Dinner at The Ivy

Patrick London To Do, Restaurants

The Ivy The initial question guaranteed when you tell people that you had dinner at The Ivy is, ‘How did you manage to get a table there?’ It is one of those places in London that you must book ahead, from anything up to four and six months for a table of two. The biggest reason that my sister wanted to go to this place was because it was well known for one of those haunts where you might cross paths with some celebrity. I, on the other hand, don’t really care too much for celebrity status with my preferences being placed more heavily on the great food, service and ambiance and despite my initial thoughts that it might be a pretty pretentious environment, I was pleased to find that everyone was treated equally and the service was prompt, polite and unobtrusive to the entire dining experience.

The Ivy is located on a rather non-descript street just at the back of Covent Garden and you would never really guess that it contained such a famous restaurant, with perhaps its only indication being a doorman dressed in black tails welcoming you as you enter. The restaurants’ windows are made of, what looked like, 1920s stained glass, effectively preventing anyone from being able to peer inside or out, but adding to the nice dining atmosphere. Darkly stained wooden veneer covers much of the insides and the dimmed lighting helps to add much to the ambiance of the entire place. The main dining room, for which you pay a £2 per person privilege for eating there) is not as large as you might expect and the tables are optimised to make use of the entire space without making you feel uncomfortably close to other diners. There are plenty of wait staff buzzing around resetting tables, taking orders, and delivering food and drink and yet it did not seem like a chaotic environment.

Bang Bang ChickenThe menu has a large variety of offerings, with many of the items constantly changing on a weekly basis and is best described as a combination of innovative contemporary and traditional English meals. A wide variety of meats, seafood and game is on offer, all cooked in many different styles and dressed with many different sauces. For the sort of place that it is, I was surprised to see that many of its dishes were not ridiculously over priced, with many of its main dishes below £20. Be warned though that, if you decide to go the full three course meal, the starters and dessert prices are not as slim for what you get.

For my starter, I ordered the Bang Bang chicken just out of curiosity. It was a dish in which smoked chicken lightly brushed with a sweet-chilli sauce, covered in a smooth peanut sauce laid a top a bed of finely sliced vegetables. The smoke flavour in the chicken was deliciously subtle though probably over powered by the peanut sauce that seemed a little bit more like peanut butter than anything else.

The Fillet of CodMy main was a grilled fillet of cod served with on a bed of crab risotto and my sister and I shared a side of Parmesan-fried courgettes served with tomato relish. The thick slice of fish that arrived was perfectly cooked with a nicely charred bottom and juicy flesh that you could tell had just gone from being translucent to white. The small bed of risotto that accompanied the fish was also excellent, each mouthful bursting with flavour but without being overly fishy.

To finish off the evening, I had the dessert of the night, which was a piece of vanilla roasted pineapple served with a scoop of lime and coconut ice. Although the warmed pineapple was perhaps a bit overly sweet, its soft flesh was perfectly paired with a bit of the ice which was strongly flavoured and slightly tart. The caramelised edges were probably the best bit of the pineapple as it had the strongest vanillan flavour but unfortunately its excessive sweetness overcame me and I could not finish it.

After dining at the restaurant, I am actually quite glad that I did go as it was a unique experience. It’s not one that I can afford to do any time soon and I can now actually recommend the experience to everyone. Taking pictures of my food was tolerated until the flash accidentally went off when taking a picture of my main, so unfortunately no picture of the dessert.

Details: The Ivy
Found on: 1 – 5 West Street, London WC2H 9NQ
Contactable on: 020 7836 4751
Highlights: A fine dining experience at (relatively) reasonable prices and for those inclined, the opportunity for a celebrity sighting.
Room for improvement: It would good if you didn’t have to book so many months in advance.
The Kua Rating: 9 out of 10

To Market, To Market

Patrick Food, London To Do, The 'He Who Knows' Challenge

Update: Summary added for the ‘He Who Knows’ Challenge

The Borough MarketsLocated just outside the London Bridge Underground station, you will easily stumble across London’s Borough Markets, with the closest thing back home in Brisbane being the farmer’s markets organized by Jan Power. I had high expectations for these markets, having read about this place sometime last year at The Passionate Cook’s food blog, and after visiting can say that I was definitely not disappointed.

The only way that I can succinctly describe the markets is that it is distinctly London. Unlike the powerhouse markets back home where you can walk up one side and down the other, the Borough markets can be difficult to navigate. Just like the city that hosts it, the markets comprise of winding paths connecting all the stalls seemingly held together by the swarms of people from all over the world that flow through them all. Admittedly the markets are not as big as I was first anticipating, consisting of about 70 stalls and a handful of stores, but the quality and variety of food and produce available certainly make up for it.

The offerings of food is amazing and had I actually had a kitchen to return home to yesterday, probably would have come away with much more than I did. Stretching further than just typical farmer markets fare, the markets have pretty much everything you would need for any pretty fine dinner, and listing them all here would not really give justice to what the markets really do offer, but you can find huge varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables, seafood, poultry, meat, game, jams, cheese, wines, breads, cakes, chocolates and just so much more.

Whats Up Doc?One of London’s premium coffee stores, Monmouth, has a double presence here with a small stall in the heart of the markets fuelling the crowd’s almost frenzied movements with shots of caffeine, and the more permanent fixture on the street just opposite the markets. The more permanent fixture is so popular, that like all busy pubs in the city, that it has people cascading onto the streets, all standing around chatting and drinking coffee out of proper cups and saucers. Neil’s Yard Diary, well known for its quality cheese products also has a physical store just next to Monmouth but was so busy inside I didn’t feel up to pushing my way through to its delightful offerings (especially where there is one just a street away from work).

It should be fairly obvious to a person new to London that meat and meat products play a big game in British food fares (or is that just London?). Amongst the many meat products on offer, I saw a much wide variety of things including fresh Haggish, Black Pudding, pies, sausages, rabbits hanging, wild boar, pheasants and an amazing amount of cured, smoked or dried meats. I was thoroughly impressed by one particular store, the name currently eluding me that had four or five legs of cured pork meat each held by a single vice all on a large long bench. At the request of a customer, attendants would shave off fresh slices of what looked like prosciutto or parma-ham, with a long blade to be carefully layered on sheets of plastic.

Feeling like I couldn’t come away from the markets without making a purchase, but unable to really buy anything that useful (my hotel room doesn’t have a bar-fridge or anything) I decided to pick up a punnet of fresh raspberries to snack on, and a small bottle of oak-smoked garlic butter to give to my sister.

The markets are only open from noon until 6pm on Friday and then 9am to pm on Saturday. Crowds on a Saturday are thin early on, but increase in density pretty quickly. There are plenty of things that you can still pick up, even if you don’t live in London (fresh coverture chocolates, cakes, croissants, sweets, berries, coffee, etc) and even though the markets are on the southeast side of London, it is extremely easy to get to. It’s definitely a place I will be visiting regularly.

Details: The Borough Markets (Location)
Found on: 8 Southwark Street, SE1
Highlights: Fantastic variety of food, nice atmosphere and great variety, and the potential to see Jamie Oliver walking around.
Room for improvement: Crowds and people with strollers make it difficult getting around to all the stalls and combined with the winding paths may make it difficult for you to return to that stall you may want to revisit.
The Kua Rating: 8.5 out of 10 (I’m impressed but I haven’t visited any of other London’s market offerings)