Restaurant review: The Ivy Asia, London EC4

Kathryn Winter on restaurants

Lured across the glowing emerald gemstone floor towards the centre of the main dining room, you are confronted with the most breath-taking view overlooking St Paul's Cathedral, separated only by a panoramic floor-to-ceiling glass window. The restaurants’ Asian design-led concept fills the room with colour and character, adorned with 18th-century inspired Japanese scenes blown-up along the walls and a bar that sits under a Japanese temple inspired roof, lined with rich burgundy and gold bar stools.

The Ivy chain which has undeniably been diluted with a brasserie popping up in almost every popular town and city across the UK, has found itself a clever market position. Supplying its customers with the opportunity to pop in for a single drink and meal for around £30 whilst delivering the elegance and veneer of fine dining. Their knowledgable, well-dressed waiters, magnificent Adam Ellis interior design concepts and desirable locations also warrant dressing up to celebrating almost any occasion. In this case, you might order the lobster linguine and bottles of Ruinart Rosé. This concept is something that has been cleverly transported into its new Asia-fusion branch, The Ivy Asia, the newest addition to the Caprice Holdings group. Its concept encapsulates a multitude of Asian-inspired cuisines, a trend that monopolises many of the worlds most exclusive restaurants, however, The Ivy Asia offers this to all with its accessible market strategy.

The Ivy Asia is the kind of affair one can enjoy an array of sharing dishes and small plates, appearing at your table at various intervals, whilst enjoying unusual cocktails or a glass of wine. Dishes from soft shell crab, tuna in three ways, an extensive list of sushi rolls, Korean pork and kimchi dumplings to black cod and Mongolian cheese, leave you salivating at the condensed choice from the entire continent. Whilst commending the selection on offer, my verdict remained more on the mediocre side, with the £11.50 prawn tempura consisting mainly of heavy batter than prawn, despite being the waiter’s recommendation. The salmon teriyaki arrived late and slightly overdone compared to the buttery, slipping through your chopsticks fish you receive in Amazonico and Novikov. They do, however, win points for their popcorn shrimp with spicy creamy sauce which felt like the perfect combination of shrimp, crispy batter and what can only be described as a spicy mayo type dip, complementing it beautifully. And finally, I don’t think I'm the only one who’s partial to the Instagram famous melting milk chocolate bombe, one that is a signature dessert at most of The Ivy branches. The Ivy Asia introduces a white chocolate version with passionfruit, yuzu foam and caramel sauce, combining flavours that seem abominable to the ear but overwhelmingly compatible to the taste buds.

The atmosphere compiles celebration within its exciting setting but with the strange marring reminder of the virus that looms over us, with hand sanitisers accompanying your designated soy sauce and gold fish-shaped chopstick holder.

Our waiter seemed torn between tables, leaving us waiting much longer than acceptable. However, we had nowhere to go so rather embraced the extra time basking in the breath-taking view of the cathedral and eclectic mix of diners. In The Ivy Asia, most things go.

Food 7/10

Atmosphere 8/10

Service 5/10