Albert T.
Yelp
We decided to visit M Cozy for lunch after visiting U Village for the first time after moving to the Seattle area. Trying to avoid traffic over the weekend, as we've seen it be pretty terrible around this mall, we walked over from U District station, not realizing how steep it would be! I'd definitely drive next time.
Dropping in close to 1PM on Sunday, there was a short line waiting to order at the counter. It didn't take too long and soon we were digging into our food:
Saigon Steak Skillet ($22) - This dish comes piping hot on a blazing skillet with a bounty of ingredients to tickle any fancy. There's two slices of cha lua, with the characteristic porky fish sauce umami, thinly sliced and slightly fried. There are two eggs, cooked over medium, with the yolk almost completely set with just a tiny portion of jammy top. Since the eggs rest on the hot plate, they start to develop a bit of a crisp. In the center, a small sphere of pate which I don't recommend eating it by itself. It's really fatty, rich, and very funky irony in flavor - best to spread it on the baguette. There's perfectly cooked ribeye steak cubes, cooked until tender, not tough, in an extremely flavorful umami-full sweet and salty sauce. There are thin sliced caramelized onions mixed into the steak for more allium-forward sweetness. The steak is topped by tomatoes (out of season ones that are very acidic), some crunchy fried garlic chips, and cilantro. The baguette on the side is very good. I'm not sure if it's baked in house or not, but it comes out warmed, is extremely airy, cloudy, and fluffy on the interior, and has that glass-shattering crust that Vietnamese baguettes are famous for. (4/5)
Loaded Thai Tea French Toast ($14) - This is a very lazily made french toast. A Loaded order includes two thick slices of bread, cut in half, dipped in batter, and then pan fried. They don't take the time to really soak in the custard, so it only penetrates the top eighth of an inch on both sides. This leaves the inside of the bread dry, defeating the entire purpose of it being French Toast. I do admit the interior is very fluffy, but isn't custardy at all. For the exterior, there's a bit of a crust development from the pan fry, but there's not really any egginess there. I have to assume they take some shortcuts there as well. The dish as a whole is very pleasing to look at, however. They arrange fruits on top, in this case some large blueberries, quartered strawberries, and thinly sliced bananas. One side side are three small mounds of Reddi-Wip-type whipped topping, very thin and isn't stabilized so it deflates quickly. On the other side is a Thai Tea flavored custard. Strong tea flavor, served cold like pudding. For some reason it's kind of chunky, as if they left it out exposed to air, creating a skin, then mixed the skin back in. Because of that, the texture isn't the best. They also smear some of the custard underneath the toast. This custard is the sole provider of Thai tea flavor. I don't believe there's any Thai tea added to the egg batter. The French Toast as a whole isn't too sweet which is good, but it's also pretty bland without the pudding. As a whole, I think this French Toast is just okay. There are too many major shortcuts taken to be a good representation of the dish. (2/5)
M Cozy Fusion Cafe is one of those places I think is more for the instagrammers than for foodies. The dishes certainly look nice for the camera, but overall construction and technique is just okay.
Bathrooms - Two unisex rooms.