Ivy Italian — Restaurant in Nowra

Dined at this restaurant for dinner on the 29th Dec as a family of 4.

Had to give 1 star because I can't give no stars. The customer service was appalling. We ordered our food and the waitress made a mistake on my sons pizza, she was apologetic and took it away to redo the order which was fine as mistakes happen. Around 10 mins after they took away the original pizza another waitess came to confirm the order before they put the new pizza in the oven. We were surprised because we thought the new pizza would have been made straight away. My husband queried why it has taken them 10 mins to confirm the order and the waitress said the pizza maker was busy doing other orders which was surprising as you would think they would rectify it straight away and by that stage the 3 of us had already finished our meal. My husband asked to speak to the manager and was directed to the kitchen where a lady with blonde hair and glasses came to speak to my husband. As my husband was explaining the situation her "Hero" son who was dining at the restaurant and didn't even know the full story intervened and only made the situation worse as he wasn't listening to what my husband had to say and accused him of causing a scene when all my husband wanted to know was why was the new pizza confirmed 10 mins after they took the original away.

In the end they kicked us out and accused us for making a scene when it was actually them causing the scene because her son couldn't butt out. He should never been involved as he completely inflamed the situation.

My husband owned a pizza restaurant for several years and understands things happen and was surprised by how this manager treats their customers.

It was very dissapointng as the food we did get was really good unfortunately it put a damper on the whole experience.

Hope no other customers have to be treated the we were at this restaurant by asking a simple question.

They clearly don't go by the motto of customers are...

From the first moment I walked into Ivy, I felt welcomed. The restaurant is cosy, and doesn't have the seating all crammed together. The seats are comfy, and the little touches were appreciated. Even the quality of the napkins showed attention to detail.

The young man who waited on our table had the best customer service that I have experienced anywhere in the world. He would be completely at home in any fine dining establishment.

Now to the food; we sampled a couple of entrees, garlic bread, garlic prawns, and olives. We were impressed with the quality of the food, especially the level of garlic. We love garlic, and we weren't disappointed.

Mains consisted of gnocchi Sicilian, and fettuccini Arabiatta. All the pasta is made in house, which is a delight to see. The gnocchi was cloud-like, and the Sicilian combination of anchovies, chilli, and olives, was well balanced. The Arabiatta was rich and perfectly seasoned, with silky fettuccini holding the desired amount of sauce.

I would have stayed for dessert, but the generous portion sizes meant that there was simply no room left! In fact, we were unable to quite finish the fettuccini, because it was so generous.

I will certainly become a regular at Ivy, and I would recommend the restaurant to anyone who values authentic Italian cuisine, and quality, old school customer service.

Update; the pizza is...

Pizzas were overpriced for the quality, watch out for hidden fine print EFTPOS SURCHARGES , no matter what you spend…. flavour lacking, no herbs/spices you’d come to expect if it were authentic Italian, tomato base was scant and lacking in flavour, quite dry, toppings were what you’d expect from any chain pizza store, bland, dry and generic, no smokiness from the wood fire nor in any of the meats ( eg fennel, basil , oregano, garlic, paprika) or herbs/spices you might expect for the price paid for simple pizzas. We ordered a capriacosa and a BBQ chicken pizza, neither had many types of ingredients yet the pizzas toppings were scant, inconsistent and uneven, hardly any cheese, cheese didn’t even spread throughout the pizza, was poor quality and barely seen, definitely didn’t get a single bit that oozed any cheese or see any cheese string on taking a bite, and for a good third of the pizza from the outer edge inward barely had any base sauce or topping at all. The crust was crisp which is all it had going for it, but was to dry and flavourless to stand on its own merit. Very Dissatisfied and disappointed and felt ripped off. Shame on you IVY for not being upfront about surcharges which are basic business costs not for the customer to wear. We have enough of our own already....