I tried frog legs, catfish and gator tail at Cracklin’ Jack’s in Florida

Cracklin’ Jack’s slogan is “A taste of the Everglade’s,” and that is exactly what I got when I visited this local restaurant in Naples, Florida. This restaurant is frequented by locals and snowbirds alike who can’t get enough of Jack’s delicious fried chicken.

However, that is not what I went there for. I went to try the fried frog legs, gator tail and catfish.

Pulling up to Jack’s, I felt better about my adventurous decision to try some Everglade’s cuisine. From the outside, Jack’s looks like any old Florida restaurant that serves a great rack of ribs and friendly service. At the entrance, there is a wood slab that states “we smoke the competition,” and I was ready to find that out.

Jack’s is lined with hand-painted wooden planks with pictures of trout and grouper. It was quaint and did not have much else going on. We were given a basket of biscuits and cornbread while we looked over our menus. Jack’s serves standard Southern items like ribs and fried chicken, and seafood options like shrimp and Mahi. They even offer the option to choose “Your Catch” and you can bring in a fish you’ve caught and filleted, and they cook and serve it along with their “vittles.” The vittle items are mashed potatoes, gravy and greens, but seriously, what the heck is a vittle?

We were given a huge Southern spread, and I was not sure how we were going to eat all of it. The white beans were delicious and the biscuits were amazing. We were finally ready to order the main dish. We picked the “Bayou Platter” which came with catfish, gator tail and frog legs.

After our platter was served, we tried the gator tail first. Surprisingly, the gator tail was pretty tasty. However, if you fry anything, it can taste well. The meat was slightly chewy, which was a little unsettling. Also, it tasted nothing like fried chicken.

We tried the catfish next, which was actually my least favorite. The catfish they serve is a freshwater variety, but I don’t know what that does to the flavor. It wasn’t offensively fishy, but it didn’t taste like mahi-mahi.

Now, we tried the frog legs. There is something unnerving about eating food that still looks like it did when it was alive. Seeing the bottom half of a frog sprawled out on a serving platter left me feeling uneasy. While I was pulling the meat apart, my hands were shaky and my stomach was churning. They tasted fine…even if I drowned them in a delicious honey mustard sauce.

We ended dinner with some refreshing key lime pie and headed home. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed dinner. I am willing to try gator tail and frog in the future. The phrase “do it for The Tab” has definitely popped up in my vocabulary when trying new things this summer.

I even brought home leftovers to make my family try some.