bills — Restaurant in Sydney

Dear Bill's, it's 2023 not 1983. You operate in locations like Bondi Beach and Surry Hills. Your menu NEEDS to state which offerings are free of sliced animal parts.

When I pointed out this annoyance to the waitress, her response was 'oh we do that on purpose because we like to talk to our customers and talk about the menu'.

Yeah that makes no sense - then why not just get rid of the menu altogether, so that every table can take 15 minutes talking to the waitstaff to order?

Not everybody loves talking to the waitstaff at length. Most people want to quickly scan the menu prior to the waitstaff approaching, to make ordering quick and hassle free. I can see the restaurant is busy and don't want to take up too much time asking a bunch of questions. Basic information about the food and its ingredients needs to be stated on the menu. That's what it's for!

Please just put a 'VG' for vegan and a 'V' for vegetarian next to your meat free offerings, just like every other restaurant in the world.

Food-wise, my $32 tofu curry had very little substance. I got a small bowl of rice, and a plate of curry with a few cubes of tofu and some leaves. Interesting that this bowl of rice with curry sauce costs the same as a premium pork steak with salad, and $3 MORE than real crab meat linguine.

Meat free options are usually cheaper than meat/seafood options in just about every other restaurant, reflecting differences in the cost of ingredients. But I realise that pricing is your prerogative and you can't please everybody, so I understand I might be unfair in making this point.

Our group was 4 adults and a child, and we ordered 5 mains plus zucchini chips and crab toast, which came to a total of $200 (with a public holiday surcharge added on) but I walked away hungry. I'm heating up some left overs from lunch right now.

So what would have prevented me from spending 20 minutes writing this 1-star review, and make me come back for repeat business? Two things - an easy to read menu that indicates vegan options, and a more substantial main course that doesn't leave me hungry on...

We came to Bill’s Bondi Beach restaurant on a Sunday morning with our children and grandchild to celebrate a family event, and to enjoy what the website describes as "relaxed, friendly and infectious joy in good, fresh food". The food was indeed good and fresh, and we expected no less. The greeter was friendly and helpful and gave us a great table. The fresh orange juice tasted like it was poured from a supermarket bottle, and an $11 extra charge for two slices of toast with one of the meals seemed a bit excessive, but we were in holiday mode and willing to overlook such things. But the celebration was soured by our waiter, who was impatient, rude and condescending from the start, which unfortunately only worsened. When we were ordering our meals, she scolded two of our family members, instructing them to speak "one at a time" when they were deciding on additions to their order. She seemed to lack any experience in customer service, and we only saw her being friendly when she was communicating with the baristas, not the customers. We have dined at restaurants in many Australian and international cities, and none of us had ever encountered staff as rude as this waiter. We were shocked by the way she spoke to us, particularly when paying as much as we did for our meal (my daughter noted "I've had much better customer service in a food court"). We chose to address this complaint to Bill’s directly rather than posting a Google review, hoping that the management would recognise the damage their staff member had done to their reputation, ruining what should have been a very special morning. However, our emails to the restaurant went unanswered. Bondi has no shortage of great restaurants and cafes, and this one is best avoided...

My family and I were intrigued by this bustling venue and decided to treat ourselves to a breakfast. However, our experience was absolutely shocking. If you are reading this PLEASE PLEASE take one key point into consideration: When you go to bills you are paying premium prices for small portions of incredibly average food ... dont be fooled by the line out the front, this is not a good venue (at all). Go to one of the smaller cafes around the area and enjoy some innovative and tasty dishes at half the price.

Atmosphere: Non existent, bland decor, minimalist fit-out (with no central/unique features to justify) (basically BORRRRING)

FOOD: We tried the following..

1. Granola: Tiny serving with a ratio of 90% granola to 5% yoghurt and 5% seasonal fruit compote. Basically you could have one spoon of yoghurt and compote and then you are stuck eating dry granola for the rest of your meal.
2. Avo Toast: Pretty basic, no real complaints except there was no corriander put on the dish as advertised
3. Fresh Aussie (Basically a Big Brekky): Tasted like something i would make on a hungover monday morning... I cant believe how so many great ingredients could result in something so incredibly standard and boring?? ($26 a serve, absolutely ridiculous )

Drinks: We only had coffees... we waited 25 minutes for them to arrive from the time we placed our order. Yup, genuinely 25 minutes... The almond capuccino my mother received had seperated. When we told our waitor we received the response "we make the almond milk in house, that is why it does that". (JUST BUY NORMAL ALMOND MILK YOU CAN ACTUALLY MAKE COFFEE WITH OR DONT OFFER ALMOND MILK?? NOBODY CARES IF ITS MADE IN HOUSE, THEY CARE ABOUT A DECENT COFFEE!)

Service:...