Jerry's Restaurant

The Best Chicken-Fried Steak Is Served at Jerry’s in East Texas | Eater Houston

"On Highway 190 just off Lake Livingston, Jerry’s Restaurant is where I’ve always gone for what I consider the best chicken-fried steak in Texas — the chicken-fried steak I’ve been eating my whole life at my family’s restaurant, named after my late grandfather. That chicken-fried steak, served under heaps of pepper-filled cream gravy with a side of mashed potatoes and a salad, is crispy on the outside and tender inside, and it’s the standard I measure all others against; the steaks were hand-sliced and tenderized for years by Lucy Mae Theragood and are now cut and tenderized by the cooks and family, then coated in a flaky, family-secret breading. Jerry’s feels like a classic Texas cafe — old men drinking morning coffee, Sunday crowds from the local Methodist church, families at big round tables, and my aunt Jeanne Ann Smith Byrd greeting out-of-towners while she tends the wood-lined walls, monthly seasonal decor, and the red-and-white checkered tablecloths her daddy liked. Every plate comes with a basket of yeast rolls made fresh twice daily (served with honey from Pop Smith’s beehives), Mama Smith’s broccoli cornbread shows up on Sundays, and Jeanne Ann still develops variations on her dad’s lemon icebox pie. The menu stretches beyond the chicken-fried staples to beloved East Texas dishes like boudin balls, fried green tomatoes, frog legs, stuffed crab, the new chicken-fried rib-eye, and the long-running Friday/Saturday all-you-can-eat catfish suppers — all rooted in family history and recipes shaped over generations." - Courtney E. Smith