The Country Way – San Jose

5325 Mowry Avenue
Fremont, CA
(510) 797-3188
Mentioned here since ironically, despite being in Silicon Valley, they do not have a website easily found on Google
sampled February, 2005

Fremont is very close to San Jose… I couldn’t say for sure how close, but we stayed at a hotel in Fremont that Craig’s company, which is located in San Jose, chose.  Driving around was not difficult at all. 

If you love breakfast, you have to go here.  Honestly.  When I go away, I generally ask the concierge at least once for their recommendation or I’ll stop a “local” person to ask for a place to eat.  On this morning, I was hungry, I wanted breakfast, and since I was hanging out in San Jose that day, I decided to ask the concierge for a recommendation.  It’s not like I would know where to go in San Jose otherwise! 

The concierge said this place- The Country Way– was the best breakfast anywhere. Breakfast is generally, well, breakfast, yeah it can be really good, but I’m a meat(usually sausage)-and-eggs kinda gal. Well, the waitress recommended their sausage patty, so I said ok, thinking why the hell do they need 3 eggs for a sausage patty- imagining a McDonald’s sized patty- and when it came, holy moly! NO, that’s not steak, it’s a home/handmade sausage patty! And boy was it good, and the home fries, deeeelish and crispy!!!  The eggs also had that super fresh taste to them- I can’t explain it, but you can tell when eggs are old and you can tell when they’re fresh.  They were cooked perfectly, with none of that egg white stuff that occasionally stays raw when you order sunny side up.

This really redefined my impression of breakfast just being okay.  Seriously, they took a simple thing and made it better, which is amazing.  I thought “breakfast is breakfast- it’s not hard to make- even my sister can make a decent omelette” but seriously, this was really good.  Service was great and friendly, too- I actually, since I was alone, ran out to my car after I ordered because I’d left my book in the car and I didn’t want to eat alone and just stare around at people (I ate at the breakfast bar, a first for me as well).  The waitress was nice about everything, made suggestions, and called me “Hon”.  It was a great, friendly atmosphere and a good experience.  I would go back, if I was in the San Jose area again. 

One amusing note was that when I was “done”- I couldn’t finish all of it, as you can see, it was so much- the waitress came by and offered me to pack it up and take it to go.  I’ve never been one to waste food, but I politely declined, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to eat it later as I was on the road.  Mm, looking at that picture really makes me want some right now!  But I thought it was interesting that she offered to pack it up without me even saying anything; that’s very customer-friendly, I guess a lot of people can’t finish their huge platters.  It wasn’t expensive, either; I believe it was around $10 including tip and orange juice for all this.  Yummy!

Yvo says: Definitely go here if you’re in the area, it’s really yummy, although it seems to always be busy (which is good and bad).  Their breakfast really can’t be beat!  I don’t know about driving down from San Francisco just for this breakfast, but in the area, definitely go here!  Yummy!