CHEAP EATS

Stevie’s serves good food with solid service

The catfish dinner with fried okra and fries at Stevie's Fish and Chicken restaurant, 1719 Arkansas Highway 161.
The catfish dinner with fried okra and fries at Stevie's Fish and Chicken restaurant, 1719 Arkansas Highway 161.

— Prothro Junction is one of those areas of North Little Rock that many people only see on their way to somewhere else along Interstate 40.

I’ve been one of those drive-by folks over the 21 years I’ve worked downtown, and I remember back when Mexico Chiquito was on Arkansas 161. It was a small, fast-food-style restaurant that has also been home to at least four or five other restaurants since Mexico Chiquito closed. Now the building is home to Stevie’s Fish and Chicken, a friendly establishment that offers good food and solid service.

I recently visited Stevie’s with my son and nephew in hopes of scoring some great wings and catfish.

The parking area was relatively empty as we got there before 4 p.m. The heavy carved-wood entry doors are left from the Mexico Chiquito days, as is some of the interior tiling. There are only tables in the dining room as the booths are gone.

A menu board hangs over the counter where diners place orders. There was no question that we’d order wings, since my son is a wing freak. Stevie’s offers a varietyof flavors that include Hot, BBQ , Honey Mustard and Lemon Pepper in orders that range from six for $4.50 to 50 for $29. You can mix flavors in one order so we went with 20 ($12) in Hot and Lemon Pepper.

There are several options for catfish too, ranging from a small basket for $6.99 to a large dinner for $9.99. The dinners come with two sides and a couple of slices of bread, and the sides include french fries, slaw, onion rings, corn on the cob, baked beans, potato salad, hush puppies and fried okra. I ordered the large fish dinner with baked beans and hush puppies, although I thought a catfish dinner should come with hush puppies as a rule, not as a side.

Our food arrived in about 10 minutes. You could tell the wings and fish were fresh out of the fryer as they were almost too hot to touch, but it didn’t stop us. The hot wings were basic Buffalo-style, not as hot as expected. But the real stars were the lemon pepper wings. They had a delicious fresh lemon taste that I’ve never found anywhere else. Both flavors got two thumbs up from Sonny Boy.

The catfish dinner had five large pieces of fish that wereso much more than the sad little strips you get at some restaurants. I ate two pieces and my nephew ate the other three, and it was plenty.

The fish was crisp on the outside and flaky on the inside, with no hint of a muddy taste. The baked beans hada slight sweet taste and the hush puppies were a bit disappointing - a bit gummy and undercooked. They were eaten nonetheless.

My son and I made a second visit a week later, and wound up getting there about the same time as on our firstvisit, which does help dodge some of the rush-hour traffic. There was one small group of diners ahead of us, but it didn’t take long to place our order to go.

On our first visit we’d been intrigued by a menu item named Jim’s Ro-Tel Fries ($3.99), which are basically french fries covered in a spicy cheese dip. We ordered that along with a fried pork chop dinner ($8.50) that came with two chops and two sides, and an order of 10 wings ($7) in honey mustard and lemon pepper flavors.

After our 20-minute drive home, we unwrapped the dishes and divvied everything up except for the fries, which we sort of hunkered over to keep from dripping the dip everywhere. The cheese dip was good and the fry/cheese dip combination was delicious, but I would say that they might want to consider using a milder diced tomato product because, as is, it’s extremely spicy. It even scorched the mouth of my spice-loving son.

We’d ordered fried okra and slaw with the pork chops, which were fried crisp in a nicely seasoned batter. They were bone in and, thankfully, not extremely fatty. The bitesize chunks of cornmeal-covered okra were crisp and delicious, and the coleslaw, which didn’t seem homemade, had a nice creamy consistency and a hint of sweetness.

The lemon pepper wings were as delicious as we remembered, and the honey mustard sauce on the others had a bold flavor that was well balanced, so the mustard didn’t overwhelm the hint of honey.

Stevie’s also offers burgers for $3.50 ($4.50 with fries), a selection of fish, pork chop and chicken combo meals ($8.99 to $11.99), and daily lunch specials ($5). There’s a small selection of desserts, like bakery-style cakes that are cut and wrapped in single servings.

Stevie’s Fish and Chicken Address: 1719 Arkansas 161, North Little Rock Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; 11 a.m. -6 p.m.Wednesday;

11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday Cuisine: Catfish, wings, pork chops Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V Alcoholic beverages: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 945-2211

Weekend, Pages 37 on 09/22/2011

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