Bills & Handmade Burger Co. Leicester Review

Leicester is one of the cities around the East Midlands that I don’t visit often, although saying that, I’ve been twice in the last month and plan to go again on Saturday... One thing I love about Highcross though, is the amount of restaurants it has to offer in the little food quarter bit. If you’ve never been to Highcross before, all the eateries are outside in one place, you have Zizzis, Wagamamas, Frankie and Bennies, Handmade Burger Co., Byron Burger, Bills and loads more scattered around and when it’s warm, it has the same atmosphere as what you get when you’re on holiday! 

Yesterday, myself and 4 other lovely bloggers (Sophia, Steph, Nancy and Hareem) were kindly asked to attend a 3 course meal across different restaurants in promotion of the new Highcross PLUS app (more on that another time...), due to a little confusion though, we only ended up visiting 2 of the 3 planned locations but it all ended well. First up, was Bills. We started the evening here with a selection of tapas like starters and a little chat to get to know each other. After Bills, we moved onto Handmade Burger Co. for mains, shakes and desserts...

Bills is a favourite restaurant of mine, having visited the one in Brighton several times and have also been to the Leicester one before this evening, I was excited to try some of the starters from the Lunch and Dinner menu. We were presented with:

 ‘Bills Cheese on Toast’

‘Spiced Tortilla Chips with tzatziki, guac and salsa’

‘Bills Giant Green Olives’

‘Crispy Crumbed Hallumi’

‘Hummus’

‘Crispy Lemon Squid’

‘Chorizo Sausage roll in Puff Pastry’ 

‘Grille Piadina bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil’

An amazing selection of nibbles and some that I’d never tried before either. I have to say that the Crispy Crumbed Hallumi was my favourite out of the lot - the cheese on toast was good too apparently but I wasn’t quick enough to get my hands on any! The tortilla chips are huge and quite spicy too but taste so good dipped in the tzatziki. It’s a perfect way to try most of the menu without worrying you’re not going to like any of it. Bills were really good at providing information on what was vegetarian too and the menu also states whether it is vegan friendly (ve). 

I’m definitely going to be heading back to Bills in future (probably on Saturday for breakfast!) as the restaurant is easy to find, in the middle of where you want to be, it has a great atmosphere; not too crowded and you don’t feel like you’re sitting on top of other people and the staff are efficient and friendly. One of the other good things about Bills is that you can buy a lot of products that they use e.g. the amazing, huge metal teapots they use are available to buy, Jams, sweets and bottled drinks are available too! So if you try something and love it that much, you can take your own home! 

This was my first time at a Handmade Burger Co. restaurant and I’m not actually a huge lover of burgers, especially when I was full from the starters at Bills... but the menu offered so much choice that you can mix and match stuff to create the perfect burger for you including what meat is used, what bun is used, seasoning and toppings! There was a massive amount to choose from but from the minute I saw the ‘Peanut Butter and Bacon’ option on the Chicken selection, I was sold. I did mix it up a bit though and had it on a pitta rather than bun and added Mozzerella into it too then added the Rosemary Salt onto the Sweet Potato fries - Such a winning combo - I definitely recommend it. Again, the menu states what is vegan friendly, what contains nuts and they also offer a Halal option on the chicken. The other girls had proper burgers, I believe one was the Pulled Pork burger (see above) which looked insane! 

Next up, pudding. Not any normal pudding though, Sundaes and Shakes. We were a bit dopey though and though that the sundae menu was actual cakes/pies etc, completely missing the word SUNDAE so when they arrived in tall glasses, coated with cream, we were a little shocked but oh my. The Brownie and Waffle + Apple Pie are incredible. The best bit is that there was a perfect amount of everything, not too much cream or sauce or chunky bits, they were just perfect. Then to top it all off, we ended the night with a Shake to takeaway (they do Soya options too!) 

The service is normally self-serve but we had table service for our evening due to it being a review and our waiter couldn’t have been more accommodating. He explained everything on the menu, recommended we try certain things and made sure we had everything we needed, he even asked for our blog links and seemed genuinely interested in what we did! So, massive thanks to Paddy and Sam! The chefs also deserve a well done too as I’m such a picky eater, always wanting items from one dish added onto another but they did everything I asked for, thanks Eddie, Blake, Johnny and Lerelle.

Overall, even just visiting these two restaurants out of the 30+ there are to choose from, we weren’t disappointed and left feeling super, duper full! I would love to try more restaurants in Highcross and may try doing so over the next few months to bring you more foody reviews. 

Have you eaten at any of the places in Highcross? What do you recommend I try next?