Aunt Catfish's, Port Orange

I started my road trip eight days ago at this seafood restaurant on Halifax Dr (really at the bridge off US1 and exit 256 I think). It was unsurprisingly underwhelming. I had a lunch combo for $9 and a salt and pepper shark basket for $9. I chose a soup (mix of clam and fish chowder they call flowder or something like that) and a half shrimp blt wrap for the combo. The soup was good. Only a small cup though. The blt was ok. 4 shrimp. Little to no bacon. The shark (though plentiful) was dry on dry. Dry shark made drier through the seasoning and breading. It was fried nuggets. It came with limp, greasy fries. Both meals came with a hush puppy and that gives me an excuse to tell you that P. Alllen Smith says hush puppies are so named because people used to take their leftover batter and toss it in the grease and give it to their hungry dogs. Both dishes also came with a terrible cinnamon roll. They tasted like a paper wrapper was baked in. There was also some cole slaw in the mix of one of the meals. The lunch combo I had was only one of the variations you could order. Most of the pricing on the exhaustive menu was out of whack, but, not unusual for these tourist traps. My meals were some of the cheapest. The place is on the intercoastal. It seats 100+. It is mostly all enclosed. They have a little "playground" area. The interior is dated. Service was slow. They charged $3 for a soda in a mason jar filled with ice that tasted of dish soap. No refill was offered until the check came (first time I had a chance to complain). When I stated my displeasure with the soapy taste, they could have deducted the cost of the barely touched soda. they didn't. And that, in a nutshell, is what this place is all about. It's a meat grinder. They obviously do enough business and the clientele is so undemanding that they have a take it or leave it ethos. I experienced nothing to recommend it to you.