The Ivy Reviews 

After a little glitch on our first visit (teething problems) we had a lovely time at The Liverpool Ivy on Saturday. The staff were attentive, our waitress was lovely and couldn't do enough for us. The food and drink was great and the ambience lovely. Will definitely be visiting again soon.

The Ivy Asia Mafair.
We went for lunch and we were extremely disappointed in almost eveyrthing about the whole experience. Firstly the service was diabolical. I had to ask 4 times over for sparkling water. After that the food was really mediocre and I think the chain has lost its essence.

Good pub-style food (at least as close as you can get to pub grub in London) for a decent price (excluding Champagne which is b overinflated price-wise). What has led to this review having 2 stars is the waiting staff - Ivy in Canary Wharf seem to have hired every person that landed at Dover who has no common sense, intelligence or basic understanding of the English language. Take 5 attempts for one waitress to get my Glenmorangie Signet order correct…

The chocolate bomb was absolutely superb!! A small can of beer to pour yourself at almost £7!! Star lost for overall cost but ALL the staff were very attentive and we received possibly the best ever service in a restaurant from Summer. Thank you Summer, really made our visit special!

I had a gift voucher given to me as a gift this year and also on in 2022. I was going to use the one in 2022 but one of my parents tragically lost there life and this has taken some getting over. My mother is 88 this year and was going to use both cards but after trying to contact the ivy to speak to someone seem a task you can’t do at the ivy. I did eventually speak to someone and they said if I used the email address they gave me I would get the card extended due to the circumstance we had encountered with my parents, the email address turned out to be in correct. I have eaten at quite a few ivys and had some great customer service but this experience was not what I expected from a high valued retail chain. Bang goes giving my mum a good experience after the bad one she had !!!! Never again Ivy

London.
Nice staff. Very dated surroundings.
Very ordinary food.
Very,very over priced.
We all know booze costs a lot but £27 for one small glass of wine,really.
Robbing restraunt.
Dont go.

Extortionate price for very mediocre food, medium rare steak arrived well done, (refunded to be fair) boneless chicken slimey £17 for a glass of wine! Avoid if possible, there’s a Burger King around the corner!

The Ivy Liverpool. The stars are for the renovation of the building. However, the food … let’s just say there’s loads of room for improvement. All I could taste on both my starter and main was coriander which I dislike. Both dishes were bland and lukewarm warm. There are so many other nice restaurants in Liverpool that I hope the Ivy improves immensely.

Had an excellent pre theatre lunch at The Ivy Canterbury. Service was timely and first class. The lunch was two courses for under £20 each and in my opinion it was delicious. Drinks were also reasonably priced. Second time I have visited this restaurant and on both occasions a good experience.

Sahid at Chelsea Gardens offered a fantastic service

Set menu served at 2pm, soup watery, tasteless. The renowned fishcake, listed as salmon & smoked haddock had about 1 teaspoon of fish in total in a gluey texture surrounded by a brown crust. The meal was disgusting, manager offhand & quite rude. A horrible experience.

Ivy Windsor - Undercooked poorly prepared food - had to return two meals to the kitchen only one reappeared ? Really poorly managed and no real apology.
Get back to basics, pay attention and you might just about justify the over priced mediocre food.

THE IVY - Liverpool

Within days during December it became the go-to place in Liverpool - and for many good reasons.

The food, the drinks, the glorious ambience but above all that the sheer friendliness and welcome that all the staff provide.

I am a regular user of The Ivy in London, in Winchester, York and Cambridge. Until now I have been happy with the product, at around 4* level. However, in their West St restaurant (London) there is now a £2 pp Cover Charge. If that is to become standard I will cease being a customer. I wrote to The Ivy to seek advice on the policy, asking what triggered it and their thoughts on whether it will spread to other restaurants in The Ivy Collection. They eventually replied via email, explaining that the Cover Charge " ... was introduced to support the continued quality of service and dining experience, especially during our busier periods". No, I have no idea what that means either. Their Guest Relations person added: " ... this charge is specific to that location, and there are no current plans to introduce it across all Ivy Collection venues". Well, it's bad enough that The Ivy add a 13.5% Service Charge ... I feel that we should all make a stand against this ratcheting up of charges, on top of a menu that is at the higher end of the price bracket. The food and the vibe are great, but one more Cover Charge and I'll cease my custom.

We were extremely underwhelmed with our recent visit to The Ivy, Belfast. From the start, our table by the window was uncomfortably drafty. While our cocktails arrived promptly, our bottle of wine was a completely different story. Despite three separate requests, it never materialised.

The food was equally disappointing. The chips tasted like cheap, frozen ones, and the rice served with the monkfish and prawn curry was stodgy. Even after expressing our dissatisfaction with the poor service, we still had to request a dessert menu.

We decided to try the speciality coffees, which were shockingly small considering their price. Worse, they were overly sweet and lacked any real coffee flavor. To add insult to injury, the bathrooms are located four flights of stairs up, making them inaccessible for anyone with mobility issues.

While the service charge was removed, it didn't make up for the overall poor experience. We would not recommend this restaurant and will certainly not be returning.

Ivy chichester

I recently had breakfast at The Ivy Chichester, and unfortunately, my experience was far from satisfactory. Upon arrival, there was no one to greet us or seat us, leaving us standing around for five minutes before I had to flag someone down. This lack of initial hospitality set a disappointing tone for the visit.

Once seated, we ordered drinks—a cup of tea and a cappuccino. After waiting another ten minutes and browsing the menu, we placed our orders: a full breakfast with fried eggs for myself and a vegetarian breakfast with a side of smoked salmon for my partner.

We waited nearly 50 minutes for our food to arrive, which felt excessive, especially with the restaurant only at 20% capacity. When my breakfast finally came, I was disheartened to find the fried eggs overcooked; one was so burnt it was unrecognizable, and the other was hard instead of runny. It appeared to have been sitting under a hot plate for far too long. I was offered a replacement for the eggs, but at that point, I had lost my appetite entirely after such a long wait and subpar food quality.

To add insult to injury, the bacon was burnt, and the potatoes were uninviting. My partner's vegetarian breakfast was mediocre at best. As we were leaving, I noticed a hotdog stand outside selling fresh hotdogs for just £4. After the breakfast debacle, I opted for one of those instead.

Overall, my experience at The Ivy Chichester was disappointing. The service was lacking, the food quality did not meet expectations, and the atmosphere felt pretentious for what was delivered. If you're considering dining here, I would recommend exploring other options—perhaps even the hotdog vendor outside, which turned out to be a far more enjoyable choice. Save your time and money; The Ivy is overpriced and trying to be something it’s not.

I’ve now cancelled my reservation for Valentine’s Day after my experience today.

The Ivy Liverpool.The staff are not Ivy trained. Too much over familiarity. They could learn a lot from the staff at sister restaurants.
Front of house and bar staff chewing gum. Disgusting and common at the best of times.
Service extremely slow. There was enough staff for better service.
Eye contact is required at front of house. Don’t ignore the customer if there is more than one person on reception which there is.

Consistently good food and good service. Shout out to Harry Young, the General Manager who is always helpful and goes above and beyond to help out customers with bookings etc.

Frequently use ivy Asia Guildford so use the ivy chain regularly but came to ivy garden Chelsea and can’t believe how bad it was. The burger was genuinely the worst burger I have ever eaten overcooked under seasoned patty and burnt bun to point thought was stale. My 5yr old kids spaghetti came out 5mins after mine crazy. Then we ordered sticky toffee pudding which was brought to the table without the toffee sauce instead of taking pack left on table for 6mins until came back and poured over at table so odd!!!

Should have gone Mc D’s for my burger would have been far more satisfied and saved £70

Shocking

I really wish I could give this a better rating as we were really looking forward to it - and it was a birthday treat. To start with the positives: the decor is sumptuous and dramatic. They have clearly spent a lot of money on this and it is stunning to look at. It is also a bit difficult to look at because they keep the lighting so low that you can barely see someone across the room - but one of the better aspects, nonetheless. The waiting staff are also very attentive despite having to battle to be heard because the music is so very loud. It is, I am reliably informed by a younger companion, the kind of music typically played in clubs. Apparently, they also have a DJ on some nights - although, mercifully, not when I went. Conversation with fellow diners is rendered difficult, if not impossible, by the volume so not the place for either intimate or stimulating conversation - or perhaps any as you start by shouting a bit then get tired and give up. We had a sharing menu consisting of a number of small courses and the staff were very diligent about serving and clearing away throughout. The food was variable in quality, I would say - and definitely not worth the £48 pp price. It is all very expensive with the cheapest wine starting at £50 a bottle escalating to well over £100. Ordering food a la carte or having the more expensive sharing menu would be really expensive also - and not worth the money, really, as it is just little bits of pleasant but not spectacular food. As a dining experience it was overpriced and disappointing. The washrooms (shared with the next-door Ivy) are just as sumptuous as the rest but were crammed with girls taking pictures for Instagram to show off that they had been there. And that says it all, really. It’s not about having a good meal, more about saying you’ve been there and getting the photos on your socials to prove it. Basically, it doesn’t know whether it’s a night club or a restaurant - problematical if you just want a decent meal and they would be better served by making this particular vibe clearer when you booked. I noted a couple of more elderly diners looking completely stunned - and not in a good way! I actually felt more relaxed when I stepped out of the place than when I was in it.