100 best New York restaurants: British & Irish food

The best New York restaurants to offer English-style eats both come from one chef: The talented April Bloomfield. Check out her pair of British gastropubs.

By Time Out editors

100 best New York restaurants: The Spotted Pig
100 best New York restaurants: The Breslin Bar & Dining Room

100 best New York restaurants: The Spotted Pig

English food tends to draw disinterested shrugs in NYC. But the nation’s authentic fare has genuine appeal with the right chef behind the burners. April Bloomfield is the city’s most respected ambassador of U.K. eats and she is behind the best New York restaurants to offer the cuisine. Rediscover the Spotted Pig and the Breslin, two hotspots still bringing real heat to the English pantry.

RECOMMENDED: Full list of 100 best New York restaurants

The Spotted Pig

Price band: 2/4
Critics choice

Blame talented toque April Bloomfield for the inevitable wait at this still-hopping West Village gastropub—a pioneer in the kind of meaty go-big-or-go-home grub that’s proliferated since the spot’s 2004 opening. The Pig still serves one of New York City’s best burgers, a rare patty heaped with intense Roquefort cheese and served with a tower of rosemary- and garlic-kissed shoestring fries. Equally legendary is the crispy pig ear salad—among the city’s first cultish offal dishes—napped in a lemony caper dressing. Bookend this prodigal feast with pints of proprietary cask-drawn bitter ale and a spiced ginger cake with a dollop of whipped cream for dessert.

314 W 11th St, (at Greenwich St), 10014-23

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The Breslin Bar & Dining Room

Price band: 2/4
Critics choice

The third project from Ken Friedman and chef April Bloomfield offers the most opulently fatty food in New York—served in medieval portions in a raucous lodgelike setting. You’ll wait an hour or more for a table, but once you’re seated, the gastropub delivers a near-perfect dining experience. A giant pig’s-foot-for-two entrée is stuffed with cotechino sausage, breaded, fried, and doused in a mix of white wine and cream. The pork belly roulade is sweet, smoky and fragrant with red wine and apples. Desserts—like a warm sticky-toffee pudding spiked with Turkish coffee—turn the end of the meal into a Dickensian Christmas feast.