Steak & Fries

I went to Company Cafe last night for dinner to knock two items off The List--sweet potato fries and chicken-fried steak.  If you plan on going there for dinner on a weeknight, go around 7pm.  We went on a Wednesday and there was barely anyone there.  It started getting packed once we were leaving, proving that it is a young crowd favorite.

The other great thing about early timing is the speed of the kitchen.  We had just received our drinks by the time our appetizer arrived.  #46 on The List is the loaded sweet potato fries.  Warning: the orders of this dish are HUGE.  We got a half order to split between two people and still barely finished half of it.  I guess they need a quarter option as well :).  I am extremely picky when it comes to my sweet potato fries.  I want a little bit of soft on the inside with a good crunch and not too much seasoning.  These were perfect.  Whatever salt they put on them is GREAT!  Even the pieces of straight fry were awesome.  The loaded fries come with cheese, bacon, green onion and jalapeno with a side each of ranch and ketchup.  The cheese was perfectly melted with a good mix of bacon, onion and jalapeno.  Also, the jalapenos were big enough that if you wanted to eat around them it wasn’t any trouble.  I only ate a few with jalapenos because they left all of the seeds, and to quote my dinner partner, “I want to be able to taste my main course”.

After almost filling up on fries, we ordered our main courses.  List #31 is the chicken-fried steak and luckily I brought someone willing to order it because I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish it off.  Unfortunately, I was rather unimpressed with it.  The chicken fried steak tasted no different than a steak finger you could get at Dairy Queen.  And while I do love DQ they at least have better gravy.  Company Cafe’s gravy was billed as honey-jalapeno, but unfortunately I couldn’t find the kick.  There was a bit of honey taste, but it seemed not to add anything other than wetness to the fried steak.  The mashed sweet potatoes also had an odd texture.  They reminded me of the half-whipped version put into my grandmother’s sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving but without the brown sugar and pecans.  After the masterpiece of the sweet potato fries I was expecting much from the second sweet potato option.

My main course was phenomenal!  I went with the seared scallops and they were delicious.  Each scallop had perfect buttery goodness with a tenderness that barely left me needing a knife before they melted in my mouth.  The roasted brussel sprouts and diced vegetables had a great vinegary compliment, almost like a good collard green.  The broccolini florets were roasted well so that they cut cleanly but were not overly crunchy to chew on.

Overall, I would definitely come back for the fries and a beer but would stick with the lighter main courses for a meal.  B+