Colourless Cow lacks sizzle

Erstwhile TV star Roxy Beaujolais (nee Jenny Marguerite Hoffman) may be an inspired landlady but, in her absence, her new hostelry's short-comings were glaring.

We were clearly the only people daft enough to book, reaping as our reward the least prepossessing table in the place. Better tables were filled with a mature after-work crowd more interested in beery bellowing or snogging the faces off each other than supper.

There has been, apparently, a 'radical modern' makeover by, er, Beaujolais's husband. But what struck us most was a vast glass-fronted fridge, curiously empty apart from some exhausted parsley, a few tomatoes and a handful of bottles of Adnam's (yes, Adnam's) champagne.

The pub's main feature is two-week hung steak. We were so unmoved by the rest of the menu that I allowed the date to commit the ultimate crime: ordering exactly the same as me. So I can report that our twin 9oz sirloins featured good, accurately cooked, if slightly dull, meat with decent chips and a salad of finely sliced onions and lacklustre tomatoes.

This unalluring boozer, in its modern block on a featureless Holborn back street, may trumpet its presence with sizzling steaks made from vividly hued neon but we found it a colourless experience.

Steak and wine for two costs about £50. 51 Eagle Street WC1. Tel: 020 7404 0200. Tube: Holborn

The Bountiful Cow
Eagle Street, London, WC1R 4AP