East County Times Dining Guide

Catches Restaurant, located at 9727 Pulaski Highway in White Marsh, is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. - 2 a.m.

 

 

Article & phot by Ben Boehl

My wife and I had the pleasure of eating dinner at Catches Restaurant and Crab House, located at 9727 Pulaski Highway in White Marsh. Catches has been in business for two years and serves all kinds of food. Tommy Dellis is operator and owner of the business. Dellis has been in the restaurant business his whole life and takes credit, and even blame, for his menu. I take responsibility for everything. If you dont like anything, blame me. I make all the food; I take responsibility and dont blame anyone else, he said. There is no such thing as a bad employee, its bad management. Dellis said he strives for three things: good food, good service and a clean restaurant. Its an obsession. I want everyone to like what they are eating, I care about how they were served and we have the cleanest restaurant in town, Dellis said. This is a passion. I love what I do. Love the atmosphere and the people. For starters, we ordered the original crab pretzel, which is a steaming hot soft pretzel covered in Catches favorite crab dip and baked with a blend of cheeses. The crab pretzel was delicious. The crab pretzel originated from the Dungeness Crab out of the northwest. I decided to replace it with Maryland Crab meat and see how it turned out, Dellis explained. Im not a cook, Im a artist. Next we tried a salad, served with his special Yiasou dressing. Yiasou means hello and goodbye in Greek, but the dressing was very good. It tasted like Italian dressing, but was lighter on the stomach. We also tried some of Catches homemade bread sticks, which were fresh and tasty. For our main course, we ordered a crab cake, which was a huge portion. Dellis said his restaurant gives out big portions because there is no such thing as a customer saying a small portion was good no matter how tasty it was. People only remember the size of the meal. Catches has a wide variety of food, including steaks, seafood, pasta, side dishes, etc. All the food on the menu is good. It doesnt matter what you choose, Dellis pointed out. Catches also has a special for two homemade meals, salad and breadsticks for $20 from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Catches invites the public to try their new crab house and the restaurant is now serving crabs. Catches also has good customer satisfaction, as Dellis said 90 percent of his customers are repeated customers and the other 10 percent are out-of-towners that are passing through the area. Dellis said that if a customer truly doesnt like the food, he wouldnt charge that person. Now he warns that a person cant eat 75 percent of the meal and claim they dont like it. Our policy is if you dont like the food after a few bites, you dont have to buy it, he said. Dellis said that many Ravens players also have stopped in for a meal, including Joe Flacco, Ray Lewis and Troy Smith. If you are looking for entertainment, Catches has plenty as they have karaoke, trivia and live bands on the weekends. If food and entertainment was a religion, Catches would be a cathedral, Dellis said with a smile.