The Ivy Market Grill

A and L and I enjoyed this picturesque spot on the Covent Garden market in the evening after seeing a play. It was a hopping spot w delicious fare and lively service. The bar-​man was able at craft drinks and the tried and true Marguerita. Recommend the fish and chips.

So I am a fan of the Ivy, but I feel that the Market Grill has let the ‘brand’ down a bit. My godfather and I ate here while the renovations were underway, and to be fair I have not been back since because I was just disappointed really. Coming to the Ivy in any of its guises is meant to be a treat, and however attentive the staff were, the food was still disappointing.
We had the fish pie, and there is no real good way of saying that the fish was over cooked, I get that doing fish pie is tricky (mostly because you can’t see the fish once the potato has been added), but when fish is served in a white sauce it should not feel like it is there to disguise the fact that the fish is massively overcooked.
To me the market grill really feels like a knocked down version of the Ivy that is aimed at a less discerning set of patrons; possibly even just the general tourists who eat here just because of the ‘Ivy’ name.

Now this place has class. We went for breakfast and it was delicious. Had a problem with the avocado but they took back dish and brought out another and it was perfect. Staff is very professional and I would recommend this place. Will try dinner here next time in London.

A lovely place but a little overpriced. And the many waiters seem a little under-​trained for the type of place it is. Finally, some of the dishes really are tiny. But a great place if someone else is paying!

Popped in for a quick lunch last week, very pleasant. The location is excellent, just across from the main Covent Garden hub and and hop, skip and jump from the Strand. On a crisp late winter day we sat outside in the sunshine, kept toasty with heaters and blankets and watched the world go by as we tucked into delicious, meaty burgers. Great little spot.

Great location and great food. Chose to eat here prior to taking the family to see Lion King. Friendly staff upon entrance and service better than most restaurants in London. Good history and the décor was classy as expected. Try the Market Bloody Mary and Eggs Benedict. Would only recommend going with a reservation/​booking.

Had the avocado tomato and egg light breakfast with sesame dressing. Was a a lot of food, very yummy. Had the right amount of crunch, softness and flavor! Delish. Had similar breakfast the day before somewhere else and it was double the price and not nearly as good.

While increasingly common to find this stylish eatery of the Ivy in more places in greater London, each individual place has its own uniqueness to go with its surroundings.
Covent Garden is getting trendy. What used to be a tourist hangout is slowly re-​gentrifying itself in the form of higher end restaurants. Just around the corner from Pizza Express you will find white tablecloth establishments serving French sounding menus and this is wonderful. To that the Ivy Market Grill is a small oasis of fashionable eating right off the piazza.
Like the other Ivy restaurants the menu is reliably similar serving favourites such as fish cakes, eggs Benedict, along with a bit of champagne of course. So if you want a very good meal in the middle of Covent Garden and the Theater District, the Ivy Market grill is an elegant option.

Went before a show and shared the pre theater 3 course dinner. The hostess said we had to sit at the bar even though there was a ton of open tables.
I don’t think they have any beer on tap.
We ordered
Calamari with chili sauce which was very good.
Pea Risotto with goat cheese and asparagus also very good.
Crème Brûlée very yummy and loved the baby pan it was served in.
All in all we got the meal and Brian got a beer and our total was around £30.
By far my favorite meal on our trip to London.

Lovely place for brunch. Great location Food was amazing. décor and atmosphere were lovely. Felt very expensive and posh. Lobster Benedict was super tasty and a great sized portion. Only issue was it was quite expensive. £72 for 4 courses and 2 drinks. Would definitely go back though as we did really enjoy it!

The Ivy Market Grill in Covent Garden is a beautiful, busy and buzzing restaurant with delicious food and a delightful wine list that includes a nice selection by the glass.
One Saturday evening, I was walking around Covent Garden and spontaneously decided to see if I could get a table at the new Ivy Market Grill. Somewhat surprisingly, they actually had a nice table for me, and I quickly decided to take this opportunity and have dinner there. Something I noticed immediately was how attentive the staff were — almost too much so.
The wine list made the choice easy — not due to lack of options, but because the Riesling from Markus Molitor, Haus Klosterberg in the Mosel region in Germany just sounded too good. And it really was a very tasty Riesling, not falling short of my expectations.
My dinner then began with some nice and warm bread with a salted crust and soft butter. That’s exactly how every decent dinner should start.
To properly kick off my dinner, I ordered the Mozzarella di bufala. I probably did not need the roasted pine nuts and seeds, for me those just added an odd flavour to the dish. The plate also had a certain spiciness, which was fine for me. What I enjoyed most besides the mozzarella were the croutons and what I think was roasted pumpkin pieces. Overall, this was a very pleasant starter.
The roast duck breast following the starter was pretty delicious. The duck was perfectly cooked, pink and full of flavour. Adding the nice, thick sauce made the meat taste even better. It came with carrots, which were very soft and some green which tasted alright.
As side I opted for the truffle parmesan chips. While I was not completely convinced that truffle and parmesan improved the chips in any way, it certainly also did no harm. Like you might expect when you throw truffle at chips, it was a distinctly salty side.
To go with the duck, the waiter or sommelier — I can’t remember exactly — recommended the Millton Pinot Noir from Gisborne in New Zealand. I am not always a big fan of New World wines, but after I got a little taster, I agreed that it was a good match with my main.
After the good starter, I was also very happy with the big chunk of duck breast and the beautiful Pinot Noir along with it. These two courses did not leave me hungry at all. Since I wanted to finish my meal with a dessert, I asked for something small and light, so I ended up with a nice Crème brûlée.
The staff were very friendly and overall, the service was excellent. I only wondered that they did not seamlessly top up the tap water in my glass. Well, maybe I am just a bit spoilt, I somehow expected that at such a place. Anyway, if this is the only «issue» you can identify at a restaurant, they did many things right.
Summing my experience up: I had a great dinner — the food was tasty, the service faultless and the atmosphere pleasant.

This is a gem in the tourist trap that is Covent Garden. It’s the same price as most of the rip-​off burger joints /​overpriced sandwich chains but it comes with fabulous décor of green leather and wood, swift service and The Ivy’s famous fish and chips.
Most importantly, this is a place for people in the know. Although it’s affordable, people assume The Ivy is expensive so they stay away. This means you feel like you’re part of a hidden secret every time you escape the crowds and head for this sanctuary. Tables are kept for walk-​ins and we didn’t book and managed to get a table at 2pm on a Saturday.
I had a cheeseburger, which was thick and perfectly cooked. Lettuce, tomato and gherkins came on the side so you could build your own burger. I like a burger plain as the meat was thick enough already so I was happy with the deconstruction. Fish and chips were the best though — crispy battery, light fish and delicious skin-​on chips with a tangy tartare sauce and lemons wrapped in posh Muslin cloth.
There were two of us and we had two courses and champagne (obvs) and it came to £65 — I thought that was great value. If you just had a main course each, expect to pay about £30 which is excellent value for Covent Garden.
Towards the end of our lunch, service became slow and we had to wave our arms in the air to pay the bill. But otherwise it’s a solid 4.

The Ivy Market Grill is located just five minutes away from the Royal Opera House, a fantastic location for those wanting brunch before a matinée show. I met with some friends to enjoy a nice catch up over a nice brunch — and this is exactly what we got. The first thing one notices is the pretty inside décor. A real blast from the past, from the paintings and photos on the walls to the green leather seats, you can’t but think you’ve just taken a time machine to the 50s.
The staff are accommodating, though maybe they could communicate with each other better as we were asked for coffee twice from two different waiters. The menu is generous, and offers a lot of choice — on the Sunday we were there the restaurant happened to be out of brown bread, which was a little disappointing.
I ordered the Eggs Benedict, not something that can usually go very wrong — but found the muffin very tough yet not very crispy — signs it had been out a while. The hollandaise sauce and the poached eggs were done perfectly, the watercress tasted fresh.
After our food the restaurant became busier (this made sense as the 10am slot was the only slot available to book). Some of the meals on the other tables looked very scrumptious and hence this place deserves another visit.
Overall, 3 for our food experience, 5 for the location and ambience and another 3 for the service. However I will most definitely be back for another go at the brunch menu.

English breakfast at its finest. Gluten free bread option, excellent service, nice ambiance — I’ll be back!

Beautiful decoration and great location. Very fancy, perfect for romantic dates or to spoil yourself a little bit. Try their breakfasts! (Tip: egg benedict are incredible)

3.5 stars.
We had reservations for 3 people on a Saturday at 12:15 pm. We were running late, by about 30 minutes, and when we called to inform them, they were very accommodating and kept our table. We had a corner table booth that was turned to face the entire restaurant.
Our server was very pleasant and answered any questions we had. One dish we requested was specifically a breakfast item that was supposed to be served only until 11:30 am, but they gave us no trouble in requesting it anyway. We ordered:
Eggs Royale — smoked salmon, two poached hen’s eggs, toasted English muffin with hollandaise sauce and watercress. Delicious. The English muffin was toasted perfectly, not burnt. Slightly buttered. Not a greasy dish at all. Tasteful. I would recommend this.
Baked egg white omelette — goat’s cheese and kale with rocket and watercress. Now I asked for no goat’s cheese, but to add tomato and onion. They did add the tomato and onion, but got rid of both the goat’s cheese and kale. No big deal — I didn’t have much of a problem with that. The omelette itself was actually really delicious. It was a large omelette and the eggs were extremely fluffy. It’s a nice touch to bake it. From the flavor and texture, it seemed as though there was quite a bit of butter used, negating the egg white part, but the overall dish was delicious. I would get it again.
HLT — grilled halloumi cheese, avocado, lettuce and tomato served with thick cut chips. This was good, but not great. Wouldn’t particularly recommend it or order it again, but there was nothing wrong with it. Served on crusty white bread with a really weird green, herby mayo sauce, which we were happy to have requested on the side. The halloumi is very thin and was a bit rubbery in texture. Chips were not bad.
Ambiance is nice. It’s an old school vibe with lots of wood, leather, and a green/​white/​gold décor. Prices are pretty reasonable for the type of restaurant. Location is great. Nothing spectacular, but I’d say this restaurant is a solid find for classic upscale British food.

I had a good meal at the Ivy Market Grill. Decent food at a decent price served efficiently by friendly staff. Really loved the crispy duck salad entrée, really tasty food, lots of flavour. I had a lamb rack for main course which was equally pleasant. The dessert was the highlight for me which was a chocolate bomb. Lots of flavour, not good for the hips, but great eating.

I wasn’t expecting much after the industry reviews I’ve read, but actually, it was good. Bearing in mind its location is likely to attract a very transient, touristy crowd, the restaurant seem to have captured the best of those so it all felt very civilised and stylish — just what you’d come to expect from The Ivy — but without airs & graces.
The elegant Ivy styling never fails to impress and the food was good; only good though –nothing that made you straighten up and really take notice, but nice nonetheless. Crispy duck salad was stingy on the duck and heavy on the radish, but fresh & tasty still. Mackerel pâté was creamy & lovely but with 1 too many bones for our liking, so nervousness tainted our enjoyment of that. Shepherd’s Pie was lovely but somehow, having tasted The Depot’s sublime version in Barnes, it didn’t blow me away, which I’d rather hoped it would.

Not quite as dark as Ivy proper (you can make out the world outside through large windows) the Ivy Market Grill has quite a comforting old-​fashioned feel to it despite having only just opened. One of my friends described it as an upmarket Café Rouge — panelled walls, faux-​leather club chair style seating, dark wooden tables, you get the idea.
The menu included the entire choice of breakfast and afternoon tea items as well as the all-​day menu which consisted of grill items as well as a good selection of comfort foods — a bit odd on the sunniest day of the year but delicious nonetheless. However, not recommended for a vegetarian date. The truffle and parmesan chips were a delicious variation. I had a starter of crispy duck salad (very tasty, even though the definition of crispy was taken a bit far by deep frying small bits of meat) followed by salmon steak (rather greasy considering it was one of the grill items).
We had a table booked for 7.15 — first impression was marred by slightly clumsy staff not sure how to deal with this, then asking us to take a seat at the bar when there obviously weren’t any. Luckily for us this Ivy offspring is not quite as busy yet and we were able to carry on beyond our official curfew.
The Ivy Market Grill is located in a good spot (none of us could remember what used to be in this location — possibly a bank?) and already feels like it belongs here. I’ve been struggling with rating my experience which is a bit more than OK but I wouldn’t say I am a fan quite yet. Having said that, I will most definitely be back.

Yesterday, I went to the Ivy Market Grill while on a meeting with my clients in London. Upon entry I was impressed by the wonderful décor, the space has a fresh feel to it and wonderful light. Upon being seated and having a menu provided I was impressed to see that there was a fantastic array of food available after a short while perusing the extensive list I decided upon the Fried Fish Sandwich.
The staff were very attentive and welcoming, nothing was too much bother for them.
When my food arrived I could not believe my eyes, it was massive! I was not expecting this given that I was in London and it was among the cheaper items on the menu. It was so large I failed to finish it all. The sandwich itself was lovely but the chips were AMAZING. So very tasty.
I shall definitely return soon.