Bill's Cafe - Cambridge

So, following on from my post yesterday, the second no-cooking-required event I wanted to write about was a trip I took to Bill's Cafe in Cambridge. I'd seen it reviewed by a couple of local bloggers recently (The Secluded Tea Party, for one) and thought it sounded like a good destination for lunch during a rare, solitary shopping trip.

Bill's Cafe is located on one of Cambridge's lovely back streets, in a building that used to house a Slug & Lettuce pub, one of those slightly bland chain pub/restaurants that I never found particularly appealing. My first impression of the new occupant was a space full of colour with the walls lined with shelves and crammed with various tins, bottles, jars and bags of food (Bill's also sells a wide variety of foodstuffs, a lot of which are own-brand products such as jams, chutneys, salad dressings etc). It was only just noon but the place was already very busy and it wasn't long before they were turning people away.

I was sat at one of the communal tables, which was decorated with pots of red flowers and metal buckets providing cutlery, napkins etc. There was also a "menu" of the aforementioned foodstuffs so diners could tick off the items they wanted to take away with them and hand it to a member of staff. Their shopping would then be gathered together, with the cost added to the bill, ready to take away at the end of their meal - quite a clever touch I thought.

The menu offered lots of tempting choices (have a look here) and after much umming and ahhing I plumped for the Halloumi and Hummous Burger. You can't really tell from the picture below but it arrived on a smallish rectangular wooden board topped with a sheet of greaseproof paper. Quite a novel method of serving but not ideal for those of us prone to losing half the contents of their burger during the eating process! Luckily I managed to get through with the minimum of mess and I had definitely made the right choice as the burger was delicious. Slices of halloumi were sat on top of some nice, chunky hummous, with salad, mayo and sweet chilli sauce, all served in a brioche bun. The chips were served in a metal pudding mould which made the portion look a bit on the small side but looks can be deceiving and I had more than enough.

I'll definitely be back here when I'm next in Cambridge. If nothing else I have to try their Chocolate Brownie Milkshake, topped with a mountain of cream, which I enviously watched being served to someone else while I was there.