The Orient, Trafford Centre
Bill’s is a trendy modern
restaurant chain which is known for serving dishes made from fresh, local
produce. Founded by Bill Collinson, the self-titled restaurant chain began life
as a small, independent greengrocery in East Sussex. Their menus are based on
fresh, healthy eating, with separate, distinguished menus for breakfast, lunch
and dinner.
I’m generally not a fan of
chain restaurants. I often find them to be overpriced and the food lacking in
quality. However, I expected Bill’s to break the mould. I’ve heard friends and
colleagues talk about it favourably, so I wanted to give it a go.
We visited the Trafford Centre
branch for lunch on Sunday. We were seated straight away in an empty
restaurant. The décor is vibrant, quirky and colourful. It has a chic,
European-feel to it, with low-hung ceiling lights and wooden panelling on the
walls.
The menus are vast and varied,
with something to suit all times of the day. We ate from the lunch menu, which
is available from 11:30am until 5:00pm. On it are ‘lunch plates’, which are
brunch dishes dressed up for later in the day with sides of fries (and inflated
prices), salads, burgers, steaks and a conglomeration of main courses including
sea bass, chicken skewers, vegetable wellington and fish pie.
I had a ‘lunch plate’: pea and
basil houmous and smashed avocado with poached eggs. The oh-so-trendy smashed
avocado was spread on a slice of toasted sourdough bread, with two poached eggs
nestled on top of it. The toast was dressed with grated courgettes and ‘rainbow
carrots’ – orange and purple. It made for a very colourful dish. Sadly, that
was where the excitement ended.
The sourdough was so hard and
chewy it was barely edible. It was impossible to cut through; I had to hack my
way through each and every slice, meaning the toppings had to be eaten
separately. At one point, a poached egg flew halfway across the table during a
desperate attempt to cut a slice of my toast.
The poached eggs were adequate
but not the best I’ve had. A slightly runnier yolk may have been useful in
helping to soften the sourdough. The pea and basil houmous was tasty, but the
highlight of the dish was the purple pesto. I adore pesto. It’s so flavoursome
and can enhance any dish. I’m not quite sure what made it bright purple, it
didn’t really taste much different to the traditional green pesto, generally
made up of garlic, basil, herbs and parmesan, but it was pleasing all the same.
 |
| Pea and Basil Houmous with Smashed Avocado, Poached Eggs and Pesto |
When our waitress returned to
clear our plates, I informed her that the bread was too hard and chewy. She
informed me that it was sourdough bread and that is, in fact, how sourdough is
supposed to be. I’ve eaten sourdough before. I’m well aware of what it is. She
‘double checked’ with the kitchen – exactly what she ‘double checked’ I’m not
entirely sure – and they subsequently removed my elderflower cordial from the
bill. This was a nice gesture which I appreciated. That was the end of the
matter, or so I thought. With hindsight, I should have sarcastically asked for
a steak knife to hammer my point home.
Given our disappointment, we
weren’t prepared to stay for dessert. My friends paid their share of the bill
by card, I paid my dues using cash, only to be diddled out of more than £4 of
change. At this point, we collared the manager, who informed us that there had
been a service charge on the bill. Granted, we should have noticed this and
asked for it to be removed. However, a service charge should always be
optional, and given that we had been thoroughly unimpressed by the attitude of
our waitress and the way in which she responded to my feedback, there was no
way we were prepared to pay a service charge. The manager also felt it was
appropriate to reiterate that there was nothing wrong with my sourdough and that
was, in fact ‘just the way they serve it’. If that’s the case, may I suggest
including a disclaimer in the menu description? ‘Warning: the sourdough is
toasted to the point of being inedible. Order at your own risk.’
Once I’d wrestled the correct
change back, I was so glad we didn’t bother to stay for dessert. However, I
must give credit where it’s due. After submitting a complaint online about the service,
we were offered a complementary meal by way of compensation. It’s perhaps the
only way they could tempt us back.
Website: https://bills-website.co.uk/
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