The Bountiful Cow

Roxy Beaujolais, proprietor of the ancient Seven Stars in WC2, found a 1960s pub between Red Lion Square and High Holborn and turned it into The Bountiful Cow, 'a public house devoted to beef'. You enter below green waterfalls of periwinkles to find two floor levels that feel neatly halfway between a funky bistro and a stylish saloon. Walls are bedecked with pictures of cows, bullfights, cowgirls, meat cuts diagrams and cow-themed films, presided over by a colourful poster for Cattle Queen of Montana starring Barbara Stanwyck and a former president of the United States. The house seats 70 drinkers/diners; the music is jazzy but discreet. Head Cook Roxy is author of the pub cookbook Home From the Inn Contented and was a presenter of the BBC's Full On Food. Her menu, based on beef sourced at Smithfield Market and aged in-house, features exceptionally large and well-made hamburgers, dubbed Bountyburgers, and big steaks (rib-eye, sirloin, T-bone, filet, rump, onglet) aged many weeks and destined to be accurately cooked by the grill chef, alongside cask-conditioned ales and wines. Lunches are of particularly notable value: the pub pays homage to the Free Lunch tradition of US pre-prohibition days with an Almost Free Lunch. Memorable choices, including vegetarian ones, are offered at 'nugatory', i.e. low, prices, with the customer requested to also buy a drink (it could be a soft drink). A new, low cost Early Dinner menu from 5 to 7pm offers some favourite choices - steak sandwich, grilled pork chop with apple sauce and mash, mushroom risotto. The sights and tourist destinations of central London are an improving short walk away.