The Ivy

After recently being refurbished, I thought I would give this place a go.
I arrived for lunch without a reservation and was warmly welcomed and asked to sit at the bar. The bar staff were great and happily made up a very moorish virgin cocktail. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name.
I went classic and had sausage and mash. Truly amazing. Perfect gravy and a surprisingly healthy size portion based on a restaurant of this standard.
Highly recommend a visit for those classic dishes, with a high level of service to make it feel extra special. (Visit — 28/​07/​2015)

Great ambiance, excellent and attentive service, varied menu and terrific wine selection make this restaurant in a very popular area of London a go to top choice. Dining here felt a little like I was dining with the who’s who of the West End. I ordered the salmon and was pleasantly surprised with the taste, quality and presentation. I will return next time I’m in the UK.

Following the refurb, The Ivy is better than ever. The menu has lost its grounded charm but doesn’t fail otherwise. Staff are mostly gorgeous and chic, kitted out in uniforms they would surely choose for themselves; and you never fail to spot a ‘face’, lunch or dinner.

Absolutely loved every minute of it!
The location is perfect, close to the lively West End of London. The building is period with all the features to go with it, even stained glass! As the doorman open the door you are transported to the 60’s!
They have one of the most beautiful bars I’ve ever seen! Dressed in dirty pink with stunning barman waiting to serve you. Every cocktail on the menu is fresh and original served in a special way reminding you of the 60’s…
Once transported to your table we we presented with wonderful plates of food. Well prepared and beautifully presented!
During the visit the gorgeous waiters looked after our every need without being overbearing.

Apparently this is a members bar? Odd… I got in! Lol but I was invited… I didn’t break in via the back door. It was lovely, I mean the glass lift started things off nicely, I felt like Charlie in the glass elevator! … Wait it was Charlie right? Either way the drinks were quality, the food was delicious. I’d go again.

I love The Ivy, we come here a lot. We always have the Baked Alaska– the theatre of the dish is great. They set it alight and then serve it. It’s like a mini show at your table. A great way to get noticed! They could probably invest a little more time into their vegetarian menu though.

Most attentive and understanding wait staff, we are SO appreciative!
Long story short, someone bought us a bottle of champagne and became a bit too obnoxious. The waitstaff was incredible. They got us to the bathroom, snuck our bags up to us from our table, and shuffled us out the private exit.
Not only a great waitstaff, but AMAZING food and a great environment. I got a fish and shrimp dish, my cousin got the salmon, we split a cheese plate and the clementine sponge cake for dessert.
Special thanks to our waiter (can’t remember his name, but he’s from Southern italy) who was incredible, as well as the assistant manager. Both were so understanding and very intuitive.
Will definitely visit again the next time I’m in England, had a great time! Except why wasn’t one direction there? (;

A beautiful dining experience.
All day on Mondays they have a set 2 or 3 course menu, so we went along to celebrate a friends engagement as a special treat.
The setting is very classic, dim lighting, lovely tables, gorgeous stained glass windows.
The staff were all brilliant, helpful and very kind.
Three courses for £27 in such an institution of place was great value.
We had a delicious bottle of sav blanc, which for £29 wasn’t too bad at all, considering where we were.
The Resturant was constantly busy, creating a fab atmosphere, but the staff were always attentive.
We finished off our meal with after dinner cocktails, which were delicious.
They let us have our table for over an hour longer than we were supposed to, before politely moving us to the bar.
Overall a fantastic evening. I’d highly recommend taking advantage of the seasonal set menu and treating yourself to an Ivy experience.

Visited The Ivy for my third wedding anniversary. It was a Tuesday evening but by 8pm there was a nice buzz in the restaurant, not overly loud, just pleasant I thought. Had a really delicious starter of seared squid salad (£11), followed by a pleasant main of lamb (£26). The side order of chips were really disappointing — they were limp fries, like you would discover at the bottom of a McDonalds bag. Shared a dessert of pistachio chocolate doughnuts which weren’t great value at £8 (4 doughnuts, a few crushed pistachios and a dribble of chocolate sauce). The bill for 2 starters, 2 mains, a dessert and 2 cocktails came to £130 (including 12.5% service charge and also £8 worth of «cover charges»). Overall it’s a pretty pleasant place to eat, some of the food is tasty (but not fine dining), and I don’t think I would have been entirely delighted with paying £130 had I not been using a £100 voucher.

The minute you walk into The Ivy you feel like a celebrity. Food is amazing! Now I know why this place is very well known and I would definitely come back. Breakfast was simple yet elegant. I only wish I could stay for the lunch and dinner services. Great start to the day.

The famous Ivy, amazing breakfast! I don’t know what to say. Well cooked, well presented, just a party on my tongue the whole morning.

This is an unapologetic old school restaurant with excellent service and really good food. I wouldn’t call it inventive and it’s not cheap but from what I can see you are assured of a nice night out when you go there. The desserts were definitely a high point so save room!

Went here in celebration of my husband’s birthday during our trip to London, and we were really excited to be able to get a reservation despite short notice (booked a day in advance, though it was for a fairly early dinner time). If I were just rating the food, and if not for a couple of incidents, I would probably have given this place four stars. The food was well prepared and satisfying, in particular the corn bisque. My chicken breast entrée was quite juicy, and i would recommend the sorbet and fruit dessert (very fresh).
The service, however, was mediocre at best. Our waitress expected us to order food almost immediately upon sitting down, before we had even ordered drinks. Our appetizers came out fairly promptly, but our entrees were very slow to arrive. The most shocking service offense happened at the very end of the meal. My husband and I had clearly finished out dessert and tea and had gotten well beyond the point where we were ready to go, but our waitress was no where to be found. We probably sat there for a good 20 – 30 mins, when one of the hosts came over and told us they needed the table for other diners. Why in the world he would not have first told our waitress to bring the check, or even brought it himself, is beyond us. I thought this was a pretty unacceptable ending to what otherwise would have been a pleasant evening overall.
To the staff at The Ivy: if you need your guests to be done, bring the check. It’s that simple.

Wow — great food, great service.
A number of the dishes were very inspired and everything we had was executed to perfection.
And not overly pricy considering location and quality.

The restaurant is laid out to create good buzz and ambiance. Menu selection broad and food quality is excellent as well as the service. Service is attentive but no over bearing.
I had the grilled foie gras to start and crab crusted cod for the main. Both right size portions, clean presentation and very good.
Location is great and when your down your in the middle of central London.

Summary: Great location and ambiance, food was just ok and expensive
Came here after reading a recommendation from the chef of St. John. Tried the shepherd’s pie, based on the waiter’s recommendation, and cheese cauliflower. The food was fairly expensive for what it was. Tasted decent, not great.
Wouldn’t come back.

I went here for pre-​show dining with some friends and we had a great time. The service here is good although the atmosphere was not what I expected. I had heard that The Ivy was a celebrity magnet, but mostly I saw lots of quiet, wealthy, older people dining here. Strangely enough, everyone in there was wearing black too. It was a quieter atmosphere than I’d expected.
The food was good (not amazing but decent), my friends were loving the foie gras especially. I would have expected such a place to be really expensive, but it was reasonable considering.

My favourite restaurant in London.
I believe that this is the most perfect restaurant I have ever encountered. It’s beautiful, serves lovely food at very reasonable prices and the service is exquisite.
I often meet a friend here and I’m the one that gets to places early. The staff always make me feel at home; they don’t mind if you sit at the table alone and will usually bring a newspaper (The Times) to keep you occupied while you wait.
The food is fabulous. I almost always have the fish of the day, but have tried most of the menu. Their burger, shepherd’s pie and the corned beef hash are pure comfort food.
I don’t often bother with dessert, but if there are enough of us, it’s always fun to get the baked alaska to have it set on fire next to the table.
It’s just the most lovely, relaxed, quietly perfect place!

I am a notorious — gotta try the hot restaurants at least once kinda girl. I’ve heard about the Ivy (the one in LA is def a bigger hype) but was a little disappointed at the type of food it was offering.
Let’s talk about the good — The ambiance is nice as well as the service… but like the other reviews it isn’t fine dining. Lots of variety so it’s good to go in a group who need it.
Not so good — Sorry to say it’s the food. I had the spinach ravioli to start… a bit underwhelmed. The shepherd’s pie everyone is raving about… I thought it was a little too salty and actually didn’t feel too good after the meal.
Sadly, I think you’d get better food at a nice gastro pub (like the prince of wales in putney). I don’t see myself coming back here again.

I’ve only been to the Ivy three times with my work friends.
And I’m going back 2005 to 2007, not much has changed at the Ivy.
The Ivy is the one of the best places for me to do some paparazzi work,
(i.e. celebrity spotting).