Luxury Ladies Lunch at The Ivy.

Last Sunday some of my favourite luxury blogging ladies and I went to The Ivy to see what's changed since it was refurbished earlier this year. Arguably the most famous restaurant in London, The Ivy has a long history for being a favourite with celebrities. I adore it's sister restaurant, Le Caprice, and I enjoyed my last visit to The Ivy before the refurb.

It was reopened in June this year, and despite us having quite a late lunch sitting (2:30pm), it was still absolutely packed the whole time we were there! I was running late due to terrible traffic, but thankfully Mina, Suze, Angie, and Kelly were all at the bar having a relaxing drink while they waited.

We were shown to our table and we all admired the updated look of The Ivy. It looks more modern, whilst retaining the original stain glass windows and other aspects typical of this famous restaurant. 

I absolutely loved the new artwork and the pink bar seats. It felt quite feminine and glamorous in a very understated way.

As I was driving I stuck to water, but Mina and Suze treated themselves to a glass of wine each. We all decided to skip starters and just have mains and desserts. While we waited we munched on the delicious fresh crusty bread and perfectly salted butter.

For my main I decided to choose the Seared Scallops with roasted cauliflower, and a side of parmesan-fried courgettes. The scallops were very tasty, but weren't the best I've had. A couple of them were quite tough, however despite this I did really enjoy the dish.

Other dishes around the table included the famous The Ivy Shepherd's Pie, which is a well-loved classic that I don't think could ever be removed from the menu. I still haven't tried this, but I'm definitely going to next time!

As well as the pie there was also fish, steak, and Angie's fantastic looking black tiger prawns! She said she absolutely loved them.

Now dessert really was impressive! Mina chose The Ivy Tasting Plate, which included the sloe gin fizz jelly, 'Mayan' chocolate gold, and a deconstructed blackberry cheesecake. 

After much deliberation Suze chose the Cru Virunga chocolate crunch, which definitely looked the most impressive out of all of them! I loved the gold pieces on top!

Our lovely waiter very patiently pointed out which desserts were deconstructed. Last year my family and I went to The Ivy for my Dad's birthday dinner, and I chose the cheesecake. I was heartbroken when it arrived deconstructed! I don't do deconstructed desserts, so this time I wanted to make sure I didn't make the same mistake. I decided to go for a very autumnal Spiced maple & pecan pear tart, which was definitely the right choice. I absolutely loved it!!

We had such a lovely late lunch and spent hours talking about blogging, traffic, instagram engagement, PRs, and collaborations. The sort of  'blogspeak' you can't really discuss with your normal friends! The Ivy have a strict 'no flash photography' policy, but they were really great about all of us photographing everything with our DSLRs (non flash), and our lovely waiter even offered us advice on what to photograph ;) haha!

It was very strange leaving The Ivy in the dark after we'd entered in total daylight. I'm still getting used to the dark mornings and evenings, even though it feels like autumn has been here for months, it's still taking some getting used to. Oh summer, I do miss you.

Anyway, we absolutely loved The Ivy, the refurbishment was long overdue and has really freshened it up. I'll certainly be back.