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Sydney: bills - Darlinghurst
posted on April 10th, 2007 by mellie in Uncategorized
Tagged:
433 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst, NSW
Phone 02 9360 9631
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” penned Charles Dickens.
“It was the best of breakfasts, it was the worst of breakfasts,” penned mellie.
Whereas Dickens was talking about the upheavals of the French Revolution, I was talking about the breakfast EG and I just ate at bills. But more on that in a tick.
bills is funky little place, located unassumingly (and unsigned) on a hilly corner in suburban Darlinghurst. It is o’ so very Sydney - timber floors and furnishings, white walls, stainless steel benches and glass. It certainly has a breezy and cool feel about it, which was echoed in the ambience and the floor staff (ahem).
EG went with the first signature of the venue - bills famous scrambled eggs. Now this is where we come to the best of breakfasts, as EG voted this the BEST scramble he has EVER had. So much so that he is now on a mission to perfect the technique, just so he can replicate the dish without having to go interstate ;-). Tender to the extreme (well heck, a third of a cup cream to two eggs has got to make them taste darn fantastic), the eggs were curdled and folded ever so gently as opposed to the usual energetic scramble. To the side came two huge chunks of sour dough, practically a block of butter, oven roasted tomatoes, and bill-cured gravlax (which apparently was quite something as well).
I on the other hand, with my propensity for sweet breakfasts, decided on his other signature dish, ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter. Now this is where we come to the worst of breakfasts (much to my dismay). Perhaps my expectations were too high? All those reviews and blogs extolling the perfection that is the ricotta hotcake surely can’t be wrong? Well it all looked very nice when served up - three huge hotcakes, a halved banana and a slice of honeycomb butter. But the minute I cut into them I knew something was not right. They were hard - more scone-like than hotcake/pancake-like. And they were steroidal with baking soda - pumped up to an inch in thickness and tasting tangy. Thinking back I actually don’t know why I didn’t send them back (but I guess I was deliriously hungry after suffering those hills to bills in the hour long walk from Chinatown to Darlinghurst). Luckily they provided a jug of maple syrup on the side to act as lubrication, else I wouldn’t have got these dry suckers down. Are these prepared in advance and reheated? How could they get it so wrong?
Luckily the coffee was pretty good. It certainly helped me digest my meal. And I give them snaps for one heck of a breakfast in the scrambles. It was just a shame they couldn’t follow through on the other.
Tagged:
Phone 02 9360 9631
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” penned Charles Dickens.
“It was the best of breakfasts, it was the worst of breakfasts,” penned mellie.
Whereas Dickens was talking about the upheavals of the French Revolution, I was talking about the breakfast EG and I just ate at bills. But more on that in a tick.
bills is funky little place, located unassumingly (and unsigned) on a hilly corner in suburban Darlinghurst. It is o’ so very Sydney - timber floors and furnishings, white walls, stainless steel benches and glass. It certainly has a breezy and cool feel about it, which was echoed in the ambience and the floor staff (ahem).
EG went with the first signature of the venue - bills famous scrambled eggs. Now this is where we come to the best of breakfasts, as EG voted this the BEST scramble he has EVER had. So much so that he is now on a mission to perfect the technique, just so he can replicate the dish without having to go interstate ;-). Tender to the extreme (well heck, a third of a cup cream to two eggs has got to make them taste darn fantastic), the eggs were curdled and folded ever so gently as opposed to the usual energetic scramble. To the side came two huge chunks of sour dough, practically a block of butter, oven roasted tomatoes, and bill-cured gravlax (which apparently was quite something as well).
I on the other hand, with my propensity for sweet breakfasts, decided on his other signature dish, ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter. Now this is where we come to the worst of breakfasts (much to my dismay). Perhaps my expectations were too high? All those reviews and blogs extolling the perfection that is the ricotta hotcake surely can’t be wrong? Well it all looked very nice when served up - three huge hotcakes, a halved banana and a slice of honeycomb butter. But the minute I cut into them I knew something was not right. They were hard - more scone-like than hotcake/pancake-like. And they were steroidal with baking soda - pumped up to an inch in thickness and tasting tangy. Thinking back I actually don’t know why I didn’t send them back (but I guess I was deliriously hungry after suffering those hills to bills in the hour long walk from Chinatown to Darlinghurst). Luckily they provided a jug of maple syrup on the side to act as lubrication, else I wouldn’t have got these dry suckers down. Are these prepared in advance and reheated? How could they get it so wrong?
Luckily the coffee was pretty good. It certainly helped me digest my meal. And I give them snaps for one heck of a breakfast in the scrambles. It was just a shame they couldn’t follow through on the other.
