Mom's classics more than satisfy at the Eatery in Haltom City

It's no longer a gas station, but you can sure fill 'er up at the Eatery.

"We started selling sandwiches," said Cindy Gifford, who expanded her Haltom City catering company into a six-table sit-down cafe about two years ago. "We're a restaurant by accident."

But it's a happy accident. The Eatery is a place where meat is what's for dinner, somebody named Miss Ruby may drop off samples of her homemade strawberry jam and they proudly top the $2.95 pint of banana pudding with real Cool Whip.

The specials change daily, but pork chops, pot roast, chicken-fried steak and the ever-popular chicken croquette are always on the menu. If it's Monday or Wednesday -- and you're lucky -- it'll have the chicken and dumplings, made with Gifford's grandmother's recipe.

"We boil real chickens and make our own stock," Gifford said, adding that customers can have a choice of the regular $4.95 portion or the $6.29 bottomless bowl. "We've been thinking about having a dumpling challenge."

The regulars had already met the dumpling challenge, leaving nothing but a tablespoon-size sample by the time we rolled up at about 1 p.m. Fortunately, there was $6.99 worth of consolation in the chicken-fried steak dinner.

The salad was your usual: lettuce, tomatoes, a little balsamic vinegar. Mashed potatoes, however, transported this reviewer to a happy place. The smoothly mounded spuds made a perfect delivery vehicle for the 30-weight cream gravy, which lit up the warm, loving part of the brain center devoted to, uh, mothers and stuff.

As for the steak -- a study in taupe and tan, cooked in a frying pan -- all of a sudden it was gone, along with the little dish of fresh yellow stewed squash, leaving this diner to cast the jaundiced eye on his companion's cranberry pecan chicken salad ($5.95).

The concoction is moist and flavorful enough to have put the Eatery on top of at least one local food competition. Patrons can order it on a bed of salad greens or choose the sandwich option.

A week or two later, we doubled back to the Eatery in hopes of trying the chicken and dumplings, but hit the wrong day. The alternative was an order of chipotle barbecue pork chops ($5.95) with a side of fresh broccoli and, naturally, mashed potatoes, which were among the daily specials. The well-sauced baked chops disappeared in short order, leaving nothing but a small collection of bones for the dog, room for a couple of biscuits to wipe up the sauce -- and banana pudding.

John Austin, 817-390-7874