Facing the Port Macquarie foreshore, Chop’n’Chill is a big operation set up for doing volume. For early risers, they open at 7.30am, but this is just for coffee. If you want to also order breakfast, you’ll be waiting until 8am. Suffice to say we were the first breakfast order placed for the day.
Ordering is done at the counter from a menu that runs from Continental waffles (Belgian) to a range of dishes employing house-smoked meats. We opted for the latter with the bacon beast ($19.50) that plated up plenty of unevenly-cooked bacon, great spuds, a set fried egg that’s crispy on the edges, unbuttered thick white bread that was only properly toasted on one side, and Hollandaise sauce that lacked tang with some uncooked cherry tomatoes that tasted green. It wasn’t terrible, but it lacked attention to detail, and a breakfast plate doesn’t give sloppy cooking many places to hide.
Our second breakfast selection, blazing saddles ($24), teamed house-smoked sausage, bacon, BBQ chilli beans, potato chunks and thick white unbuttered toast under a fried egg. The house-smoked snag and the smoky beans were both stars, inclining me to believe that this place would probably be better at lunchtime or dinner.
