as fancy as it was
Entering the house, he fished out a steak from the refrigerator. He had to open a few of the cabinets before he found a cast-iron fry pan, but the stove, as fancy as it was, functioned similarly to the ones back home.
What does "as fancy as it was" mean?

Question

Answer

It means ‘even though it was fancy’.

Answer

'as fancy as it was' means the stove was not simple or plain. It had a lot of functions that most stoves wouldn't have.

ie. A basic stove has a few functions: turn on/off, timer, basic oven, etc  ... perhaps a few other things. A 'fancy' stove can do all this, but a lot more. The term is sometimes mildly negative or derogatory as it implies the object (stove in this instance) does a lot of extra things that are unneeded or unnecessarily complicated.