Educating Noeha Part 3

The journey continues ...

I had to do my F.I. Thursday on Friday since Noeha and Tara both had dates. How mean of them to put their dating lives before our F.I. Thursday night! Oh, I had a date too. :)

For F.I. Friday we tried two new places: Top Cat and Fuse.


Top Cat
5444 Lemmon Ave
Dallas, TX 75209
Phone: 214-522-1750

No, this is not the kind of place Noeha will be having power lunches with the Ritz crowd. But, I was curious to try it since I had tried the owner's upscale place, The Catalina Room. Top Cat reminds me of every place my family and I would stop at coming home from the beach (when we lived in Alabama). Its a fish fry. Your meal will come in a plastic basket with one piece of wax paper at the bottom.


Galina and Noeha @ Top Cat

Atmosphere
Think 50's Diner. Very low maintenance, order at the counter and take up roost in one of the high bar stools at one of the few high round tables. The crowd here is scruffy; they are definitely not here to impress you nor will they be impressed by you. They are here for one thing, inexpensive fried seafood.

If you saw the Will and Grace episode when Karen takes Grace to 'Taco Time' to watch Joan Collins stuff greasy tacos into that Kabuki mask of a face, then you have seen Top Cat.

The Drink
Who the hell are you coming up in here and trying to order a diet Coke? Or at least that is what the girl looked like she was saying when she smiled at me after I asked for one. Top Cat has one diet drink, Diet Dr. Pepper, gross. All the other options are fully sugared.

The Plate
I love fried fish, its a product of being raised partially in the South. Top Cat has fried seafood and that is about all they have. So pick your item of fry: Catfish, Oysters, Shrimp, Frog Legs, etc. They come in sizes: 1-piece basket, 2-piece basket and so on. All of the baskets will come with hush puppies and fries. We chose the 2-piece Catfish Basket. Yum eeee! Top Cat does catfish in a modified southern style; it is cornmeal coated and fried. I say modified southern since in order to be truly southern, they would have to fry everything in bacon grease, which they didn't.

The fries were not anything special and the hushpuppies were a little on the soft side. I like my hushpuppies crunchy but that is a personal choice.

Service
Order at the counter, pickup at the counter. Service is as good as you want it to be :)

Price
Everything is under $10, except the family sized baskets.

Location
Lemmon Ave, closer to Inwood. Its next to the big ass pawn shop. Irony :)

Top Cat
Dallas