http://www.yelp.com/biz/southern-kitchen-los-gatosI just got back from Southern Kitchen in Los Gatos for some breakfast. The link is to Yelp, I couldn't find their own website (if they have one). They get 4 of 5 stars on Yelp and were recommended by my neighbor/landlord so I decided today was the day to try it.
I ordered the Country Special. This is biscuits topped with a sausage patty, scrambled eggs, and gravy. It comes with grits or hash browns on the side. The gravy was really excellent. It had a nice peppery spice and was creamy but surprisingly not heavy. The biscuits were good enough as were the eggs. The sausage was standard and I think would be no good to eat on its own, but mixed in with everything else it worked. The dish was $9.25 and it was massive. I got hash browns with it. Someone once told me hash browns are the worst thing you can do to a potato. I agree with that but grits are corn and I'd rather have potato any way I can get it. I don't really like hash browns but these were okay for a couple of reasons. Strangely I don't even think they put salt on them. I guess you are supposed to salt them yourself but I didn't. This lack of salt made them more palatable to me. I'm so used to over salted and greasy hash browns. These were neither. They had a crisp outside and a soft boiled type inside that was clean and light tasting. It was a good contrast to the rich biscuits and gravy. Alicia liked the hash browns and finished them off.
Alicia got the banana nut pancakes for herself. For $9.25 out came three massive pancakes and a side of whipped butter and syrup. They certainly looked good. There were lots of banana slices and sliced almonds in there. I make banana nut pancakes at home all the time so I was looking forward to trying them. At first I thought they tasted fine but were a little dense. Alicia felt the exact same way. She ate one and that was enough for her and we switched plates. I ate one as well and was sick of it by the time I finished it. I could have eaten more. I wanted my biscuits and gravy back (but a deal's a deal you know) so I was stuck with the pancake. I stuck it in a to go box and I'll eat it later or the dogs will. I would never order than again. That was way too dense and just got boring fast.
We had a 10 minute wait outside in the drizzling rain. They have coffee out there for people that drink type of stuff. We got a counter seat and they were okay but you couldn't move the seat. It swiveled but was fixed onto the ground. I wanted to get away from the edge of the counter were all the servers kept coming and going. I think any other counter seat would have been fine and the booths looked nice. Moving here recently from Georgia, I can tell you there is nothing Southern about this kitchen except a few things on the menu. It has none of the charm of a southern place and feels like every other California breakfast place (and it's menu reflects that as well). This isn't an insult. The service was fine and the food was served quickly but if they are trying to deliver that down home atmosphere it doesn't work. What more can I say? Well, after waiting for 10 minutes in the cold drizzle sitting down to warm, stick to your stomach biscuits and gravy was definitely the right call. I don't know if I would order it on a 90 degree day in August. However, if you're in Los Gatos and are cold, wet, hungry, and it's in the AM, you know what to get.