CH James, Fairfield by Foghorn Leghorn

Recently I joined a group of food bloggers for brunch at CH James in Fairfield. It’s an airy space with plenty of natural light, and a buzz of activity. When we arrived, the music was blasting at a volume that made conversation impossible, but that was rectified quickly. We slowly settled in to a big table and discussed what we should all order.


Corn and haloumi fritters

The menu has an interesting assortment of both sweet and savoury dishes, so there was quite a bit of discussion. The offering includes all sorts of unusual combinations (like pea panna cotta), but I was in the mood for something simple, so I ordered a brekky burger.


This turned out to be a mistake, due to my ignorance of burger conventions. I was expecting a nice solid beef burger, but all I got was an assemblage of things that normally complement a burger, like bacon, egg and cheese. There’s apparently a simple reason for this: burgers are not served with beef for breakfast. Even that famous Scottish burger restaurant, which tries to be all things to all people, won’t serve you a beef patty before 10:30 am.




Peeved at the lack of meat, I looked around and could see that other dishes looked much more appetising. Mrs Leghorn ordered smashed avocado with panko egg and a side of cured salmon. This was a hit. The panko egg (poached egg coated in breadcrumbs and fried) was done just right, and was a kind of centrepiece. The house-cured salmon was a nice piece of fish, and had a more delicate taste than the smoked salmon you find in shops.

Another hit was the corn and haloumi fritters with poached egg (see first pic). Corn and haloumi is a slightly unusual combination, but the people who ate it were full of praise.

What I should have ordered was the crumbed ham hock with fried egg and other accompaniments. As it was carried past me, the beautiful smoky aroma told me what I was missing. I noticed that it disappeared from the plate without a trace.

Another thing that CH James does well is hash browns. These come as part of some dishes, and can also be ordered separately. They were praised highly by people who tried them. I was sitting opposite a slim girl who looked like she’d limit her food intake, so I hoped I’d get a chance to sample at least half a hash brown. No such luck! As I looked at her plate, I saw the last piece disappear.


On the sweet front, the buttermilk hotcakes were also a hit.


Before our meals arrived, everyone was served a sampler of muesli with fruits and yoghurt. I haven’t eaten muesli for 20 years, and this reminded me why. It’s just not my sort of thing. It looked good, though, with a great colour arrangement of fruit.


Finally, I should note that the whole event kicked off with coffee, which received high praise from all concerned.

Verdict

We liked it.

Mid value.

Overall

The kitchen at CH James produces some interesting and innovative dishes. Some of it seems designed for the crushed avocado crowd (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but there’s also a fair selection of more down-to-earth offerings like hash browns, fried eggs and grilled haloumi.

There’s an outdoor area that looks very pleasant on a nice day, but we were there on a cold and windy day, so didn’t get to try it out.

The Eat and Be Merry Crew were guests of CH James.

Find it at

CH James
86 Station Street
Fairfield VIC 3078
Phone: (03) 9486 3484