Bill's Restaurant Bar Muswell Hill

Having reserved a table we arrived at the restaurant and asked if we could sit in the only table that was still available and in the shade. We were told that this was reserved and despite protests we were shown to another table and told we needed to be out in 90 mins in a very brusque manner. Another server came to take a drinks order and we asked why we could not have the other table having reserved. We were told it was reserved for us and duly moved. The brusque woman then appeared again and said the same thing. After eating we asked for coffee and still with some 40 mins left were told again we needed to vacate table then! So we asked for bill when coffee arrived. It had still not arrived when were finished so we had to ask again. There were then problems with the payment system. Surprisingly, I declined to pay the service charge !!!!

We went after a party and I have to say it was really slow and disappointing. Dry Food. It took 30 minutes to get our drinks and the food was cold and incredibly slow. They didn’t care and put an automatic tip on the bill. That’s unacceptable. Didn’t ask just came and put 15% tip on the bill. Bill’s Bill’s aren’t great and I won’t be going ever again. Not recommend. Poor.

Some of the staff quite poorly trained. They were all polite and seeminlingly lovely, but lacked some basics, for example, they took a good 5-10 minutes to even bring a menu over, had to eyeball them in the end. My girlfriend ordered a 5-stack of bacon pancakes, was brought a 3-stack. I asked for brown sauce once my food had arrived and the young girl brought it over in a tiny glass pot, on a small plate, which there clearly wasn 't room for, so she perched it on the end of the table and it inevitably fell off and smashed. They also forgot to put my black pudding with my food which I didn 't realise until I asked for the bill) As for the food, I wasn 't impressed for the price. They brought my big breakfast over which had the measleyest portion of beans I think I 've ever seen, which was half juice and luke warm. Good gourmet sausage, undercooked eggs, cold toast, decent bacon and fried potatoes but for £13 not great. My partner 's pancakes were a bit dry she said and everything came out really fast, which some may consider a positive, but I 'd rather wait and have freshly cooked food. I can get a breakfast from werherspoos that 's been sat there for half an hour and it 'll cost me a lot less. When they brought the bill, and I pointed out that my black pudding wasn 't put on my plate, the waitress asked if I wanted it now, which I find a bit silly. I 'm not going to sit there and eat a dry bit of black pudding when we 're ready to leave. So I asked for a reduction of some kind. She offered to take my coffee off the bill, which was very kind because they 're about £4 but I was very annoyed to then notice once I 'd already paid) that an automatic 12.5% service charge was on there £4.11) essentially cancelling out my discount. I really hate it when places do that. It 's SO cheeky. Imagine your mechanic said I 've changed your tyres really nice Dave, I 'm gonna put an extra fiver on your bill for a bag of chips, sound? You 'd soon tell him where to go. I 'm not tight, but I don 't like feeling ripped off. If I have a particularly good service, I 'll give an extra fiver, but to expect it every time, even when you 've done a bad job, is absurd. The staff are all on at least the minimum wage, so it 's not like in America where they rely on tips because they 're poorly paid, so why should they get automatic tips? What about the people in Tesco or ASDA on minimum wage? They don 't get tips. It ain 't fair. Anyway, rant over. My conclusion bad experience.

Nice food let down by terrible service. We waited an hour for our food to arrive. No one came to check on us during this time. Three tables around us who arrived and ordered after us received their food before us. One of those tables who saw us still sitting there waiting commented how crazy it was how she 'd arrived after us and was already paying her bill before our food had come. The bigger problem was when I brought this to the manager 's attention, having already waited 45 minutes for our food, rather than simply offering up an apology, her response was No and told me I was wrong. Plenty of other good options in the area.

Despite being really busy with Mothers Day traffic -all staff were attentive, polite and really ensured we had a good experience. Food was well presented with great care- compliments to the chefs. We will defo be returning. Well done all at Bills