If you like trying different restaurants and if you follow the constant influx of "the" place to see and be seen in Dubai, you must have definitely heard about the opening of
The Ivy. If you haven't, the restaurant has opened up at the Emirates Towers at where Scarlett's used to once be. Everywhere on Twitter and Facebook I had friends posting up pictures of the restaurant saying how delicious the food was and how they couldn't wait to go back, etc. I was quite curious to see how it was, and since I owed my friend Jimmy a birthday lunch, I took him and another common friend over to this new chic restaurant to give it a spin.
Since my female friend and I were counting calories, we ordered the smoked salmon as well as the Yellow Tail Sashimi to share, while Jimmy went for the Caesars Salad. Here are some pics of what the food looked like-
As you can see, the portion sizes are quite generous! For the main course my female friend had fish (i think it was the Dover sole that she ordered) while I had the Thai-baked sea bass with fragrant rice. Thr birthday boy had the lamb shank curry with saffron flavoured rice. Here are the images of our main courses-
As you can tell, the food looked quite interesting and really, really tempting. The presentation was great and everything was fine.... but (there's always a but isn't there!)... the food really didn't blow me away. Yes,
The Ivy is a chic restaurant-of-the-moment and yes people have been raving about the food, but whatever we had really didn't knock our socks off. Jimmy who ordered regularly off the menu without any dietary restrictions thought the food was ok and my other friend and I thought it was, well,
meh. I guess if you ordered some of the more of the more calorific meals, maybe they would taste better? The thing is, I can easily go to
ET Sushi next door or to
La Petite Maison five minutes away to get some fabulous food that is less in calories and tastes SOOO much better than
The Ivy meal I had. While smoked salmon is nice and all, I'd much rather have LPM's crab and lobster salad or the lentil salad to start with. My sea bass wasn't bad, but it really wasn't wow either and I definitely have had better fish.
Having said that, the food I believe is only half of the story. You can have amazing food but with bad service an entire mood of the meal could be completely ruined. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I'd gotten such great service in Dubai! The staff was friendly and smiling and extremely attentive, and I don't think it was just because my friend knew our server from before. My friend had tweeted about looking forward to me taking him for his birthday meal there and another friend had alerted one of the hosts who was on twitter that we'd be coming who had in turn tweeted back that she was looking forward to seeing us, etc. We'd forgotten all about it, till Jimmy's desert (he'd also tweeted that he wanted the creme brulee) came out with a birthday message on the plate!
I'm sure I'll be back at
The Ivy a lot and I'm sure it will be a very popular hangout for the next few months till something more exciting pops up. I don't think it will be the runaway success LPM has been simply because I really don't think the food is comparable. Would I however suggest you to go there and make up your own mind? Yes I would! Because the service was so bad, I almost feel bad giving it a bad review, and before writing this I thought it was quite unfair for me to judge a restaurant that I visit while on a diet. But then again, a lot of people these days are opting for healthier dishes which restaurants are increasingly conscious about. I know my favourites all have their healthy options as well as deliciously divine sinful ones so maybe it isn't asking for too much for a restaurant to have both. Anyhow, I'm sure I'll be back at
The Ivy very soon but alas, not for the food. I just hope the service will be just as good even after they read this review!
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You can reach the restaurant at (04) 3158767 for reservations and questions.
You can also check out pictures of the restaurant and their complete menu on their website here
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