The Ivy St. John's Wood — Restaurant in London

WORDS CAN'T DESRIBE THE UTTER NIGHTMARE WE LIVED. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MOMENT THIS SCAM OF A PLACE IS GOING TO SHUT DOWN.

To everyone reading: DON'T GO.

We went this morning for breakfast to welcome a friend who just arrived in London to congratulate him for his new job and welcome him in London.

Upon booking there was a question whether this is special occasion. I said yes and it is a welcoming meal to friend who just arrived in London to congratulate him for his new job. I expected that there was a reason they ask this and make you make the disclose the special occasion, perhaps welcome drink. Nevertheless this was never acknowledged by any member of staff with any gift or anything. On the contrary upon arrival staff rudely told us that we need to hurry up to order breakfast because they will soon move on to the brunch menu.

Moving on to the food, we ordered two Special Menu English breakfasts (one vegeterian one standard) which includes English breakfast, smoothie and pastries, plus one eggs royal and three coffees. The food arrived before the drinks... It was the morning, we needed coffee first but nope, you are supposed to eat breakfast first? We waited and waited and waited and said nothing. Then we asked and they finally brought coffees. They said there was a mistake making the coffees....

Coffees were just average but breakfast was bad. All three egg dishes were smaller than average and nothing like breakfast you have anywhere else in London. English breakfast had no bread, and non-veg had one piece of bacon and no sausage. The veg had one mushroom and the standard had no mushrooms or sausage. The eggs were scrumbled and no fried as we expected in english breakfast. There was no bread with the eggs...We asked about it and they said that the special menu is like this...

Moving on to the service, OMG... all 3 of us got really, REALLY annoyed. Staff came every 5 minutes to ask if everything is ok, while we were eating, so we all had to chew the food quickly to speak to them... Couldn't they see we were eating? Food was IN our mouth, nevertheless they would interupt us from eating to ask several times if everything is ok. Same things when we were talking to each other, and int he middle.of our comversation about personal matters INTERRUPT the conversation to ask if they can take our dishes and cups, even though there was clearly food and drinks which we hadn't finish. More than 5 times we were interrupted. We came there to discuss his personal issues and at the end he said you know what we can't speaknin here we will speak st home...We were so embarrashed bringing him here. He couldn't even speak or eat properly.

Then after this awful time, the nightmare happens when our friend goes to the bathroom. Our friend, who had just arrived at London and we wanted to show him a bit of a nice hospitality and food. And what does he tell us? He was throwing up in the bathroom because upon coming to the bathroom he accidentally went to another room just next to the men's room which was open and seemed like a bathroom. It was opposite women's so he thought it was the men's. What he saw there was a sink/basin (place where you wash your hands) full of faeces.......Open to the Public.... So it seems like someone (staff?) did their needs into a basin and then left an open door for everyone to see. In what looked to be a staff's toilet. It was so disgusting went to the men's and threw up. I had to go to Womens to cry because I felt SO embarrashed I brought him there. This was his first experience in this new city where he just came to build his new life and will stay with him for ever. A sink with feaces open to the public. Coming from member of staff who probably served us that day.

I left the womens only to find my friend and my husband waiting in the corridor because the staff asked them to leave the table to prepare it for others.......

You can't get any of this even in the worse and cheapest restaurant.

I am trying to write them a complaint and GUESS WHAT, their "contact us form" on their website...

I visited The Ivy Restaurant in St Johns Wood on the Saturday 9th of March at 2pm with my friend. It was meant to be a 40th Birthday surprise with afternoon tea.

I had gone into the restaurant a few weeks before in person to book. I asked on the day for an afternoon tea. I wasn't informed at the time of booking that this restaurant doesn't do afternoon teas, but only cream teas. I informed the person booking me in that this was for a 40th birthday and could they do a cake with a candle. I was informed they could.

On arrival  I found out this wasn't the case; I spoke to the person at the door taking bookings at the front door she said that this restaurant doesn't do afternoon teas and I informed her of the above and this should be informed to people at booking as I would not have booked it and would have booked elsewhere. I told her this needs to be noted.  No effort was made to resolve the error. No communication with any other managers were made. When I asked further about what we could have she told me to go speak with the servants. She had a very poor attitude and tried to brush me off.

I felt extremely disappointed and embarrassed as this was for my friend’s 40th birthday. We in the end had the champagne cream teas. I should have left at this point as things did not improve after this.

I ordered the apple tart after the cream tea. I was left waiting up to 30 min having asked 3 times where was my order was and was finally told there was an error in the kitchen with my order. I did notice that our waiter did inform the floor manager who I thought would have spoken with us. There seemed to be no visible management, customer communication or care for their customers. The waiters seemed inexperienced and appeared like they were in training. The waiters despite being so busy were lovely and did their best for us.  In addition, my friend did not get the cake with the candle as was also promised at booking. The restaurant was busy and there were plenty of staff on the floor but we felt abandoned.

I asked to cancel this and asked to pay for the bill.

For what was meant to be a special occasion turned into a great disappointment. I have been to many restaurants in the Ivy chain and this was the worst service I have ever experienced. I will definitely not be returning to The Ivy at St John's Wood and will not be...

I booked a table in the afternoon to celebrate my daughter's graduation as I wanted it to be a special meal for a special day. We got seated promptly to a very nice table outside, in the good weather. We shared a starter of the scallops, which were amazing (and the only reason I'm not giving this 1 star) She ordered a burger (no extras) and I ordered a ribeye steak. The order came and we noticed that the burger had bacon in it, (which she doesn't like) and is also a paid extra. We gesticulated to the waitress that we didn't want the bacon and asked if it could be substituted with cheese, to which the waitress said yes and she'd sort it. So we waited. And waited. And waited. We weren't sure what was happening - were they going to bring us a new burger? (Spoiler alert - the answer is 'no'). About 10-15 minutes passed as she went past us serving other customers and finally a man came with a piece of cheese on a small plate! Really? Does it take THAT long to source a piece of cheese. Anyway, we swapped the bacon for the cheese and even though it was luke warm by this time, she commenced eating it (by this time, she had eaten most of the chips as she was hungry) Meanwhile, I found my rib-eye to be very fatty and full of white connective tissue. I usually have steak at restaurants so know a good one from a bad one. I gave it a chance but it was so tough, I left half and the rest was (excuse the grossness) masticated masses which I had surreptitiously placed on the plate. I summoned the waitress - she apologised and offered me a new one, but by that time I had had enough and just wanted to leave. What should have been a special meal was completely ruined. In summation, ok some steaks aren't good and it's not the restaurant's fault, but 15 minutes to get a piece of cheese? Putting a paid extra which was not ordered? And it being bacon? Good job we're not Jewish, or Hindu as I imagine it would have been quite shocking and insulting. I have since written to them via their feedback form, TWICE, but heard nothing. I have been to The Ivy in Bath and it was a sublime experience, but I will never step foot in the St John's...