Wilfie & Nell: A Gastropub?

There are a lot of restaurants calling themselves “English-Style Gastropubs” these days, but I don’t feel like everyone is on the same page when it comes to defining exactly what that is. Sure, a Gastropub is an English-style pub with food. But the question of what kind of food and what kind of pub seems open for wild interpretation. I have a feeling that Wilfie & Nell is more like the establishments that inspired the trend than its glossier, high end counterparts like The Spotted Pig or The Clerkenwell.

Located on an unassuming stretch of West 4^th, the space feels cavernous in the strict sense of the word -- it is dark, it has low ceilings, and its dining room extends into odd nooks and crannies. With its aged brick columns and worn wood work it would be easy to imagine that the space was once a centuries old stable that was converted first to a bar, then a bar with a kitchen.[bxA]

The small bar menu is packed with calorie rich English fare that is well executed and locally sourced. Apologies in advance for the quality of these photos-it was dark in there.

By far the best of what we tried was the grilled corned beef and gruyere sandwich with stone ground mustard. The single layer of thick, meaty corned beef has a tenderness and a faint briney taste that melds nicely with the rich, sweet cheese.

The pigs in a blanket are not the pastry covered cocktail franks frequently served as canapés, but rather deep fried English sausages wrapped in thick cut English bacon. The bacon is extra crispy and tastes like good bacon always tastes, but the sausage in the middle is fatty and under spiced. The sausage also has a firmness and a snap that isn’t entirely pleasurable. Especially when coupled with the bacon, these chubby little stocks of meat represent the kind of pasty, oily food that has given English food a bad wrap for so long.

The pulled pork sliders are good. No punches pulled here. The pork is juicy, and savory in all the right ways. The buns are airy like slider buns, and the excellent stone ground mustard cuts the richness of the meat nicely.

A lot has been said about Wilfie & Nell being an affordable gastropub, and in a certain sense it is -- every item on the menu is under $10. While the three items we shared were filling enough for two people, the portion size is really dipping into small plate/ bar snack territory. While the food is good overall, it does feel like the restaurant, and most of its patrons, consider the food as something of an afterthought. On a Saturday afternoon at around six the place was mostly packed with the young trendsetters working on various stages of a heavy afternoon beer buzz. Wilfie & Nell is certainly a good time, but when the tab is totaled, you can’t help but to feel like you’ve spent a bit too much on that good time.