Bill's Guildford Restaurant

Walked in got seated almost immediately, however there was poor spacing and the noise levels were very high. Spoke with the staff and after a few conversations we were reseated in their basement by a very kind member of staff. We then had our food delivered, when we ordered we asked that the avocado on toast would arrive with just avocado as my daughter has eating requirements. Sadly the first delivery they hadn't made the customisations and so my daughter refused to eat it, not only did we get a second with the changes but a third to compensate us. The Plant Plate was absolutely not worth the cost, for £13 you got very little and I was missing parts of my breakfast. If it wasn't for the very helpful and kind staff we would have had a terrible experience.

If your idea of perfect pancakes is dense, chewy, and dry, Bill's is the perfect place for you! These are the kind of pancakes you need to cut with a knife, and once you successfully hack off a piece, after a few seconds in your mouth all your saliva will have been absorbed as you chew (and chew, and chew).

Other descriptors for these "pancakes"? Grainy, burnt, and crunchy. As if semolina flour was used by mistake. Light and fluffy these are not. It's as if someone who had heard of pancakes and seen them in a photo, but never actually eaten them, was tasked with designing this recipe. The more surprising thing is that no one who actually works at Bill's seems to have ever tried the result themselves before giving the green light to serve this to actual customers. Because surely if they had, someone would have realized the responsibility to put a stop to the effort before it got this far.

The maple syrup is piled on generously, doing its very best to cover up the flavor and texture of the chewy cakes beneath, and the bacon is reasonably good. To be honest Bill's could just remove the chew bombs beneath and serve a dish of syrup covered bacon and it'd be a much better offering.

You'd think they would have noticed by now the massive number of pancake plates going back to the kitchen half eaten and use that as a reason to investigate a potential upgrade to the recipe - like, for example, using any sort of liquid in the batter.

In any case, all the staff we interacted with were extremely friendly and helpful, so we can't fault them for that.

We were fortunate enough to be squeezed in without a reservation and were grateful. But the food took 40 mins to be served up and then we're told we had 10 mins to finish as the table was booked. Although we agreed to I've up the table it was probably assumed we would get some time to eat our breakfast rather than inhaling it.
Not quite the most relaxing breakfast experience

Great food, nice decor, good atmosphere. Service was quite slow and items forgotten but they were very busy. Bill's donuts are always a winning dessert.

Very good food, friendly staff and cozy atmosphere.
Having breakfast here is a must, they also have good brunch.
Eggs royal is good. They also have good sides to choose from.
The fresh green juices they have are delicious to start the day.
Don’t forget to ask one of the friendly staff to see the The oldest part of the Guildford based hotel is the stone vaulted undercroft that dates back to the 1300s and still has the remains of the original spiral staircase.

Bill's is the sort of place that is chic and serves decent enough food. The dishes are not particularly unique but they are some to a reasonable standard. It's a place to hang out and meet friends. The decor is classic and quaint, and ambience is one of subdued buzz. Due to their children eat free offers, you do get a young family vibe. Overall, good but not great.

I've been a Bill's customer for quite a long time - though a first-timer in this branch.
Servers were very friendly (especially the blonde girl), but there's room for improvement when it comes to timings and managing expectations.

The starters took a little longer than we would have expected, but they were so good we didn't mind waiting. We then, however, waited over 45' for our mains. After half an hour without news, we asked for an update, and were told that they'd check in the kitchen, and that they would give us an update, that the kitchen was running slow, but that it shouldn't take longer than 15'. Nobody came back to tell us anything, but luckily 20' later the food finally arrived.

I understand that things can go wrong, but at least had we known that it was going to take that long, we would have probably ordered more drinks/not have waited anxiously. We would have appreciated some snacks to kill the time, some other form of compensation, or at least an apology. We didn't get any, nor anyone asked how our meal had been while we paid. To give you an idea, the time spent in the restaurant, from when we were sat till we left was 1h50, for two starters and two mains.

As for the food, we loved the crab cakes and the chicken and sesame dumplings, they looked great and tasted even better.
Less impressive were the mains, in particular the halloumi shawarma: the fried halloumi and bread were too oily, making it quite heavy to finish (and digest!). The meatballs were nicer, though nothing remarkable.
The Bill's beer (lager) was instead very nice.

Food was tasty and the service was good. We did the two courses for £17.95 option (available Monday to Thursday I believe). I had the Chicken and Sesame Dumplings to start and the Mac & Cheese for mains.