13D Australia Summer Trip: Bills, Surry Hills
I always hear that Australia is the country to go if you are a brunch lover. After hearing so much about this fact about Australia, obviously the first thing that I wanted to do when I arrived in Sydney is...well, going to a brunch place. This is not withstanding that by the time we left our accommodation, it's about tea time. In the planning stage, I've stumbled upon a restaurant named Bills for quite a few times and read a lot of good review about the restaurant's food so we decided to just pop by and try a few of their items.
The restaurant is pretty cozy as there are not many people dining in at 3PM on a Thursday afternoon. Bills was established by local celebrity chef, Bill Granger. As of to-date, he owns Bills in three locations in Sydney. He is an Australian restaurateur and food writer who has written a total of 11 cookbooks so far. I guess that's not an easy feat after all to come up with so many recipes which are loved by many people. He opened his restaurant venture, Bills, in 1993 at Darlinghurst and since then, he has branched out internationally in 2008 to Tokyo, London, Honolulu and Seoul. Bills in Australia are all located in Sydney with three restaurants at Darlinghurst, Bondi Beach and Surry Hills. The restaurant at Surry Hills is located just a few blocks away from our accommodation so we decided to visit Bills for our first meal in Australia. I have never seen fresh apples being put on sale in any cafe in Singapore so I kinda wonder if the Australian really go to cafe to grab an apple.
Bills offers a variety of dishes ranging from small plates, salads, grain bowls, sandwiches and classic brunch items. Small plates are more like appetisers such as Zucchini Fries, Nigela Seeds and Tahini Yoghurt (AUD 10.50). The salads offered at Bills are rather special too with certain unique combination such as Semolina-crusted Calamari, Grapefruit, Fennel Pomegranate Salad and Yuzu Mayonnaise (AUD 23.50). The main items are classified into (1) Bowls, Grains which is classified further into pasta such as Braised Beef Tagliatelle (AUD 26.50) and rice dish such as Fragrant Chicken, Mushroom and Brown Rice Broth (AUD 23.50), (2) Classics such as its all-time favorite Ricotta Hotcakes (AUD 22.50) and (3) Plates such as Yellow Fish Curry (AUD 29.50) and Parmesan Chicken Schnitzel (AUD 26.50). If you prefer something lighter (although I doubt there are lighter plates in Australia because the serving portion here seems to be leaning toward "generous"), you can also go for Bills' sandwiches and burgers such as Wagyu Burger (AUD 26.50) and Fried Chicken Burger (AUD 18.50).
We had taken into consideration the humongous serving size of meal in Australia so we decided to order one appetiser and one dish from Bills' Classic menu. My travel mate, Lee, is an avid fans of fries and there's no way he's gonna skip ordering fries at Bills. He told me that he enjoyed the thick and well-seasoned fries (AUD 10.50) served at Bills. Without realising it, we have polished the bowl to the last fries.
But the must-try item in Bills is definitely the ricotte hotcakes with honeycomb butter (AUD 22.50). This dish is the masterpiece of Bill Granger and we had to agree with the netizen's review that this dish taste superb. The hot fluffy ricotta and the melted butter goes very well with the slightly caramelised banana.
Bills is located at:
359 Crown St, Surry Hills
Sydney, Australia
Opening times:
Monday - Friday 7AM - 10PM
Saturday and Sunday 7:30AM-10PM