The Ivy Castle View — Restaurant in Guildford

I'd open up by saying I'd give it another go.

The views are nice, although as the castle itself isn't lit up after dark, when the sunlight fades there isn't much to view.

The restaurant is very classy, bordering on pretentious. I liked it, the decoration, the ambience, etc, all really good.

However, I think when you have a setting like this, your service needs to completely match the setting and price.

Our service started when the 'booked in advance' table wasn't ready until about 30 minutes after the booking time, which I presume was down to table turning policy.

You can choose to sit outside on a balcony and that might be nice in good weather.

At times the service was slow and although friendly earlier in the night, our waitress seemed to lose interest during the evening to the point she almost became non-existent, making us feel less important than earlier in the night, almost like an inconvenience.

This left a slightly sour taste in our mouths as the service was inconsistent, it was a special occasion and a large 'service charge' (c12-15%) was automatically added to our bill. This annoys me as I'm a decent 'tipper', but I want that to be my choice based on how good the service is/was.

Also, wine prices are pretty expensive and if you're giving off the air of pretentious, I expect that wine to be topped up. The Manager/Maitre d' opened the wine, but after that I topped the wine up all night, not him not our waitress.

The food quality and flavour was excellent, with some unusual dishes/options.

However, my partner needed to have her steak re-cooked (or cooked in the first place) because a medium-rare arrived cold to the touch and 'blue'. I can eat a rare steak but this didn't seem like it had found the pan. Although extremely apologetic and represented on the bill, it spoiled our main meal because I'd mostly finished by the time her steak was served and she said it was tough/chewy in places, probably as a result of the under-cooking, sitting around and re-fire. I gave her some of mine while waiting and she said hers wasn't the same quality and under-whelming.

I also had to 'ask' for a new set of sides and her chosen sauce to be cooked/brought out after her steak returned so she didn't have cold sides and accompaniments. Who wants to eat cold chips, green veg and sauce with a hot main?? This is the sort of attention to detail that seems common sense and should definitely be dealt with without the customer having to ask.

We had a nice enough night, and our starters (zucchini fries) and desserts (chocolate bombs) were fantastic, but it wasn't the amazing faultless night I hoped my partner would have for her birthday.

I also feel like the delay in being seated, issues with the main and slow/disappearing service, left us sitting around waiting for the bill and ending our experience with tables were being cleared/cleaned/turned, and the place being closed down, which felt a little odd! We weren't the only/last people there but the restaurant was to all intents and purposes done and shut down.

Not the worst experience and maybe we were a bit unlucky, but not the best either.

The other thing I'd add is the sheer volume of dishes containing nuts. With so many people with a nut allergy, the number of dishes with a nut in or on them is way to high. Adding a sprinkling/crust of a pecan, peanut, etc, to 50% of dishes seriously needs to be reconsidered.

The Manager was very apologetic around our experience, which was appreciated, but our waitress seemed a bit out of her depth and the lack of perfection didn't match my/our expectations...

First off I’ll tell you that I am a local. I have lived here for 5 years now. I know most of the restaurants around Guildford pretty well. I can walk to most of them and I know where to go for what. For instance, I go to the Ivy castle view for the vibe, atmosphere and ambiance. I chose the Ivy to take some visitors, from outside the Uk, for a late lunch today. I wanted to show them one of our most attractive restaurants. I already know and think that the food is just ok, not spectacular; so I was really taking them for the experience. The drinks and bar creations are very much worth a visit in their own right as well as the homemade sourdough, however. I also need to say that I always get very kind and attentive service; today was no different. Nevertheless, I have a complaint today. We were rushed out of our table and our reservation was not until after 1pm. I absolutely can’t stand this about restaurants here in Guildford ( there are more) and the uk. So much so, that I stop frequenting ones that give a time limit. I have lived and dined in Europe for over 25 years and any Swiss, German, Italian, French, Austrian or Greek ( and more) restaurant would never dream of putting a time limit on their patrons. It is thought extremely rude. And it is. We just spent over 150 pounds for only three people and they want us out to use our table to pull next to another for a larger group. They did, graciously, offer to move us to another place to continue our afternoon. I also need to say that the gentleman who came to inform us was very kind about it; I could tell he did not want to be asking ( so again it’s an uncomfortable policy for the servers as well). The practice of an hour and a half dining limit itself is extremely rude and only services to gain more money and is not designed to keep loyal customers. No one wants to watch a clock when out for a “pleasant” afternoon of socializing over a meal and drinks. Furthermore, I was not told when I made the reservation this was their protocol, I’ve never run into this issue at the Ivy before today. Today it was almost, as if on the dot, we were asked to move. We all had lost the desire to stay any longer, so we asked for the check Instead. After I signed the check and we were gathering our things preparing to go… two servers came over to begin to clear our table. Again, her words to us were very kind but the action was extremely rude and not well received by any of us. I had to ask her to wait and give us a moment to get our jackets on and gather our bags. We were trying to stand and put on jackets and she’s reaching for plates! Manners are not just expressed in words, they must be expressed in action as well. Dining out should be relaxing and designed for absolute pleasure in all aspects, just as I have experienced pretty much everywhere else around Europe. I feel like too many Uk restaurants have jumped on that hurry hurry more more bandwagon. Sadly, the Ivy has...

I have been visiting the Ivy for a few years and really love the afternoon tea as a treat with guests when we visit. Unfortunately today is the first time our experience wasn’t positive. There were 3 of us and we were sat on the bench seating with two odd shape tables that were different sizes pushed together. None of us were facing each other and I had to rearrange one of the table as it was so wobbly. Why sister and I were celebrating my mums Mother’s Day treat. The afternoon tea arrived and I had told them both how amazing the chicken in truffle oil with brioche roll is the best. My mother had a few bites and said she didn’t like the taste so I went to try it, as I took a bite I was hit the most awful smell. I took a little bite and it’s was foul. The chicken must have gone bad. It’s smelt disgusting and tasted really bad. We called the waitress over and discretely told her about the taste and smell. She smelt it infront of us and pulled away with a grimace as it was such a strong horrible smell. The waitress took our plates with the sandwich roll on. We were then left without a plate for quite a while. When she returned she told us she could not replace the chicken and the mix was already done so it would all taste and smell the same. We asked if we could have something else and she said they would bring up another option. We had to ask for more plates which took a while. Another staff member bought over 3 of the salmon sandwiches (my mum doesn’t really like fish but has eaten the first one in our selection) this was really disappointing to us to just be given the same sandwich we had already eaten. It he made staff member didn’t apologise or give an option for a replacement and said he thinks we aren’t used to the truffle oil taste and smell!!! I’ve had that sandwich many times and it never tasted or smelt like that. Off chicken has a very distinct smell. It was very hard to enjoy the rest of the afternoon tea the smell of the off chicken was just stuck in our noses and my mum felt quite poorly thinking about the mouthfuls of bad chicken she had consumed. We tried hard to enjoy the rest of our visit and the beautiful sweet treats in the selection but the experience had been ruined. The bill was charged at full rate with a 12.5% service charge. We feel we shouldn’t have been charged full after what happened and feel disappointed with how we were treated. I have been so many times and always had such wonderful service and amazing food. I am really sad this has put me off of ever...