BKK Steak 'n' Eggs Head-to-Head

Rating Mickey's and Paddy Reilly's protien-est plates

Hey Substackers, this is for those of you scraggly expats who’re trying to slim down with keto, and/or any Bankokarnivore who just loves this classic dish. It’s a head-to-head comparison of the steak and eggs plates at Mickey’s and Paddy Reilly. Let’s go…

The famous American-style diner has moved from Wireless Road to the new Gaysorn Mall behind the Erawan Shrine. I was the only farang in the joint, surrounded by hiso Thais getting their foreign food fix. I was so tempted to get the classic b-fast because I've had it many times and it's outstanding. I was a little bummed to see their mac-n-cheeseburger is off the menu, but there’s still a ton of other stuff I'll be hurrying back to try very soon. 

At 890b++ Mickey’s steak and eggs plate cause heart palpitations before you even take a bite. And I will try to justify the crazy price as we go along. The dish arrived with steak, two eggs, potatoes, and mushrooms. The eggs floated on a pool of sauce that tasted like a cross between gravy, A1 and HP. The steak was fantastic...high quality beef, lightly seasoned if at all. Each succulent bite veritably melted in my mouth. I believe the sauce was meant to get slathered on top of it, but the flavor of the meat was so good on its own that I didn't need or want to augment it. The shrooms were excellent, sauteed in butter and a hint of pepper and garlic. The organic eggs went down easy, and the roasted potatoes were....just potatoes. They were good, but not out of the ordinary. Which is fine because taters don't gel with my keto-heavy diet. The stars of the dish were the mushrooms and the steak, which I ordered cooked medium but arrived very, very rare in the middle. And of course, this is what restaurants do. It's easier and cheaper to throw a too-rare slab back on the grill for a minute than to re-fire a new steak because the first was too done. And personally, I don't mind a rare steak. When paired with a glass of beer and after the plus-plus, the total damage was a whopping 1224b. And if Mickey’s was the only place in town to get this meal, I'd reluctantly pay it from time to time. But they're not.

.....now on to Paddy Reilly. First, at only 590b and no ++ it's much kinder to your bank account. And although the steak wasn’t as primo as Mickey’s, it was damn close, and there’s a hell of a lot more of it, as you can see from this post’s cover photo (Paddy’s is on the right). The steak has some secret seasoning. I detected black pepper, a pinch of salt, and a hint of something else…maybe garlic but not much. At any rate, the flavor is banging. Paddy provides three eggs, as opposed to Mickey’s two, but no mushrooms. The roasted potatoes get the treatment from the owner’s special recipe, and they are sublime. Golden, crispy inside and soft inside, with a lingering taste that inspires visions of one’s mom, adorned in an apron, stirring a pot on the stove. And although I tried to resist them, I broke my keto commitment for those awesome spuds.

If one were to strictly grade the plates based on their content, it’d go something like this: Mickey’s gets a 8.5 out of 10, for the quality of the steak and the surprise of mushrooms on the plate. They lose marks for the brownish sauce, offering only two eggs, and ‘meh’ potatoes. Paddy gets an 8 out of 10, for the excellent flavor of the steak and the extra egg. They lose points only when comparing the cuts of meat from the two places. Mickey’s splurges for a slightly nicer steak. However, the 300++ extra baht is hardly worth that.

There are lots of dishes I look forward to having at Mickey’s, but it won’t be steak and eggs again. For that, I’ll be hitting up Paddy Reilly at least once a week. When the plate is clean and you set down the fork, it’s all about the feeling of happiness and satisfaction sans buyer’s remorse. And for that, it’s Paddy all the way. Both joints do a great job with this dish, but Paddy’s steak spices, 3rd egg, and better price point edge out the competition.

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