Bill’s, a popular English chain restaurant mainly found in and around London, has recently opened a new restaurant in Bluewater. Located by the entrance to the Food Court, Bill’s has been open for less than 2 months – so now that it’s had some time to settle in, I thought it only fitting to pay it a visit! Upon entering, we (my mother and I) immediately noticed the restaurant was full – a server asked us to return 15 minutes later for a table. Given that this was a Friday afternoon, I asked if it was always this busy, and she replied that yes, since opening they’d had a lot of business and it was clearly a hit with the public at Bluewater!
Upon entering, it is clear to see why. The restaurant has a rustic, homely feel to it – it’s snug without feeling cramped. There are lots of jars and bunches of chillies around for decoration, which always gives you something to look at whilst waiting for your food. Bill’s feels very separate from the outside world: an achievement, given its location on a busy corner of the walkway. In fact, I believe it is this location that gives it an edge, as Bill’s is clearly a much more high-end restaurant than anything else found in the food court: had it opened at The Glow, for instance, it may have failed to stand out amongst the other more expensive restaurants located there.
Onto the food – I ordered the duck pie (which they told me would take 25 minutes to cook – as if cooking it fresh should be a problem!) and my mother the Piri-Piri chicken. The menu was not huge – and, notably, not cheap – but when our meals arrived I was highly impressed. My duck pie (which had a mashed potato ‘lid’) was very tasty; the potato was smooth and there was lots of meat with very little fat (though it did contain beads of pearl barley, which were odd but mostly tasteless). The chicken, too, was a good dish – it looked colourful and appetising, and was very spicy with lots of flavour. For dessert, I chose Eton Mess: another well-presented dish (see my pictures to get a look!) which was very light and tasty. Interestingly, it contained mascarpone, which was a little different but still worked well overall.
All in all, I enjoyed my trip to Bill’s; it’s a cosy little restaurant with very good-looking and tasty – albeit definitely not cheap – food, and the whole place has a friendly feel to it. I’ll certainly return, and I’m sure it will continue to be just as busy for a long time to come.
Robert Tucker, Gravesend Grammar School
