Catfish Dewey’s has been drawing crowds since 1984 when Dewey Culbreth Sr. took over a country music lounge and turned it into South Florida’s one and only catfish mecca. Its popularity is partly because of the way the rustic wood chairs and red checked tablecloths make up the hoe-down-comfy ambience, and partly because the ghost of old-time Florida permeates the air. Of course it could be the oversize seahorse chandelier, the mounted 5-foot channel catfish, or the necklace-draped stuffed hammerhead shark that occupies center stage of this 250-seat restaurant.

It’s so overrun with regulars clamoring for the kitchen’s way with seafood, (the real reason for the crowds), I often wonder how tourists ever manage to get a table. It’s no wonder the restaurant’s bean counters tally up mind-boggling annual figures: 150,000 pounds of catfish, 5,000 pounds of frog legs, 60,000 pounds of shrimp and 1,000 pounds of stone crabs each week during season — assuming it’s a good stone season.

More culinary tonnage is racked up with crawfish, scallops, oysters, clams and snow crabs, along with untold slabs of baby backs and steaks, not to mention the lineup of fryers it must take to keep hot oil constantly bubbling for hush puppies, beer-battered onion rings, conch fritters and Southern fried pickles — a unique delicacy served with Thousand Island dressing that starts with thinly sliced dills dipped into a tempura-like batter. They’re fried crunchy, each slice miraculously remaining an individual little, crisp piquant package. Having overindulged a time or two, every basketful at $4.95 should come with a “you’ll-never-eat-just-one” warning.

Tender, perfectly steamed clams are what South Floridians have come to expect at $5.95 per dozen, and the kitchen delivers on the money every time. Ditto on frog legs ($6.95 per half pound). They’re small (not too), but pudgy with soft moist sweet meat. Sometimes I have them simply sauteed in light butter sauce sprinkled with fresh parsley or blackened in pleasantly hot spices. I prefer lobster bisque ($4.95) with minced lobster and a rich texture that melts on the tongue like butter on a hot roll, rather than the shrimp gumbo ($4.95). The gumbo is good — hearty, dotted with corn, meat and aromatic veggies, just not as rich as some. And be sure to try the virtually grease-free island style conch fritters ($4.95) — they’re flat like you find them in the Caribbean.

The house specialty is, of course, catfish. It’s U.S. farm-raised and all you can eat (whole dressed or boneless fillets), and all the kitchen can fry every night for $12.95. Like all dinners it comes with choice of potato, salad or an overflowing bowl of crunchy, fresh house-made slaw and little cornmeal-onion nuggets of perfectly fried hushpuppies. Rather have it grilled? Try the four 4-ounce grilled catfish fillets smothered in grilled crabmeat for $15.95. If catfish isn’t your thing, (it will be when you taste it here), nearly every day offers some kind of all-you-can-eat specialty. The fried oysters ($13.95; $14.95 on all you can eat Saturdays) are remarkably good, each plump and separate from the others. (It’s not easy to fry oysters without them sticking together).

Generous portions delivered by a sure-footed congenial wait staff are highlights of this landmark restaurant. A heavy hand doles out 3 full pounds of beautifully steamed ‘Nawlins-style spicy “mudbugs” (crawfish) at $13.95 (all you can eat on Saturdays, $14.95). And, 2/3 of a pound of jumbo shrimp goes into shrimp scampi in garlic-wine-butter sauce over pasta ($13.95). You can bolster meals with a nice selection of sides, including creamy grits ($1), a very Southern accompaniment to fish.

Please phone in advance to confirm information on hours, prices, menu items and facilities. For review consideration, please fax a current menu that includes name and address of restaurant to 954-356-4386 or send to Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-2293.

If you would like to contact dining correspondent Judith Stocks, e-mail her at judithstocksreviews@yahoo .com or write to her in care of the Sun-Sentinel.

3 1/2 STARS (out of four)

Cuisine: seafood

4003 N. Andrews Ave., Oakland Park

954-566-5333

catfishdeweys.com

Cost: moderate

Credit cards: all major

Hours: lunch Monday-Saturday, dinner nightly

Reservations: accepted for 10 or more

Bar: full service

Sound level: moderate, but level raises during live country music the first Sunday of each month

Smoking: prohibited

Children’s facilities: boosters, high chairs

Wheelchair accessible: yes