Amazing burgers, interesting cow theme, efficient staff, good central location
Disadvantages:
The toilets need to be renovated
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
toptable ********** Some of you might recall that I wrote about a website called toptable a little while ago. In a nut shell toptable allows you to earn points for each restaurant booking you make through them. The only catch is that the restaurant must be registered on their website. Also it's mainly a London thing as the representation of regional restaurants is rather patchy.
I had reached the requisite amount of points to get myself a freebie meal so I had a look at which restaurants I could choose from.
Based on the amount of points I'd earned, which was 1400, I could choose from:
Fire & Stone (WC2) - pizza and a smoothie Herbe Bistro (Edinburgh) - 2 course set menu Katana (WC2) - 2 course set menu Rock Garden (WC2) - 2 course set menu The Bountiful Cow (WC1) - 2 course set menu
The name The Bountiful Cow caught my eye and I remembered having seen something about the owner Roxy Beaujolais (I kid you not) so I decided to choose that for my freebie meal.
Location ********** The Bountiful Cow can be found at 51 Eagle Street, Holborn , London,WC1R 4AP. It's on a quiet side street and to be honest I don't imagine they get a great deal of passing trade. It's one of those places you need to know about. The nearest tube station is Holborn, about a 10 minute walk away. We had decided that we'd go for lunch and then carry on to Oxford Street for a trip to John Lewis to spend all our wedding gift vouchers so we were in a good mood and looking forward to our treat. We located the restaurant, which looks like a pub from the outside, and noted that it had its name written in bright red lights on the sign outside so you can't miss it. When you enter the first thing you notice is the cow theme. Its everywhere. The room you walk into is a bar/dining room which is quite small, with American diner style booths down two walls and smaller tables into the middle. The centre piece is the bar which is backlit and covered in tempting looking bottles. All over the walls are pictures that relate to cows in some way, as you'll see from my photos. Classic American cowboy pictures, all American adverts, pictures of cows in the 18th century style where the cow is so rotund its little stick legs couldn't possibly it up in the real world. Cow hides pined up. Its certainly has a real diner feel to it.
Service ******** It wasn't busy when we arrived with maybe 3 or 4 of the tables/booths occupied. There was one man serving at the bar and one waitress working the tables. As we walked in we were straight away greeted by the waitress who was I think Spanish. She took my name and looked up our booking. As soon as she realised I was on a toptable deal she told me that she'd bring us both the special menu and the regular menu in case we wanted to order anything extra. We were seated at a booth nearest the door, which was a little tight on leg room if Im honest. As we sat taking in the crazy décor the waitress returned with our menus. On my 'free' menu was the following:
Starters ********* Sephardic chopped liver and egg, with onions and aubergines Lemony Greek salad with tomatoes, feta cheese and olives
Main courses **************** Spagetti with fresh chopped vine tomatoes and parmesan Bountiburger Deluxe - coarse ground steak, chopped onions and gherkin (and if you wish, a topping of melted cheddar, or bacon, or egg) on a roll, with salad greens
Afterwards ************ Please see our a la carte menu
On the regular menu was a multitude of meat. The Bountiful Cow really isn't for vegetarians I'm afraid. The main thing to have seemed to be steak, (T-bone, fillet, rump) served with sauces and fries or other potato variations. Or one of their burger variations.
We both decided on the Greek salad followed by the bountiful burgers, and asked for the burgers to be topped with cheese and bacon. A real belly buster.
We also ordered drinks which were quickly served to us from the bar. I chose a gin and tonic, which I thought might make the fool hardy mission of braving Oxford Street on a Saturday a bit less horrendous. My husband had a beer.
The salads arrived within about 15 minutes and were generously proportioned. A mass of juicy tomato pieces were joined by delicious looking plump black olives, and chunks of pure white feta. It took us quite a while to finish them off and I must say I did wonder if I'd have room for my main course.
Bathrooms ************* Before the next course arrived I decided to make use of the facilities which are situated down stairs. As I walked towards the stairs I passed a large glass fridge which contained some of the meat served at the restaurant. I saw hunks of meat that looked fabulous and I would have to say I'd like to have tried a steak at the Cow. I passed on down the stairs and saw that there is further seating down there, all with a rather red theme going on as I recall. Red leather banquette seating and an open kitchen featuring a large grill on show to one side. I walked into the womens bathroom and suddenly wondered if I'd entered the set of the Queen Victoria. Ratty carpet, 70s tiled walls, a really unpleasant looking sink. Oh dear obviously their recent refurbishment budget didn't stretch to creating some decent bathrooms. To add insult to injury there was hardly any toilet paper and I had to go out of the bathroom and ask for some soap as there was none to wash my hands with. I'm afraid I have to mark them down overall for all of that.
The main event ******************* After that experience I arrived back at my table to see the main courses were ready. As you'll see from my photo their burgers really don't disappoint. The plates were loaded with huge burgers that featured tomato, onion and lettuce, and the desired bacon and cheddar on top. It really was a two hander that's for sure. Accompanying the burger were slivers of gherkin, and thinly cut fries. The burger really was so amazing I just sat and looked at it for a while thinking, where do I start? Finally I decided to just dive right in and took my first bite. Delicious. I straight away tasted herby, soft meat and strong hot cheddar. The meat was cooked beautifully, but there was none of the crumbling I've experienced with some hand made burgers before. Anyway, it took us ages to finish the burgers and we were both very full when we finished our meals. With that in mind we decided to skip the dessert, although they did have several nice options on their black board including chocolate brownie served with ice-cream.
Cost ****** Because we were only paying for one of us to eat, plus one round of drinks the total bill came to £12. We thought that was very reasonable, especially considering at my local gastro pub you'd pay £9 just for a burger and chips. However if you were to want to go to the Bountiful Cow and have steak and chips (which I hear are fantastic there) then I would recommend you budgeted around £50 for a meal for two and wine.
Although we didn't experience it I saw that they have a Jazz club style evening at the Bountiful Cow which is held downstairs, with live singers.
Overall Verdict ***************** I would give the Bountiful Cow 6 out of 10. The reason for such a low mark is the bathrooms I'm afraid. They are also not very disabled friendly as the toilets are downstairs and I didn't see any lifts, plus the bar would be hard to negotiate in a wheelchair, although I think people with buggies would be fine. All that said, they do serve the best burgers ever, and if you like to know your meat is of a good quality, and not like the rubbish served by MacDonald's then you would enjoy this restaurant. I didn't get the impression that I'd want to go there for a romantic evening meal, but for a fun lunch it almost ticks all the boxes.
The moral of the story? If you use toptable, there is such a thing as a free meal!
