Seven Stars, Holborn, London

What a fabulous little find! Gorgeous pub, tucked away being the Royal Courts. Small and compact, with a friendly atmosphere. The food menu sounded, looked and smelt amazing, and had i had more tine i would of definitely stayed to try some ox cheeks and mash. Disappointed i didnt see the resident cat Tom Paine. Will definitely return x

This is a lovely, hidden gem of a pub. We popped in for a drink prior to seeing a show and it was well worth the search behind the Royal Justice Courts to find it.
We didn’t see the cat but we did get a table in the old wig shop area. The food looked excellent but we had to dash off. Friendly bar staff too.

Great, back street pub, that you have to know is there. Food is good, bit on the expensive side, and very meat orientated.
Can get very busy, large amounts of people resort to drinking on the street.
I like to take dates here…

The Seven Stars is an amazing little pub tucked away behind the Royal Courts of Justice. It’s full of character and the owner and staff are so friendly. I went here on the 18th December when it snowed quite heavily in London, and sat in a wonderfully old pub while it was snowing outside only a week before Christmas it felt so magical, almost Dickensian!

Unfortunately there was sign of the resident cat, Tom Paine, but I hope to meet him on my next visit.

Update: The last couple of times I’ve been here Mr Tom Paine has been in residence, parading up and down the bar and stopping occasionally to let you tickle his ears.

Ok a cat that wears a pink ruffle is the star attraction at this classy establishment but so what? Mr.Tom Paine made an appearance so we were honoured. To be honest cat stuff pops up everywhere. I can already hear the gruff din of doggy folk grumbling away but let's put aside our feline indifferences for now. A little glass display case has a selection of intriguing objects, including the two cats http://feedhere.posterous.com/.

This pub is a gem, tucked away behind the Royal Courts of Justice. It's very popular and has a local feel about it. Stylish checked green and white oilcloths adorn the tables, and the pub has a warm welcoming feel. You could be mistaken for thinking your in a small country pub in France at times. That may be a little too much considering the occasional banter between the barrister types. Seats are hard to come by but if you can snaffle one it’s a bonus.

Good ale is served a broadside and Adnams satisfied the ale aficionados amongst us. They also have guest ales and also a good list of wines by the glass. It was the food that really intrigued. Little food gems that reflect a warm promise of spring don’t punctuate every visit to the pub. This was strictly a drinking visit but thankfully a friend ordered some food at the bar. Cured herring with potato salad was great utilising simple strong flavours. The fish was served ceviche style. Roxy Beaujolais is the landlady so the good food shouldn’t really of come as a surprise. We will definitely be returning to have a proper meal. Seven stars would be too many but definitely worth at least four.

Great pub, great pints and great atmosphere. didnt see much of the cat but he did pop his round at last orders

This pub is a gem. A tiny gem, but a gem nonetheless. Fabulous service and really friendly staff, but the true star of the show is resident cat Tom Paine, who struts about the place without a care in the world, commanding respect. And respect he is duly given. Sit at the bar, banter with the staff, and drink the night away. And perhaps try and get Tom Paine to purr for you - he's a tough nut to crack!

A lovely little pub to escape the bustle of the city. Good beer (Usually Adnams and Black Star) and a nice friendly atmosphere. The decor is interesting, and the toilets are basically in the flat above the pub up a tiny staircase. Not tried the food.

This place has character, in a good way.

When people think of gastro pubs, they ought to be thinking of Seven Stars. A tiny little pub just off Lincoln’s Inn Fields is home to some of the best pub food and food full stop in London. Where else can you get a meat loaf with slices of apples baked in, tagliatelle with chicken meat balls or a cheesy risotto while a black cat wearing a Jacobian ruff curls up by your feet?
It can get a little busy on Saturdays, but it’s generally pretty quiet and a nice place to sit and chat with friends. Or you can just drop in for a pint and give the kitty Tom Paine a scratch behind the ears.

One of those absolute gems that you congrtualte yourself for finding. Oozing charm, this place behind the Royal Courts of Justice is packed every day after work. Quality ales and lagers from all over the place and a true character of a landlady (and cat, of course). Look out for the daily changes on the chalkboard outside, where the day’s rules or ruminations are displayed for everyone’s pleasure.

A pleasant, small hidden place with an oldfashioned atmosphere of it’s own.
Some interesting and peculiar pieces of decoration. In the window a lawyer’s head, complete with a wig looks at you. (It’s at the back of the Law Courts.)
The people behind the bar are quite friendly, but seem to prefer regulars they know.
It looks as if you really still get served by the landlord (or manager) and his wife and not some careless youngsters. That’s good and quite unusual nowadays.

For real-ale drinker 3 handpumps are working.

There isn’t a better pub in the area. This place is the definition of eccentric, but all the better for it: tiny, a resident cat, film-related decor (from Hollywood’s heyday), and wonderful, engaging staff.

The fact it’s always packed is a good indication of how well regarded it is by punters with plenty of other options a stones-throw away (including the gigantic Knights Templar where it would be much easier to get a seat).

As a free-house it’s got the huge advantage of being able to sell a range of top quality beers (often from micro-breweries) and not force-feed its customers the usual tied-pub chemical rubbish.

Its food is unpretentious, appetising, and excellently priced; its beers also come in at very reasonably cost, and it does well with spirits.

If only more pubs could be like this…

A wonderful pub just a block off Fleet St, behind the Royal Courts of Justice, it boasts a nice array of ales and a wonderful menu (the owner is the author of her own cookbook). Due to its location in the business/court area, this is delightfully uncrowded on weekends. The Seven Stars looks the part of a four hundred year old pub, complete with a ridiculously narrow staircase that leads up to the toilets. After a few ales, beware the trip back down!

This pub certainly has “character”. It’s a tiny building tucked around the back of the Royal Courts of Justice, with a comedy resident black cat who, bizarrely, seems usually to be wearing a ruff.

The landlady and staff certainly have strong characters - which is a great thing if you manage to strike up a rapport with them, and potentially less of a great thing if you get off on the wrong foot. Our visit went reasonably well, but this may have been due to our possession of perhaps the ultimate ice-breaker: a crochet banana carried by one of the group (it was a “Let’s all go down the Strand”-themed pub crawl, so there were several bunches of bananas being carried).

I’ve not eaten here (we’d had enough bananas to keep us going by this point) so can’t comment on the food, but they had a good selection of beers last time I visited.

One other factor that stuck in the mind was the toilet - facilities are limited and not that great (one unit upstairs, right next to the kitchen). The stairs up to it are quite steep, so p’raps don’t wait until after pint number 5 to go… you might see rather more than seven stars if you come a cropper on the way down.

This tiny pub is tucked in behind the High Courts and one of the few pubs in the area that are open seven days a week.

With a resident cat, Tom Paine, space for 7 tables and a nightmarishly steep staircase to the bathrooms, this pub is quaint in every sense of the word. The landlady is an excellent cook and the pub lunches are definitely worth a try. There is a good selection of ale on tap and ever-friendly staff to keep the service swift.

It does get VERY full after work and at lunches, but its worth the squeeze!

This pub is full of character, despite the small space and rather cramped seating arrangements. It is quite eccentric, if you like to drink in a pub that is more than your average weatherspoons. Have to say though, very rude staff who seem to want to deter customers rather than attract them, well, I guess thats all part of the charm!

I instantly fell in love with this pub as we walked in. It's small and cosy with one narrow and low-ceilinged room and an even smaller adjacent room, and extremely chilled out. There is wooden flooring and the walls are decorated with a mix of old black and white photographs, old ads and posters and some rather bizarre pictures. And there, on the bar counter, sat a big and very distinguished-looking black cat, Mr Tom Paine. (He looked like he might open his little cat mouth and speak at any moment - he reminded me of the talking cat in the Master and Margarita, who's the devil's assistant.)

Anyway. They have a pretty good selection of beers, too, so I thought we were on to a winner here. But there are some crucial flaws - the beer is unnecessarily pricey, and the food, which was mediocre at best, is seriously overpriced. I hate it when they try and make the menu sound all posh and trendy, and then when the food arrive you realise you could have done a better job yourself. Oh well. I'd give it five stars for the pub itself, but three or even two for the food.

A very small pub hidden in the corner of the street. They have a good selection of lagers and ales. The place is quite small and it's a bit pricey but you can always escape the crowd to find your own space on the pavement or steps outdoors. Something to die for in summer. Staff are quite keen and helpful but could get stroppy sometimes when it's very busy