable,” he says. “About 70% of our menu is under $10.”
They also run special meal deals for two on Tuesdays and kids eat free on Wednesdays.
It’s a family affair for John as he gets to work with his brother, Josh, and daughter, Hannah, at The Catfish Cafe. “His life’s passion is serving everyone here and I think he’ll work here until he can no longer walk,” Josh says of his brother’s work ethic.
“There’s nothing I’d rather do than this,” John says. “It’s something different every day I’m here, good or bad. It’s exciting for me.”
The Catfish Cafe
Specialties: Dinners including farm-raised catfish, hand-breaded chicken tenders and fried shrimp. Sandwiches including pork tenderloin, Buffalo chicken and catfish. Burgers including the mushroom swiss, Frisco and The Works. Steaks including the 12-ounce rib-eye and 8-ounce sirloin.
Price: Appetizers from $4.99 to $7.99. Burgers and sandwiches from $7.99 to $11.99. Dinners and steaks from $9.99 to $23.99.
Details: Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday. Deliveries via DoorDash. Cash, checks, credit cards and Apple Pay accepted. Nonsmoking. Located at 1210 S. Ash St. in Buffalo. Contact at 417-345-1277 and on Facebook.