A couple years ago I was on a quest to try all of Seattle’s breakfast spots Country Fried Steak or Chicken Fried Steak, if it was available. I’ll share my experience and it might save you the trouble.
In the past, I’ve done similar quests with Huevos Rancheros and Corned Beef Hash. In different cities, though.
I kept track of it on some social, neither do I have access any longer nor do I remember which one.
What is the good stuff? Top round beef, hand trimmed, run through a bench tenderizer two or three times, seasoned, three stage breeding but crusted with mashed saltine crackers instead of panko or bread crumbs. Then pan fried or on the griddle
So Anyways, from memory, only two places seemed to make their own. Everywhere else, literally every place, had a variation of the prefab frozen breaded over tenderized meat glue added pressed & formed product like a giant chicken nuggie but beef, allegedly.
Overall grade C+, needs improvement
North Star Diner (RIP)?)
Beth’s Cafe
Voula’s
Hudson
Family Pancake (Edmonds)
IHOP (2 different locations)
The Breakfast Club
Patty’s Eggnest Phinney location
I think that’s all the places. I picked places likely to have it, so I ruled out vegetarian restaurants and “healthier” spots that people side-eye when mentioned, ah… Portage Bay Cafe.
No ethnic food places had the country fried steak, but some tibs fir fir or foule, for sure sure.
The obvious place that makes their own is Hudson and as much as I wanted to like it, both preparation and execution fell flat for me. Luckily, it was small.
The other place was Beth’s Cafe. Their’s was different and thought it was better done than Hudson.
Beth’s Cafe CFS was the one that compelled me to start the quest, they may have gone to the dark side by now, in this iteration and timeline.
Side quest:
Now let’s talk about the country gravy situation. Pretty much all had the ubiquitous diner country white powdered mix gravy, without sausage . Everywhere except The Breakfast Club that is – I cannot recommend their gravy. (Or the diner, tbh. Was not a fan.)
If a biscuit could be had, I had one. None had good biscuits except one. The bad ones could maybe double as an English muffin, looking at you IHOP.. When did these become biscuits? Family Pancake had legit biscuits. I didn’t try Voula’s, that I remember…. Neeeew Quest! Jk
Hashbrowns. Voula’s all day long. Trounces all at hashbrowns game. Except maybe IHOP.
Best Overall, it is neck & neck with Voula’s and Family Pancake, for all the reasons. Quality product, service, atmosphere, the expectations of the experience are met.
Honorable mention to Beth’s but my memory is hazy and the thing about Beth’s is that it’s been inconsistent, and that’s not great for business.
CFS is also one of the most expensive menu items, so with coffee and tip you’re looking at $30 for breakfast and it’s not that great as an actual steak for breakfast, but it should still resemble its source material at that price point. Which it 9/10 times failed at.
submitted by /u/errantwit
[link] [comments]