Bill's Restaurant Bristol review scores 5 out of 5

Posted on: 2015-05-18

Our rating:

Restaurant manager Ruth Kerslake has certainly surrounded herself with a more-than-competent crack team of staff both in and out the kitchen. The food was outstanding and the chefs served up three courses of consummately cooked fare.


 

Bill's has come a long way since its original humble incarnation as a small, independently-owned greengrocers with a cafe founded by Bill Collison in Lewes, East Sussex. Business has flourished and there are now restaurants located all over the country in places such as Bath, Exeter, Cardiff, London and Manchester.  

The Bristol restaurant on Queen's Road by The Triangle is certainly well placed to satiate the appetites of passing shoppers who need to fill their stomachs with some first-rate tucker. Serving food all day from breakfasts through to evening meals, Bill's has a cool, laid back vibe and certainly ticks all the boxes when it comes to the current on-trend design - stripped wooden floors, enamel lamps, chunky wooden tables, well-spaced seating, a few leather-seated booths and a effortlessly relaxed factory, industrial aesthetic. 

From Monday to Friday, 11.45am to 6.30pm they offer a lunch and early supper menu of two courses for £9.95 and three courses for £11.95, as well as various specials and a kids menu which includes macaroni cheese and hamburger with fries.

To start, I went for the warm roast red onion and gruyère tart with a salad of watercress, red onion, basil, parsley and pomegranate, balsamic dressing (£5.50), which was pungent, rich and a delicious amalgamation of perfectly fused flavours. My partner opted for the crab, chilli and prawn cakes (£5.85) which were perfectly cooked crispy-on-the-outside balls which gave way to subtly flavoured mixed crab and prawns punctuated with a fiery chilli jolt.

My 10oz sirloin with skin-on fries and watercress (£18.50) was cooked well done as requested, and the 28 day-aged English beef was the very epitome of how a steak should be cooked, succulent, tender, melt-in-the-mouth and packed with mouthwatering flavour. The accompanying peppercorn sauce was a little runny though, and would have benefited from a more potent peppercorn kick. 

My partner's eye diverted to a dish from the specials board - oven roasted BBQ glazed pork belly with a watercress, red cabbage, pea and broad bean salad with citrus dressing and coleslaw. The smoky-flavoured crispy crackling shell split to reveal the astonishingly moist and eye-rollingly tasty shreds of pork which fell apart with barely a touch of the knife. 

Pudding took the form of treacle tart with honeycomb ice cream and caramel sauce, the tart being sweet but not excessively so and having a wonderfully, slightly chewy caramel topping, beautifully counterbalanced by the almost erotically sensuous honeycomb ice cream. My partner tucked into the lemon meringue pie cheesecake in a glass, which was beautifully layered and made for the kind of desert you deliberately slow down to eat because you just don't want it to end.

Restaurant manager Ruth Kerslake has certainly surrounded herself with a more-than-competent crack team of staff both in and out the kitchen. The food was outstanding and the chefs served up three courses of consummately cooked fare, while the staff were convivial, enthusiastic and efficient. There's even a small, quirky shop at the front that sells a special selection of Bill's jams, coffee, cookies and sweets - a nice, idiosyncratic touch.  

Bill's is a buzzy, hip restaurant full of charm and refreshingly offbeat flourishes that also has plenty of substance to match with its excellent menu of masterfully cooked food. 

5/5

Review and photos by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol - reviewing the best places to eat, drink, be merry, take the kids and lots more in Bristol
 

Bills Restaurant in Bristol - 67-69 Queen's Road, Bristol, BS8 1QL, Tel. 01179 290035



Article by:

James Anderson

Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.