Dallas Observer

100 Favorite Dishes - Chicken Fried Steak - 2012

100 Favorite Dishes

All Good Cafe's Chicken-Fried Steak made last year's 100 Favorites list, and they're going to make it this year as well. I'd only been in Dallas a few days and was eating like a madman trying to get a pulse on Dallas' dining scene. I'd never had CFS before. That's right, I'll admit it. All Good Cafe's CFS was the first CFS I've ever eaten.

Since then I've tried other versions and always been underwhelmed. Either the breading doesn't stay put, or the gravy is pale and boring, or (and I realize we're talking about CFS, here) the dish is so greasy and heavy it leaves me feeling guilty after I lick the plate clean. Is All Good's the world's best CFS, as the menu claims? Probably not, but it's good enough to by my favorite until another version shows me otherwise.

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Dallas Observer
Best Of Dallas 2011

Dallas' Six Best Half-Price Happy Hours

Observer half off

On Tuesday evenings at our favorite Deep Ellum cafe, you can order two entrées and only pay for the more expensive one. Chicken-fried steak followed up with some chicken-fried chicken for 12 bucks seems like a pretty decent deal.

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Best Gig for Hungry Musicians

Musicians, trust us on this. If you or your band can pull off a set that's even the least bit rootsy, folky or country, you owe yourself at least one show at the AllGood Cafe. Owner Mike Snider is a long-time supporter of Texas music, as the awesome collection of signed gig posters bedecking the place can attest, and he knows how to treat musicians right. That means not only a fair cut of the money from the door (as in, all of it) and a generous bar tab, but a meal as well. For everyone in the band. We're partial to the chicken-fried steak, which consistently pops up on best-of lists including this one, though the chicken nachos are great as well, and there are great options for non-carnivores too...

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Best Hangover Cure

Mike Snider's AllGood Cafe clearly has a thing for our state's capitol. The little placards announcing the upcoming dinnertime shows at the Deep Ellum mainstay proudly boast that a trip to the AllGood is like a trip to Austin, "without having to go through Waco," no offense to Waco, we guess. Fitting, then, that the best thing on the menu (yes, ahead of the chicken-fried steak, even) is the so-called "South Austin Migas."...

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