Kid’s Review: Bill’s Berkhamsted
Since lie-ins are a thing of the past for us, we can often be found wandering the streets of Berkhamsted on a Sunday morning, in search of the strongest coffee in the vicinity — and a tasty breakfast to go along with it. Lucky for us, Berko is home to a plethora of restaurants, cafes and coffee shops, most of which open fairly early to cater for the huge family market. And so, one dark, drizzly Sunday morning very recently, we ventured into town to our tried and tested breakfast hangout — Bill’s. (We actually dined here for breakfast when our youngest, Rocco, was 12 hours old… because we were already ranging on the verge of “insane in the membrane” just 12 short hours into having to parent 2 kids under the age of 2).
Anyway — what will our resident junior food critic make of the famous Bill’s breakfast?? Read on to find out!
The menu here has changed a few times over the past few years, and actually they have simplified it right down now — which is a good thing. It means they can do fewer dishes, but ensure they are top notch. Or at least we reckon that was the thought behind it. And it seems to work.
To be fair, our kids had already decided they were both having pancakes before we even arrived, so that was a quick decision on their part. Hubby and I went for Bill’s brunch, which is an upgraded version of Bill’s breakfast but with a few extra side dishes already bolted on, so you don’t have to feel like a total pig ordering sides of beans, potato rosti and black pudding all to yourself… (thank you Bill’s!). Plus the kids usually eat half of our breakfasts as well as their own, so we have learnt that we may as well go big or go home.
The kids pancakes are pretty damn reasonable to be honest… Berko isn’t known for its bargains, so this is quite refreshing for a family of 4. So £3.50 in this instance buys you two fairly big, fluffy pancakes, maple syrup and a load of fruit. It was a bit too much for our 3 year old (although he had eaten half of my sausage, a rasher of bacon, a fried egg and a piece of toast by the time he made a start on pancake number 2), but Alfie devoured the lot… I honestly have no idea where he puts it all, as like his brother, he too had eaten half of my breakfast, including the black pudding (I am still upset about having to give that up).
The one other thing we have learnt about eating out with kids is that if you go down the “juice” route, you often end up paying around £3 or £4 for an adult-sized glass of OJ which lasts about 3 seconds (through either being downed or slung over the table) before you either have to order more or crack open the beakers of water. So this time we went old school and got a jug of tap water. Neither of the kids seemed to notice, or even utter the “j” word, so hubby and I were able to sip our coffees without having to raid the piggy bank for extra beverages on this occasion.
One other thing of note about Bill’s Berkhamsted is that the staff are super friendly and will bend over backwards to accommodate you. We often request window seating when we book, and they will happily provide colouring paper and crayons if you ask. The service is also pretty fast at breakfast, so all in all we were in and out within around 40 minutes. Which left plenty of time to look around the Sunday French farmers’ market before our car parking ran out.
But that’s enough about what I thought of the experience — what about the main man, Alfie?!
I’ve not seen him eat so much in a long, long time. He absolutely loved it and gave it a big DOUBLE thumbs up. Praise indeed, and we will certainly be back again very soon.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week for the next installment of our kid’s reviews!
#ihertkidsfood
