The Clerkenwell

So we had a good time there last night while waiting for wd-​50 bar to open up. David was a very friendly bartender and the general vibe was very friendly. The food was ok — deviled eggs were a bit salty but the hummus and bread was very good. We had a really good time but am not surprised by the mixed reviews. They are doing a whole interior revamp in the near future which should be interesting to see how it turns out.

I’ve never been treated as nicely as I have by Stefan and his gang. Awesome place for a gathering.

As we live across the street from this place, I was really hoping to love it. While the food was just fine, the service was a little slow and random, and the general atmosphere is just… weird, for lack of a better word. The music would go off for 20 minutes at a time and the food just wasn’t quite good enough for the cost. That said it’s sort of cute, and I will probably be back for a happy hour drink and snack. A good place to stop in if you’re in the area.

I have never eaten at the Clerkenwell just come for the games and the drinking, however the full english breakfast does look tempting for a no fuss no hassle brunch one weekend in the near future (when I dont like the sound of the Clinton Street or Essex time quotes…)
They have a great selection of British beers, my favorite being the hobgoblin at a great value for 6 bucks, as I find it hard to find consistently in grocery stores and bars. Kronenburg is a solid choice as well. The bartenders and staff are all very nice at this establishment, the décor is very turn of the century cozy with a modern twist, a bird [1] mural in the front windows.
They have an entire stack of well worn board games such as Monopoly, Connect Four and many many more… come on a rainy day, grab a beer with a mate and take it easy. Nice place to hangout for a good conversation as the noise level is moderate to low, without seeming like a dead scene. Dinner crowd on a friday night is late 20’s –30s aged, all having a great time.
The wallpaper in the cute and well kept bathroom was sporting a dapper greyhound in a bow tie complete with monocle. Keepin’ it classy Clerkenwell. I like that. Here’s my pic of it!
[1] Put a bird on it…

There were birds in the sky and I never saw them winging and I never saw them at all. till there was you…
I am refering to the bird on the wall paper at Clerkenwell… not enough to distract me from the lack of service tonight… never got a refill on my water…
but the one and only waiter there was very nice… I give him kudos for being the only one on the floor… very cute too: p
I got the Pat la Frieda burger… a decent juicy piece of angus meat on a really wonderful brioche… when I added cheese, caramelized onions and a side salad… it turned out to be really yummy… My partner in experience ordered their slow roasted pork belly with onions and parsnip purée and fat cut fries… this was not what was expected and a little disappointing… the presentation really needed a lot of work and hardly any real meat was there… but they do their thick cut fries really well if you are into such thickly sliced thinger-​magiggers :)
2.5 *s overall… would I come back? maybe for brunch… I always give them a benefit of a doubt.

* Came here on a Saturday morning for some healthy breakfast. You can immediately identify it as a British inspired establishment, when you see a soccer match of Arsenal and Sutherland on the TV.
* I got the full English breakfast, which had traditional items — sausage, crispy bacon, mushrooms, two eggs (sunny side up), baked beans and tomatoes. It was tasty for sure. Also got some OJ (unfortunately, it wasn’t freshly squeezed). My friend got the Vegetarian breakfast. Both of us were satisfied with the quality of food. 3.5 stars.

English style foods… I had toad in the hole. Basically, a pastry bowl with 2 mild sausage links and gravy, with mashed potatoes on the side. Not bad for brunch, and not too crowded when nearby places have people waiting outside.
The staff was nice and friendly. I enjoyed the quote of the day on the blackboard…“Love the little things. Eat well. Be kind to people.”

Stopped by with a friend for a Friday night pre-​concert gnosh. I’m glad we did. We made it in time for the happy hour and it wasn’t crowded, we had our pick of the tables.
They had a nice light beer on tap that was very tasty. I just had to look it up, they actually have their beer on their online menu! It was the Southhampton Double White Ale. Really nice, crisp, great for the warm night.
No appetizers, we went straight to the meat. I had the pork belly, mmmmm, poooork beeellllyy. It was good. The skin was the only thing not up to par, it was actually too fried, not quite the cracklin I like. But otherwise, even the pork belly fat was good. I know, it’s bad, it’s just bad how good that fat was. The sides that came with it weren’t notable, but they weren’t bad. I was satisfied when I was done.
My friend had the English sausages. She was really hoping they were *real* English sausages b/​c she says she hasn’t been able to find those at any store in Manhattan — I don’t know where she’s looked — she seemed to enjoy these. Not sure if she thought they were authentic, I might venture to guess they’re not quite what she remembered, but from my taste, they were tasty. The «pudding» they came with, which looked like a funny tall pie crust was good to me. Not something I’d eat a lot of but it was fine to taste. So, to recap, the sausages were tasty, the pork belly was delicious, but for the skin, and the veggies were veggies. I would come back for the pork belly and the beer. And the bartender/​waiter was also very nice.
Also, don’t sit outside. Their outside seating is actually like the sides of the entry/​foyer and it’s not all that. Sit inside, especially if you don’t like smoke.

Ended up at The Clerkenwell last Friday when everywhere else was packed to the brim, hour plus waits (we’d originally planned on trying Frankie 17, but it was a 90 minute wait).
The Clerkenwell had plenty of room for our party of three (me and my folks, who were visiting from LA). The Yankees game was on, and the noise wasn’t too bad except for the extremely loud drunk girl that kept laughing obnoxiously every so often. Other than her, the place was fairly quiet and had a nice ambiance.
The food was absolutely delicious. The fish & chips in particular are amazing. I will definitely be back for them again the next time the craving hits me. I was also quite impressed by their English menu, and it definitely brought back memories of my childhood (my mom’s from England). I’m more than a little curious about the Yorkshire pudding; might try that the next time I go.
Lastly, our waiter was awesome. Didn’t catch his name, but he comped me a Coke since he forgot to bring it. It’s little gestures like that that will make folks come back again and again.

Had a scoutmob deal for this place so I went and got the Fish n chips. The fish was under seasoned, but the batter was really good, and the fish was very fresh and was nice ¾’ x 4′ x 5′ piece. Perfectly cooked. Moist and flaky with a batter that stayed crisp until the end, even after I doused with malt vinegar and lemon. Fries were kinda lame. Plain old steak fries. Could have been crisper. Tartar sauce was a bit bland too. Got better after some lemon.
La Frieda Burger was not bad.
All in all food was good for 50% off. I would come back for the fish n chips at regular price, but not the burger.

Strolled in for brunch two weekends ago. The space seemed a little odd. Could be that there was a birthday brunch going on. They got my order wrong, but the waiter was quick to fix it. Had the eggs benedict which was ok, my friend tried the stuffed french toast. Overall the food seemed decent, would have to try their dinner dishes some other time to get a better gauge.

Came here for a Sunday brunch. I was very excited to see «egg and soldiers» on the menu, so I ordered that. Sadly, I was disappointed by this dish. The cooks obviously didn’t really care as both my eggs were fully hard boiled, which meant it wasn’t really egg and soldiers where I dip my strips of bread into the gooey egg yolk. How can I do that when my egg yolk is fully cooked? I ended up eating everything separately, which (tbh,) I can do at home.
This was my second time here (after considering giving it a chance). First time, I was less than impressed and hoped brunch would be better.
I’ll consider coming back here, but probably not in any hurry to due to the number of restaurants on clinton or even in the east village.
My extra star goes to our waitresses. She was at least on the ball and served us well.
Also my dining partner had the full english breakfast. It was a little on the small portioned size, but the baked beans tasted quite good. The butter for the bread was also very nice (so that’s another extra star).

On a recent trip to wd-​50, we noticed Clerkenwell across the street because the crowd was big and it looked like a happening place. Since they offer an English Breakfast, we decided to give it a try for brunch.
Walking through the Lower East Side on a sunny Saturday, you notice crowded restaurants spilling out into the street, a joyous atmosphere of food and fun. When we walked into Clerkenwell, we were only the second party to be seated. We should have heeded this apathetic omen.
The place is charming looking, but no more than any other pub in the LES. The waitress was efficient, but hardly personable or friendly. Too bad!
Now to the food… average. I had fish and chips. The fish had a nice crisp, but little flavor. The tartar sauce was quite bland, so they missed the mark on seasoning. The fries were quite good, though. I happily finished those. The BF had the English Breakfast, a tradition he likes to partake of. It was a decent, if unspectacular dish.
Clerkenwell did fill up somewhat later, but that atmosphere we were seeking when we first noticed the place never materialized.

(See pic)
While the food is more on the typical side, I love the laid back ambiance but upbeat music.
The All English Breakfast was nice, simple, slightly heavy sausage, a good cup of mint tea, mellow place to stop by.
The decoration was nice, very woodsy and some board games if you feel like some. The place is on the dimmer lighting side. You would feel like you just step into a different world from outside.

I really wanted to like this place — as a Brit living in NYC, sometimes you get a yearning for some good British food. Sadly this place will confirm the misconception that British food is insipid, lazily prepared and over cooked.
Toad in the hole — soggy batter, cold mashed potatoes, over-​sweet gravy and generic sausages. British sausages should a) be made from pork b) be very savory. These were, I think, made from chicken and were almost incredibly bland.
Pea and leek tart with soft poached egg — dull, small and the poached egg was hard as a rock
Cheese plate — there are some great British cheeses; little can beat a good strong Stilton and some aged Cheddar. This selection tasted as if it had recently been unwrapped after a shopping trip to Gristedes.
Sticky toffee pudding — clearly not made in the restaurant, it was just some sweet goo. And where was the custard? Who has a steamed pudding in Britain without smothering it in custard?
This place feels like the chef/​owners just don’t really care.

The Clerkenwell derives its name from a rather drab little splinter of London, wedged between the City proper and north London, down Clerkenwell I went. Oh, and it’s pronounced Clark — enwell.
The reason for this focus on origins is that The Clerkenwell’s chef cooked for several years in London (I had thought he was British, but on further investigation apparently not), and in style the place bids to be a British-​style «gastropub.» It’s in the space which once contained AKA Café, where I often sat at one of the outdoor tables in the porch soaking up a night’s drinking with pretty good tacos and sloppy Joe’s (this was succeeded by something called Summer’s, about which I know nothing).
From a short list of house cocktails, reasonably priced at $ 9, a refreshing blend of Lillet, gin and orange bitters — I think it was actually called a Clerkenwell. I was tempted by the Pimm’s No. 1 Cup, a quintessentially British summer libation. But since it contains hardly enough of the strong stuff to furnish a gnat with an alcohol rub, you’re better off buying a bottle and mixing a jug of it yourself. The wine-​list, by the way, was disappointing — with the exception of the $ 80 Grand Tinel Châteauneuf-​du-​Pape, which I decided was a bit too much for the occasion.
The ambience is designed to feel like a British saloon bar — and it doesn’t at all — and one finds fish and chips, bangers, burger and chips, puddings; exactly the dishes which would mark out a pub in London as not being a gastropub — which have more exotic ambitions — but just a traditional boozer. I wished the mackerel with celery and raisin salad had been an appetizer, because that’s a surprisingly good combination I rarely see here. You can get it on a roll in a London sandwich bar. I settled on the «English breaded goat cheese» mainly out of curiosity as to what would be English about it. Maybe the breadcrumbs are English. Anyway, just as pubs back home went through a phase of threatening diners with deep fried camembert, The Clerkenwell takes pucks of mild goat cheese, breads them, and fries them to undeniable crunchiness.
Call me traitor to my British upbringing, but I think the French idea of serving warm, mature goat cheese over salad, without the frying, is preferable. Perhaps I should have ordered the mackerel entrée as a starter, because this was a rib-​sticking plate. A variety of gently pickled beets added considerable interest, but three slabs of goat cheese gets kind of samey. A plate to share, if anything.
Then I tempted fate by ordering toad-​in-​the-​hole, and fate responded in predictable fashion. Legendary for its name, this isn’t a dish which is actually much eaten in modern Britain. I saw it occasionally at school lunch. It was never a big favorite of mine, but I’d been discussing it earlier this week online and felt nostalgic. The Clerkenwell bills it as «Yorkshire» toad-​in-​the-​hole, appropriately enough because the batter encasing the sausages is the same as the batter used in making Yorkshire pudding, essentially a popover usually served as an accompaniment to roast beef.
Like a popover, Yorkshire pudding, whether on its own account or enveloping sausages, should fluffy, with a puffy, crispy surface or rim. Perhaps it was the proportion of sausage to batter, or perhaps some other problem of execution, but this pud was wilted. The sausages were familiar — sourced from somewhere I think I’d know — sweet and sagey. But the batter beneath and around them was pasty, soggy, and only at the very outer edge could I detect any crispness. An unsuccessful dish, not aided by the mashed potatoes — which tasted fine — being served stone cold. Oh, there were some caramelized onions and gravy involved too.
The Clerkenwell, on this showing, is not going to persuade downtown New Yorkers that British pub food is bright, tasty, and a better choice than Mexican or pizza. There’s a half pound burger with big fat chips (fries) for $ 11, though, and that might be a much safer bet than Ye Olde Pub Fayre.

As we walked inside, I spied an enormous burger at a nearby table. I had to have it. So when our server came by, I happily ordered the «½ pound Angus Burger,» which comes standard with Swiss and caramelized onions. When it arrived, it looked just as massive.
But looks can be deceiving, my friends. Once again, I had been seduced, and then hornswoggled by the fluffy buns. Bun. I meant bun.
Let this be a life lesson, gentlemen. Sometimes things might look fat and juicy on another man’s plate, but when you finally get it for yourself, it could very well turn out to be a disappointment.
Don’t let it happen to you.
In addition to being smaller than originally expected, the burger was just OK. It wasn’t medium rare, and it was far thinner than it should’ve been. I like that it comes with fries and a salad, but it was like 8 steak fries.
And be warned: the burger is $ 13. A $ 13 burger doesn’t shock me really (which is sad in itself), but the entrees range between $ 10 and $ 14. I want my burger to be cheaper than the fish options; it’s just a matter of principle.

As soon as we sat down I should have known this would be a disappointing meal. My husband broke the chair. And you should know, he is a pretty slim guy: it was a cheap chair.
We had made a resevration and so were sat quickly but our drink orders weren’t taken till the third time our waitress came to the table
«how are you doing?»
«let me get your menus»
«let me get a pen»
and it was another twenty minutes before the drinks came because she was ‘slammed’ at the bar. hmmm, from where i sat i saw no huge influx of customers clamoring for cocktails but who am i to judge. my fellow dinner on the hand works in the biz and said that waitress was fibbing.
my Organic lager was really great.
from the very limited menu we choose our meals. the broken chair was mended by a Yorkshire pudding for my husband. i ordered the leek and pea tart and my girlfriend ordered the pork belly.
again, the food took too long to come out of the kitchen and we were served in stages. really, is it that hard to coordinate three dishes?
but, the food was good. i loved the crust and the spout garnish. the peas were super fresh. loved the pork belly! i generally don’t like that much fat to be openly displayed as a meal but it was amazing.
as i ate the delicious tart i was struck by the odd design elements. a three foot wide patch of wall had a bright blue and red wallpaper with cameos while the opposite wall has a ten foot stretch of wood wallpaper. a huge mirror hung behind me and classic exposed brick jutted out in a few spots. That will need to be fixed.
i would let this little establishment fire all its waitresses and get on its feet before i will return.

Eh. They’re definitely still getting started but their brunch menu is a full page whereas they literally only have 4 appetizers and 4 entrees for the dinner menu. Overall too, nothing was that good. I will say that it was pretty cheap though. Also, the side salad for $ 3 is a joke. I don’t know how they make any money on that thing — probably cost them $ 3 just to make it. Good mashed Ps though and our waiter was nice enough.
Ditto what the other review was saying about not quite being ready though — there was a mirror on the ground next to our table. I’m guessing it will be hung shortly.

Second night, I came early by accident, pictures still being hung, cleaning and set up under way.
Good signs: Owners and staff are easy to speak to, they understand their vision and want to be good.
Malbec wine — $ 8 nice, big and fruity as expected
Prosecco wine — $ 7 — nice, sweeter than dry
Fish cake (haddock) app. — Excellent, very good portion, cake on green beans and some kind of mayo/​remoulade
ENTREE — Yorkshire pudding, bangers, mash — perfectly done, medium portion not huge — I suggested adding a veg — mushy peas or seasonal veg would be perfect.
Add some seasonal items — is my only recommendation — be local — be real.
Happy Hour will follow no doubt —
brunch menu will follow — I hear — Great!
Well worth a visit — Great east side Pub!
I left full and happy — Great Oz Chef.