The Ivy

The Ivy restaurant in West Street, Covent Garden, London, close to the West End theatres, serves classic British dishes with a private room for hire.

The Ivy | Modern British Restaurant, Covent Garden, London

The Ivy restaurant has been a firm fixture on London’s dining and social scene since its foundation in 1917.

With its shimmering central dining bar, signature harlequin stained-glass windows, oak panelling and striking contemporary art collection, the longevity of this most British restaurant is ensured.

Renowned for its food, Executive Chef Gary Lee creates balanced seasonal lunch and dinner menus that place the Ivy classics alongside a contemporary global palette, incorporating more Asian dishes, salads and vegetables, and a “sea and shells” section.

Meanwhile, Director Fernando Peire and his experienced team deliver the unfaltering service for which The Ivy has become celebrated for worldwide, over the years.

The Ivy welcomes customers without reservations at the central dining bar, where the A La Carte and Set menus are both served.

http://www.the-ivy.co.uk

Reviews and related sites

The Ivy - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

Restaurant Review: The Ivy West Street

Review analysis
food  

Alexander Larman visits one of London’s most iconic restaurants to see if the original is the still the best… The Ivy is probably the most famous restaurant in London.

Countless generations of celebrities have passed by The Mousetrap’s doors en route to the entrance, where the doorman, much friendlier in aspect than his previous incarnations, either welcomes you in or gravely tells you: ‘I’m afraid that we’re fully booked tonight, sir.’

If one expects the very finest of modern British brasserie cooking, served with the odd adventurous twist, one would visit an institution that has as much to offer in its hundredth year as it ever has.

I am reminded that the wine list is one of the best in London, and we saw the evidence of that, a fine Bourgogne being a wonderful accompaniment to the starters.

Cost Dinner for two around £150 What to eat… The special centenary dessert, window on the Ivy, is delicious and utterly unmissable What to know… The bar, in the centre of the restaurant, offers the best view of the milieu, and also offers the best chance to chat to the fabulous staff

All Day Casual Dining Restaurant - The Ivy Chelsea Garden, London

Review analysis
food  

Located on London’s enduringly desirable King’s Road, The Ivy Chelsea Garden brings the familiar luxury of The Ivy on West Street to a relaxed yet sophisticated all-day dining restaurant in the heart of Chelsea.

Open seven days a week and comprised of a main restaurant, extensive terrace and garden*, orangery and a beautiful private dining room, The Ivy Chelsea Garden offers tranquil al fresco dining all year and the perfect setting for any occasion.

Sample our all day menus and delicious cocktails at your leisure from breakfast until late, whether you are a local resident, work close by or are simply visiting the area, and experience a taste of Ivy magic in another beautiful setting.

*Please note that our garden is open daily from 12pm to 10pm.

All Day Casual Dining Restaurant - The Ivy City Garden, London

Review analysis
drinks  

Located in the historic Bishopsgate Gardens – one of the City’s few garden squares – and next-door to the famous St. Botolph church, The Ivy City Garden brings the familiar luxury of The Ivy, West Street to the City of London.

The Ivy Collection’s first site in the City of London features an all-day-dining menu, private dining room, and hidden garden offering a tranquil al fresco escape from the hustle and bustle of the Square Mile.

The restaurant boasts a summer water fountain, and floor-to-ceiling glass windows opening onto a hidden garden with its own bar.

The Ivy City Garden’s outdoor space has a retractable roof, allowing diners to enjoy the garden all year-round.

Our cocktail list will satisfy the most demanding of guests, with a selection of custom-made, contemporary and traditional cocktails including the ‘Dashwood Blossom’ with Beefeater Gin, fresh grapes, mint, with nettle cordial & a splash of aloe vera juice; and ‘Garden Collins’ with Beefeater Gin infused with rosemary & lavender, with elderflower cordial & garnished with herbs from the bar’s on-site herb garden.

All Day Casual Dining Restaurant - The Ivy Market Grill, Covent ...

The Ivy Market Grill brings the familiar luxury of The Ivy on West Street to a relaxed yet sophisticated all-day dining restaurant in the heart of Covent Garden.

Open seven days a week and comprised of a main restaurant, terrace overlooking the bustling piazza and two private dining rooms, The Ivy Market Grill provides the perfect setting for any occasion.

A number of tables remain unreserved throughout the day allowing more people to experience a taste of Ivy magic in both our dining and service.

The Ivy - London Restaurant Reviews | Hardens

Grace Dent reviews the Ivy: 'Beckoning you inside so it can have a ...

Review analysis
food  

The original but recently revamped Ivy restaurant in West Street, Covent Garden is something of a London institution; so much so that when I dined there the other day a roving camera crew buzzed between the tables.

So I did, too, after two Lapérouse (St Germain elderflower liqueur, cherry blossom-infused Lillet Rosé, champagne) and a large glass of Chablis, meaning I am now preserved in time with a red nose, slightly slurring, slapping the bar as I say important things I really, really, truly, solemnly believe that I have no recall of now.

Caprice Holdings has spent millions refreshing The Ivy, spluttering with indignation as Chiltern Firehouse robbed it of all its celebs and mimicked its VVIP swagger.

Damien Hirst, Maggi Hambling and Tom Hackney artworks may now grace the walls, but Robbie Williams will not be writing a tortuous piano ballad about his inability to order bang bang chicken.

Here’s the perfect Ivy supper: fresh minted pea soup with hot fresh goat’s cheese croquetas.

The Ivy, London, restaurant review - Telegraph

Review analysis
food   staff   desserts   ambience  

For nearly two decades, The Ivy was so much more than a mere restaurant: here was not just a temperature gauge for the fevered state of the nation, but a scalpel-sharp arbiter of status: can you get a table or not?

So things remained throughout the tenure of Chris Corbin and Jeremy King – the architects of The Ivy’s phenomenal success – and well into the ownership of Richard Caring, who also has J.Sheekey, Le Caprice and, oh – loads of other very good places.

But gradually, The Ivy’s star began to wane, thanks the rise of new and fashionable places (most notably Chris and Jeremy’s Wolseley) but also to a self-inflicted wound: the introduction of The Club at The Ivy, where the cream of celeb diners immediately graduated, leaving the restaurant feeling just a little bit B-list.

Here’s the real cleverness, though – the absolute masterstroke: there is no such thing as a “bad table”: on whatever green velvet banquette or red leather chair you are seated, you will feel it to be special (not so in the old days, when there were tables to be seen at, tables to hide behind, and tables where you were merely put, and put up with).

You can dine frugally on sausages and mash or fish and chips with a £19.50 bottle of wine, go nuts with Dover sole, share a whole roast Devonshire chicken … or have what we did: for my guest, an excellent thick sirloin, cooked precisely rare as requested; for me, the the finest veal chop I have ever eaten in my life – large, tender, juicy, very deeply flavoursome … it left me breathless, not to say full.

The Ivy Chelsea Garden, London SW3 – restaurant review | Marina ...

Review analysis
food   drinks  

Their expressions, as eyes scour rooms linked by a zinc-topped bar – all shiny silverware, burnt orange furnishings, acres of botanical prints, marble and parquet floors – is one of almost existential regret.

It’s the kind of thing served up in VIP tents at genteel sporting events, for slurping with vats of Pimm’s: nursery comfort food (fishcakes, burgers, pies, even lasagne), plus lots of fishy, salady things (tuna carpaccio, roast cod, seared scallops with pink grapefruit) for the kind of Chelsea babes beside us, lithe limbs poured into thigh-length boots.

We order “for the table” zucchini fritti and truffle arancini – there’s a lot of truffling going on, but it’s the faux-luxury kind delivered by truffle oil.

There’s more truffle oil slathered on an already oily chicken Milanese; and the “famous” Ivy shepherd’s pie, in its gleaming, coppered serving dish, is a wodge of stodge, a school dinner in regal drag.

• The Ivy Chelsea Garden 197 King’s Road, London SW3, 020-3301 0300.

5* Review The Ivy Restaurant London West Street - Renovated / Re ...

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