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Chicken Fried Steak

Started 2 years ago by dawsonct
Latest reply from JoB

dawsonct
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While making a rare trip to the Oak Tree neighborhood today, I decided to drop by Cyndy's Pancake House for what I had been told was the best CFS in Seattle. To my dismay, it was dark, with a note in the window stating that they had closed Aug. 9th and the present owner of the building was attempting to get a strip-club permit. There is apparently some litigation involved which may force the reopening of the restaurant. I'll take the diner. Apparently someone in the neighborhood cares enough to keep folks informed at: savecyndys@gmail.com
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I pushed on towards Ballard thinking Senor Moose would be a good alternative. I don't know if they have a CFS, though, because while I was on Holman Rd. I saw Patty's Egg Nest, which I had heard was good, and I figured they would take care of my CFS fixation. Sure enough, the place was packed and they had written on the doors, windows, wall, menus that they had been voted Seattle's best breakfast. Didn't say by whom, but at this point I didn't care; they had CFS!
Well I won't need to travel any more to Crown Hill for my CFS fix; it was okay and had a nicely flavored crust, but had a very manufactured appearance and consistency. The sausage gravy was good and creamy without coating the mouth, but I am VERY leery about ordering biscuits and gravy anywhere, as a decent restaurant-made biscuit is a rare find indeed.
In the end it was good enough to fulfill my CFS craving for a few more months, but sometime in January or February I will start feeling that need again, and I would prefer to NOT drive 10 miles to find one. This, in a very round-about way, brings me to my question:
Is there a breakfast place in W. or S. Seattle, White Center or Burien with REAL, made in-house, good Chicken Fried Steak?

Posted 2 years ago #
breanna43
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have you tried Charleston Street cafe, the Chelan, the Huckleberry, (in burien) or Alki cafe?

Posted 2 years ago #
JenV
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not a CFS fan myself, but Burien Elliot Bay Brewery has a weekend brunch CFS with Chorizo gravy. I tried the gravy and it was delicious.

I know Skylark also has it - haven't tried it but the other things I have had for breakfast there have been wonderful.

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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Charleston St. is very mediocre and very overpriced. Any place that touts their pasty clam chowder the way they do gets my pass every time.
Chelan is good, but I always seem to order their hash. I guess I need to get out of my rut next time I'm there; not sure if I've tried their CFS yet.
I've heard really good things about Huckleberry, I'll check it out.
I'm rather leery about anything that comes from an EBB kitchen. SOME of their beer is good, though.
I had forgotten about Skylark. I wonder why I haven't tried theirs yet? My visits must not have coincided with my cravings.
Thanks for the info folks! Keep 'em coming!

Posted 2 years ago #
FoxyDiamond
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For biscuts & gravy..weird I know b u t Morgan St. Thriftway is YUMMY!!! And it's only $2.49...get there early they always sell out!

Posted 2 years ago #
charlabob
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We've had Chickn Fried Steak at Skylark and it is DElish!

Posted 2 years ago #
lizru
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I had CFS in a re-converted dorm in Atlanta during the Olympics. My expectations were very low, but it was fantastic. Best I've ever had.

How wicked of you folks to be talking about CFS! So very wonderful, so very evil!

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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It's really pretty easy. Cube steak, flour, egg/milk wash (I just use the yolks), seasoned flour, hot frying pan on both sides until golden brown and crispy (this is the time for that big ol' cast iron), repeat.
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Sometimes I want someone else to do it for me.
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I still can't believe I haven't had it at Skylark.
Soon. With a bloody mary.

Posted 2 years ago #
charlabob
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And save room for a piece of pie -- they make their own and sell Shoofly. :-)

Posted 2 years ago #
JEM
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Huckleberry Square in Burien does have good breakfasts. Sunday AM can get crowded (after church crowd) but we always sit at the counter so have never had to wait. Pretty good CFS there.
Never tried Elliott Bay's, but I think their food is great. And the beer too!

Posted 2 years ago #
Heinz57Mom
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Please do not subject your palate to the Charlestowns idea of CFS. Don't get me wrong I like it there but their CFS taste like liver! Absolutely the worst CFS ever!

Now I'm a native Texan and I like my CFS it's the first thing I get when I go back for a visit.

So while I realize this is going to sound bizarre the best CFS I've had in the area is from IHOP. Yes you read that right. International House of Pancakes (down by the airport) is where I go when I need a CFS fix. I appreciate that their gravy is "true" country gravy. i.e. Not sausage gravy as is commonly used outside of TX.

Sausage gravy is for biscuits, country gravy is for chicken fried steak.

Posted 2 years ago #
charlabob
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Everytime I read this I think, "Why in the world do people want to know where they can get Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?" :-) I won't even ask where you can get the best liver and onions; suffice to say, I like me some of that good old country cooking -- the kind you used to get at the Woolworth's counter (and yes I am that old, thank you!) IHOP is surprising; there are things no one else can make -- some of which no one else wants to eat. So I can believe you.

Where did people get the idea to use sausage gravy in things? Among other things, you have to cook sausage to get it don't you? and -- you're already making too much work for yourself.

H57 Mom, I expect you to chip in on the "best bar b q" threads too. And then, in the fall, we can start a thread on "beans or tomatoes or both" -- what is real chili and what is perversion?

Posted 2 years ago #
flowerpetal
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I believe that Young's on 16th SW, just on the West Seattle side of White Center has CFS. They are very nice there; no glam, just home-cooking.

Posted 2 years ago #
IslandLvr
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My husband is a huge fan of CFS. Chelan Cafe was always his favorite until we went to Jak's last weekend. Their CFS was amazing and is the same price as Chelan Cafe's. My filet mignon benedict was wonderful too. With $3.25 bloody mary's, it was an all-around amazing meal!

Posted 2 years ago #
JenV
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IslandLvr - that filet benedict is the best thing ever. :) Jak's for brunch is a new guilty pleasure of ours - it generally means nothing else is getting done on a Sunday, because after that, it's nap time.

Posted 2 years ago #
flowerpetal
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Once upon a time I tried to not like Jak's as it is too noisy for me some evenings. But friends drag me there anyway; and folks here on the forums convince me with comments like IslandLver's and JenV's. I'm hooked.

Posted 2 years ago #
ellenater
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HUckleberry is gooooood. I would do almost anything for a Bloddy Mary right NOW!

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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Mmmm, blood marys.....
That could be a seperate thread!

Posted 2 years ago #
grr
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for CFS..one needs to venture out to the East Side... Maltby Cafe, near Duvall. Yum.

Posted 2 years ago #
Heinz57Mom
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Charlabob I'll do my best...

Posted 2 years ago #
pigeonmom
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Speaking of cube steaks.. where are the cube and minute steaks of my '70s memories?

Posted 2 years ago #
WSB
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Gone the way of the salisbury-steak TV dinner. The Swanson's and Banquet soggy fried-chicken TV dinner. The S&W canned peas. OMG, sorry if your memories are fond, but I have been trying to explain to the teenager just how bad food was in the '60s and at least early '70s. It was like, fresh was a bad word, and if it was canned, frozen, boxed, it HAD to be better. Space Food Sticks ahoy! If I wanted to have something besides oil and vinegar on my salad (only iceberg available, of course) when the family went out to Van De Kamp's Restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, I had to bring Wish-Bone Italian in a mini-thermos. O.M.G.

Meantime, I could have sworn that co-publisher has had chicken fried steak at Easy Street. Maybe it was a special; heaven knows we haven't been there (or any other breakfast restaurant) in a year of Sundays ... it's not on their online menu.
http://easystreetonline.com/cafe

Posted 2 years ago #
Patrick
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Yes, Easy Street had a pretty good Chronic Fatigue Steak as a special now and then. When Lydia was the manager she always managed to make it the special when we came in. As CFS goes it was good - not as good as the one at the Walgreens where my dad worked. That CFS remains my platonic ideal of a CFS.

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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L'm'nbeach, I remember the first time in the 70's when I had Roquefort dressing (it was probably REALLY domestic, mass-produced blue-cheese), man I thought I had found culinary nirvana. Thankfully, I hadn't, but it wasn't that great a leap from there to other gustatorial pleasures. I "borrowed" a recipe from one of my chefs for a bl. cheese vinaigrette that kicks butt; I don't see myself using a creamy one anymore.
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Back to CFS: I stopped at Skylark this weekend. Still love it, had a bloody mary, which is reason enough, but the CFS, and the breakfast plate as a whole, reminded me that their food is more often just an excuse to hang out in a bar and drink booze at breakfast.
Not saying that is a bad thing.
From the plate up:
CFS appropriately crispy, fairly tender, under-seasoned crust. overall, an IQF quality to it.
Gravy was ok, a bit thick. The presence of sausage was more textural. I tend to agree with heinz57mom about the gravy, although I have had representative CFS and country gravy in parts of the South other than Tx. I like it kind if thin and a bit oniony.
Potatoes always chunky and boring, over medium egg cooked hard, toast, dry and crispy all the way through.
Love the bloody mary.

Posted 2 years ago #
Sue
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TR, I think my fondness for the TV dinner era was more the specialness that I got to pick out my own "flavor" of dinner and then got to eat it in front of the TV. And if we were really lucky, we got to drink something other than milk with it - like maybe one of the 2x a year we had soda. It definitely wasn't the "quality" of the food. And I haven't found anybody in years who knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the Space Food Sticks. As a wannabe astronaut, those were cool. Vile, but cool. :) http://www.spacefoodsticks.com

Posted 2 years ago #
Patrick
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Spacefood sticks came in 3 flavors. Texturally they were halfway between raw cookie dough and a Tootsie Roll. They were my constant companion while watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Posted 2 years ago #
WSB
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You really had to be a kid in the late '60s to get the Space Food Sticks thing, I suspect. Space anything. Like Tang. Which fits into my memory of "anything processed was considered superior to fresh." Fresh-squeezed orange juice? Feh! For peasants! Powdered TANG, that was MODERN! And Jello, and. Oops, sorry. Completely guilty of threadjacking.

Posted 2 years ago #
dawsonct
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I am the very, VERY last person who would ever scold another digressing.
I have almost certainly left the solution to world peace dangling.
Sorry, ADD.

Posted 2 years ago #
JoB
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thanks to dawsonct's psot, i had chicken fried steak at the Alki Cafe yesterday.. and it was outstanding.

i don't remember the space food sticks..

Posted 2 years ago #