Bill's

http://bills-website.co.uk/restaurants/cambridge/

A popular city centre café cum restaurant with an attractive looking plate of breakfast. But is it good and is it worth the money? 

All that glitters is not gold

Seefud

A Bill’s Breakfast is an £8 breakfast, £9.50 if you add black pudding like I did. That's a lot of money so the product ought to reflect that. Good raw materials are a must and to be fair, apart from the sausage, they probably started off okay. And at some point, between ordering and the plate arriving on the table, the food was probably mostly in a reasonable state. But for some inexplicable reason, it took about 20 minutes to arrive it had all the hallmarks of having sat around under a hot lamp for half that time. What a shame! The mini sausages were dry and almost cold, the eggs were buffet style overdone with chewy orange yolk and the streaky bacon so crispy it shattered when I stuck my fork in. Maybe that’s how the bacon is intended to be, but that’s not how I like it. Anyway, the tomatoes were pretty nice and the toast wasn’t too bad. The coffee was fine and the service about typical for a Cambridge city centre place. I do like having water on the table so +1 for that. Having eaten here before I was expecting an average experience from Bill’s, but was left feeling disappointed and a little bit ripped off.

• Food     2
• Value    2
• Service  4
• Ambience 3
• Coffee   3 

Pastries

The food is good quality but as m'colleague mentions, there is an irritating variability in the serving time and temperature. Sausage heat seems to be a chronic issue which I've experienced on virtually every visit. On the other hand usually the food arrives quicker than today, and on some occasions it is sizzling hot. If you like bacon crispy it's pretty reliable here. I also like this place because it opens arly, especially on Sundays.

Now some issues. The table arrangement is infuriating, you seem to be everywhere right next to someone else, there are no cubby-holes. A policy of asking diners how the food is when they've only taken one forkful prevails. There's a Jamie Oliver vibe. And the coffee isn't that great.

I keep going back there though. It can't be that bad.

• Food 3.5
• Value    3.5
• Service  3
• Ambience 3
• Coffee 3     

Troby
Fir coat and no knickers! The food is nice, and well presented, but there's something missing - love from the kitchen. Quantity wise, it's good - two eggs, streaky bacon, 2 soughdough style toast, mushrooms, tomatoes plus 2 black pudding slices (optional extra). On first bite I tried a mushroom, they were slightly black and scary looking (which could mean they're old, or could mean they're exotic), but the main issue was the fact it was a bit tepid. This issue remained a theme for the breakfast. Nothing was cold enough to warrant sending it back, but the plate wasn't freshly made. The place wasn't that busy, and the wait was a little bit too long. The most dissapointing bit was the black pudding, it was great to get two slices, but it was so DRY! The ingredients here are of a good enough quality, and I enjoyed the crispy bacon and toast, but at £15 for a breakfast and two coffees, you are left wanting a bit better.
Ambience wise, I find the place a bit distracting to the eye, with signs and scribbly stuff all over the place.
The service was fine.

• Food 3
• Value 2
• Service 3.5
• Ambience 3
• Coffee 3.5