A flourishing menu for combiners at the refined Ivy Chelsea Garden
The news that London’s diners, visitors and pun lovers have enjoyed hearing is that The Ivy has branched out. The premier West End establishment now has a Kings Road offshoot, and another about to open on High Street Kensington.
As the website says: “The Ivy Chelsea Garden is a casual British restaurant, serving an extensive all-day menu of food and cocktails. The restaurant, bar and café inside have an aura of approachable sophistication and familiar luxury; outside is an extensive garden, complete with a terrace and orangery.”
Absolutely. The verdant décor and airy ambience leaves a diner or cocktail-sipper at the ICG with the sensation of being elegantly entertained in a Victorian botanical garden.
Those cocktails are superb and imaginative, such as the fig undertones to the champagne in the signature Ivy Garden Royale. And the food is also fine fare, with a menu wide-ranging enough to satisfy any digestion-savvy food combiners.
My companion’s starter for a protein-based meal was superior Severn and Wye smoked salmon with crab and dill cream, omitting the granary bread. The main course was a generously portioned grilled chicken breast salad, including a small amount of quinoa, along with avocado, sesame and mixed leaves with yoghurt, ginger and lime dressing.
I opted for a moreish warm crispy duck salad, with five spice dressing on pak choi, beansprout and ginger. That was followed by a dish of grilled salmon fillet, with shaved fennel, finely pared apple and baby watercress salad and dill dressing, plus some additional spinach, which was all extremely filling.
Large mains meant no room for dessert but a couple of glasses of Ruinart rosé complimented both the meals and the garden setting. And, even better, the location might be exclusive but the prices are definitely inclusive. Perfect.
So I had to nip back and try that figgy cocktail…for research purposes…
The Ivy Chelsea Garden
197 King’s Road, London SW3 5ED
http://theivychelseagarden.com/
Reservations: http://theivychelseagarden.com/find-book/
Telephone: 020 3301 0300
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