It’s been said many times and many ways, chicken fried steak is either great or horrible- there is no middle ground. That being proclaimed, Patsy’s in Toluca Lake joins the rest of the battered meats at the bottom of the pile.

The CFS: Patsy’s in Toluca Lake. A popular destination diner for locals and studio transportation crews.

First Impression: Looks great! The Holy Trinity is front and center: Chicken Fried Steak with thick white gravy, hash browns, and eggs. What could go wrong?

Taste: Stop the machine! How can something that looks so right be so very damn wrong? Not talking about the eggs nor the hash browns (they were just dandy), the chicken fried steak itself was a 4 X 5 slab of fried breading infused with meat flavor. Extremely confusing to the pallet, there was no meat texture. Either the steak was beaten to death and disintegrated into the breading upon being fried or the steak used was actually some sort of “pink slime” that had no business being there in the first place. As far as the thick white gravy goes, it was nice to see it there;however, it may have come out of the same can they use for hollandaise sauce.

Score: I give it a 2. I also would suggest they walk east down the street and grab a chicken fried steak at Bob’s Big Boy so they know what a real chicken fried steak should taste like.