Ivy By The Lake — Restaurant in Sterling

Was really looking forward to a fun night with two of my girlfriends. Ambiance was beautiful and you can see they really put thought in to the decor. Our waitress (Jerica?) was very sweet and accommodating as she would come to learn quickly she needed to be due to the inefficiencies of the kitchen staff and manager. There are still many flaws that need to be ironed out before this place can even come close to competing with the other hookah lounges/clubs in the area. Here were my issues:

When making a reservation - we were never advised that we had to put in advance order for the table side shawarma. And it does not state this anywhere on their website. My girls and I were excited to try this but we’re severely disappointed when made aware of this LAST MINUTE while trying to place our order. We then opted for the mixed grill instead.

While our mixed grill was being prepped, we were then told that they would not be making fries (the side that comes with the order) - not sure if they just didn’t want to or if they were out. Regardless this was not a good experience. We received the mixed grill and EVERYTHING WAS COLD AND UNDERCOOKED! There was a weird smell and taste coming from the food - it was unbearable. Our waitress even touched the food herself and agreed the food was cold. She sent it back and had them remake us a new one.

We received the second mix grill entree and IT WAS STILL COLD!! it’s as if they microwave the food. They stated it’s fresh off the grill but I can assure you THAT IS NOT TRUE. There was no steam from the food at all and tasted like it was store bought to be honest. We ordered the shrimp appetizer and it smelled VERY FISHY - and tasted like the ocean itself. We also ordered the side of potatoes and those were definitely store bought and when they came out insides were still raw and undercooked! Lol - it was truly UNBELIEVABLE how every single thing we ordered sucked! The waitress again was accommodating and brought the manager upon our request. We then spoke to the manager and he offered no apology merely stating he told the kitchen to make it fresh and then took the food back. We never saw him again. They did end up compensating us for the two mixed grills which was much appreciated.

They only offer hookah outside which was fine I guess. But they flavor options are severely limited. The hookah tasted cheap and you can tell they use cheap coals. THERE WAS NO ONE COMING AROUND REFILLING COALS. WE had to constantly ask the bottle girls to bring us coals. Only good thing about our hookah was the guy serving it (I believe his name was Jonathan???) - who was very sweet.

All in all - this place needs a lot of work. The amount of work and detail that went into the decor - well that same attention needs to be applied to other things like THE FOOD. No where near a Darna or other hookah club/lounges. But one good thing they have done right is their...

We tried IVY for the first time today for brunch. We had a reservation for 1:30. When we arrived we were told that our table wasn't quite ready yet. 30 minutes later we were finally seated. 15 minutes later our waitress finally came by our table. Ok, fine. It's Mother's Day and they're busy. So we place our order. It literally took almost 20 minutes to get water. The waitress brought us empty glasses first stop. Then she brought the champagne for those of us drinking mimosa's. Finally on a 3rd trip she brought a pitcher of water.

We don't see her again for a while, but the kitchen staff brings us our first course. Only problem is we have no plates, silverware or napkins. By this point we've been at the restaurant for an hour. Many tables have cleared and are empty, but there's no wait staff to be found. We are so hungry we start eating and finally flag down a server (not ours) and ask for plates and silverware. We're told that all of the dishes and cutlery are being cleaned abd they have none to give us. Sobwe ask to at least have napkins and we're brought a stack of bar napkins.

Next the kitchen staff brings out our 2nd course. I also watch as a staff member brings out some clean cutlery and puts in a tray by the bar. We FINALLY see our waitress and ask again for cutlery. She brings us plastic forks and knives and starts to tell us they have no clean cutlery. I tell her about seeing the ckean ones by the bar. She had no idea.

Ok so we finally have forks and knives. We finish course 2 and after a short wait the kitchen staff appears with two entrées (there are 6 of us). It takes 2 more trips and 10 minutes before we all finally have our entrees.

At this point the restaurant is less than half seated, but we still barely see our waitress. I hear multiple tables around us complaining about the poor service, asking to speak to management, etc. It seems there is NO one in charge.

When we get our check (2.5 hours after arriving) we're automatically charged a 20% service fee because we were a party of 6. I didn't even try to argue it because at this point we just wanted to leave. Oh and I should mention my mom's entree was supposed to have fries. We asked a member of the kitchen staff about it. He said they need to update their brunch menu because the burger is not supposed to come with fries, but he'll bring us some anyway. We never saw the fries.

The one redeeming part of the experience was the food was very good. But the service was just so bad. And it wasn't just because they were busy or short staffed. I mean there was hardly anyone there when we left but the wait staff just kept disappearing for long periods of time. And our waitress wasn't even the one to bring our food!!

We...

My husband and I checked out this place for the first time after seeing that they host a 90s r&b brunch on Sundays. The inside aesthetic was a vibe and the DJ was playing a good mix of 90s and early 2000s music. They had a guy selling cigars on the patio and they also offer hookah.

Food: The brunch menu is a different menu from their regular menu with a handful of brunch items (not much was Greek food which was a little disappointing) including bottomless mimosas. They offer three brunch pricing options and we opted for the $59 per person 3 course + bottomless mimosas. We received a bread and spreads board, one appetizer each and one entree each for this price plus a mimosa bar where they bring a carafe of champagne to your table and you make your own mimosa (or Bloody Mary) at their drink bar. They had a good choice of syrups, juices and fixins for a Bloody Mary or mimosa. We both ended up ordering the chicken and waffles which was a fried chicken breast on top of two waffles with butter and super diabetically sweet syrup on top of the waffles. I will say the meal was good, however the fried chicken (while fresh and hot) was a bit bland and needed the super sweet syrup or maybe hot sauce to add flavor.

Service: service was alright in my opinion. The place was pretty empty and our server was very nice, however it was odd to me seeing our server as well as the other servers smoking hookah and chilling in the booths and tables like they were just hanging out. I do get that there wasn’t many patrons/customers so they didn’t have much to do, but I guess I would just rather not see it while I’m dining. At times our server took quite a bit to come back to check on us or take our other orders and it was mostly due to her talking and hanging out. The DJ and other guy (not sure if he was the promoter or staff) with him was extremely friendly and offered us drinks on him which was. A kind sentiment (we never got those drinks though lol).

Overall, I think this place was really nice and I believe that they will improve once they have been doing the Sunday brunch a little longer. I’m pretty sure they just started doing the Sunday brunch and not many people know about it yet. I would come back and try out their dinner since I really wanted to try...