Wilma?s of Fayetteville Garners 4.5 stars (Food Review)

Wilma’s

481 S. School Ave.

Fayetteville

479-521-6968

4.5 Forks

Cuisine: Southern

Noise level: Low

Overall Ambiance: Casual

Price Range: $7-$12

Open Since: May

You need to slow down.

Not forever, but for a day. A day when you can turn off the BlackBerry — or just leave it in the car — and enjoy an opportunity unavailable in most parts of the world: eating the best southern food available to mortals.

Such fare does not come from the fast food fryers or the fast casual diners. In fact, you can’t get it fast. It comes from the kitchen at Wilma’s in Fayetteville, and it’s going to take a little bit. Not too long, but longer than the 1.2 seconds it takes to get your usual soup-n-sandwich combo.

So don’t go to Wilma’s on a day when time matters. But do go.

Order the fried chicken ($8-$10). It will take about 20 or 25 minutes, and it will be the best fried chicken you’ve ever had. It’s cooked in cast iron skillets, and Wilma makes each piece fresh to order, hence the wait. The crust is firm, trapping the grease until the moment your teeth free it to run across your tongue like a river of deliciousness.

The macaroni and cheese is sublime. The green beans are cooked with enough ham hocks to fill the trunk of a Lincoln Continental. The collard greens are why God invented taste buds. The fried okra will remind you that some things are more important than margins and dividends.

Then there’s the catfish ($10). It doesn’t come with a lemon, and doesn’t need one. The crust is dry and will leave corn meal crumbles on your fingers. It is perfect catfish crust.

The fish itself is flaky, moist and tender, with none of that fishy, “I’m-eating-something-that-thrives-at-the-bottom-of-the-river” flavor that lesser catfish has.

One of our reviewers had the pork chop ($8), which he succinctly dubbed as “awesome.”

Wilma will come around to your table to make sure everything is delicious.

If for some reason it’s not, well, Wilma promises to make good.