Southern Kitchen

This weekend has been very eventful and for a foodie like me, eventful means I visited a lot of restaurants and had lots to eat. I have been avoiding having a backlog of restaurants to blog about, but after this weekend, I do not think that is possible anymore.

I am dubbing Auntie J as the most fun aunt ever because she's the only one who doesn't like shopping unless there is a sale and who loves to eat and can eat anything (ok, anything except maybe chicken). While we visited a ton of restaurants this weekend, I am blogging about Southern Kitchen first as this is my second time going there and I absolutely love it! It may as well be my favorite restaurant in Seattle next to Serious Pie.

My family friends discovered Southern Kitchen by watching the Food Network. The restaurant was featured in Diners, Drive Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. It is award winning, recognized for its southern comfort food and for best dessert at the Bite of Seattle and Taste of Tacoma.

The restaurant looks like a really cramped diner with tables only inches from one another and the atmosphere is buzzing with the energy of both servers and diners. The walls are decorated with pictures, some of which are autographed photos of famous people who have been to this restaurant like Guy Fieri and Oprah. Tables are covered with hawaiian themed tablecloths that my friend M really likes!

We shared 2 orders of fried green tomatoes, 6 plates of corn cakes and seven entrees among the seven of us. Each entree came with a plate of corn cake the size of your face and three sides that you get to choose from a list of sides available. Almost everything is fried and buttery. We had our appetizer first which was fried green tomatoes. I streamed Fried Green Tomatoes the movie from Netflix a few months ago and itched to have a taste of this southern delicacy. I finally got to try it today and it was fantastic. Southern kitchen served it as thin slices of lightly breaded sour green tomatoes with a side of ranch dressing.

Next came our corn cakes. Southern Kitchen shapes its corn cake like a pancake, thick and buttery, sweet, but not too sweet, simply delicious! Of course, 6 corn cakes are too many for us to finish, especially since we already had the fried green tomatoes and our entrees came with three sides, all equally greasy.

I love fried chicken, and I especially love southern fried chicken because the batter is tastier and perfectly crispy! So, that's what I ordered - Southern Fried Chicken with macaroni and cheese, fried okra and candied yams for my sides. The chicken was as good as I remembered it. I picked to have two pieces of dark meat instead of mixing it with a piece of white meat or having both pieces white. When eating, I seem to be prioritizing personal enjoyment over the health factor. This time, I had no regrets after the meal. It made me deliriously happy. The macaroni and cheese weren't the best. I knew this from before, but I chose to have it anyway because mac and cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods. I had the fried okra before and really enjoyed it. Nothing changed in this visit. They are little round pieces of okra deep fried in crispy batter that you can pop into your mouth in between delicious bites of fried chicken. For my last side dish, I picked the candied yams. These, like others, were extremely buttery and very sweet! They are served warm and very nicely melt in your mouth. 

My friend M who is seated next to me so I can take a picture of her food had the Southern baked chicken. It is the size of half a chicken and served with gravy. It was huge! M only managed to eat half of it along with her candied yams, collard greens and fried okra. 

Auntie J was seated across from me so I was also able to sneak a shot of her food. She loved the Catfish Strips we had on our first visit so she thought that this time, it would be good to try the Cajun Catfish Strips for a different flavor. I didn't have a taste of her food as I was already very busy with my fried chicken but based on my first visit, these catfish strips were deep fried to perfection (as were most of the other items on the menu). The fish was very buttery and complements the crispy and salty batter covering it. Definitely a must try in this restaurant.

We were too full afterwards to have the award winning dessert which is the peach cobbler. We had this before and it was very creamy, moist and warm. Despite the creaminess though, the crust managed to remain crispy and flaky instead of soggy like I expected. Southern Kitchen also serves homemade lemonade. They have both strawberry and mango flavors, each with chunks of real strawberries or real mangoes. You can choose to have your lemonade served with cream or not.

Southern Kitchen is a trek from Bellevue or Redmond which is where we live. It is located in a quiet neighborhood in Tacoma and it is definitely worth a visit despite the long travel time. Servers are friendly and sometimes, even the owner would come out from behind the cashier to greet you with a friendly smile and hello.

Southern Kitchen

1716 6th Ave

Tacoma, WA

253-627-4282