Food - Bill’s

We get to Bill’s well before one, but there isn’t room at a table. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the seat bit of a seat here”, says Dave. It’s a victim of its own success, Bill’s: if you do get a seat the atmosphere’s cracking, if you don’t… well, I suppose you just have to go somewhere else. Or wait. Or crowd round one of the tables outside. We elect to do that, looking uneasily at the grey sky. Lewes being Lewes, four soon turns into six as we’re spotted by a couple of friends who join us. There are some chef’s specials boards and the three eaters in the party can’t but choose from those. Two of us go for the ‘Nasi Goreng’, billed as Indonesian fried rice with chicken, bacon, shrimp, vegetables, fried egg and prawn crackers. Rob opts for a duck breast salad. Both options cost £9.95. Bill’s is licensed, which I didn’t know, so we order a round of Becks. They bring us a complementary espresso cup full of a soup made from tomato, orange and fennel. The arrival of the food draws wows. Rob’s salad, he says, looks like something from the Chelsea Flower Show. The egg on the Indonesian rice has been drizzled with soy sauce, a peculiar sight.
I dig in. I’ve never had the like of it before in Lewes. It’s like a spicy paella, super-rich in non-rice extras, pleasantly salty. The crunch of the stir-fry vegetables, the tang of the prawns, everything scoopable into the prawn crackers. And then the egg. The rain remains a threat throughout but never materialises. They change the chef’s menu every day. Next time I’ll miss breakfast, and arrive at twelve. AL