Our meal was provided to us free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
This place is now the “IT” restaurant to be seen in. The Ivy Leeds. It’s has brought a slice of the famous London restaurant scene up here to the North and there’s plenty more popping up left, right and centre. It begs the question – is it loosing it’s exclusivity? But fear not, the moment you walk in to the restaurant you are met by warm hostesses to check you in and lead you through the closed-door in to a festival of colour and 1920’s elegance that is the décor of this place. If anything, this place is a feast on the eyes! We hoped the food would also follow suit.
The whole restaurant has such a vibe that I would quite happily up sticks and move right in. It’s bizarrely sophisticated but I love it. Every inch of wallpaper, each individual velvet chair really made this place feel like you were in the set of a movie. Every member of staff we spoke with were lovely and welcoming. You might worry that somewhere like The Ivy would be snobby and pretentious but it was quite the opposite. Everyone was more than willing to help and suggest things on the menu and explain them to us. I, with a glass of champagne and Mr C with a mojito, we shared a bowl of juicy olives and the most delicious truffle arancini as appetizers (these are not to be missed!) whilst we decided what to eat.
I’m very much a starter person, and if I had my way, a lot of the time I would order lots of starters for my main but on this particular evening I was rather in the mood for some seafood. So, I decided that I would order the roasted scallops with chorizo, which were to die for. I expected the portion sizes to be quite small but it was quite the opposite, and that was even more clear when Mr C ordered the Wasabi prawns with salt and pepper squid (which again were out of this world.) The portion sizes were huge. The Wasabi spiced things up, I even stole a little bit to put on my scallops and boy did it blow our socks off! We also chose a bottle of red to go with the meal which, considering it was the “house red” it was pretty tasty!
I’m afraid, for me, the main course was where I was a little disappointed. Have you ever been to a restaurant and had serious food envy of the person who your dining with? Well, that was me. I chose the monkfish and prawn curry which is a Keralan curry finished off with jasmine rice, coconut “yoghurt”, coriander and sweet potato crisps – the sweet potato crisps were the main thing that added flavour to the dish. And, whilst the fish was super juicy, it just lacked a little something that I couldn’t put my finger on. except for the fact that it needed spicing up and a bit more flavour. I tried to like it, and it wasn’t offensive, but if I were to go again I would definitely avoid this dish.
Mr C’s main course on the other hand was I N C R E D I B L E. In fact, I kicked myself because his dish fell in to the top two that I wanted to try but I let him go for it as he loves lamb! He had the Slow-cooked lamb shoulder on a bed of mashed potato and oh-boy, oh-boy was it a juicy cut of lamb. Even the veg that came with it was lightly covered in salt making it even more moreish. He was kind enough to let me have a couple of nibbles on it (especially as I’d drawn the short straw with driving!)
When I visit next time this is definitely going to be what I get!
How could you visit The Ivy without trying its infamous Chocolate Bombe desert. It’s not just the actual desert itself, but the experience that comes with it. Your waiter delivers the pudding to you in a huge rimmed bowl, and then proceeds to pour hot, caramel sauce all over it till it capsizes in to itself to reveal a vanilla ice cream and honeycomb centre for you to devour and, oh my days, it was delicious – just so much of it and it is quite a rich dish so don’t be filling up too much if you want to make room for this. We also got the crème Brulee, which again, completely cemented this place as my go-to spot for any pudding if my heart desired one whilst shopping in Leeds. We finished off with a coffee each (mine with thick cream – yum!)
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Overall, this is definitely somewhere I would go again. It does come with a slightly inflated menu price but it’s worth it for the décor, ambience, food (minus my main course!) and the incredible puddings. And, whilst you might think this place is for the upper class and élite, it never felt like we didn’t belong at all, in fact it was quite the opposite. The service was great and attentive at all times. I have to say that you need give this place a go if you’re wanting something a bit more special with a kooky interiors and exceptional service!
You can check out other reviews here.
I’d like to thank The Ivy for hosting us.
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Bee
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