Ivy on the Square — Restaurant in Ocala

Correction: Score was 54 and not 64. F Rating.

First time visit to Ivy on the Square. My wife and I had heard some good things about this restaurant so we were very excited to try it. We had read that their baked crispy chicken was a house favorite so we both ordered it and we were very underwhelmed with the food. The chicken was warm and not hot and it was both soggy and very, very dry. The house “speciality” macaroni and cheese was only warm at best and had absolutely no taste to it an all. The yeast roll you get with the meal was cold and hard as a rock, we requested a new one and it was better. Baked potatoe was warm and not hot, but did taste good. Small salad was good but was served on a hot salad plate.Dining room looked and felt dirty with a very mediocre atmosphere. Men’s restroom was very dirty, door was very dirty and did not close all the way. Hostess never said a word to us as we were leaving. Server was good and answered our questions. As we were waiting to pay, we decided to pull up the Marion County health department score of the restaurant and we were SHOCKED to see they got a score of 64 on April 13, 2024! Lot of priority issues with food safety, cleanliness and food not a proper temperatures. I typically always look at a restaurant’s inspection score before going there to eat but I let my guard down and forgot to do it for Ivy’s on the square. Even though we ate there 10 weeks AFTER the Health Department inspection on 4/13/24 it appeared my dining experience matched up to what the Health Inspector noted in his report with food not being a proper temperature and overall cleanliness lacking in several areas. Huge disappointment for this restaurant that “supposedly” gets good reviews!! Dinner for 2 with tip and 1 dessert was $67 and was not worth it, especially since the food was very mediocre and not hot. Overall, lot of hype about how great this restaurant is but when a trained State Health Inspector gives an inspection score of 64, something is wrong with the operations of that business. A score that low is basically being unsafe to eat at and my visit really tied in with a lot of things that were in the inspection report. Food sanitation is critical to how a restaurant is being managed and there is absolutely NO EXCUSE to be served cold food and no excuse for the restrooms to be so dirty. I would not recommend eating at this establishment until they get their act together and improve their official Health Department inspection scores. Ultimately, I wasted $67 on a mediocre meal with cold food and dirty restrooms....

Ivy on the Square is a very trendy spot for lunch or dinner.  Parking will probably not be in front of the restaurant so be prepared to "park and hike."  The restaurant is on a corner so you won't have to hunt for it.  This is an old Ocala building that retains much of its history charm inside and out.  Nice touches have been added as decor that compliments the building's personality well.

Ordered the fried green tomato appetizer and found them to be delightful.   The breading was superb and there was no heavy oily taste.  I sampled an onion ring and found it to be perfectly cooked and the breading also tasty and not oily.

For the main course I chose the black bean burger.   The burger was well cooked but I found a lack of condiments somewhat frustrating.  Certainly this dish is not well thought out.  The fries that came on the side were great.   Plating was also complimentary to the dish.

For desert I chose the white chocolate creme brulee.  The plating and appearance was very inviting and the flavors well balanced and not too sweet.

Service is good, staff is friendly, but it took a long time, more than 45 minutes for 11 meals to be served.  With such a short menu this should not have been the case.

Restrooms was well maintained and modern, though the door to the restroom did not close properly.   Yikes!

Be prepared to shell out a large amount of shekels.  This was a great place to try once but probably will...

It took us two years to finally try this place and we chose to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. The ambiance is wonderful. They did a good job there. We came in on a Friday night (January 3rd) around 5:45 pm. There was no wait, which was nice. Unfortunately we were sat on the bar side right next to the front door. There is a bench for guests to wait for their tables behind our table. There’s no separation. It’s an open table directly in front of a bench stretched across the front window. We didn’t pay attention to it at first because no one was occupying it when we arrived. As more guests arrived and waited, they made their way between our table to sit and it was very distracting to our dining experience. Our waitress was nice, but seemed pretty busy where she wasn’t very attentive. Our mixed drinks took a very long time to get to us. They ended up being pretty watered down and we couldn’t find our waitress to say something. Should we have sent them back, yes. But we were trying to make the most of a kidless evening. We were expecting a great flavor profile from the food due to the reviews and price point and thought it was just okay. I’m not sure if it was an off night for the place or if this is usual. Maybe it would’ve been a better experience in the main dining room, but after dropping $135 on an experience here (because we really wanted to try it out fully) we agreed that we probably won’t...