Bill’s – Richmond
Summer is here! Well not quite, but it was a lovely day for a stroll around Richmond and Kew gardens, but not before a fry up to set me up for the day. We headed to Bill’s, which is just off Richmond Bridge. Bill’s is a chain of restaurants with the tagline breakfast to bedtime and it seems to have grown exponentially over the past few years, there are now over 30 of them UK wide and 15 in London.
All of those branches have a similar style, which to me is a bit of a hybrid of the Leon restaurant chain and Jamie’s Italian’s. There are 5 litre cans of oil olive stacked up in every nook and cranny and elsewhere produce like cloudy lemonade and posh chocs line the walls, all available to buy. It all feels a bit cramped to me, in fact as we were dining, a ,large display of dried chillies fell over and spread chill seeds all over the restaurant, because someone brushed past it by accident.
The Service was certainly brisk, we were handed menus and asked to order drinks before we had even sat down, but there was a good selection and the flat white I had was as it should be.
On to the good stuff then; for £8.95 you get Cumberland sausage, fried free range eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, smoked streaky bacon, baked beans & toast. It was presented rather strangely in the plate, which most of the breakfast hidden under the eggs and had a subtle Mediterranean feel. The tomato was drizzled with a little bit of pesto and the toast had olive oil on it rather than butter.
The streaky bacon was served crispy (as it should be) and was packed with flavour, but the sausage was a bit if a surprise. On the menu it mentioned Cumberland sausage which tends to be long and served in a coil. What I got on the other hand was two mini sausages, which were rather herby (traditional Cumberland tend to be dominated by a peppery flavour, rather than herbs). They were quite nice however and probably complemented the rest of the plate better than a Cumberland. The toast was white sourdough, which again was a bit of a surprise as the waitress had asked it wanted brown or white toast and I had asked for brown. I often find sourdough to be too crisp and dry for a fry up and this was the case here. The fried eggs were good, but one of them was slightly overcooked, so the yolk didn’t ooze all over the plate, as I would have liked.
The verdict
Bill’s didn’t deliver what was ‘billed’ on the menu, but it was still a good plate of food, with a Mediterranean feel.
Summer is here! Well not quite, but it was a lovely day for a stroll around Richmond and Kew gardens, but not before a fry up to set me up for the day. We headed to Bill’s, which is just off Richmond Bridge. Bill’s is a chain of restaurants with the tagline breakfast to bedtime and it seems to have grown exponentially over the past few years, there are now over 30 of them UK wide and 15 in London.
All of those branches have a similar style, which to me is a bit of a hybrid of the Leon restaurant chain and Jamie’s Italian’s. There are 5 litre cans of oil olive stacked up in every nook and cranny and elsewhere produce like cloudy lemonade and posh chocs line the walls, all available to buy. It all feels a bit cramped to me, in fact as we were dining, a ,large display of dried chillies fell over and spread chill seeds all over the restaurant, because someone brushed past it by accident.
The Service was certainly brisk, we were handed menus and asked to order drinks before we had even sat down, but there was a good selection and the flat white I had was as it should be.
On to the good stuff then; for £8.95 you get Cumberland sausage, fried free range eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, smoked streaky bacon, baked beans & toast. It was presented rather strangely in the plate, which most of the breakfast hidden under the eggs and had a subtle Mediterranean feel. The tomato was drizzled with a little bit of pesto and the toast had olive oil on it rather than butter.
The streaky bacon was served crispy (as it should be) and was packed with flavour, but the sausage was a bit if a surprise. On the menu it mentioned Cumberland sausage which tends to be long and served in a coil. What I got on the other hand was two mini sausages, which were rather herby (traditional Cumberland tend to be dominated by a peppery flavour, rather than herbs). They were quite nice however and probably complemented the rest of the plate better than a Cumberland. The toast was white sourdough, which again was a bit of a surprise as the waitress had asked it wanted brown or white toast and I had asked for brown. I often find sourdough to be too crisp and dry for a fry up and this was the case here. The fried eggs were good, but one of them was slightly overcooked, so the yolk didn’t ooze all over the plate, as I would have liked.
The verdict
Bill’s didn’t deliver what was ‘billed’ on the menu, but it was still a good plate of food, with a Mediterranean feel.
Rating:
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