Miscriant: Brunch At Bill's

We woke up on the Sunday morning after our night at Proud Cabaret feeling slightly worse for wear. Surprisingly, considering the size of the meals we had had the night before we found we were starving and headed downstairs to the hotel bar for our included breakfast. Upon our arrival we were incredibly disappointed to find that all was left was a couple of sorry looking sausages and a limited supply of juice.

It just wasn't going to cut it.

Luckily we had Claire with us. Claire had lived in Brighton for some time and knew all the secret locations that only the locals know about. She suggested we head up to Bill's for brunch.

We dutifully dumped our bags in the hotel bag store, checked out and headed into the bright December sunshine to walk through the Brighton Lanes and up past the Pavilion. Even though it was about 11am in the morning Brighton was still almost deserted - this is clearly a place that sleeps late on a Sunday!

We got to Bill's quite quickly and upon arrival I was dubious to say the least. The building looked closed and deserted. We tentatively pushed the door and moved past the rough sail cloth blocking the view of the interior.

Once in we stopped and drank in the sight before us.

A large, airy old industrial building (the old bus depot) filled with tables of young people, couples, families and bustling wait staff. Christmas trees hung upside down from the rafters alongside ropes of peppers and chilli's and large blackboards with Bill's favourite recipes written on them.

The entire place was buzzing and bathed in sunlight streaming in from the huge windows and doors.

We made our way to one of the only free tables in the entire place and took our seats.

First on the agenda was a serious vitamin hit via Bill's smoothies. I had a Raspberry, Peach and Mango Juice

While the others all went for Mixed Berry and Banana

Then it was time to order. This was harder than I thought it would be! There was so much to tantalise the tastebuds, from traditional breakfasts to eggs benedict, porridge, a healthy breakfast board (tempting but not substantial enough considering the night we had just had) and burgers. Finally, after a lot of umming and aahing I went for the blueberry and buttermilk pancakes with mixed berries and maple syrup

And the others all opted for variations on the cooked breakfast and tea in gorgeous old tin teapots.

Thoroughly sated we chatted about the previous night and looked through the pictures on my camera. We also made plans for the next couple of hours shopping. As we were in Bill's we thought we may as well start there as there are floor to ceiling shelves stacked high with gourmet goods, a lot of which are made on site.

By now Brighton had woken up and the streets were bustling. After brunch we meandered leisurely back through the Lanes, chatting and browsing the various shops, drinking in the sights and sounds as the city came to life around us. Brighton is a visually stunning place with plenty to catch the eye and an early afternoon stroll was the perfect way to get rid of the last vestiges of our lingering hangovers before catching the train back to Canterbury.