Ocoee Dam Deli

Most of the food is really good but not the chicken really dry. But great burgers and fish. The prices are a little to high but the wait staff is great.

Great food! Good service! Been going here for 7 years. Enjoy it every time. Great owners who care about your experience and make it right.

great place to eat. Dam food and great atmosphere. very friendly staff. it’s funny to go in and see dam on everything and not be cursing. it is a fun place with good food and lots of pictures from the river of people enjoying the Rapids.

I’ve eaten at the Dam Deli dozens of times during lunch but this is the first time I’ve gone for dinner on a Saturday night. The food was great with the exception of some cold sides. I ordered the chicken fried chicken. The biggest issue was the service. The staff seemed overwhelmed and our food took over 45 minutes. I don’t know if it was the waitress not putting in our order or the kitchen completing tickets out of order but we received our food after three other tables who were sat well after us received their food. Even at that, I never have an issue waiting but the waitress should update the table if it is taking longer than expected. This gives the table the reassurance that they were not forgotten about and resets the expectation on when your food will be ready. Oh, and we took our family who was visiting from out of state.

Great location near all the major rafting outfits, so we decided to stop in over Memorial Day weekend for breakfast. Wasn’t the quickest meal I’ve had but good food. I would def return for breakfast next time I camp in the area.

For a place to grab a bite after rafting, this place is fine. It did not live up to the rave reviews we heard from the raft folks, but the meal was enjoyable. Service was good, and the place certainly has a unique look and feel that made it fun.
I’d go back if I am back in the area.

Went there today for my first ride of the season. I’m writing an update because of on thing and that’s the service. The place makes great food because I asked others what they thought of their meals as I was sitting waiting for mine.
I have a thing for well done fries, I want them crunchy as all hell. My server today was Beth and I could hear her before she brought them out to me asking the cook to fry them some more. That made my day. It’s the little things that matter.

Great location for those coming out of the mountains or Parksville lake. Right on hwy 64 near Ocoee River bridge.
This place has the look and feel for this area and very popular for those living near it. For this trip I had the Dam large BBQ, bacon, pineapple burger and it will go down as one of my Dam favorites. The place has a lot of history on the walls for décor. The fact that this Dam deli is near multiple dams on the Ocoee a River is just icing on the burger.
Great Sweet tea, great service and so many sandwiches to choose from makes it hard to make a dam decision. Decide for yourself when you give it s try.

If you’re looking for a very good meal on a Friday evening. The Ocoee Dam Deli has all you can eat catfish that is hard to beat. The fish is battered in cornmeal and fried to golden perfection. Each basket comes with three filets and hush puppies. Whatever you do, don’t pass up the sweet and delicious hush puppies. If ask for honey and butter for the hush puppies, there is a good chance that you will munch on those all evening.

They have a wait on the weekends but it’s worth it.
My date and I got their sandwiches. We where not disappointed and their fries are awesome. The staff is friendly and we got to watch videos of folks making bloopers on the Ocoee on TV’s. We did our first rafting trip on this side of town and had to stop and eat since rafting makes you famished. I plan to come back more often and this place will be on the list of things to make a tradation.

Sweet server. The food took forever to come out. My catfish was good but my two sides were cold and my roll a little hard. The sides were good, just cold. My wife got the black bean burger and said it was good but her fries were cold. Another in our party had cold fries as well. All of our food must have been ready well before my daughters because her pasta was the only hot item on the entire table.
Good food but I wouldn’t rush back. Also disappointed that the website advertised live music starting at 7pm on Saturdays but there was none.

My niece who is a river guide brought me here before going on a run on the middle. The service was fantastic. We had egg sandwiches. The eggs were perfectly cooked. The runny egg with the sausage on fluffy biscuits. Along with coffee that tasted like coffee. That egg though the yolk was the color you only see on truly farm fresh. Great way to start the day.

Great after-​rafting joint. Good food, and good service. Been there twice and will be back.

Great find, thanks Unilocalers!
Always on the look out for a place that serves good food that a vegan or vegetarian can eat. I think the Dam Deli would be good for even regular food, but the fact that they have some veggie options is even better.
We arrived on a Sunday about 3:00pm, so not too crowded. Seated right away. Sort of country kitsch inside… but cute and clean. Servers were very friendly.
Started with the fried green tomatoes and without the ranch dressing. They are happy to substitute other salad dressings or BBQ sauce. We ended up using the Chalula hot sauce as our vegan option. The fried green tomatoes were mostly very good. One was not cooked all the way, but otherwise they were flavorful.
I ordered the black bean burger with no cheese or mayo. I asked for mustard. It was probably the best black bean burger I have had. Well cooked, crispy on the outside of the burger. I got regular fries with it and they were fine.
Wife ordered the veggie wrap, hold the cheese. This was very good. Black bean crumbles and all sorts of veggies inside. The side dish of the day was white beans, which if you added some seasoning were good, otherwise they were bland. But salt, pepper, and a dash of the hot sauce and I was happy.
Oh… the sweet tea. Indeed some of the best sweet tea ever… not to sweet, the taste of the tea comes across very well.
Read the back of the menu, it is interesting. I appreciate the frankness of the owner.
Loved seeing the chickens there!

I must say that this is much better than we expected when we sat down for lunch. Our waiter was friendly and helpful with the menu. We started with the Fried Green Tomatoes. These were hot out of the fryer and although fresh did not have a lot of taste. We were hungry so at that moment they hit the spot. For entrees we had the Black Bean Burger (delicious!) and the Reuben. Both were excellent. For sides we both tried the sweet potato fries and, as advertised, by other diners they were very tasty. I would tell them to hold off on the cinnamon sugar if I had them again. I definitely would stop in again for a meal if we were passing through town.

This was a great weekend for first times for me and my wife. Friday after work we went camping at Adventures Unlimited with a plan to see Milele Roots play Dumpys (another great spot in Ocoee). Because it was a quick overnight trip we went with a minimalist setup and had no plans to make any food and so with the prospect of a long night ahead and no way to cook food it was off to try the Ocoee Dam Deli.
The building sits on the highway and is a long rectangular building. You walk into to a long thin horizontal room with a hostess station, some seats for diners to wait and two small bathrooms at the far end. The dining areas is nice with some booths and regular tables and is definitely family friendly. It is also has pretty much every square inch of wall space decorated with artifacts that help define the area and old black and white photos from 1800’s and up (think mining and rafting and hunting and farming). It was definitely not an after thought and gave us something to do while waiting for our dinner.
If you know me you realize I am a bit wheat intolerant but I can generally get away with eating flour once a week. Having craved a Reuben sandwich for a week and the deli conveniently having a Reuben sandwich on menu that is what I ordered. My wife order a hamburger steak with pickled beets, black eyed peas and a side of bleu cheese dressing. The place was slammed, most likely because it was Friday night and because it was all you can eat fried catfish night. The other diners seemed to relish the catfish and if I wasn’t craving a Reuben so bad I may have considered it especially given how good it smelled.
After a bit of a wait which wasn’t unreasonable and wouldn’t have exasperated the patience of my kids had they been with us our food arrived. I was delighted. The pastrami on my sandwich had been seared on the flat top and not microwaved. Also the rye bread had been buttered and toasted on the flat top as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a Reuben and the bread was dry and may have been in a toaster for a moment and the pastrami was microwaved and it was just a soggy uninspired mess accentuated with a wad of cold sour kraut. My side was coleslaw (I passed on the house made potato chips) which was much like coleslaw I’ve eaten at a thousand restaurants. But again the Reuben was a winner.
My wife’s hamburger steak was well cooked and well seasoned. It wasn’t remarkable but it was after all a simple hamburger steak. The beets were what you would expect and the black eyed peas were like we like them: soaked and then cooked to death southern style. Those are all the good things. You might have some people complain that the bleu cheese dressing wasn’t house made or that the pastrami was most likely boars head or that the provolone was a bit mild and a bit square shaped but all those things being said you have to keep in mind that you are at least 30 – 45 minutes away from any comparable restaurant. And, with such a reasonably priced menu in such a tidy and clean restaurant I can’t help but give them four stars.
I’d consider giving them five if they added beer and wine to the menu (most likely won’t happen because of the convictions of the proprietors and I can appreciate that) and if they changed a few things like making their own salad dressings, etc. But again, they do try to source produce locally and our food was really good. I know I couldn’t run a restaurant that did so many things so well. I can also see how the wait times build up as we came at the start of the rafting/​camping season and when we left there was a substantive crowd waiting for a seat. I can honestly say though I’ll definitely make a point to eat at the Deli next time through Ocoee.

The Dam Deli never lets you down, the food continues to improve and the seating has greatly increased, which greatly helps during the rafting season, waits can get pretty crazy. Don’t be scared of the breakfast, it’s a great way to start a day at the river!

Chicken Parmesan. Order it!
Yes, the service may get slow at times, but the staff at the deli is always pleasant and have a lot of hungry paddlers/​rafters to feed. So sit back, enjoy the live music that goes on during the weekends, and enjoy some friendly conversation at your table. This is a great place for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a home feel to it, unlike a lot of restaurants these days.
I really like the people. I really like the deli!

I give this place two forks up as my wife and I loved our meal. We started of with the fried pickles and loved them. Disclaimer, these are pickle spears not chips. We ordered them then saw that after the waitress recommended them. The batter stayed on them and was cooked to perfection.
On to the main meal, I had the cheeseburger add bacon. Simple but cooked great, I can’t go on about a burger but it’s great. My wife got the pot roast and it was awesome! It fell apart in my mouth, great gravy and her sides were good also.
On to desert, we had the blackberry cobbler… I woke up a day later and asked what happened and my wife said you fell into a flavor coma. It was phenomenal, probably cause I’m a cobbler fiend. Awesome homemade goods.
I have been here about 6 times and I wish this place was closer to home. Go and eat here, please

After a fun rafting and cabin trip, my friends and I ended our weekend in Ocoee with a Sunday lunch at the Ocoee Dam Deli and Diner. The Ocoee Dam Deli and Diner serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast is only served until 11am, though, and we had just missed it.
Like everything else in Ocoee it seems, the restaurant resembles a wooden cabin. Inside, there are all sorts of wildlife and outdoors-​related decorations and artwork on the walls (e.g. a stag’s head). There are also several TVs playing videos of various white water rafting adventures.
The restaurant seemed to be fairly busy on our visit so service was slow, both in getting our orders in and in getting our food. The menu consisted of typical Southern cuisine. I opted for one of their «Blue Plate» specials, which is a traditional «meat and two» setup.
My meat and two was fried catfish, cornbread dressing, and sweet potato casserole. Overall, the meal was OK. The fried catfish was quite thin and not very meaty. The breading was a little salty. The catfish very closely resembled the same catfish you can get at Piccadilly Cafeteria. Ocoee’s version instantly reminded me of Piccadilly’s version.
Both the cornbread dressing and sweet potato casserole were tasty. The cornbread dressing was delicious, in fact. The sweet potato casserole had melted marshmallows on top. I also tried some of the sweet potato fries, which weren’t bad. I’d still choose the casserole over the fries any day of the week.
Our server was Brook and she was a nice gal. Kudos to her for separating checks for all 12 of us.