Review: The IVY City Garden (and the £5 non-truffled chips)

The Ivy is famous for its opulent surroundings, fine cuisine and frequent celebrity guests; making the Ivy Collection a very desirable and sought-after restaurant here in the UK.

Just around the corner from Liverpool Street station in the City of London, located in the historic Bishopsgate Gardens, you will find The Ivy City Gardens.

The Ivy City Gardens is certainly a restaurant which has a wow-factor. It has such a charming and quaint feel to it, the conjunction between the ample natural light and an impressive collection of greenery and flora makes the restaurant a very appealing place to dine.

So arriving at The Ivy City Gardens gave us a great first impression. We were nicely greeted by the hostesses who were attentive and very prompt. We booked a week in advance as it can get very busy here and therefore availability can be difficult to achieve if you decide to arrive on the day without confirming with them beforehand.

We sat in our opinion at one of the nicest tables in the restaurant which was lovely. We were in the corner away from the crowds, and had great views of the restaurant.

The atmosphere felt pleasantly refined and dynamic, it wasn’t overly busy but it still felt lively.

So for our starters, we decided to try the Spiced Green Olives alongside the Crispy Duck Salad. For our mains, I wanted to try the Pan-Fried Salmon Fillet (cooked well-done), my partner went for the Linguine with Courgette. For drinks, I eagerly went for their Espresso Martini which I was excited to try.

Our starters arrived shortly after and certainly did not disappoint, the Spiced Green Olives were very succulent and full of flavour! Although they were spiced they weren’t spicy, so don’t let that put you off from trying them as they were delicious. The Crispy Duck Salad was our second starter, the salad consisted of toasted cashews, watermelon, ginger and coriander, bean sprouts and sesame seeds. The Asian inspired starter was very indulging, I loved the contrast of flavour and it was a generous portion.

After a pleasing starter we were looking forward to our mains in which we had high expectations for at this point. As you can see, the presentation of our dishes was pleasing to the eye and very nicely made. The little touches do go a long way especially in a restaurant like this one.

Let’s firstly talk about my Pan Fried Salmon Fillet; the Salmon was indulged in a beautiful chive veloute, and the dish was complete was a selection of greens which has asparagus spears, courgette ribbons and toasted pine nuts.

The main dish was very refreshing and light, I really enjoyed it. Despite this, the only downside I have to say is that the Salmon wasn’t cooked to what was requested. I asked for it to be well-done although it was cooked lightly instead. It was still delicious, but it wasn’t what was expected.

On the other hand, The Linguine with Courgette was mouth-watering and very flavoursome, it was also very inviting as even though it was my partner’s dish, I couldn’t help but to try some myself as it just looked too tasty! The dish was embodied in a rustic tomato sauce, and was topped with fresh rocket, pine nuts and a crumbly greek white cheese. There is nothing negative to say about the dish and we can’t think of anything which could make it better. It was a perfectly made linguine!

We also ordered a side of truffled chips for our mains, although the chips were very crispy and delicious, we don’t think they were the truffled chips which we asked for as they seemed to be normal french fries.

The waiter came to collect our cleared dishes after a very enjoyable 2 course meal. Although we weren’t planning on dessert, we ended up ordering a crème brûlée just to end our experience with a sweet treat.

The crème brûlée was beautifully made and had a lovely light texture to it, which was contrasted with the hardened caramelised sugar. The rich custard base was really enjoyable and had a lovely hint of vanilla.

To conclude our experience at The Ivy City Gardens, we were overall very impressed with our dinner. The food was impeccable despite the minor detail about the salmon, also the service from the staff was very friendly and attentive. I really have nothing negative to say about The Ivy City Gardens, I highly recommend you to visit here!