The Cow

Tom Conran, son of designer and restaurateur Terence Conran, opened The Cow at 89 Westbourne Park Road in 1995, converting a corner pub into what is often cited as one of the first four London gastropubs of the 1990s. The ground-floor Saloon Bar keeps the character of an Irish public house, serving Guinness alongside a kitchen built around oysters and shellfish served on ice at the bar, while a separate upstairs dining room runs its own menu. In 2000 the pub received a commendation for the Evening Standard Pub of the Year award. The Saloon Bar opens Monday to Saturday 11am-11pm and Sunday midday-10:30pm, with kitchen service daily midday-9pm; the first-floor dining room keeps its own evening and weekend hours. The Cow has remained a single site under Conran's ownership since opening, rather than becoming a group trading under the same name.