Blu Ivy Cafe — Restaurant in London

We ignored the numerous other 1 star reviews on here as we wanted to give this place a go. We also like to support local businesses and the decor and location looked good.

Big mistake!

Four of us went for lunch and we were initially impressed by the location and decor. We ordered food and drinks. The drinks were fine but we only got 3 of the 4 meals we ordered. We assumed that the other meal was coming and that maybe they were unable to serve it up together.

After waiting a further 10mins for the second lesagne we asked for an update and were told by the waitress that we had only ordered 1 and not 2! That certainty was not correct as there were four of us and the watiress repeated the order to us at the time of ordering and comfirmed that we ordered two! Anyway we wanted our second lasagne.

When my son reached about half way through his lasagne he noticed that the middle was ice cold - it had not been defrosted and cooked properly through. We sent it back and it was further downhill from there! The waitress came and informed us that they would get another one sent out. No apologies given. We waited another 30mins. No updates from the staff on the lasagnes. After more than 30mins and after two of us had completely finished eating we asked where the lasagnes were and were told that the microwave was not working and that we can order something else if we wanted. Like before, no apologies!

I said no, as by that point two of us were very hungry and unimpressed so just wanted the bill and to leave. We went in to pay for what we did eat, but the lady taking payment told us she isnt charging for the lesagne to which i replied i should hope not as we didnt eat that and the second one was never sent out! She didn't seem to know what had gone on. I replied that paying £35 for what we did have was shocking because of the rubbish service we received. The till lady demanded i explained how the service was rubbish- i explained that 4 of us came to eat and only 2 of us actually ate. The food was uncooked. And explained that i didnt want to stand there and argue with her i just wanted to pay and get out of the place. She refused to let me pay; she said i needed to explain what was wrong. She then went and spoke to someone behind the counter in another language and came back and said that we didnt need to pay.

There were no apologies for all the time wasted or bad service. This is one of the worst places i have been to, and would...

Me and my wife chose to come here for brunch expecting a pleasant experience as we had found this highly appealing place on instagram..... we were both left very disappointed by the service and wait time. Arrival at 1.35pm on Saturday 28th we had both skipped breakfast. We were sat quite quickly to our surprise... this is when the waiting began. 15 minutes to order food. And then an hour to get our food - we ordered eggs royale and the scrambled eggs meal off the menu. Everything was pretty bland and on the barely warm side. No condiments or seasoning offered. Halfway through the meal we were asked if the food was okay by staff - we couldn't be rude and say it wasn't so we lied.

I can say the staff were half honest as I overheard one of the staff tell a customer they would have to wait 40 minutes at the least for a table and then a further wait as everyone else currently sat down were still waiting for their food. We had asked after waiting 35 minutes how long it would take for our food to arrive and were told 15 minutes - it was actually 25-30 minutes. I don't understand why it takes so long to get food out to sitting customers. This cafe has very good prospects but not with the way things are being run currently I witnessed a lot of disgruntled customers with our time spent there which totaled almost 2 hours from sitting to finishing eating. We left at 3:30pm - late for other commitments we had made expecting to be in and out by 2.30pm. We both did contemplate paying for just our drinks and leaving but didn't

The plus side is if you're lucky you get sat down on a table relatively quickly but if you're not you're waiting for at least 40 minutes to an hour just to get a seat - and then another hour on average to get your food after you have ordered.

I truly think this cafe would do so much better as a coffee and cakes type of cafe by the canal, it would be so much more popular as they're less likely to disappoint customers with very long wait times and the food prep isn't as much as their current menu has of various meals.

Would not recommend with the current running operations...

I visited this cafe twice. I would say much better than my expectations after reading mixed reviews was very sceptical about going. The two main complaints I gathered from reviews was: unfriendly staff and the wait time to be received and food to arrive was incredibly long. I did not experience these at all.

Firstly the location is beautiful, peaceful and ambient. The decor isn't classy but more for the Instagram hype. It seems clean inside, but we sat outside both times as the view and vibe and nice. The outside tables could be cleaner. The staff are young, some nervous some to the point without any smiles or effort but not rude. On my first visit there were a few mishaps which I won't mention as I felt they did their best to redeem themselves. The manager spoke to us twice . We ordered french toast, tuna panini and chai latte. The French toast was presented really well, ample amount of red fruits and berries.the toast however was a bit too soggy as there was too much jam drenching it ,and I would have preferred it with sourdough bread. The Panini was average.as was the latte.

The next visit was with a friend was slightly disappointed as I took a friend to treat her. And she was excited as she heard a lot about it. She ordered egg Benedict with avocado. She also ordered a turmeric latte. She wasn't happy with her meal at all; the sauce on the egg Benedict wasn't homemade felt like out of a packet and the the avocado was brown and stringy. She did say the portion size was generous. I don't think the price was too bad. I ordered the French toast again. But was disappointed, there was a third of the fruit present from my previous visit and it didn't taste fresh - the bread tasted as if it had been done a while ago. So would I come again? It's right next to a beautiful canal and Victoria Park so perhaps for a hot drink but for a meal? Not so sure they are still finding their feet and seems like learning...