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.
The 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.
My 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
When I was working in the office a couple of weeks back, I went out to lunch with the Ops team to this fantastic place called Maoz. The key to this vegetarian Dutch chain of take-away joints (this one was the first in London), is the freshness and variety of salads on offer. Its core menu item is the fresh falafel that you see being formed and cooked right as you order it, served up in a fresh brown or white wrap to which you can load on a ridiculous heaping of differently dressed salads.