Bills, Gangnam: a rainy Saturday brunch without an umbrella
It rained from Saturday morning. I did not want to carry an umbrella, and I wanted somewhere I could drive to and walk in dry. That is how we ended up at Bills in Gangnam.
Rainy-day dates in Seoul default to COEX, Lotte World Mall in Jamsil or a department store, and the problem with all of them is people. A quiet, unhurried meal is hard to find on a wet weekend.
Before you go
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Booking | Weekend 11am to 1pm can mean a wait; book on Naver or Catchtable |
| Parking | Arc Place underground garage, then the elevator to the ground-floor entrance. They gave us plenty of parking time; ask the staff |
| Getting there | Yeoksam station exit 3, one minute on foot |
| Korean name | 빌즈 강남 |
In from the garage
Park under Arc Place, take the elevator up, and the entrance is right there, a lobby like a hotel concierge desk and an open space with Bills in front of you. It is not a big mall, and that turns out to matter: a wide room, no umbrella needed, and the difference is larger than it sounds.
The glass wall is the first thing you see. The rainy street comes straight in, and sitting down felt like an hour would pass on its own.
Bills started in Australia as brunch dining and the interior follows that. Sitting there as a pair, though, the spacing mattered more than the design. You cannot really hear the next table, so you eat slowly and talk. The service was very good: one staff member stood in the middle of the room and kept scanning it, catching requests the moment they came up. Ordering was effortless.
Fresh Aussie and avocado toast
We ordered the Fresh Aussie, the avocado toast and a long black.
The Fresh Aussie is Bills’ Australian full breakfast, several things on one plate and none of them fighting. The poached egg hidden in it was a nice find, the salmon was aromatic and went well with the avocado, and the whole plate was balanced, filling without any sharp edges.
The avocado toast came with oil and coriander, which I did not expect to work; with the softness of the avocado and the sourdough it worked completely, and a grind of the pepper on the table made it better. Light and easy.
We stayed another hour with the drinks. The room filled and a wait formed. Someone was reading, a few tables were deep in conversation, a group of Japanese visitors came in. We sat by the glass until the rain stopped. Two hours in the middle of Gangnam, and it felt like a trip to somewhere in Australia.
I’d recommend it to two people looking for a good-looking place on a rainy weekend, especially if you are driving.
My rating: 5/5. One of the places I am fond of.