Wilfie & Nell
The grilled cheese is $13, on Pullman loaf, cheddar or gruyere. A dollar buys caramelized onions in it.14 The bar has traded on West 4th Street since 2008.3
Why go
A Scotch egg of sage pork sausage runs $12 and a ploughman's plate with cashel blue runs $17. The burger comes on a Pat LaFrieda dry-aged blend at $19.4
Chris Stang reviewed it for The Infatuation and put no number on it. Their scale is for rooms where you eat a full meal.1 Low ceilings and an odd layout mean thirty people fill the place. You may be eating at a ledge.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the grilled cheese, with the onions.4
- Order: the double cooked fries, $10. Hand cut, with malt vinegar.4
- Order: the croquettes, $13. Sweet potato bound with Irish cheddar and smoked bacon.4
- Avoid: the pulled pork sliders. Stang says they can be a little dry, and that the pickle and the mustard on the side rescue them.1
What locals & experts say
- Chris Stang, in The Infatuation, on the grilled cheese:
Far and away the best thing on the menu at Wilfie & Nell, and one of the best grilled cheeses we've eaten. Served on Blue Ribbon Pullman with perfectly gooey cheese - add caramelized onions. Excellent.
1 - Time Out New York, filing it under West Village pubs on 24 February 2010:
Irish comfort food sits alongside Joaquin Baca (Momofuku)-designed dishes at Mark and Simon Gibson's (Bua) gastropub, which is named for the owners' grandparents.
2 - The limit: the big mastheads have written this bar up and I have not been able to read any of those pieces at their publishers, so none of them speaks here.
Good to know
- Getting in: walk in. The house rule on the site is no reservations.3
- Late: the kitchen stops well before the bar does, and on the late nights it stops hours before. Order the food before the last round.3
- If you are eating properly: fish and chips on beer battered hake, $24. The steak sandwich runs $36, on 30-day dry-aged New York strip.4
Verdict
could-visit — Come as a pair. Stang is right that this is a place you drink at first, and thirty people make it feel full.