The Judge & Jury

Steak and mushroom pie shares a menu with Thai red curry haddock at The Judge & Jury, and neither one reads as a gimmick. This is a Burlington pub built on the British canon — meat pies, Yorkshire puddings, fish and chips — that has folded a genuine curry lane and a smoked-meat Reuben into the same kitchen, then filed the whole thing under a courtroom conceit. The Judge's Curry, the Judge's Reuben, a mains section called Pub Justice: the naming is a wink, but the cooking under it is broad enough that a table rarely has to argue about where to eat. The restaurant sits on Walkers Line, in uptown Burlington's business corridor.

The British canon is where the kitchen is surest of itself. Fish and chips arrives as beer-battered haddock with house tartar and lemon, the most direct read on what the place does. Roast Beef Yorkies — Yorkshire pudding filled with mashed potato, roast beef, red wine demi-glace, and onion straws — turn the Sunday roast into a starter built for sharing, and remain the most distinctive thing to put down before mains. The Judge's Reuben stacks ten ounces of smoked meat on marble rye with sauerkraut, Swiss, and thousand island. Steak and mushroom pie comes under puff pastry with a red wine demi-gravy; shepherd's pie is built on minced lamb and beef beneath mashed potato.