For Melanie Allen, owner of Catfish Willy’s in Missouri City, the success of her restaurant can be attributed to two guiding principles: quality and simplicity.

“I like to keep it simple because it makes everything easier and you can be more consistent that way,” she said. “I want to have good quality food but also keep it simple.”

Allen said she has been guided by those principles since she opened her restaurant in 2001.

“I wanted to bring something to the community where people could stay in town and get quality food,” she said. “There was nothing in this area so I opened something small and simple.”

Opening a restaurant, however, was not something Allen had always planned on. Allen graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor’s degree in communications. After college, Allen worked for Memorial Hermann for five years before deciding she wanted to pursue a passion she had since she was young.

“I have always loved to cook. [It’s a passion] I developed at a very young age when I was about 4,” Allen said.

Driven by her love of food and cooking, Allen enrolled in the culinary arts program at San Jacinto College. Allen said she wanted to learn tricks of the trade as well as gain background knowledge about the restaurant industry.

The menu at Catfish Willy’s, which has not changed since it opened, boasts a Cajun-style cuisine that includes fried catfish, fried shrimp, gumbo and other fried seafood items. Allen said all the restaurant’s food is made from scratch and served with genuine Southern hospitality. The restaurant offers dine-in and takeout services as well as private catering and on-site cooking with its mobile food truck.

In recent years, traffic at the restaurant has slowed down, which Allen attributes to a number of reasons, but mainly the restaurant’s location. 

“People might see the name of our restaurant, but if no one tells them anything about it, they will just keep driving by,” she said. “But once someone decides to venture into this parking lot and eat here, they keep coming back.”

Allen said once her daughter graduates from high school, she will decide whether to move to a new location or turn her restaurant into a full-time catering service.

“I want to be where there is more traffic because I think the restaurant will benefit from a better location with more visibility,” she said.