The Ivy

Following up to morning glory

>OK, I give up! What is "The Ivy". I know I should know, but I don't - and a
>quick UK Google search (OK I was impatient) turned up nothing in a
>restaurant shape.

Just near St.Martins Lane. Long established, popular with advertising, media and glitterati, if you read the gossip pages its always mentioned I understand. The nice thing is that its not flashy, as you would expect. Stained glass diamond pane windows, dark wood, relaxed

They say its full of celebs, unfortunatly there are not many celebs I would recognise, so I dont know. (The only "house rule" is therefore of course not to rubberneck) I've probably got brownie points by looking super cool sat next to Madonna or Becks or somebody and not even noticing!

"http://www.london-eating.co.uk/19.htm" I doubt they would have a website, unless to discourage people!

The Ivy book "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk/ebooks2.htm"

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On Tue, 13 Aug 2002 09:25:41 +0100, Roger Stone
Someone wrote:
>
>Comes as no surprise. When I wanted to take my partner for her birthday
>I had to book 6 months in advance.
>
>Well worth it though. Had probably the best meal I've ever had.

If you want to try somewhere nearby, where the food is as good if not better, try L'Escargot... downstairs is comparable food and prices, upstairs in the Picasso Room (covered in original Picassos) is a little pricier, but nicer food than the Ivy (no main meals of 6 pea tortellinis for a start!)

If youre veggie (like me) you will not have much choice - there is always something veggie but not always listed, unlike the Ivy which to its credit can produce a separate veggie menu - but the food is exceptional. I'm quite picky and I've loved every minute of it.

Anyway, the point to this was that you can easily book for the following week at L'Escargot, or just turn up.

As regards getting into the Ivy - best bet is to call at midday (when they have just rung round and confirmed that day's bookings) to see if they have a cancellation, or turn up at 530 when they open and see if anyone has failed to show. Be flexible with times, because it's quieter during theatre - pre and post theatre is almost impossible to arrange at short (or even reasonable) notice.

Using the tactics above, I havent had a problem, although it does rather preclude planning in advance! Maybe you could try that, but have l'Escargot in reserve in case you need to find somewhere else that you can book at short notice.

If you don't know l'Escargot, my restaurant review site at http://www.gorge.org/restaurants has it covered. (Hope it's ok to mention that, I'm new to this group and also cant find its charter online, but I saw other sites mentioned in previous posts. It's relevant - not a general plug ;)

Cheers,
Flash