Bills Darlinghurst

Bills in Darlinghurst is the original location of chef Bill Granger's now-internationally recognised all-day dining concept, which launched from this small terraced space on Liverpool Street in 1993. Granger is widely credited with bringing ricotta hotcakes to mainstream Australian café culture and with popularising the idea of relaxed, ingredient-led breakfast and brunch dining that later became a defining feature of Sydney's food identity. The Darlinghurst café operates primarily as a breakfast and lunch venue, closing mid-afternoon, and retains the unpretentious character of its early days despite Granger's subsequent global expansion into Tokyo, London, Seoul, and Honolulu.

The menu centres on produce-driven simplicity. Ricotta hotcakes with banana and honeycomb butter are the most-ordered item and have been on the bills menu in various iterations since the café's founding. Corn fritters with roast tomato, rocket, and feta offer a savoury counterpart and remain a consistent feature. The scrambled eggs, made to a technique Granger shared widely, are a reference point for a generation of Sydney cooks. A short lunch menu extends into simple salads and lighter dishes, but the venue is most fully itself in the morning hours.

The room is small — a handful of tables, whitewashed walls, and natural light — and reflects the stripped-back aesthetic that Granger helped codify for Australian breakfast dining internationally. On weekend mornings, queues regularly extend onto Liverpool Street, as the venue does not accept reservations. Service is warm and informal, and coffee is reliably good, sourced from Sydney roasters.

Bills has expanded to multiple Sydney locations including Bondi Beach, Double Bay, and Surry Hills, each carrying the same menu and ethos. The Darlinghurst original remains the most historically resonant location and the one most closely associated with the restaurant's founding story.