Pap's Place

Just about the only place to eat in Ackerman

Man......my son went to college in Starkville...Mississippi Sate.  When we would come to visit & we'd pile his PGM buds in our van & head to Pap's.

One of the guy's, (Bretsky), would wear his sweat pants because he would be soooo stuffed on banana puddin'......then he'd have to lay in the back of his buddy's pick-up all the way back to Starkville because he couldn't sit up straight......just miserable!   Ya see, Bretsky had NEVER eaten Banana Puddin' before...... 'till we introduced him to Pap's.  

You go to Pap's & just like the little old lady says,....it's like " eatin' off the trough" ! !   Just good ole country cookin' at its VERY BEST !!  My son still cherishes his Pap's Place t-shirt from the old college days! ! !  The Pap's Place Commercial is on You Tube....you might get a kick out of it !

Good Times!

Around 1999 or so, during my time in Starkville, I saw a local commercial for a restaurant in Ackerman called "Pap's Place". It featured an adorable li'l old lady screaming at the top of her lungs about having "THE BEST DOGGONE MISSISSIPPI FARM RAISED CATFISH AND A DESSERT BAR AND A SALAD BAR" as well as her proclamation that Pap's Place "WON'T TRY TO ROB YOU, HONEY! WE'RE JUST HERE TO FILL YOUR BELLY!"

Belly-filling? Absolutely true. Won't rob you? False. They robbed me, alright. They stole my heart.

Pap's was on my short list of places to visit when I went back home in mid-June. And now that I'm a Yelper, I figured they deserve a review. To simply describe Pap's, it's a typical Southern fish-and-steak house, one that's only open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. You can certainly order off the menu, but the star of the show is the all-you-can-eat buffet. "Eatin' off the trough", as the aforementioned li'l old lady called it during one visit. On the "trough" is a collection of every kind of Southern-perfected food you can imagine.

It is true that their catfish is sheer perfection. As is most everything on the bar. The ribs aren't to my specific liking, but people seem to like them well enough. The macaroni and cheese is ridiculously good. They even have chicken livers that, while sometimes too greasy to justify eating, still find their way to my plate on each visit because they're too good to pass up. The dessert bar is filled with classics, such as peach cobbler and sugar-coma-inducing caramel cake, as well as pineapple cheesecake and chocolate Oreo pudding.

The decor is full of Southern charm, and by that, I mean scads of Elvis memorabilia. During Christmas, they have an animatronic Santa that sings "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" every time the door opens in a voice so creepy it defies description. It's amusing at first, infuriating the 15th time, and re-hilarious around the 50th time.

You may think some parts of this review are tongue-in-cheek knocks on the place, but don't make that mistake: Everything adds up to a unique and fantastic dining experience. If you haven't been here, GO! If you have, then go again!