Clifty Falls Restaurant | Genuine Kentucky

Big beautiful fried catfish sandwich at Clifty Falls Restaurant (Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park)

Kitchen Elves. That’s what I’ve come up with. Before you call me a tree nut, let’s look at the facts.

We all know that even the most amazing restaurants in the world have off nights or days.
It’s a given that all restaurants (even the best of the best) have at least one thing on the menu that leaves something to be desired. Hard bread, consistently overcooked house chips, freaky little hush puppies, yellow/floppy catfish, or mushy beans – they have that one thing that, when the server asks if she can bring you some, you’re like, “What in the world did I ever do to you?!“
The phrase “only human” is used interchangeably in our world to remind ourselves and others that no one… or human… is perfect. And they aren’t.

But elves are.

We visit Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park regularly. Michael loves their golf course (especially the newer “back nine”), the amateur photographer in me loves every inch of the place, and we both love the Clifty Falls Restaurant in their beautiful and cozy lodge.

There are some restaurants (including the ones in the Kentucky State Park System) where you know it’s either “safe” or “risky” to eat off the buffet. It’s either “safe” or “risky” to eat off the menu, and it’s either “safe” or “risky” to eat at a particular time of day.

At Clifty Falls, you’re as safe as a baby in its overprotective mother’s arms either way you choose to go, any time you choose to go. Even their salad bar is better than most. The real clincher? Their dressings are good. It’s really hard to get good French dressing at salad bars. It’s usually pumpkin orange and thisclose to disgusting. The dressing available at Clifty Falls is fantastic. Their salad bar vegetables are always especially bright, colorful, and obviously as fresh as fresh gets. They also give you more options than a lot of places. More options. Better options. Even their French dressing is delicious.

Elves.

Wonderful Soup and Salad Bar at Pennyrile’s Clifty Falls Restaurant: Delicious and Extremely Inexpensive

When we come off the golf course, we’re exhausted from an afternoon in the sun. Well, he’s exhausted – riding, sipping tea and taking pictures isn’t too taxing, so I’ve never been exhausted… I just act like I am. The Soup and Salad bar is usually the way we go if it’s around lunch time. HOWEVER, I do often order a fried catfish sandwich with the salad bar simply because I believe this is the best fried catfish sandwich you can get anywhere. That’s right – ANYWHERE.

Whatever the secrets are to making fried catfish deliciously perfect, Clifty Falls knows each one by heart. In fact, I suspect they wrote the secret manual.

If only every other restaurant would read it!

Take a look at the picture at the top. See the big, beautiful piece of fried catfish? There’s more flavor in their fried catfish than I could describe to you if I were to stay at this keyboard for 22 hours straight. And it’s so big! Each and every time, I’m blown away by the size of their catfish fillets. A lot of places – when making a fried catfish sandwich – only do it halfheartedly. They seem to think, “Pfft, it’s just a sandwich. We’ll just throw on one of our puniest pieces of catfish and… whatever we do… let’s not cook it well. Let’s make it mushy. Yeah, that’s the way to go.”

Then they’ll throw the poor mushy little guy on a couple of pieces of hard, stale bread, throw a single wilted little sliver of what used to be lettuce on it and send it out and think, “Job well done.”

This might be a good time to point out that I am not affiliated with Pennyrile Forest State Park in any way at all. I’ve never met their kitchen elves and am not related to any of them. If you don’t believe me, check my ears. Why do I serve up this little disclaimer? Because an already raving review is about to hit its raving peak and I want you to know it all comes from an unbiased heart.

Each time I’ve eaten at Pennyrile State Park’s Clifty Falls restaurant, I’ve gotten the same impression: Everything they make (from fried cornbread to desserts and everything in between) seems to be done just as they would prepare it for their own family. As a wife and mother, I KNOW all the special care that goes into cooking for your family. I always want everything to be as perfect for them as the love I have for them is. I go out of my way to make sure everything is as beautiful and delicious as it possibly can be because, when I’m baking or cooking – this cast of characters isn’t in the back of my mind – they’re in the front of my mind.

Each time I’ve eaten at Clifty Falls, I’ve gotten the same impression. They seem to approach their cooking and baking the same way. Everything tastes as though they were making it for their own spouses, daughters, sons, moms, dads, aunts, uncles… You can taste it in every bite.

If you’re thinking that this is kind of a rare thing, you’re exactly right. It’s very rare.

Like elves.

Restaurant Hours

Continental Breakfast – 7:00am to 10:00am
Lunch – 11:00am to 3:00pm
Dinner – 4:00pm to 8:00pm (Sunday thru Thursday)
Dinner – 4:00pm to 9:00pm (Friday and Saturday)

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