Cindy Kays Kitchen

This is a family member's restaurant so I post that up front and won't give opinions just facts in this first part. They are open 11 to about 1:30 Sunday-Friday serving home style lunch buffet and dinner on Friday and Saturday nights with made to order rib eye steak or all you can eat seafood buffet.  Cindy Kay's peels potatoes every day for their mashed potatoes and potato salad. She makes her own tarter sauce, hush puppies and cole slaw. It is a buffet style restaurant where you can pick an entree and three sides during lunch. Drinks and dessert is included in the buffet price. They do not often have the barbecue mentioned in the review below. The entree options always include fried catfish, fried chicken and some homemade meat dish. Sundays are predictable with pork loin, fried fish and chicken. The catfish is from a nearby catfish plant, Heartland Catfish, not some unknown Chinese distributor. The sides usually include some type of bean, a casserole, and local sweet potatoes. A lot of people just get a vegetable plate.  Often they have grilled fish and chicken during weekday lunches but you may have to ask for it if you don't see it since it sells out fast. You enter and go straight to the buffet then seat yourself,
and pay at the register on the way out the door.

I personally wish she would make home style fries. Her restaurant fries are the worst I have ever had and I have told her so! If you see an 85 lb lady running around waiting tables, that is Cindy Kay. She loves meeting her customers so stop her and tell her where you are from.

While visiting my family, I was lucky enough to stumble upon Cindy Kays! I come from Southern California, and I have spent years looking for good bbq with absolutely no luck. Guess I was just living in the wrong state!

It's line style service with your choice of meats, sides, and breads. There is a sideboard of desserts, which I didn't sample, but was warned that they sell out really early. There is a large roomful of picnic/family style tables, and the whole place is decorated with really neat old pictures of the Parish.

I went with the pulled pork, green beans, and potato salad. O...M....Goodness!!! The pulled pork was incredible, succulent and tender, velvety in the mouth, with perfect seasoning. Now don't think that since I'm from SoCali that I don't know me some bbq, like I said I was visiting family, I have been raised on the best of Southern cooking. This was incredible!!!
The green beans were flavorful and tender, but still with a snap, which is harder to exicute then it seems. The potato salad..... OMGoodness again!!! It was a light yet filling mashed potato salad that makes my mouth all watery right now just writing about it. I hate to say it, but it's way better then my own!!!!

So if you live in Oak Grove or the area you probably already know about it, and are probably a fan. If you don't live there, I highly recommend making a trip. It is worth it! I would fly back right now to get some of that pulled pork if I could :)