Southern Kitchen, Monterey Highway, San Jose
What do you do on a wet weekend? Well to cheer yourself up, you go out for breakfast.
We wanted to try somewhere different without travelling very far so Tom did a search on ‘breakfast in San Jose’ and our zip code. Southern Kitchen came up and it’s pretty close. We’d passed it many times on Monterey Highway but had dismissed it as a bit of a shack. A quick check on Yelp to see if there were any reviews and we were so surprised. Lots of rave reviews, so this place we must visit.
It was 9:30 when we set out on this rainy morning. The car park at the back was nearly full. That is a good sign to start with but also meant we would probably have a wait – the reviewers had warned as much. We were lucky though and were seated straight away, even though the place was packed.
It’s not very big but its well set out with 9 two seater booths, 8 four seater booths, two larger booths, several tables and chairs and 8 places at the counter.
We were shown to a two seater booth at the side, right under a hatch through to the kitchen. We could hear them working in the kitchen but it was a cheerful background sound. There was music playing but it was lost in the general hum of conversation around us.
The menu choice is vast and exciting. Now I usually have oatmeal but today my eyes strayed to the rest of the menu and was tempted. I succumbed to that temptation – afterall it was nearly 10 now so it was more of a brunch than a breakfast. Our friendly server took the order – Country Benedict for Tom (country sausage on top of English muffins, two poached eggs, topped with hollandaise sauce) at $8.95 and California Scramble for me (eggs, broccoli, mushrooms, Jack & Cheddar cheese, topped with hollandaise sauce) at $8.95. We both had hash browns (extra crispy for Tom) and I had wheat toast as well.
Time to look around at the decor. There was the usual amount of paintings, mostly of views and flowers. Other assorted objects were hung on the walls including a collection of old tools and bizarrely a thick white rope round the ceiling line.
The food arrived 15 minutes after placing our order. The portions were big and they were steaming hot. Tom nearly cleared his plate but I struggled to get through two thirds of mine. Take my word for it, the food is good and the hash browns were just as Tom liked.
The restroom though could only be described as grubby but functional, apart from the fact that the toilet paper had almost run out and there were no new supplies in sight. One good point in its favor is the water was nice and hot. Some decoration on the wall would have cheered the place up a bit.
We have found a new place to go for breakfast and we will certainly be back here again.
Related posts:
- OD’s Kitchen, Gilroy
- Pete’s Family Restaurant, South San Jose
- Hobee’s, North San Jose
- Wharf House Restaurant, Capitola
- Holly’s Lighthouse Cafe, Pacific Grove
January 27 2008 09:17 pm | Breakfast Log
