Today Grainger is restaurant owner (bills in Darlinghurst opened 1993 and bills2 opened in Surry Hills in 1996); best-selling cookbook author (bills food, sydney food and bills open kitchen); TV presenter (bills food on Australia's Lifestyle Channel and the UK's BBC2); and regular radio guest.
With so many things on his plate, not to mention three cherubic golden-haired children as well, we'll forgive him his erroneous habit of omitting apostrophes!
bills is disguised in an assuming Victorian terrace house, the neutral colour-schemed facade giving little indication of the embryonic mastery which occurs within.
We arrived at 7.30am on a Saturday, well aware of the notorious weekend breakfast queues. The gigantic communal wooden table was spotless bar the meticulously arranged magazines and newspapers.
It's sunny, warm and casual inside. A gigantic blackboard lists the menu on one wall and the kichen is vaguely visible behind the front counter.
We grabbed our own table though and hemmed and hawed over the delirious menu options before placing our orders. We'd heard that bills has a reputation for slow service and indeed it took twenty minutes for our drinks to arrive. Time enough to take pictures of the condiments and Murray River salt flakes anyway...
The coffee though, was worth the wait.
Goooood coffee.
Two thumbs up!
Grinders coffee $3.50
We eschewed the healthy (read: ho hum) options of Bircher muesli, fruit plate and cereal in favour of Bill's signature dishes. We wanted the scrambled eggs, we wanted the corn fritters, we wanted the ricotta hotcakes... we wanted it all!
Wholewheat toast with free range scrambled eggs $11.80
Wholewheat toast with free range scrambled eggs and bacon $16.00
Sweet corn fritters with roast tomato, spinach and bacon $16.80
Ricotta hotcakes with fresh banana and honeycomb butter $16.00
What can we say but yuuuuuuuuuuuummm.
The scrambled eggs were indeed divine. Soft, delicate pillows of decadence; although it's little wonder they taste so good with 1/3 of a cup of cream used per two eggs, according to the recipe!
The bacon was also good. There's a big difference between good bacon and bad bacon. And bills' bacon brought it home. Crisp, tasty and full of flavour (not water and fat).
The toast was perfect too--thick chunks of homestyle bread.
Corn fritters were bursting with freshly shaved corn kernels, juicy and firm to the bite. There was plenty of corn and red capsicum, although there were some mouthfuls where the batter was still a little gluggy.
Ricotta hotcakes were the final hurrah: three fluffy ovals of airy goodness, interspersed with surprise pockets of pure ricotta. The honeycomb butter gave a sporadic pleasing crunch to mouthfuls of maple syrup-soaked hotcakes (although there wasn't nearly enough of the butter for our greedy liking!).
By 8.20pm we noticed there was a queue of about ten people spilling out along the footpath.
And having finally eaten the legendary scrambled eggs too, we now know why.
Next time we're leaving room for the homemade toasted coconut bread!
bills
433 Liverpool Street Darlinghurst Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9360 9631
Breakfast:
Mon - Fri 7.30-12.00
Saturday 7.30-15.00
Sunday 8.30-15.00
Lunch:
Mon - Sun 12.00-15.00
Dinner:
Mon - Sat 18.00-22.00
10% surcharge on weekends and public holidays
BYO corkage $3 per bottle
Related GrabYourFork posts:
bills Surry Hills (breakfast)
bills Surry Hills (dinner)
bills Woollahra (Jun 2007)
bills Woollahra (Jan 2007)
mmm, I had the ricotta pancakes when I was there last. Yes, they are divine!
ReplyDeleteah, it's good to see that the food in the restaurant looks like the food in the books, which look like the food i prepare at home when i follow the recipes. those eggs are a cardiac arrest on a plate, they're gorgeous--and stupidly simple to make, too!
ReplyDeleteHey..AG,
ReplyDeleteThe coffee looks devine..!! Oh.. how i miss Sydney..!!
And I have had the ricotta pancakes there too - a great way to while away the time and eat delcious food and read magazines. As a solo traveller I felt totally comfortable there. Maybe I'll be back soon...?
ReplyDeleteIt looks incredible, but, jeez, it's a bit expensive, isn't it! I know it's excellent quality food, but I still baulk at $16 for a plate of egg and bacon with toast. With the huge numbers of people coming, they wouldn't really need to inflate their prices so much, would they? Or perhaps that is a way of trying to keep traffic down?
ReplyDeleteI still maintain that if a place charge more than about $10-12 for a egg & bacon fryup then they possbly shouldn't. (Having said all that though, I have no doubt that I'd be first in line at Bill's when up in Sydney! :-) )
Yes, what you've said is all true. I've become quite price conscious in the past year, after giving up work and going back to study full time. My partner is also scraping by, and it's noticeable how expensive it is to go out for even simple food nowdays! When we find a place that serves good quality food without an huge mark-up we get very excited (the Tin Pot Cafe in St George's Road, North Fitzroy is a definite favourite and fits our criteria!)
ReplyDeleteVisited Bills on a one day stopover from the UK managed two breakfasts! Best Ive ever had from USA to Hong Kong, sending everybody I know travelling to Sydney to BILLS.
ReplyDeleteWow, you made my wish come true. It's been years since i want to visit Sydney and its famous Bills. I hope i'll be able to go to australia in the next few years...
ReplyDeletei went there for brunch with a friend today... what can i say, i LOVED it! after having read your thorough research ;) i knew i had to go. its around the corner from where im staying and i walked by a couple of days before and popped in to ask when the best time to come would be, i.e. not super busy. we went at 11.30am and there were a good few people but it was not too busy and really nice. we ate so much, tried all the famous stuff, loved the food and the relaxed athmosphere. we were sad when we'd polished off our plates - i was already craving more hotcakes - we didnt want this brunch to be over and stayed for the whole of more than 3 hours! i could actually move in there! ;D the staff were nice and treated us to some peanut brittle of which i had to buy more as well as a muffin to take home. YUM! i wish i had known about it before, i would have went all the time! gonna blog about it really soon. thanks for an amazing morning because of your recommendation! ;D
ReplyDeleteHi PastryPrincess - Great to hear you enjoyed your meal. I think Bills is a bit of a must-do for tourists :) A 3-hour visit is very impressive too and how lovely to receive a little peanut brittle bonus too!
ReplyDelete