The Ivy St Albans Brasserie

We had a good table for four near the door which had a good amount of space. The service was excellent by all the staff that attended to us. The food was beautifully cooked and portions were generous. The noise level was quite high. Beware that most main courses come without any vegetables so the price will be more if you want to add these.

The food was good as always and Hayley, our waitress served the dessert, apple tart with flaming calvados perfectly. I shall be at the Ivy Covent Garden and I hope my experience will be the same.

Great menu, great food, superb service especially from Simone and Joseph who were attentive, professional and friendly.
Overall FANTASTIC experience.

We went to the Ivy for breakfast with my family. We had a lovely time and would definitely go back there.

The lettering for the menu is a bit small, makes it difficult to read in the dim lighting.

Busy with a lovely buzzy atmosphere which was great for a Monday lunchtime in the lead up to Christmas. Great service by a fantastic waiter with a great personality. This place never ceases to disappoint.

The food was good but service could have been quite a lot better. It was a Sunday night and very quiet and instead of being more attentive to the diners, they were gathering and talking by the till and pretty much ignoring us. When we managed to get their attention they were fine.

Our waiter was lovely, when we finally were served. We sat for 15 minutes before even being acknowledged, and then waited a further 10 for our drinks to arrive. After dinner we were handed the dessert menu and told the kitchen was closing, so basically to hurry - which was rather ironic considering the wait we had experienced at the start. It’s a lovely place, but the menu was practically the same since our last visit in March (at which time we also waited over 30mins for our main course) and it is very expensive for what seems to be relatively basic food. If the service was impeccable then this would be understandable but we have twice now experienced long waits which will deter us from visiting again in a hurry.

We were 4 people. Very good food except for a bit undercooked fish & chips for me, good service.
Rest of food fine. Busy, noisy and a lot of younger folk. Wine a little pricey – a good night out. Recommended.

Excellent service and food for a special anniversary breakfast

The food and the service were excellent but it is getting really expensive for a Brasserie menu with many of the main courses approaching £30. We enjoyed it but is £150 for a meal for two here a bit steep?

A friends birthday

Riding on the Ivy name we were hugely disappointed to find overpriced average food with terrible service.

Food good, service good. Ambient noise far too loud. Made conversation impossible especially as two people at the table have hearing loss.

Make quieter spaces

Everything was great. Only reason Service was 4 stars (instead of 5) was because it was a bit unclear if we help ourselves to pick up our jackets from the rack on the way out (we did and I assume that's the process).

Also when I asked I was told the discrenionary service charge does not go to staff. If this is the case its is very dishonest by the restaurant and I'm really surprised this is still going on after Côte got exposed doing it.

Apart from that everything was great ;)

Delicious food but we felt unwelcome as we had our small babies with us and were made to feel like an inconvenience. It was a weekday brunch, the place was empty and so lots of room for a pram but a huge fuss was made about the fact we hadn’t warned them in advance that we were bringing the babies (only one was in a pram so they didn’t take up much space).
It’s a shame as the food is good, but there are so many places in St Albans that serve lovely food and also manage to be accommodating to customers.

Good food and atmosphere! Would definitely recommend a visit.

Our reservation was cancelled by The Ivy one hour before we were due to eat, which left us no time to make a booking elsewhere. As this was a meal with family members that we had not seen for a while it was extremely disappointing. The restaurant gave the reason that they had been advised not to open that evening but the timing of the cancellation demonstrated poor management and we were not even given an offer of a priority booking for another time. We have dined at the Ivy on a number of occasions and enjoyed the food but the dismissive way in which this cancellation was dealt with has made us feel less likely to book again.

They called us an hour before, while we were on the way to tell us they had to shout down for a reason that I didn’t understand and didn’t propose any gesture

Lunch on a Sunday because we didn't want to be limited to a roast. Sat in a nice booth overlooking restaurant, very buzzy (maybe loud for some, be we liked it). Very busy. Drinks ordered but took a long time to come.
Mozzarella starter was very nice, prawn cocktail was generous (very rare these days).
I had fish and chips as a main and DH had Keralan Squash Curry. Both were very good but curry was a little safe, so we asked for fresh chilli and received dried. Not the end of the world. Drinks came quickly once we had started.
Would go again but would like to see more change in menu more often and quicker on the first drinks!

Pleasant enough. Service could be better. After asking for the bill we were left waiting for quite a while so we decided to pay on our way out as we needed to go and when we asked the lady we received a very blunt “ give me a moment” They are better, cheaper places to have brunch in St Albans. It was ok.

We brought some family members from abroad for breakfast and we all enjoyed the experience
Highly recommend The Ivy for breakfast
Will come again

AMAZING! First visit and certainly won't be the last. Definitely worth booking and you won't be disappointed. Exceptional.

Our second visit ,this time with friends. They were most impressed and enjoyed the food immensely.

A misunderstanding by our waitress was the only slight downside but I have asked for vouchers for my birthday so will be back in the New Year.

Have guests from Canada in April and on their last visit we took them to the ''original' Ivy in town and thought we might visit you again in St.Albans, a place they seem to find very attractive.

Lovely weekend brunch with friends. We'll definitely go back.

The food was amazing and the staff were very attentive and friendly especially to my 9 year old son who came with us. I was very impressed and will definitely go again!

Very enjoyable thank you

The food was lovely. Very friendly and efficient staff. Lovely and bustling

Set menu lunch which had a good selection of excellent food. The restaurant was perfect for our party of 3 adults with a new baby in a pram, and we had excellent service from all the staff.

From the initial booking our experience at the Ivy St. Albans was first class a very enjoyable meal and drinks with friends for birthday celebrations, the set menu did not disappoint and the service and attention from the staff was excellent, they even presented us with a lovely dessert as a birthday treat.

We had a really lovely evening at The Ivy St Albans. We went there to celebrate my birthday and were given a great table. The service was friendly and efficient and the food was really excellent. 3 of us had fillet steaks and they were fabulous. My mum had rum baba for dessert, which she absolutely loved. The only surprising thing was that the restaurant had run out of bread by 7.30 pm. Overall, we had a great time.

Apart from great food and service has such a relaxing atmosphere. Love the music. Appreciate they make every effort to give us the table I ask for - greatly appreciated.

Pleasant food in comfortable surroundings. Lovely friendly waitress . Overall an enjoyable meal.

We visited as a party of 6. The ambience and service were very good.

We were pretty disapointed with the food to be honest and for the price I think the quality should have been much better.

The duck salad and tempura prawns and calamai were poor. The duck in the salad was dry and the salt and pepper prawns and calamari were bland with no salt or pepper!

The best food was the children's pasta bolognese. Everything else was either poor or avaerage.

It is a nice place to visit but I would have to think twice before visiting again.

Always good food good service and great ambience. Love the decor too.

Lovely meal and great cocktails

Yet another superb dining experience - The Ivy is our go-to restaurant for delicious food and a great atmosphere. The new seasonal menu is varied and tempting and I thoroughly recommend the steak tartar - sublime. If you are not driving try a Crimson Vesper.....amazing!

First visit and overall experience was very good .
Obviously personal preference but found the selection of desserts rather a disappointment.
Also rather expensive .

Overall a lovely evening. Nice friendly staff and beautiful food.
Perhaps splitting hairs ..it was my wife's 50th birthday and we were staying at Sopwell with the ivy outing as a surprise.
We arrived on time and were shown to our table only for a member of staff to intervene, quite curt in manner, and we were promptly sent to the bar to wait. It felt a little awkward and embarrassing.
We remained there for 10 minutes until we were squeezed in.
Things can't be perfect though and overall it was a lovely experience.

We had a lovely meal and good service. My only feedback is rather than letting us know they needed the table for other diners, we were rushed through desert and bought the bill without asking for it by a man who wasn’t our waiter. He seemed hurried and considering we had just spent almost £500 on food and wine for 6 of us, you’d have expected better customer care at the end.