The Ivy Leeds review: I visit the Victoria Quarter restaurant where you're made to feel like a celebrity
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Having tried other branches before, this was my first visit to the Leeds brasserie - housed in a beautiful listed building in the Victoria Quarter. We were warmly greeted by the smartly-dressed maitre d’ and shown to our table, a lovely corner sofa with bright cushions.
For a Monday evening, it was busy - a group of dressed-down students celebrating a birthday on one table, to a stylish couple enjoying a date night on another. The Ivy is fancy, but not fancy enough that you’d feel out of place in jeans and trainers.
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Hide AdEvery corner of the restaurant has been tastefully decorated, with vibrant colours, tropical patterns and art deco touches. It’s grand, and it’s stunning. Servers are chatty and with just a glance up from our table someone would be over to help us.
There’s a range of July specials on the new a la carte menu, including lobster and watermelon salad, lemon sole on the bone and rabbit and lobster pie. On this occasion, we picked three Ivy classics.
The tiny truffle arancini balls, designed for sharing, were perfectly crisp on the outside with a nice earthy flavour. I would have liked a sauce of some kind to dip them into, perhaps aioli. Nonetheless, we polished them off.
For the main course, I picked the Scottish smoked haddock and salmon fishcake - served on a bed of crushed garden peas in a fresh herb sauce and topped with a poached hen’s egg. The fishcake was filled to the brim and beautifully soft inside, with big chunks of smoked salmon running through it. Coated with the expertly-poached egg, it was a delight, and the crushed peas freshened the palette.
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Hide AdMy guest went for the Ivy Hamburger - chargrilled grass-fed beef in a toasted brioche roll, served with horseradish ketchup and thick-cut chips. She said the patty was tasty and made with excellent quality meat, and she loved the bitterness from the gherkins and kick from the ketchup. The chips - which I pinched a few of - were a little underwhelming, we would have liked them with more colour and crispier on the outside.
We were too full for dessert and finished with a lovely glass of Whispering Angel rose instead, but the menu includes lots of summer treats including creme brulee, vanilla cheesecake and coconut panna cotta.
Sure, you can splash out at The Ivy if you’ve got the cash - some of the dishes are pushing £35. But for £15.95 for the fishcake, and £16.95 for the hamburger, I was pleasantly surprised with the value for money. There’s also summer set menu with two courses for £18.95, or three for £23.95.
From start to finish, the service was exemplary. You’re made to feel like a celebrity at The Ivy, but it’s not pretentious. There’s something for everyone on the menu, you can dress how you like, and enjoy comfort grub in gorgeous surroundings.