The Ivy Asia Cardiff — Restaurant in Great Britain

Update Since my original review. I had contact by phone from the Director of Operations called Diego. His handling of the situation was even more shocking than the original incident. One of the things he said was "We need to look at whether we are inviting the wrong guests". To suggest that my friend and I invited the same way as everyone else were "wrong guests" - it is about the Ivy Collection putting the wrong leaders in place with the wrong attitude. He claimed that we had a "free welcome drink" . A welcome drink is on arrival. It was also a paid event. It took 20 minutes of repeatedly asking before drinks arrived and we only had one sip before the GM Karolina verbally attacked us in front of the other guests. When I explained to Diego that my friend is only 19 and had been verbally attacked by his general manager. Hence their GM attacked a teenager. His response was something along the lines of "Well if she's underage that's a whole other issue". This shows complete ignorance of UK licencing law because 19 is above the legal drinking age. He actually admitted that his colleague Caroline from Head Office - could have offered us complimentary drinks to resolve the issue there and then so it would have been a resolution on all sides. However for him to put it right it would be inappropriate because he did not offer anything as resolution. He told me he would be having "uncomfortable conversations" with Karolina and Caroline. As well as visiting the restaurant within the next few days to review the CCTV. He would then make a decision and call me. One month on I'm still waiting. For Diego to speak this way shows the issue isn't just one toxic GM in Cardiff but a cultural problem at senior level within the Ivy Collection. Absolutely appalling.

I was invited as a local influencer to a paid event at The Ivy Asia Cardiff. From the outset, service was poor — but it escalated when the General Manager launched into an aggressive, unprovoked outburst that left my friend and I so uncomfortable we had to walk away from our own table. It was actually toxic and abusive. As we were leaving, my friend asked a staff member for the General Manager’s name ( Karolina we found out ) and a complaints contact. At that point, Caroline from Head Office approached us. She asked if she could helpband was apolgetic. I told her I would be leaving a Google review and she asked me not to. I made it clear I had every right to do so, especially as nothing had been offered to resolve or put the situation right. Caroline then took my number and assured me the matter would be followed up in order to put it right. It has now been over a week — I’ve had no call, no update, no resolution. I also sent an email to Ivy Guest Relations and had a contact pass my details to the operations team. Still, I’ve heard absolutely nothing. To be invited to an event and treated this way — and then ignored via several channels when their jobs are in place to put issues like this right — is disgraceful. If this is how The Ivy Asia treats invited guests, I truly dread to think how regular diners are handled. My friend Hollie, who was with me, is a regular customer who goes there with her mum several times a month. However because of how we were treated, she won’t be going back. Another friend of mine who often dines there with her husband and children said the same — she’s done with The Ivy Asia. They couldn’t manage to serve drinks in a timely manner or get basic service right — but the General Manager certainly knew how to serve attitude and aggression. I gave you every opportunity to handle this privately. You chose silence. So now, it’s here. I have already emailed Guest Relations twice without any response. This matter is now with Laura Mills, Managing Director of The Ivy Collection, who has personally acknowledged my concerns and will be addressing them upon her return from annual leave. It should never have required escalation to the very top for such an incident to be taken seriously. Lesson learned: you underestimated the...

My partner and I were disappointed, to say the least. We had high hopes for The Ivy Asia, Cardiff and had followed all of the social media hype for this restaurant... We'd always had a fantastic experience at The Ivy Cardiff on our previous Birthday occasions for the last couple of years. And, we thought this would be exactly the same, as it was marking a Milestone Birthday for me...

We arrived at the venue. Very swish and quite formal. But, we had to wait for our table, despite having arrived at our booked and alloted time, we were advised that we could wait at the bar until our table was ready. Not a problem. This isn't unusual, I know. But, this kind of set the precedent for the rest of the evening.

We were almost served our drinks, while waiting at the bar for our talble. Only for us to be whisked away from them, as they were served to us. We were then shown to our table, without our drinks, being told they would follow on and we'd be served them at our table. We then waited ten minutes for those drinks to follow us on... We would have readily brought them from the bar to our table, as we had done this many times previously, at many different establishments. This shouldn't really be any different here.

I asked our waiter, if we could have a couple the crystal glass tumblers for the water we'd ordered for our table, the same glassware as the one my partners ice came in for her wine. I didn't like the cheap plastic ones on the table. The waiter told me that most people preferred the plastic ones, which would have been more suited a Family Garden BBQ, but not a city centre restaurant. We received the two crystal glass tumblers in the end...

The bottle of wine my partner ordered herself for the table, ended up in an ice bucket ten feet away. And, she had to keep getting the waiters attention, to have her glass topped up. Which, she is usually and quite happy and capable of doing herself. Alleviating the extra attention from our waiter, which is sometimes difficult enough to do, when he is attending to multiple tables. Oh, and the ice for her wine had to be ordered from the bar? Ice isn't readily available?

The Food...

Some of the dishes were, in general, superb. However, one of the dishes, left us reeling. This was because of the lack of it... we had chosen this dish, because of the amazing photograph we had seen. But, when it arrived, we just looked at each other, thinking there must be another plate of this particular dish on its way out from the kitchen. It wasn't! It was a sharing plate, with an odd number of pieces on it, meaning one of us missed out... We were so looking forward to this dish. But, It was a complete let down.

We skipped the dessert. The waiter recommended one in particular. Well, he would. It was the most expensive on the dessert menu.

I think the staff were trying too hard, they need to relax and work with the 'Customer' We might not always be right, but we know what we want.

The disco volume needed backing off a touch, as we were having to raise our voices to talk at our two seat table, as was everyone else in the restaurant. I don't mind music to enhance the ambience. But, not to have to try and talk over it.

We're booked to go again in November. Will be be going? We doubt it. The venue is great, most of the food was great. But, it seemed to be too much of a...

Visited the Ivy Asia 29th / June / 2025, I had a booking. When I arrived there was no one at reception. When she came I was greeted fine and showed to my table. Asked if I wanted my bag or jacket taken decided to keep it on me as I had an upgraded Macbook Pro Laptop worth about 3k in my bag and I've had a designer coat stolen once at another restaurant, so i'm scared for life by that experience.

Overall great ambiance at the IVY ASIA and decor, the illuminated floor was special and the fake flowers were thankfully not dusty looking at this location.

I ordered the set dinner menu £27 - 2 bottles of water came to £10 and £5 extra for desert also paid a service charge. came to about £47.

I enjoyed my meal and was finishing off my water and relaxing, however when I adjusted the cushions and moved the many cushions to get comfortable and put my had down on the seat I felt a sharp pain in my finger almost like a pin prick, I looked at my finger and it was bleeding heavily, looking at the seat I noticed shards of thin glass, like from a broken wine glass.

I went to inform reception. I went to the toilet to rinse off the blood and cut. I was not wearing glasses and found the warrior figure in the bathroom with head turned peeing at the urinals was random and weird decor.

They gave me an anti-septic wipe and a plaster. When I returned the glass was still there, and had not been cleaned up and was not very noticeable, so could have cut myself again. With the waitress I moved the cushions and my bag which revealed quite a few small shards of glass under the cushions.

The waiter that removed the glass and started cleaning the seat said that no one had broken a glass that day, which made me think the standards were not that great, as it means it was probably there for a long period.

When the waiter cleaned the seat there was also a lot or dirt on the cloth from the seat and when I used part of the wipe they gave me to wipe up a drop of blood it was very filthy black with dirt on the leather type seat, which did not leave a good feeling of hygiene standards.

The couple next to me said it was not very good and that I should sue. I said I would not sue over a small cut on my finger, but it was a bit worrying and would kind of put me off going again for a while.

Whoever broke a glass should have informed them or they should have cleaned it properly and checked and cleaned under the cushions.

Not too happy, while I did get an apology. It should not have really happened in the first place and was a bad and to an...