Bill’s: pleasing multi site eatery to be found in various trendy locations with the rather lovely tag line of Breakfast to Bedtime. They serve good, uncomplicated food all day and are generally worth a visit, based on my experience of a couple of stops in their Covent Garden site and now also just over the river in Richmond.
To set the scene, it was early, it was rugby day, and some robust stomach lining was in order. We arrived for the popular Saturday brunch service just before noon.
Urgh. Seriously who came up with ‘brunch’? I usually love a hybrid word but ‘brunch’ can bugger off. Scrambled egg after midday is still lunch I don’t care how pretentious or hungover you are. It’s lunch time. You don’t have cornflakes at half eight at night and call it ‘br-upper’. That is all.
Anyway it was just getting busy as we arrived and the boys all had their eyes on one of the breakfast dishes (served until 1 on the weekends to accommodate that B word crowd). I must say it all looked very tempting, especially the eggs florentine and/or benedict. For a moment I was almost swayed by a mackerel MLT special which looked very special indeed but in my heart of hearts, almost everything on the menu was a non-starter. It’s Bill’s. You have a bloody mary and a fishfinger sandwich at Bill’s. At least I always have in the past, however a pre order trip to the loo meant returning to a Bill’s beer, as selected by my father and what a good call that was. I don’t know much about beer, I know what I like and that is reasonably limited but Bill’s Beer in a frozen glass gets a big thumbs up from me.
Moving on, the boys had breakfasts served after the official commencement of the luncheon hour and the girls had fishfinger sandwiches.
The bread: a toasted sour dough, good enough.
The fish: Smallish goujons of cod in a very crunchy crumb.
The innards: rocket (good call), ketchup and tartare sauce. Extra point for having the wisdom to combine these in the perfect set up of tartare on the bottom under the salad, ketchup on the top slice. I’d have done this myself if it wasn’t served like it! The tartare could have done with a little more tart.
The chips: You don’t order chips separately here, they come with and this is another point for wisdom in serving. A fishfinger sandwich should always come with chips. Skinny fries at Bill’s, in a cheery little red bucket. Good little fries, adequate but unremarkable, nice presentation though.
The garnish: Lemon wedge and unnecessary herbage.
Verdict: Oh it’s good, and I knew it would be. Bill’s get quite a lot of things right and they are yet to fail me on a fishfinger sandwich. The fish bits are great and the sandwich construction near on faultless but for a mild case of over toasting on the bread which overdid for the crunch in the texture of a mouthful. It’s a nice, comfy atmosphere and if there hadn’t been all the beer I would my Dad would have had change from £9 on this which isn’t bad for a good, freshly cooked lunch in Richmond.
In summary, I’m giving them 8.2 out of 10 (losses for the over toast and the slightly feeble tartare sauce) and heartily recommend them for a stop in for your chosen meal time if you are in the area.
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Food. Boom. 