St James’s Kitchen

Don’t get me wrong, I love sourdough bread as much as the next person, but sometimes you can’t beat toast made with sliced white bread. It has to be done right mind you, it shouldn’t be overdone or too dark, that wouldn’t do at all. Toast should be golden and bathed in butter, perfect for soaking up runny yolk from a fried egg and mopping up after baked beans. I know that sourdough is much healthier than sliced white, and there are some glorious full English breakfasts in E17 that come served with it. But every now and then I need a breakfast that hasn’t been fussed with. You know the kind, a whopping plate of fried stuff that would be classed as hazardous to health by your doctor. Sunday was one of those days when I needed fixing by a fry up, and I decided to try out St James’s Kitchen on St James Street.

If you are familiar with the St James Street end of Walthamstow and you are wondering where the cafe is, wonder no more, it used to be called Oneda’s but has recently change owner and name. Oneda’s did a pretty decent fry up, and I’m pleased to say that the cafe still does. I went for what was pretty much the full works, sausage, egg, beans, bacon, black pudding, mushrooms and hash browns. I could eat hash browns until they come out of my ears, so having two of them on my plate felt like Christmas had come early. The breakfast also came with the essential portion of sliced white toast, and only cost £5.40. At that price I could have had two breakfasts, though I probably would have thrown up on my shoes.

Now then, if you are the kind of person who only eats in cafes where the tables are made out of recycled scaffolding boards, and there are fifty odd different kinds of coffee on offer, this probably isn’t the place for you. You aren’t going to find a macca-frappa-nonsense here, you know, where the bean has been digested by a red squirrel before being roasted by a Cuban virgin. The interior is basic but comfortable, and the food is honest cafe food. Sandwiches, rolls, jacket spuds, shepherds pies and fry ups, and there’s nothing wrong with that, not everywhere needs to serve thrice pickled beetroot.

If you’ve read my blog before you will no doubt know that I’m a big fan of cafes. Trendy ones, greasy ones, regular ones and quirky ones, as long as they can serve me tea they are heading in the right direction. I’d class St James’s Kitchen as a regular cafe, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s clean, friendly, it isn’t trying to be anything other than a cafe, and the menu is very reasonably priced, there’s not much that costs more than a fiver. With big windows that look out on to the comings and goings of St James Street, and a fry that could fix any hangover, St James’s Kitchen is a nice addition to this corner of Walthamstow. If you want to give it a try, you can find the cafe at number 36 St James Street.

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