English’s in Town Square serving up interesting British fare

I discovered the joys of eating in an English pub when I was backpacking around Europe, way back in the days when they actually liked Americans over there.

It was quite a revelation. English food at the time had a well-deserved reputation as an oxymoron, at least as it was presented in many of the country's restaurants. But then there was pub food -- simple, to be sure, and kind of rustic, but also filling and cheap. And best of all, very, very good, with more character than a Shakespearean comedy.

The early '90s brought the Brits the birth of the gastropub. On a track parallel to the upscale-casual movement in America, it arose as a sort of fusion of the simple pub fare and slightly more sophisticated choices, in a less traditional atmosphere.

English's, a relative newcomer at Town Square, bills itself as a gastropub and in some ways it fits the profile -- for instance the fairly young clientele and deft use of social media. We ended up choosing from the "quintessentially British" part of the menu because it was by far the most interesting. The only snag was that we ended up with pub food, not gastropub food.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, as they say, because it was well prepared. Cod and chips ($13.95) had large fillets of fish, coated in a beer batter that actually tasted of beer (that's a good thing), the coating golden and crisp, the interior moist and sweet. The hand-cut chips on the side were closer to the real thing than we usually encounter these days, and the minted peas were as real as its gets -- which is to say canned and mushy, just like the Brits like them, brightened and enlivened with a good shot of mint.

The Cornish pasty ($16.95) was good but a bit of a snoozer (as opposed to a sleeper). Nice flaky puff pastry had been folded around a filling primarily composed of tender beef fillet and potatoes in a thinnish brown gravy. What saved the dish was a pile of carrots -- cut into thin sticks and cooked until a very un-Brit-like just tender, with an appealingly sweet honey glaze -- and a very generous mound of creamy whipped potatoes.

The steak, mushroom and ale pie ($16.95) was more interesting, with a goodly amount of mushrooms and enough ale to provide a pleasantly yeasty touch, plus tender cubes of beef and onions. Carrots and mash with this one, too, and again they were a positive.

The only thing that was less than authentic was the Ploughman's ($8.95) that we shared as a starter. It arrived as listed on the menu, but wasn't nearly as interesting as a traditional Ploughman's, the only sparkle provided by a little cup of Branston pickle. The cheeses were good -- a fruited white Stilton, regular Stilton and a cheese marbled with Port wine -- the apples crisp, the bread chewy, with an added pile of field greens, but we found ourselves pining for the hard-cooked eggs and pickled beetroot that add more interest to the usual platter.

Our server did a good job, as she was pleasant, refilled glasses regularly and checked on our food without being asked. Service from the kitchen was a bit slow. The interior is sleekly simple but comfortable.

One thing we noticed, though, was that the beer/ale/cider list was thinner than we'd expect from a gastropub, the wine list not worth mentioning.

English's isn't as ornately decorated as most of the British pubs around town, but the food is good, if not innovative. I guess that makes it gastropub lite.

Las Vegas Review-Journal reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at 383-0474 or email her at hrinella@ reviewjournal.com.