Fatty Patty’s Southern Cafe is the perfect place to go when you’re in the mood for a savory and filling breakfast. This popular Panama City Beach joint is best known for its large, country-style breakfast, but they also have a surprisingly versatile bakery on-site and are known for making excellent custom cakes.
You will find Fatty Patty’s Southern Cafe on Thomas Drive on the west side of Panama City Beach and within a pretty bustling strip mall. The restaurant itself also tends to be pretty bustling thanks to its commitment to three key values: big portions, high-quality ingredients, and homemade recipes.
Walking into this Panama City Beach cafe feels a bit like walking into a hangar due to the interior’s high ceilings with exposed ductwork. The walls are half-painted with artwork and a partial mural featuring a surfing scene. The dining room is one large area with booths along two sides, a diner-styled bar along the back part of the dining room, and plenty of tables in the central part. The room overall feels very bright and airy with a mix of ceiling lights and wall sconces.
The menu is very Southern country style. This means a lot of big, savory dishes like biscuits and gravy, griddle meals, and, of course, fried chicken and waffles. The portion sizes for all of the entrees at Fatty Patty’s Southern Cafe run huge, which paired with prices that would be fair for smaller portions, makes this restaurant a solid value pick. More often than not, customers will find themselves asking for to-go boxes following the meal.
It’s hard to pick favorites at Fatty Patty’s Southern Cafe, but some local favorites on their menu include:
Southern Smothered Chicken Biscuit
This entree features a thickly sliced biscuit that is topped with a fried piece of chicken. Both are smothered in a creamy homemade sausage gravy and served alongside a large order of home fries.
Pancake Breakfast
This menu item features a short stack of pancakes — very big pancakes that are often made the size of the plate. Plain, fluffy pancakes come standard with the order, but for a small surcharge, you can upgrade to a fruiter option, including blueberry, banana, or pecan. They even have a chocolate chip pancake option for those with a demanding sweet tooth. Also included in the Pancake Breakfast are two eggs made and served your way, and your choice of sausage, bacon, or ham.
Chicken Tender Plate
Fatty Patty’s Southern Cafe is best known for its breakfast menu items, but they also have a good selection of lunch options. For example, their Chicken Tender Plate features three chicken tenders that are hand tossed and fried to order and combined with your choice of two regular sides. Those regular side options include French fries, kettle chips, side salad, Cole slaw, broccoli salad, corn nuggets, potato salad, sweet potato fries, kettle chips, and mac and cheese. Suffice it to say that you have plenty of options.
Insider Tips:
-Do you like your portions really big? Are you ready for a food challenge? If so, then make sure to check out this restaurant’s unique Chubby Challenge. The Chubby Challenge states that if you can finish Fatty Patty’s Southern Cafe’s Chubby Cheeseburger within one hour, you’ll get a coupon for a free burger and a free specialty t-shirt. But don’t come thinking that this will be an easy task. The $40 Chubby Cheeseburger is made up of a whopping three pounds of ground beef that is garnished with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. As with their other burgers and sandwich baskets, this meal comes with a basket of fries and your choice of drink.
-If possible, bring cash as this restaurant does currently add a 4% surcharge on all credit card purchases. Additionally, calling in and ordering menu items to go can cause you to also be subject to another 7% fee.