The Ivy St. Helen’s Square

The food and atmosphere was fabulous but I must call out the exceptional service

Wonderful service as always from the initial booking through to the service and friendly staff. They are excellent with children. My son asked me to book brunch for his 6th birthday as he loves the pancakes. The waiter brought his pancakes with a candle in. We usually sit at the front which is lighter and brighter but due to the size of the party we were at the back. This was also absolutely fine but I personally prefer to be near the windows.

We had a great fathers day breakfast! Our 8 & 5 year old really enjoyed it, service was great! We will be back!

I was delighted when I spotted The Ivy on my break to York. Having already booked dinner elsewhere, I managed to book breakfast online with ease. The waiter was very attentive and the food was delicious. The decor was elegant and seating extremely comfortable. Prices were reasonable. My only negative comment would be the constant ringing of a mobile phone on the adjacent table. Perhaps a phones on silent policy could be adopted?

Lovely place for a special meal, wish the wine glasses were more the modern large open stemmed style, and you could choose how much you want to leave as a tip

Very nice meal. A couple of small niggles... I don’t like ordering sides separately (they should be included in the price) and I like to have the freedom to choose how much I tip. Apart from these small niggles I would highly recommend.

Our first visit, very nice venue service was excellent, very well organised
Food delicious very nice for a special occassion

The food and the atmosphere were really lovely. We had an unpleasant incident though where our daughter-in-law, who is highly allergic to fish was given the fish curry instead of the butternut squash and that could have totally ruined our evening had she not been on the ball - as it was she did take a tiny bite and had to have immediate antihistamine and did suffer some after effects. The two dishes looked almost identical which is understandable but we would make a polite suggestion that if a customer has allergy issues that the server remains the same for that person throughout the meal to try and avoid that situation. Our main server was absolutely fabulous but the servers that brought the food to the table made the error. No recompense made and no apology from the management although our main server was very empathetic and helpful, she was very very professional. In this day and age with heightened awareness of these issues, you need to have better protocols in place to avoid a disaster which could reflect very heavily on your ongoing business.

Anniversary

I was about to write...to say how pleased we were. We had agroup ranging from old people to babies- and the staff were terrific; helpful, cosiderate and attentive. Along with excellet food it made for aperfect family celebration.
So - thanks to allconcerned. James Walvin

The whole experience did not meet my expectations for the Ivy.
The restaurant was very busy, the staff flying around, so unable to catch their eye for drinks, food problems, and bill.
It felt they are two busy seeing how many people they can cram in, then the actually quality of food and service.
I ordered a crispy duck salad. The meat was soggy, fatty and slightly microwaved. It didn’t taste nice at all. When I finally spoke with a after 10 minutes of ignored excuse mes.. He was not very helpful and told me it was supposed to be like this!
I kindly gave the plate back, and he didn’t try and help me with any other options off the menu. So I ate my fries!
When waiting for the bill I started to get a little annoyed. Not one person would stop for the bill! I couldn’t wait to get out of the place!

From start to finish, we had a very positive experience. Very friendly and welcoming staff, excellent food and prompt service and will definitely return...

Great meal and professional service from Liam who was very attentive we have been here 3 times as it has a relaxing feel at lunchtime

Chose the restaurant to celebrate my sons birthday with family - everything was outstanding from walking through the door, service and the high standard of food

As monthly visitors to York, my wife and I always take lunch at the Ivy. We have always had excellent food and great service. Today was a hugely disappointing experience for me specifically (my wife had a superb two course meal). Having ordered the Fourme d’Ambert blue cheese from the set menu I was instead given what I think was a piece of lack-lustre Cheddar. Having raised the issue with the waiter I was subsequently told that I would be brought the original order. Not to be. Finally, after my wife had finished her dessert, I was told that the chef did not like the look of the Fourme d’Ambert so I was given Cheddar instead.

Two points: why was I not informed of this when the waiter brought the cheese; and secondly, why was I not asked if I would like an alternative selection from the menu? This is very poor service and smacks of a ‘could not care less’ attitude. At least the waiter apologised, but the manager who could not be bothered to do so was rather magnanimous in deducting £2.55 from the bill for my half eaten tasteless cheddar. As we had to move on to the car park I could not wait around to discuss the issue further. So much for customer service...

We came for my fathers birthday and Will and the team were all fantastic and made it a very special evening.

Yes good food good atmosphere, a pleasantly experience.

Friendly, helpful professional service. Good atmosphere. General feeling of having dined somewhere special.

Very enjoyable meal, would have been nice to have had a fresh bread roll with the soup!

Lunch with friends

Truly excellent service food and atmosphere. 😊👍

We had a ladies lunch to celebrate a special birthday and asked for a window table which we were given. The whole experience was brilliant. The only disappointment was that I was unable to prepay for a bottle of prosecco to be waiting for us on arrival?

Excellent waitress

Great atmosphere, fabulous service & food delicious. Attention to detail made for a wonderful, special celebratory evening. Thank you so much.

Very nice venue but pretty noisy on Saturday night. Good service and delicious food but very expensive especially the olives to go with the cocktails

Enjoyed the food, service and ambience. However once we placed our order we were asked if we would like some olives to enjoy while the starter was being prepared. Said yes - and 5 (five) olives turned up, which would have been fine except for the fact that we were subsequently charged £3.50 for them.
Should have asked for them to be taken off the bill but didn't want the hassle / risk ruining the evening for my wife so let it go.
I hope the £3.50 was worth it, I spent £130 and now because of that £3.50 I WON'T be going there again !!

Everything was lovely but one of our party had fishcake for main and it’s what you’d get anywhere else as a starter, very little portions

A really delightful experience and a cut above the rest... Presentation... Food Service... Decor

Lovely food and excellent service. I would recommend to friends

Really lovely birthday lunch for four people only negative was one of the “Thirst quenchers” on the menu called a Virgin Spritz tasted quite unpleasant and had to be changed. The knife and fork food was superb!!

We always come here whilst we’re in York. This time we brought along my partners mum and Aunty which they thoroughly enjoyed also.

One comment........please bring back the Scallops?

Wonderful experience, the staff were excellent and never intruded on our meal. My friend and I had been looking forward to our time in York and going to the Ivy was the icing on the cake. Our meals were beautiful and my friend said it was the best fish and chips she had ever tasted. We will certainly be going again sometime and will recommend it to everyone.

We love the Ivy, just had another superb experience here.

Fabulous food, a great ambience, friendly attentive staff and great service. Wonderful and we’ll definitely come back! Thank you :-)

The Ivy is a lovely place to go for brunch. Very relaxed, and laid back whilst also being a lovely treat with great service. Only negative comment for me was my breakfast could have done with being a bit hotter, but was still nice. Would go again on a special occasion.

Loved it felt like a real treat. Couldn’t fault the seevice

Fabulous night, amazing food, staff were attentive and made our anniversary a night to remember! Thank you everyone!

A 70th Birthday celebration which was wonderful. A perfect evening. Will return.

Poor lighting menu written too small to read easily in the poor light

4th time visit, service was very good, food and wine good quality