Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 7 am-4 pm; Sat-Sun 7 am-5 pm; closed Wednesdays.

Perhaps because it's been a few different breakfast joints over the years, the Silver Fork, which is located in the heart of the Rainier Valley and proposes to be a soul food restaurant, seems like nothing more than a Denny's with a kick-ass funk soundtrack going on in the background.

But no Denny's I've ever been to has grits this good, and I've never tasted a better example: fluffy, pristinely white yet butter soaked--here was perfection of an elusive (in the Northwest, anyway) side dish. Topped with an appropriately dry pork chop and served with the kind of scrambled eggs I love to make at home--basically an omelet rolled into a cylinder right out of the pan--with a side of wheat toast cut ever so exactly on the diagonal and served with the perfect dressing: grape jelly. My breakfast was good, but next time I'll just order a bowl of grits and the pork.

The !!Soul Burger (that's exactly how it's listed on the menu) is a regular beef patty topped with a fat link sausage (which tasted like a regular old hot dog to me), and as advertised, the sausage was fat and split down the middle. The burger came with the best kind of side salad: chopped iceberg lettuce topped with a mound of thin shreds of magenta-colored cabbage and an even bigger haystack of whittled carrot, and instead of a mini ramekin of liquid on the side, a gravy boat of blue cheese dressing, and that's what I'm talkin' about when it comes to what I think makes for a proper salad. None of those highfalutin' greens that taste like yard.

Other than that, the Silver Fork's menu is just like that of most diners. This one opens early and closes at 4:00 p.m. on weekdays--great for the early-rising breakfast-eaters like me, but not so good for those layabouts who like to catch the first meal of the day around 3:30 p.m. But as a soul food place, it's not much of a cultural tourist destination; I'm as Caucasian-looking as they come and I felt right at home.