Breakfast at Bills

Forget Breakfast at Tiffany's. Sydney-siders have breakfasts at Bills.

My love affair with the Bills establishment started years ago when I was based at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Even as a poor student living on miserly scholarship money, I could not resist splashing out at that little unassuming café with the communal table at the corner of Liverpool Street behind the Garvan Institute.

My first encounter with Bills was with my best girlfriends, on a sunny Saturday morning in Surry Hills. I had just moved to Sydney and this was my “Welcome to Sydney” brunch. ET had ordered me the corn fritters with tomato and avocado salsa. Needless to say, I have never looked back.

If communal dining is your thing, head to Darlinghurst (where it all started). After leaving St Vincent’s, I usually go to Bills 2 in Surry Hills for no other reason except it’s proximity from my home (when I still lived in Sydney). The newest store is in Woollahra – I have been there only once since it opened, and have never been back.

Unless you can really put away some food, descend on Bills with at least 2 other mates so that you could order all the classics: Scrambled eggs on sourdough toast, corn fritters and the ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter. I can’t recommend one over the other. All three are equally legendary!

In my 7+ years of frequenting this joint, I have had my share of star spotting, both times at the Darlinghurst premesis – Keanu Reeves (sometime during the filming of the Matrix III), and the then-newly-pregnant Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Fortunately for them, I was too engrossed with the food to ask for autographs.

Eventhough we no longer live in Sydney, those who know us know our arrival routine: land in Sydney. Collect bags. Rush through customs. Swing by Bills.

Where: Darlinghurst; Surry Hills Woollahra
Style of food: Café (ModOz if you go for lunch/dinner)
Price guide: $$
Website: https://www.bills.com.au