Chicken Fried Steak at Patty's Eggnest

As someone who grew up in Oklahoma, I do loves me some chicken fried steak. Problem is, of course, that chicken fried steak isn't something that comes natively around Seattle. Not a whole lot of Texans migrate up this way, much less attempt to cook chicken fried steak.

Last night, for instance, I tried making CFS at home, but I quickly discovered a big problem with the cube steak I bought at the Holman Road QFC: They cubed good cuts of meat. And the problem with good cuts of meat is they don't have connective tissue, and it's that connective tissue that keeps the steak from disintegrating when you pick it up with a fork. Like what happened to me last night. Awesome job, QFC.

So I've been on a quest to find a decent chicken fried steak in this town. Earlier this year, on another blog, the great music writer with awesome sauce Hannah Levin told me her pick for best CFS in town -- Patty's Eggnest, which is ironically located in the same shopping center as the above mentioned QFC. (For you old timers, it's where the Burgermaster used to be in the Art's Shopping Center.)

And having tried it twice... yeah, Hannah's probably right. They come in two sizes, the largest being 11oz, and with breakfast come with three eggs. (Thus, the plate contains the equivalent of the sum total of all the cholesterol in the population of Malawi.) The gravy is milk gravy, not sausage-laden sawmill gravy you see around here. The breading is a little salty, the meat a little thinner than I'm used to, but it's quite good.

Of course, you're never going to get a "real" Texas CFS out here (except maybe at Austin Cantina in Ballard... if you can get there before you they go out of business). But between the blue collar clientele and the KVI adverts on the wall, you'll probably feel like you're in a Texas diner.

Patty's Eggnest
9749 Holman Road NW
Seattle, WA 98117 (206) 297-1545