The Ivy Royal Tunbridge Wells — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

So, picture this, folks! It was Valentine's Day, and I thought I'd treat my sweetheart to a fancy dinner at Ivey restaurant. After all, it was conveniently located near my workplace, and I had high expectations for this prestigious establishment. But alas, my experience was as far from fabulous as a penguin in the Sahara!

Now, you'd think a restaurant on Valentine's Day would have a special menu, right? Oh, how wrong I was! Instead of a thoughtfully curated Valentine's menu, they decided to throw together a mishmash of starters and desserts from their regular menu and called it a Valentine's special. It felt like they just picked the easiest dishes, popped them in the microwave, and called it a day!

To kick off the evening, I ordered a margarita cocktail, hoping for a delightful blend of flavors. Oh, how disappointed I was! The margarita tasted like a sour lemon explosion, and despite my specific request for orange juice, the waiter brought me a lemon-infused concoction. Sweet mercy! Did they think I wanted a citrus circus in my mouth?

Moving on to the starters, we had arancini and zucchini, which were pretty decent, I must admit. They were the saving grace of the meal, like a pair of acrobats in a sea of mediocre dishes.

For the main course, I decided to try the Ivey Shepard's pie and the chicken supreme Milanese with truffle. To accompany these delights, I ordered cream spinach and truffle and Parmesan chips on the side. Now, brace yourselves for the next twist in this culinary rollercoaster!

I ordered a couple of glasses of rose wine, expecting a classy presentation. But lo and behold, they served it in a glass more suited for a pint of beer! When I questioned the manager, Harry, about this peculiar choice of glassware, he nonchalantly retorted, "We don't use our proper rose wine glasses for the cheap stuff!" Can you believe it? I felt like I was in a Monty Python skit!

Naturally, I couldn't help but ask Harry if Ivey restaurant serves cheap rose wine too, and much to my surprise, he confirmed my suspicions. I mean, come on! Charging £8.50 for a glass of rose and then serving it in a glass meant for lager? That's like wearing a top hat with flip-flops!

My dear readers, I must say, I don't blame Harry entirely. It's the company's responsibility to train their staff better! If they invest so much in their swanky interior design and fancy food and drink, surely they can spare a few quid to serve their beverages in appropriate glasses.

It's a shame, really, as I had a splendid experience at the Ivey restaurant on King's Road during a previous Valentine's Day visit. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! It's like going from a romantic moonlit walk to tripping over a puddle of disappointment.

So, my fellow food enthusiasts, I implore you to tread carefully when considering Ivey restaurant. Make sure they've gotten their act together before you embark on your culinary adventures. Otherwise, you might find yourself with a sour margarita and a rose wine in a pint glass on the most romantic day of the year. What a travesty!...

I don't normally write complaints but I'm very disappointed with my recent experience at the Ivy. We don't eat out much, partly due to the cost of living but also my partner has coeliac disease so it makes eating out much more complicated.

We were given a gift voucher for Christmas for £100 with a free complimentary bottle of champagne. At the start of the meal we told the server that we had the voucher, and asked if we could just use the money on it, excluding the bottle of champagne as we don't drink. We were told this was fine.

We had a starter, main and 1 soft drink each, which was nice, but nothing special; it came to £65. When it came to using the voucher, we were then told by a different server that we had to have the champagne. We said fine and asked to take it away with us. After consulting the manager again we were told we couldn't do that, and was told we needed to pay by card. I then asked if we could just sacrifice the champagne and the voucher. After consulting the manager again we were then told that we had to spend over £100 for the voucher to be used. What an absolutely ludicrous statement!! You are basically saying that you would rather waste a whole bottle of champagne plus desserts and drinks for us to be able to use the voucher (or we give them away to another table which is what we should have done in hindsight)...

Nowhere in your terms and conditions does it say we need to spend over £100 or that we have to use it all in one go. We couldn't argue it as we had a terrible internet connection inside the restaurant to get tht terms and conditions to back us up.

We had to vacate the table as we were told at the start we had to be gone by a set time, so we couldn't even look at bringing the value of the meal up to £100. We felt forced into paying the bill using our own money, just as a means for the restaurant to make more profit.

Other disappointments were the venue being uncomfortably hot and jet lighters and cutlery almost being dropped on us from the till next to our table. Also there also wasn't much choice of gluten free and although the restaurant appeared to take as much care as they could but my partner is still slightly unwell today, so there may have been some cross contamination (gluten-free diets be-aware). We could have overlooked these minor gripes and we accept that eating out in a restaurant which handles gluten containing products is always risky (despite the fact several restaurants in tunbridge wells manage this with no problems); But put all together the experience left us feeling extremely disgruntled

I wouldn't even bother returning to this restaurant if it wasn't for still having this £100 gift voucher that should have already...

After 2 disappointing dines out of service I now have to reluctantly leave a negative review. My first meal was a booking for 4 on my 25th birthday it was a nice treat out, that unfortunately ended up in lack lustre service starting that when we turned up at our booked time and were told the table was not free and to go away and come back. We weren’t offered to sit at the bar before just told to leave and come back in an hour or so. We returned over an hour later back to find the table was still not ready. (8:55pm) We were not then offered cloakroom for all our heavy coats unsure why. This wasn’t a good start as at this point is was really late. From there the service was extremely slow and like other reviews the club was now open (and extremely loud in the restaurant) as it was about 9:30/10pm by the time we sat to eat from our 7:45 booking time. The food was good no complaints but they also forgot my birthday plate even when prompted twice and the rest of the service throughout was not very friendly nor what you’d expect when paying for service at the ivy. In light of this I was offered a voucher to return. Which I intended to use tonight. This then ended up in an even worse experience. The meal was okay and the service this time was great from our lovely waiter of who I didn’t catch his name. It was a much better experience until we got to payment and using the voucher that is. A new waiter came to take payment so I presented the voucher and email attached. After 10 minutes or so of him at the till he returned to say the voucher wasn’t valid and that I must of used it already and was trying to redeem it more than once. Which was not the case it was issued less than a week prior and was unused. When I asked if I could speak to the manager who gave me the voucher it was refused and he shrugged to say I could have shown it anywhere as it was on my phone (the email stated it can be used on a phone)This resulted in me obviously being visibly upset and then having to pay the full bill with no voucher reduction. I did also raise this with the front of house staff but again wasn’t given any kind of resolution to speak to someone about this. Considering the only reason I returned was to use the voucher and see if it would be a nicer experience. I would 100% not recommend going here to local friends and family due to this series of events and have been left feeling embarrassed due to how I was spoken to in the restaurant in light the voucher was already an apology for an incredibly poor evening on my birthday. A really disappointing turn out again after what would’ve been a good evening. Customer service doesn’t...