The Lowdown
Restaurant Name: Bills
Cuisine: Australian Cafe
Average Price per Person: ¥700 to ¥1400 JPY or $8 to $18 USD
Location: Tokyo, Japan (please refer to the map below for details)
Recommendations: Ricotta Hotcakes!Ratings (out of 5)
Taste: 3.5
Creativity/Authenticity: 3.5
Atmosphere: 3.5
Service: 3.5
Bang for Buck: 3.5
Crayscale !!!
Despite pounding back a respectably-sized burger at The Great Burger, the night was still not complete without satisfying my sweet tooth. We took the elevator up to the 7th floor of Tokyu Plaza and I vaguely remember coming here before a few years ago with a friend under a different establishment.
bills is an Australian export who have apparently earned claims as “The world’s greatest breakfast.” I was in no position to really comment on this. Breakfast largely is my least favorite meal (you can thank intermittent fasting for that), and well it was 9 or 10 at night — not in a breakfast mood. The story of bills involves a self-taught Bill Granger who opened his first bills at the age of 22 in Sydney. From there he has built a formidable empire spanning Japan, Great Britain and his native Australia.
The place was quite busy despite the time as we still waited five or 10 minutes before being seated. Known for their all-day breakfast, this only came to my attention much later after the fact. Yes my host, Ito, mentioned the spot was popular for their pancakes. I was unsure of what that exactly meant and I actually assumed he meant Japanese crepes, served in a triangle. Sitting down, it seemed to be a constant stream of these aforementioned pancakes going to every which table.
A quick look over the menu and the marquee pancake dish is simply known as Ricotta Pancakes. Immediately intrigued, it was of course the first thing I ordered. Another thing I ordered, by virtue of it being ice cream related, was the Ginger Biscuit Ice Cream Sandwich.
Ricotta Hotcakes with fresh banana and honeycomb butter (¥1400 JPY or $18 USD).
The pancakes were rather voluminous to say the least. Super fluffy with some icing sugar sprinkled atop. I couldn’t help but feel the banana, however relevant to the dish, was presented merely as an after thought.
A generous pat of sweetened butter. It would have been nice if the pancakes were warmer so it could melt with greater ease. There was also syrup provided should you need some more sugar. The cakes themselves are pretty bland, so not a bad call to add some syrup.
Chunks of ricotta interspersed amongst the batter made for some delicious bites. The overall taste of ricotta was something I actually thought I’d be indifferent about, and taste wise it was really mild. However in terms of texture, #ifuckwitit. That’s the Chinese side of me talking/caring about texture.
Ginger Biscuit Ice Cream Sandwich with Butterscotch Sauce (¥800 JPY or $9.80 USD). These were a fail, they felt like something you’d whip up on a whim because you didn’t prepare properly to make ice cream sandwiches. The use of a hard cookie made it very difficult to actually eat the sandwich. It’s so brittle, that as you chomp down the ice cream squirts out the sides. In fact I was so frustrated with this (and definitely unwilling to eat this with a fork and knife) that I don’t really remember much of the taste of the ice cream. The cookie was ok, but combined, just really wack.
View Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku in a larger map
Tokyu Plaza 7/F 4-30-3 Jingumae, Tokyo
p: +81.3.5772.1133
w: bills-jp.net