The Leconfield Pub & Kitchen

Cozy Pub with Stellar Sunday Roasts

Walking into The Leconfield, you might be reminded of that charming paperback novel you picked up at an airport: familiar, comforting, and unexpectedly full of richness once you properly sink into it. This isn’t your usual big city dining spot with the sharp edges and sharper prices but rather a neighborhood pub where everyone insists on a firm handshake and a friendly grin. It boasts a hodgepodge of characteristics that suggest a self-assured pub not trying too hard—lit by the fireplace's warm, rosy glow, harmonious clinks from an enthusiastically contested pool game in the corner, and spirited chatter over heavenly schnitzels and croquetas boasting their own fan followings. If you’re lucky enough to visit on a Sunday, prepare for roast dinners with Yorkshire puddings puffed up like a proud uncle at graduation, seemingly pulled from the pages of a food magazine.

The accolades spill over when it comes to the staff as well—Ashanté, Patrick, Paris, and indeed any other names that drape themselves around your memory as if tied to fine wine bottlenecks, snugly fit the role of congenial hosts playing characters who simply love their jobs. Of course, some quibbles may quietly peek from beneath this pleasant drapery—a less-than-perfect beef roast could catapult one into a subplot sneered at by a comic relief character. Episodes of human fallibility sneak through with fleeting glimpses of bare-handed cooks reminded me that not all tales are layered pristine. Yet, these moments taper quietly into footnotes against the masterfully prepared espresso martinis and untroubled social swirl de Georges Brassens coasting from the speakers. Life rarely serves perfection on a silver platter, but here, licking a gravy-drenched fork in jovial company, it feels close enough. — Penelope Savory