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Restaurant Sat Dec 01 2007
Putting a little English on it
The opening of English, the River North gastropub, was met with much fanfare last summer, but the verdict reached by most reviewers was that the food was mediocre and the beer list was a little lean. That's why I wasn't expecting too much when I had dinner there last week. Fortunately, I was in for a surprise.
Unfortunately, the beer list was indeed disappointing. At a place that claims to aspire to British pub-dom, you'd expect a wider variety of, well, British beer on tap; the only interesting draft was Fuller's London Pride. The draft beers can be ordered in pint and "mini pint" sizes, though, which is nice if you're in the mood for something smaller than a towering glass of ale.
And while I wouldn't make a special trip here for the beer, I would for the food. The mussels, which arrived swimming in a broth of "ale," ginger, garlic and shallots, with a little red curry thrown in, were delicious. The curry added a little kick to the sauce without going overboard, and the mussels were juicy and sweet. The house salad was decent, with its fancy "carrot gaufrette" on top and goat-cheese-topped toast on the side. The fish n' chips were deemed excellent, crunchy and flaky without being too greasy, and the 10-oz. Angus burger went beyond generic pub fare because of its size and the quality of the beef.
The only thing English really suffers from is an identity crisis. With boring beer, good food, heavy decor, TVs blaring and what I'm told is a lively nightlife, I'm not sure what this place is really going for: sports bar? restaurant? night club? It's hard to say. The next time I'm in River North and craving mussels, though, I'll be going back.
