On a day where the weather was absolutely shocking and where transportation just refused to co-operate I was really looking forward to a nice warming pleasant experience at the Ivy with my fellow dinner mates Jenny and Nimet. When I came into the entry of The Ivy it was very crowded as a whole bunch of ladies had just come in. As one of the first faces the public sees you would think that the coat check girl would be a little more pleasant – but she couldn’t have been less friendly. She was very gruff and just grabbing coats without even any effort of welcoming or politeness. Great start! I didn’t actually have a coat so I slipped by this group and into the main restaurant to try and track down my friends.

The last time I’d been to The Ivy I don’t really remember rating the food so I was interested to see how much my views had changed after now having been to many more restaurants since. We were actually at The Ivy on an offer (which seems to suggest it is struggling to get customers in the door – it used to be that it was very difficult to get a reservation at all) which consisted of a set menu deal.

The bread we received was gorgeous and warmed. No cover charge this time.

For my starters I had the Brocolli soup with pinenut & raisin biscuits which sounded the most interesting out of the three options (Jenny had the Steamed English asparagus – literally three or four sticks of asparagus with béarnaise sauce and Nimet the Chopped salad with avocado, shrimp & tomato.) The soup didn’t come with any bread just the dressing of biscuit crouton. Soup was delicious and the biscuit was interesting – I liked the combination of the raisin and the biscuit was very rich and buttery and cheesy almost. Just wish there had been more of the biscuit!

For main the Minute steak that came with a side of Caesar salad and bowl of French fry chips (which were a bit overcooked) that Nimet had was probably the best value for money. Jenny’s thai-baked salmon with sweet pickled cucumber salad & rice sounded good but was quite simple. I was torn between the salmon and the Twice-baked pork belly with borlotti beans & sage – mainly because I’m not a fan of beans. Pork belly was actually very good though, it was not too fatty but still very juicy and tender.

Desserts were nice without being too stunning.

Overall food-wise I would probably say it was better than I remember it being but its always hard to judge when you’re only eating from a set menu.

Service-wise it was very disappointing! My pet hate – we weren’t offered any water (and oddly not even a choice of still or bottled) so I had to ask for water. And when I finished my water, instead of topping it up it was taken away!! When our mains were served the waiter knocked over and spilled Nimet’s drink and though he was very sorry about it and came back to cover the spillage with serviettes … he didn’t actually replace it! We waited to see how long it would take but in the end it took my asking for a replacement drink before it came. But on the other hand when Jenny’s plating was disturbed because he was rushing to serve it (this was when he spilt the drink) the waiter was going to go away to re-plate it and one waiter was very apologetic for bumping into me even though I had elbowed him. Talk about extreme service. Oh, Jenny had to confirm three times. Overkill!

The Ivy was a lot busier and hectic than what I recall from my last visit, tables were crammed in and everything felt crowded. Its no wonder waiters kept bumping into us or knocking over drinks etc. Not sure if this was because people were dining on set menu meals …

PS Still no photos or mobile phones allowed.