the ivy

[Gary Marshall]

It all started about 3 years ago. A client taking advantage of my colleagues naiveness inthe world of restaurants when asked where he wanted to go for a night out the following thursday he said nonchalantly 'oh, why don't you book us a table at the ivy?'

Of course he was turned down but booked a table at the next available thursday which was about 6 months later. Since then we try to keep a regular booking there every other week and worry about filling it later.

It really is quite bizarre, some of our clients are the most lavishly entertained people you could meet, yet for some reason an invite to the ivy very rarely gets turned down.

Obviously its attraction is the location in theatreland attracts most of its custom from the media as opposed to the financial world and by only letting us grubby suits get our hands on a few tables per night they have achieved a difficult balancing act, keep the place busy but don't lose the cachet.

It might be sad but the first thing anyone wants to know is 'who was in there?' and the whole place is like a room full of meercats when a new table enters the room.

The actual fabric of the room is pretty much what an ideal restaurant would be, a mixture of banquettes and individual tables, dark oak wood panelling, thick linen and silver on the tables with smartly dressed, efficient and friendly staff. the lighting is low and it has that magic conviviality about it.

But what about the food? the menu is quite an ecelectic mix of comfort food from around the world. If you are well known enough to be a regular there it would be the ideal neighbourhood restaurant, burgers, shepherds pie, fishcakes sit easily with caviar, foie gras and lobsters. Comfort food is the order of the day.

We tend to order a lot of stuff 'for the table' so everyone can try various bits and pieces. I love their steak tatare so that was on the list (and i made a couple of well done steak eaters try it to, to their suprise they liked it) along with shepherds pie, and a burger.

For my starter i had a foie gras on toast with a fried duck egg and girolles. It was a miserly corner of foie on brioche with the egg, very rich but not a lot of it. others choices of kedgeree and dressed crab with remoulade looked more successful. I also scoffed most of the tartare which was great as usual and ordered spicy did not need any extra tabasco or worcester.

Due to massive indecision and having had a steak bearnaise for lunch i had the 'light' option of the salmon fishcake with sorrel sauce. which as usual was fine.

I had a bit of shepherds pie which is good for a mouthful but for some reason the sauce doesn't agree with me. They tend to use a very reduced veal based stock, get a bit on your hand and it glues you to your cutlery, it's that sort of viscosity. Unfortunately it appears to be in most of the dishes i'd naturally like such as the pie, corned beef hash and the roast poulet de landes, several times now it has left me a bit queasy and struggling to finish.

I also had a quarter of burger which was a quite thin patty between a brown wholemeal bun which suprised me, burger sauce (ie ketchup and amercan mustard) was provided in a pot along wth onions tomato & gerkins. It had a good meaty taste and ordered medium was nicely crusted on the surface but pink in the centre.

Others had fish and chips, a knackered well done rib-eye and sausages and mash (with the ubiquitous sauce/gravy)

Deserts were for me a lemon tart, also a welsh rarebit, honeycombe ice cream & pavlova. Again all textbook, if unexceptional examples of their genre.

Coffee and diegstifs followed.

on the wine side we had a very enjoyable rully 1er cru 01 and a savigny les beaune, both around the £37 mark. The wine list is pretty reasonably marked up, as it to be fair the food. It is not an expensive restaurant, the ivy burger at 9.75 is cheaper than tgi fridays and there are plenty of dishes in the low to mid teens price wise eg the fishcakes £13.50, shep pie £14.50.

our bill for 4 with aperitifs, water, 3 wine, digestifs, 3 courses each plus the extras was £355.25, they don't put service on either.

So if you want slightly refined comfort food, with good service, reasonably priced wines, in a buzzy room with a few minor celebs thrown in (tara palmer-tompkinson & gabby roslin) then this is the place for you, unfortunately you'll just have to know 6 months in advance that is what you are going to fancy. Or befriend michael winner.

cheers

gary

www.caprice-holdings.co.uk/ivy

[Bapi]

unfortunately you'll just have to know 6 months in advance that is what you are going to fancy. Or befriend michael winner.

You mean you are not one and the same?

[Gary Marshall]

well, we've never been spotted together

gary

[Hallie]

Or befriend michael winner.

An interesting story about Michael Winner and the Ivy...

A good friend of my husband's who is not only totally inept at the game of celeb spotting but completely indifferent to the appeal of celebrities in general (God bless him), went for Sunday lunch at the Ivy with a friend of his. At about 3:00 that afternoon, my husband received a frantic phone call from Matthew who was ringing from the men's toilet. 'Frank,' he begged in a hushed voice 'who is Michael Winner? Is he anyone important?' Frank explained that 'No, Michael Winner was not someone of any importance' (among their set the only people of importance are MPs and high court judges), 'but that he did make a couple of extremely bad films and fancies himself as a restaurant critic'.

'Shit!' Matthew exclaimed, 'He just spilled a glass of red wine on me and I...was rather off with him'. Matthew's gut reaction it seems was to tell the august film director that he was 'a fucking wanker' after he had completely ruined a new tie and an expensive shirt. Winner had then offered to buy him a drink, whereupon matthew, still bristling refused him point blank. In a final attempt to salvage the situation, Michael Winner resorted to using the phrase 'do you know who I am?'

Matthew, at that point was so unimpressed (particularly as Winner didn't do the gentlemanly thing of offering to pay his dry cleaning bill) that he snapped at him 'i don't care who you are, you're still a fucking wanker!'

Winner was silenced.

[Jamsie]

Or befriend michael winner.

that he snapped at him 'i don't care who you are, you're still a fucking wanker!'

Winner was silenced.

I always would like to think if i saw him in a restaurant it wouldn't take him spilling wine down me for me to point that out to him

[Stigand]

I love their steak tatare so that was on the list (and i made a couple of well done steak eaters try it to, to their suprise they liked it)

I've only been to the Ivy once (at the very unglamorous time of 5:30pm for a pre-theatre bite), but I can't say I like the steak tartare - I thought the seasonings (especially the ketchup) over-powered the meat a bit. I thought the same about the steak tartare at the Caprice (maybe they use the same recipe?).

Mysteriously, I liked the tartare at the Wolseley.

[oldschooltie]

Mysteriously, I liked the tartare at the Wolseley.

I've liked everything that I've eaten there.

Only been the The Ivy once. couldn't really see what the fuss is/was about.

(might have a more positive view if I'd been lucky enough to meet Michael Winner)

[tony h]

Only been the The Ivy once. couldn't really see what the fuss is/was about.

superb collection of art

uncomfortable chairs

food - forgetable

[Scott]

I also had a quarter of burger which was a quite thin patty between a brown wholemeal bun which suprised me, burger sauce (ie ketchup and amercan mustard) was provided in a pot along wth onions tomato & gerkins. It had a good meaty taste and ordered medium was nicely crusted on the surface but pink in the centre.

I am a bit of a fan of the burger too. It comes with such a lovely chargrilled smoky character to the meat, and is not over garnished.

[silverbrow]

According to this article in today's Evening Standard, The Ivy and the entire Signature Group are up for sale. egullet UK forum could branch out?

Edited May 10, 2005 by asilverfish (log)

[origamicrane]

According to this article in today's Evening Standard, The Ivy and the entire Signature Group are up for sale.  egullet UK forum could branch out?

←

really?

how much?

[charliehicks]

According to this article in today's Evening Standard, The Ivy and the entire Signature Group are up for sale.  egullet UK forum could branch out?

←

really?

how much?

←

Have you got change of a fiver?

[jamiemaw]

Memories flooded back, Gary. From this side of the pond, it’s interesting to remember that The Ivy was seemingly born out of the new meritocracy of the 70’s and 80’s. It happened in many cities. Gone: imperious head waiters, menus in French and gloppy sauces. Arrived: luvvies like us—painters, actors, publishers, media tyrants, musicians and film directors (all of whom sought the see-and-be-scene), who began to replace the professionals, bureaucrats and Colonel Blimps as customers for fine dining restaurants.

London restaurants, such as Joe Allen (1977), Langan’s Brasserie (1976?) and even San Lorenzo (1963—although their no credit card policy demanded an impressive roll of £50 notes) got it, and, just as in many cities, the movement away the fusty nostalgia parlours of grand (often hotel) dining began. These were restaurants that replaced the exclusive, formal dining rooms, but still threw up their own exclusions and outright embargoes: tough reservations being just the most obvious.

But curiously, The Ivy itself now seems nostalgic, as if recalling another time, even though its current revival only really began around 1990 (although it first began life in 1917, shortly after The Coburg Hotel was renamed The Connaught for obvious reasons)—when it was renovated and relaunched under Corbin and King. As I recall they'd previously wrested away Le Caprice and instituted the kind of cosy, idiosyncratic menus that you might find in a decent country house— kitchen food raised up to the ironic.

I haven’t been back since they sold it, but have very fond memories of post-theatre suppers, of Eggs Benedict (£10.50 in the mid-nineties, only £12.50 now), or The Ivy Hamburger (£8.50 then, £9.75 now—a relative steal). And the Sunday lunch still seems a pretty decent bargain at £21.50 for a starter, rib of beef and Yorkshire pudding, and sweet.

But what I always found most interesting about it was that like many of its patrons who worked one nightly, The Ivy always seemed a stage: slightly theatrical and spiked with a frisson of drama amusingly sponsored by its players.

Edited May 12, 2005 by jamiemaw (log)

[tony h]

superb collection of art

uncomfortable chairs

food - forgetable

←

hmm - seems something wonderful is happening in the kitchen. took my mum & sister recently & had an astonishingly good night there. we had the roast chicken (partly chosen for the theatre – carved at your table etc.) which came with great truffle sauce & truffled potatoes

apologies to the ivy – looks like I got it wrong

[postcode]

Yesterday's Sunday Times carried an interesting piece on what may or may not happen to Signature

[Gary Marshall]

superb collection of art

uncomfortable chairs

food - forgetable

←

hmm - seems something wonderful is happening in the kitchen. took my mum & sister recently & had an astonishingly good night there. we had the roast chicken (partly chosen for the theatre – carved at your table etc.) which came with great truffle sauce & truffled potatoes

apologies to the ivy – looks like I got it wrong

←

my colleagues always have a poulet, i thought they'd stopped carving it at the table, but glad to hear that's not the case.

last time i had it they had to take it back for a little longer in the oven, however i find the truffle/veal stock sauce over powering for my weak constitution so haven't had it for a while.