Cuisine Review

I completely identified when a friend asked me who I was reviewing next and her response to my answer was “it is unbelievable to me; it seems that everyone in their brother is telling me about this place.”

For months, at least once a week someone has demanded I travel out to TiCo and eat at the Boiling Pot. Even though it takes only 15 minutes to get out there from downtown, mentally and atmospherically it is a long way from my office. And, every comment received included “they are so packed, people are lined up at lunch out into the parking lot.” Not my kind of thing to spend lots of wait time for my lunch with potentially loud rednecks present.

For some unknown reason, all of my son’s soccer games this fall are played on Three Notch Road in TiCo – middle of nowhere to me. But, this gives me a chance when the games are around lunchtime to feast on all of the delights of the area (of which, there are few). So of course after the first game, we made a beeline to the Boiling Pot.

The Boiling Pot is located in a strip center on the right when headed south on Halls Mill Road after crossing Rangeline. While we had to park on the end of the lot, thankfully the line was not out the door. There were about 10 people ahead of us and a dining room full of eaters. The dining area is clean and well lit, but standard fast food restaurant dining. Your food comes in either a basket or to-go container.

I suggest when you go to have someone head straight to the dining area to stake out a table, or you will have to eat standing up. The Boiling Pot is a family place with no alcohol. I cannot figure out how these people are making money due to the amount of food they serve. The whole scenario reminds me of something from an episode of Seinfeld – the atmosphere, the “deal,” the staff and remote location. Like one day Newman is going to enter and scream – “it’s a sham!”

Do not go here for anything fancy. You order, pay, wait and pick up your order. The menu is all about seafood, fried and steamed. They have po-boys, fried plates and steamed plates along with sides that are extra with the po-boys.

The menu says that their po-boys are “overstuffed,” which is an understatement. Before I get to that, the choices are half or full po-boys with choices of shrimp, catfish, grouper, oyster, crawfish or soft shell crab. They range in price from $4.99 for half a catfish to $12.99 for a full soft-shell. We chose a full shrimp po-boy ($9.99) for our kids, a half shrimp for my wife ($5.99) and a half grouper po-boy for me ($5.49). All of the sandwiches include lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, mayo and ketchup.

No lie; there were at least two-to-two-and-a-half pounds of medium sized fried shrimp on the HALF po-boy. And they were good. We could have made three to four more halves between the shrimp falling out into the basket from the one-and-a-half ordered. It truly is unbelievable, you would think they steal their seafood rather than purchase it.

My grouper contained two large filets that were piled high and long on the bread. The bread was good not great, but with the amount of and fresh, quality taste of the fish, who cares?

The fried seafood plates are of the same variety as the po-boys. Shrimp ($9.99), catfish ($8.99), grouper, crawfish (either, $8.99) oyster ($9.99), soft shell ($12.99) crab claw (market price) chicken tenders ($4.99), popcorn shrimp ($9.99) or a combo with shrimp, oyster and grouper ($12.99). All of the fried seafood plates come with fries and hushpuppies.

All steamed plates come with two cobs of corn and two potatoes. The selections include gulf shrimp ($8.99), Canadian snow crab, Dungeness crab or royal red shrimp (each, $9.99). They also steam seafood by the pound. We ate with some friends/fellow soccer parents and grandparents and the adults ordered gumbo ($3.29), which is served in large Styrofoam cups with an abundance of shrimp and medium-sized oysters. All approved and spoke highly of the gumbo. This crowd also ordered steamed shrimp plates – again there was enough in one order to more than feed two people. The shrimp were of ample size, not baby shrimp or anything, and the potatoes were almost baking sized.

I have gotten used to servers looking at me like I am a pig when I order one of everything just so we can try it out. This time she looked at me in almost disgust when in addition to the food I ordered more fries ($1.49), onion rings ($1.79) and hushpuppies ($1.49). Yes, unsuspecting restaurant people, I am the one who comes in and immediately orders two appetizers.

Side orders of fried shrimp, oysters, catfish or grouper can be had along with crab cakes ($2.39 each) crawfish pie ($1.99), extra corn, potatoes, sausage or shrimp dip. I like crinkle-cut fries fried crisply and these met the mark. The hushpuppies had a lot of corn meal in them and not too much taste, but they were eaten. The onion rings were “the bomb.” (That’s good!)

I could go on and on about how much food there was at our table – so much so that our friends took one of the steamed platters home and made shrimp Florentine with grits the next day for lunch.

When I was in college, we had an offering in the cafeteria for “shrimp mates” – we always asked if these were the friends of shrimp or what was left in the net after the shrimp were picked out. You may wonder before you go the Boiling Pot if this is the case. No. It is fresh, large and good eating.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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