We decided to stop at Mary's for Sunday lunch on our way home from Dallas/Fort Worth... Online there are several of the "must stop" articles that mention Mary's.. So far, I'm unimpressed... The drive from the interstate wasn't bad, just a few miles.. It is moderately busy but we were able to park right up front! We waited less than 10 minutes to be seated, just the two of us... While at the front lobby/hostess station we listened to a blue/green haired girl rant about a snoody table who apparently decided to leave... I only heard bits and pieces but she said to a coworker, it was fine because she didn't want people like that here anyway... Which, I can understand, but the hostess table isn't the place to complain... We make it back to our seat, the waitress comes in relatively quickly to take drink orders.. I ask if they serve Pepsi or Coke products, she says a mix of both.. "Great! I'll have Pepsi!" She responds, "we don't have Pepsi..." Ok, so I ask for Sprite (Coke product), they don't carry Sprite... She offers 7Up instead.. Ok.. They also don't serve sweet tea which I thought was illegal in Texas, but anyway.. haha She returns with my husband's UNsweet tea and a cup of ice and can of 7Up... Ok.. So she takes our order and my husband asks for the chicken fried steak which is "World Famous!" I order the 2 piece seafood combo.. About 45 minutes later our food arrives, mine several minutes before his, which is awkward.. Looks nice enough, large portion for my husband and large variety for me! I tried a bite of the stuffed crab, it was good, everything else was even less impressive... The shrimp cocktail was so over cooked it was like a rubber ball.. The oyster was a batter caked chewy tasteless hunk.. I stopped eating my seafood platter and went for the "salad" which was equally pitiful.. I made it to the baked potato, because you can't screw those up.. With enough butter, ranch, salt, and pepper, I at least had something edible! Haha My husbands chicken fried steak was massive, massively disappointing! It was a soggy, tastless, ball of flour, soaked in grease, and served.. He skipped it and ate just his potato as well.. Our waitress left a lot to be desired, she was definitely in the "fake it til you make it" mode.. She just wasn't that convincing at faking it.. Get the bill and learn that each "refill" otherwise known as a can of pop is $2.. Don't come here thirsty... We will pay the bill and leave without causing a scene, but wanted to post to warn others to just stay on the interstate and save yourself $45 plus tip... read more

Mary's Cafe - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

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This is the third time we have eaten at Mary's and it is definitely a five star restaurant, five star food and five star entertainment. The whole experience was amazing. If you are ever in the area, you have to stop in and give it a try. First, the Chicken Fried Steaks were amazing, the fries were plentiful and fresh along with the salad. The gravy comes in a seperate bowl to allow you either a little or a lot of gravy. Great food! Second, the entertainment is worth the drive alone.................Let me explain. If you have ever watched Seinfeld and have seen the episode of the "Soup Nazi" you will totally understand what I am talking about here. I know many reviewers complain and give this place a low rating because of the "rude" service, but that is exactly why I think it's five star. When you sit down and are ready to order, you better know EXACTLY what you want and say it with precision. Don't ask for sweet tea, ask for tea. Say exactly what size Chicken Fried Steak you want and with what sides and don't pause or try and change it. Also, if there are several in your party, you better know EXACTLY how many are in it. We watched over and over people coming in and when asked how many in their party they would say six, no eight, no seven....the waitress would pause and say, what school did you go to, don't you know how to count? Then when ordering one would say they wanted sweet tea, she would say No sweet tea, we have tea, you can sweeten it yourself. Then one would order a medium chicken fried steak with fries and a salad and the other would say they wanted the same, except they wanted a baked potato.....she would then say, well then it's NOT the same is it. We couldn't stop laughing and waiting for the next unsuspecting customer. Fyi: there is only one men's and one women's restroom (single hole) in the main dining room, but there are restrooms on the other side of the restaurant. read more

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This cafe is the best i love the well thought out proportions. That being said come hungry and share your plate if you want to! The service at this family owned place is amazing, the staff is great and always smiling, dont be in a rush here because its not that type of place, if youre passing through or making it a destination you must visit here ps the country fried steak, chicken sandwhich and chicken livers are to die for! read more

If you look at my previous reviews, you will notice I rarely give one star. My reason for one star is because of the MANAGEMENT decisions at Mary's. Let me first say the food is OK. But-the wait staff is working their butts off! They are running around sweating - literally. That shows me they are way understaffed & overworked. I was sure one guy was probably dripping sweat into the food he was serving. Our waitress had a great attitude and was very pleasant. Since there is nothing else in this little town other than Dollar General, I am sure the employees don't have a lot of choice where they work. Another obvious poor management decision was regarding pricing. If you order a baked potato, to get cheese bacon and chives is an extra $2. Who does that? But even worse the bacon bits are fake! And the chives are dehydrated little dry things! You've got to be kidding! The chicken fried steak is decent - but not nearly as good as Lucile's or Hofbrau in Fort Worth. And they give you enough mashed potatoes for three people and enough gravy for five! If they give you normal servings they might be able to afford to give you actual real bacon bits and fresh chives for free! My other concern was the restaurant did not seem clean. There was a very small roach on the wall and the person who was cleaning the table next to ours just left all the dirty dishes in a chair right beside our table. Again - I believe this is management issues. It doesn't seem that their training is sufficient. I had been to Mary's once before and felt like it was a fun hole in the wall worth the drive from Fort Worth. But until they make some changes I will not be back. I feel like they are too concerned with just getting people in the door (which by the way desperately needs a paint job) Rather than truly providing good food in a good clean atmosphere. I hate writing negative reviews because I know that they need customers and the people that work there need jobs - but whoever Mary is, hopefully she is willing to make some much-needed changes. read more

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Another Texas must-visit country cafe, as expected packed on a Sunday afternoon. Of course you get the CFS and we alse tried Chicken Fingers. About a ten minute wait to be seated at one if the large communal tables. A bit of a wait before anyone showed up to take our order. We waited almost 45 minutes for our food after placing our order, folks at the other end of our table seated same time as us and they got their food in about 10 minutes. According to the waitress, who came by at 40 minutes after ordering, backed up in the kitchen with one deep fryer for the chicken fingers, would have helped to know that before, we easly pick something else. Guess the plan is to ask before you order what can you cook fast? The menu does say it takes extra time for baked potato and burgers, which we did not get, but this wait time is ridiculous. Bottom line, food was not unique or good enough to be worth the drive or the wait. read more

Mary's Cafe - CFS - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

If you really like screaming kiddo's, chairs scooting on a concrete floor making that piercing noise and a 45 minute wait for your food to arrive then This is definitely your place! We drove an hour to dig into their chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and their cream gravy. As usual we gave this order to the waitress and she went on about her business and about 5 minutes into it the table next to us gets up and says "we've been here over an hour & we're outta here! Right then I knew we were going to have a special day. Guess what? We did! As one would expect we saw tables being served that came in way after us and they were already eating. My wife was proud of me because I didn't get mad. (I promise you I was mad on the inside) so I asked the waitress if she would please check on our order? See, the please word was used. Miraculously the waitress came right back and used the canned response, "Sir I checked on y'all's order and you have one in front of yours and yours will be next!" Again, Great timing (45 minutes after we were seated) once we got our food all was well in the world once again. I would have given a 5 Star Rating but 45 minutes to get our food? I just couldn't mislead others. Naturally we'll be back because the food is that good. read more

I've seen the sign a million times coming and going to Fort Worth, so finally I stop and give it a shot. I was super excited because I love Chicken Fried steaks! So we go inside, take a seat, get some drinks (Water, and Unsweetened tea) and the water was kind of gross, it tasted like sink water. So I took small sips, didn't really even drink half the glass. Water 0/5 Stars Then we order an appetizer, nothing crazy, just Queso! Who doesn't love Queso?? Am I right! So they bring it out, and with some chips and salsa, so I'm thinking (Ohhh it's complimentary! With the Queso! Since I only ordered that!) The Queso tasted like the canned nacho cheese you get for little league baseball games.... Gross... Queso 1.5/5 (Only cause it's my sisters favorite kind of cheese) Salsa and chips 5/5 (it was actually really good) Then after an hour, not exaggerating literally an hour later, we got our entrees! (Several tables that were sat before us, got their food first, and we ordered before they even got sat) But after that long wait, I was so excited! Chicken fried steak with mash potatoes!!! Here I Come!!!!! I took the first bite, no gravy added yet, and.... it was such a let down... so bland, no flavor, just meat and crust. By this time I've just lost all faith in this place, made a detour for bland Chicken Fry. Size 5/5 Taste 1/5 (after adding gravy and salt..) So I don't finish and get a to go box. My waiter gave me my check, and it wasn't adding up... "$4.55 for small chips and salsa "$4.30 for Queso" Now I'm like "What... they're charging me for chips and salsa when I only ordered Queso??" So I go to the register, and ask the owner about it, and she said "Yes you had chips and salsa and Queso so we charged you for chips and salsa as well" I told her "I didn't ask for that, I just asked for Queso, did that not include chips?" She said "No that's why we charged you for chips and salsa" I was so shocked, like the waiter didn't even give me a warning about it, he just put it in without acknowledging me how he would do it, and I was blindsided by the check in the end. They should definitely let customers know how that works, so in the end I paid $9 for Queso, and chips and salsa (That I didn't ask for, but thought it was just given) The whole experience was a let down. So 10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND!!! DO NOT TAKE A DETOUR FOR THIS PLACE!!! IF YOU WANT A GREAT CHICKEN FRIED STEAK THATS WORTH A DETOUR, CHECK OUT "BLUE SKIES" IN ABILENE!!! It's never let me down. Always great! Best in all of Texas (So far that I've tried, and I've tried a lot at various of places) I hope this persuade you to not waste your time! read more

Overrated, I do not consider it on of the best chicken fries in the state . I did enjoy the gravy , very good more like a home style .

Called ahead and was told 30 min wait. 45 min later we sat down. Spent 20 minutes with nobody even bringing us a menu or glass of water. Menus showed after 25 min and waiter disappeared. Still no water.... Got up and left after 30 min. HORRIBLE!! Certainly disappointed. Not sure what was going on but they must be really short staffed. Probably won't be going out of my way anytime soon read more

Seriously - we ordered and waited over an hour for our food. When it arrived - it was the most greasy mess I'd ever seen. I ordered chicken fried steak. I ate about 3 bites and I was done. We brought the leftovers home and the dogs didn't even want it. Nasty.. just -- nasty. If you're stuck in strawn then eat there. If not - do yourself a favor and go down the road. read more

Mary's Cafe - Disgusting pile of grease....... - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

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Found on Yelp returning from Dallas on a Sunday- CFS and burgers good but the MASHED POTATOES were out-of- this- world!! They even have cute little smiley fries for the kids... only order the half CFS- we did and we still took some home! read more

The chicken fried steak is the best I've ever had. The Medium crosses the plate and they make gravy from scratch. Service was personable and attentive. It's best if you're not in a hurry. read more

Mary's Cafe - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

Waited an hour for a cheeseburger and let me tell you why. What they don't tell you when you order, it's a 2 lb burger!! Couldn't even eat it because the patty was way too big! And on top of it, it didn't taste good! It was a waste of money and time. Staff was rude when we asked how much longer our food would be after already waiting 50 mins. Huge let down! Only thing they could say it that it takes a while to cook the burger since it's a 2 lb patty, well had I known, I would have opted for something else! read more

Mary's Cafe - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

Mary G said the medium chicken fried steak wasn't worth the $28.00. I guess she will never eat chicken fried steak again because nobody else has a chicken fried steak as good whatever the price!! I have never had a bad meal here ever in 50 years!!Chicken Fried Steak read more

I have read for years that Mary's has the best chicken fried steak in Texas. Unfortunately, there was nothing special about it. It wasn't bad, but I don't feel it was worth the drive. The servers were working diligently, but we waited for well over an hour and a half, though we had 7 people at our table. If you're in the area for some reason, (like you got a flat headed to your uncle Elroy's for a family reunion) it wouldn't be a bad place to stop. But I would not drive out of my way for this experience again. We also had calf fries, and after eating them dozens of times in other places this is the first time I truly felt I was eating greasy cow testicles. In summary: mediocre food, no atmosphere, long waits, greasy balls. read more

We drove 90 miles to have the chicken fried steak. I have never been so disappointed in life. That was NOT what a chicken fried steak is supposed to be. We got a couple of small pieces of what looked like cube steak lightly floured and fried. No beautiful breading/batter or that deep fried crisp. That being said, however, the other things we ordered (calf fries, frog legs, etc) were outstanding. We will go back, but I won't be ordering the chicken fried steak. read more

We tried to come here the Sunday before Independence Day, but there was a two hour wait. Luckily, we were coming back through Strawn on a Monday afternoon, and we were able to stop. This small restaurant has been raved about in a number of publications, including Texas Monthly. I knew I was having the famous chicken fried steak (CFS to Texans), which comes with mashed potatoes, toast, and a simple salad of lettuce and tomatoes. As this establishment does not serve sweet tea (crazy, but ok), I opted for a can of Diet Coke. My fiancé had the BBQ plate, which was brisket, toast, and either ranch beans or cole slaw, as well as unsweetened tea. Our server, Destiny, brought our drinks and our condiments. In the short time before our food arrived, we were able to survey the simple decor, which includes restaurant write-ups, and some humorous hunting paintings. Then the food arrived. Holy moly! Huge portions of heavenly food that explains why this place is so popular. My steak had pieces cut off of it in order to fit on the plate with the massive bowl of mashed potatoes and the salad bowl (I'm thinking those could have just not been on the plate in order to leave the steak in a single piece, but it's not my restaurant). The homemade cream gravy was in a huge bowl on the side. The steak was sitting on two corners of Texas toast. All of this for $15.50. His meal was many slices of brisket (no smoke ring, so I'm guessing slow roasted), two corners of Texas toast, a bowl of a sweet and slightly tangy BBQ sauce, and a monstrous bowl of homemade ranch beans (all for less than $12.00). We didn't speak a lot during the meal - we couldn't, as we were happily enjoying this outstandingly well prepared feast. The CFS has a light breading that stuck closely to the meat, and it was darker, which means the oil it was fried in had lots of flavor bits. The mashed potatoes had nice little chunks of potatoes that hadn't been smashed to nothingness. I didn't even make a dent in my meal, but we still opted for homemade pie (I was saving room, we'll say). He had chocolate, and I had a peach fried pie. These, too, were scratch made arts of perfection, including the crust. We cleaned our plates of those scrumptious desserts - it would have been criminal not to. The bill was less than $42 for this meal, and my leftovers will feed both of us for dinner. Oh, and this is a BYOB joint for liquor and wine, but there are some beers available. I'd say all of those periodicals were right - this cute place is the real deal of great food read more

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This is the best CFS in the whole state. If you like Mexican food as well you have to get the Mary's special you won't be disappointed

Seriously delicious comfort food. Best chicken fried steak I've ever had. Service was excellent. We will be going back.

My wife and I ate at Mary's this past Saturday. We went to Strawn to check out the new state park, which is far from being ready to open in 2023. We've eaten there before a few years back and it was pretty good, but not this time. The CFS and CFC were hammered flat and overcooked. The sides were cold when served and the prices are out of line for a small-town cafe. Sure, she has a golden goose being the only restaurant in town, but dang, $19.00 for a small CFS and $20.00 for a hamburger? Also, we weren't the only senior couple there and they all left huge amounts of food on their plates because Mary's wants to charge you for sharing a large proportion meal. Won't be going back. read more

I read this place cooked the best chicken fried steak in Texas. That's a heck of statement if you live in Texas. I have to say it is very, very good. I had the medium CFS platter, it covered the plate but was different. First thing you notice is it's flat, because they pan fry it instead of deep frying it. The next thing is the taste. Hands down the best tasting beef and breading I've ever tasted. I only used the gravy for dipping twice, otherwise it was just the steak bite by bite. Fries were hand cut and superb, mash potatoes were rustic and slightly under seasoned. The gravy was very good but I really didn't need it. Nice little salad comes with the platter. Overall, the 1.5 hour drive was worth it. read more

Mary's Cafe never disappoints! My son and I stopped in yesterday for our favorite chicken fried steak and it was great as always. Mary and her staff were on point as well! read more

We stop at Mary's fairly often. The food is always excellent. A few times the staff is a little "lost". There are plenty of wait staff, but they keep walking past. Never check to see if you've been taken care of. Once we finally asked to place an order they sent someone. She took order, dropped off food and Never saw her again. We got our own to go boxes. Today was not the best and they weren't busy when we arrived. When we left another table of four still sat there waiting for someone, anyone to notice they were there and willing to pay for their dinner! Again, the food is always excellent and that's the reason we keep going back. read more

Easily the WORST meal I have ever eaten. ~Bland/Soggy/Thin Cafeteria Style CFS ~Flavorless Flour Textured Gravy ~Instant Style Mashed Potatoes *Decent Fried Okra There was a wait time of "one hour" that turned into 2 1/2 grueling hours. As Chicken Fried Steak connoisseurs, my Fiancé and I decided to wait it out, since, we had heard such wonderful things about Mary's Cafe. There was a huge up-charge that was not reflected on the paper menu, but rather, posted in the restroom. Very Odd. The establishment itself could use a deep clean and a bit of love, overall. If you live in or are ever near the Fort Worth area - the absolute BEST Chicken Fried Steak I have found to date is in the Stockyards at Horseshoe Hill Cafe. Happy Eating! read more

We stopped here tonight on our way to west Texas from Fort Worth. We had the large chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, fried okra, fried green tomatoes and bottle caps. Everything was excellent. The chicken fry was huge!!! It could have fed 5 people. Super tender and we loved the breading. The mashed potatoes and gravy were perfect sides. We loved our first experience at Mary's and plan to go back. Even on a busy Valentine's Day our waiter was very attentive and provided excellent service. read more

Mary's Cafe - Fried green tomatoes and bottle caps - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

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Mary's was a great way to kick off our vacation to West Texas / Big Bend ! We could hardly wait to wrap our lips around Mary's Famous Chicken Fried Steak again! We rolled in around 11:30 am & were quickly seated.....our friendly & bubbly waitress said, "what y'all drinkin' this afternoon?" .....hubby & I both opted for the Iced Tea instead of that HUGE "Bubba Mug" of Ice Cold Beer, since we had some miles & tracks to make. Ahhh....that CFS with cream gravy is so worth the wait! The Ginormous plate of hand cut fires is still intimidating....but, they're oh so good! Mary's fed us & we were good-to-go as we headed out for Far West Texas! 'Till we meet again.....Thanks Mary ! ! ! : - ) read more

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Texas Country Reporter says best CFS in Texas. It's in my top 2. We always stop here on the way to Dallas. The small is enough to fill me up, and yes, it is very good. Give them a try. read more

Mary's Cafe - Oh yah! - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

We drove in to Strawn just for Mary's. Apparently, from the looks of the town, Mary IS the town of Strawn. The staff was great and that usually sets the tone of the the experience for me. We opted for Shiner and the "small" CFS order. The order comes with CFS served on two pieces of bread, a BOWL of white gravy, a small side salad of iceberg lettuce, with the options of smashed potatoes or french fries. They have a smoking room option, but lucky for us, no one smoked during our visit. It's definitely worth the visit to see what the talk is all about. Be aware of the police while driving into the town. read more

Mary's Cafe - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

Mary's is a great local stop! I've only been there a couple times and I've only ever had the chicken fried steak and chocolate pie but both are REALLY GOOD and very big! The service was great and they give you real metal utensils (no floppy plastic-ware) and they have generous size cups and free refills! If you're in the area, don't miss Mary's! read more

Simply the best chicken fried chicken I've ever had. This place is extraordinary. It is as TEXAS as it gets. Huge portions, excellent seasonings, and the sweetest and most on-top-of-it servers in the area. Also, I love French fries more than anything under the sun and these are the real deal. Classic, double fried, natural cut fries. The best I've had in years. I'm telling you, Mary's is a must! read more

Mary's Cafe - Amazing Chicken Fried Chicken w/ cream gravy!! - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

I visited Mary's about 2 years ago. Heard lots about them being famous for huge portions of Chicken Fried Steaks, and it being some good chit. With my best friend visiting from Southern California, and a self described "Chicken Fried Steak Connoisseur", we took the 40 minute drive from Graham to Strawn. Arriving, this place isn't all that impressive from the outside. Looks like you're at the wrong place, but once inside, you see action going on. Several rooms packed with tables, people, and more importantly FOOD...and not just little child's plate portions, but heaping Texas-sized portions! Again, although we went for the CFS, I'm more of a grilled steak man myself, and since it was all-you-can-eat steak night, I went with the T-bones. My wife ordered a medium CFS and my buddy also ordered the medium. Keep in mind he's no wimpy little Richard Simmons body match by no means - this guy at the time went about 6', 300lbs and an appetite of an NFL linebacker. Well he didn't disappoint as he ate his entire CFS (I'm guessing it had a 16" diameter - no lie!), and half of my wife's! My poor wife was hurting 1/4 the way through her CFS, and struggled to get to the halfway point. Meanwhile my T-bones were as tender as any I've ever had, and the server was very good in getting me my 2nd and 3rd steaks, despite the packed house. This is definitely a place to bring friends and family, but I'd recommend not eating the entire morning. Very affordable, and parking wasn't bad. Toothpicks provided (much needed) upon exiting. read more

If you like your Chicken Fried steak thin, lightly battered and pan fried, this is the place. Been here twice now, about a year apart, and it's still good. Cream gravy is well peppered. Fries are good, chunky mashed potatoes are better. The also make huge burgers: lots of meat, not a lot of bun kind of huge. They have a large menu, so there is plenty to choose from for everyone in your party. This is a small town diner, so the service is genuinely friendly but quirky. And yes, they have pie, but I've been too stuffed to try so far. Well worth the drive. read more

Mary's Cafe - Large order of CFS - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

Great food, service and portions!! You won't find a better chicken fried steak in the country!!!

Greatness! What a Texas cafe should be. When you see a chicken fried steak and enchiladas combo on the menu, you have arrived where you need to be. We arrived at 730pm on a Saturday night. The cafe was in an overflow situation. After a bit of a wait for a table a long wait for the food; we were rewarded with chicken fried steak and enchiladas that tasted like grandmas, if your grandma was of German/Mexican heritage. The article on the wall stated such of Mary. It also said the food is cooked to order and in particular the Cfs was cooked in a cast iron skillet just like my grandma and mother still use. Everybody brings out leftovers. I just heated them up for Sunday lunch. Stuffed again. Your lucky Strawn, Texas. The rest of us will have to have deep fried cfs when not at Marys....not the same! read more

Put it this way; if I had to chose between Mary's chicken fried steak and the best steak au poivre (filet of course)? There is a very good chance I would pick the chicken fried steak they serve here. Yup, a very very good chance actually. The mountain of delicious golden fries and tub of slap your mother in the face good gravy seal the deal. Go. Please. Go find out for yourself. Btw the service was excellent. read more

Ive eaten here many times over the years. The food is great, and one of the best CFS's youll find anywhere. Ive always overlooked the $25 an hour flop house motel conditions the restaurant is in because of the food quality, but I get that some people cant. To each their own. That being said, the service here is horrible, and has been steadily going downhill the last couple of years like a manual shift trans am with a broken parking brake and drunken, naked Randy Travis is at the wheel. We arrived on Sunday well before the after church crowds or even typical lunch crowds would be there. 45 minutes later, we'd only been served a glass of water and thats it. We ordered food as soon as we sat down too, so its not like we strolled in for a Sunday brunch buffet with nowhere else to be. Finding our waitress was like a where's waldo poster - you know she is here but damned if we've seen her yet. Keep looking! We HAD to be in Abilene at a certain time, and had allowed more than enough time we thought to stop here, but apparently receiving two CFS plates inside of an hour is the new challenge here. Ended up leaving without even telling our waitress because all we had was water, and STILL couldn't find her or our lunch. Hate to say it but Im really not interested in going out of my way for Mary's any longer. It just isnt that special and I can get horrible service inside of 10 minutes at pretty much any place along I20 between Aledo and Abilene, so why wait an hour or more for it here? read more

So I have a few friends that told me about Mary's. So we went on a road trip one and half hour drive to get to Mary's. We were seated when we got there. The waitress was very nice. I ordered the World Famous Chicken Fried Steak and mashed potatoes. I don't know what world it was but it's not the one I live in. It was just ok. My mother and wife do a better job. The mashed potatoes were a little brown looking and a bad after taste. My granddaughters had the chicken strips and they didn't eat them. So I tasted one and it wasn't good. I don't know if this place at one time was good. I will not take another road trip here. read more

Nope. Being from Tx I cannot recommend Mary's chicken fried steak. Ya gotta do better than powdered cream gravy. Not a place I'd ever have to go again read more

Mary's Cafe is waaay out in the country at Strawn, Texas 1 hour and 15 minutes from our house in west Fort Worth but easily worth the drive for the Best Chicken fried Steak in Texas. I mean numero uno in Texas. We met the owner, Mary, this visit. She is short in stature but an energizer bunny who is constantly in productive motion, cooking food to perfection (or supervising its preparation ) while also busing tables and directing the servers. As our custom is, when possible, we met my brother and his family for early dinner at 4:00. Fortunately we beat the rush as we had 16 of us. Then came the food....glorious food. As an appetizer I ordered a plate of calf fries lightly breaded and fried to golden tender perfection....with a bowl of cream gravy for dipping. They were the best I have ever had outside my Uncle Weldon's ranch on round up day. There are 3 choices of portion sizes to order CFS at Mary's : small, medium (plate size) or large ( twice the size of medium) I ordered the "small" without embarrassment because it came with a loaded baked potato that was probably over a pound in weight, and a salad. Their fried okra is to die for also. The menu says there is a full page of Mexican food possibilities which my brother says are excellent also. I doubt I will ever live long enough to sample any of that fare when I would have to not order CFS. O well. Did I mention that my order came with a soup bowl filled with cream gravy that will put your grandmother's to shame? Dip a slice of your Texas Toast in it and give it a try. Seriously dangerously good. Oh, my wife had grilled quail kabobs and was very happy. She also loves Mary's chicken livers. So many choices .......but #1 CFS. read more

Mary's Cafe - Some of my calf fries mysteriously disappeared before I could take a photo. - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

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CFS not worth the drive But the beans/cornbread are! Coating on CFS soggy (medium barely fits on plate). Fries hand cut, rings hand battered. Mary burger 2" thick 1#, well seasoned but overdone and they added mustard... Service perfect! read more

Mary's Cafe - American Near Me - Strawn, Texas

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