Ivy Tower Bridge Reviews 42

Lunch booked for a friend's birthday. 3 of us arrived early so we could have a drink at the bar before our lunch at 1pm. We advised the staff that the 4th person was coming down from Gloucester but she was delayed as her train had been cancelled. So far so good.
When I visited the Ladies the soap dispensers at all 3 of sinks were empty. I informed a member of staff of this when I came out.
We sat down to lunch at 1pm and informed our waiter about our friend being delayed and proceeded with our orders. Eventually at nearly 2pm our friend arrived. When she was half way through her meal someone came over and said that the table was needed. Apparently we had reached the end of our time slot. I pointed out that my friend was still eating and couldn't we have a little leeway so she could finish her meal without rushing it.I was told "No" as the table was booked. We were advised that we could move to the terrace. The Man went off and about 5 minutes or so later the bill was brought to the table. My friend was still eating at this point.
If that wasn't a big enough hint to leave then I don't know what was!! We paid and left the table. I headed off to the Ladies before leaving. The soap dispensers were still empty. I advised a Lady who was about to use it that they were empty and that I had informed the staff earlier. She said that she had done the same.
A disappointing birthday lunch for my friend.

If I could I would give them a minus score
Dreadful service. Unhelpful, unfriendly staff . Waited nearly 50 minutes to get drinks and then when we eventually got our afternoon tea ( which had been booked 3 months in advance) we were told the kitchen was just about to start serving dinner so if we wanted anything else we had to order it NOW as in 5 mins it would be too late!!!!
Food was not at all good. Scones dry and stale. Cucumber sandwiches soggy. I hardly ate anything and all for £30. Complete rip off . I’d Never go there again.

We met family here for breakfast on Saturday 15th of July as they were visiting from Edinburgh for the weekend. Party of 6 adults. We arrived at 10.30am. It took staff about 20 minutes to come over and take our drinks order. Eventually we got our food at about 11.25am and 4 of us were still waiting for hot drinks. 4 of the party had ordered the The Ivy Full English Breakfast. When they arrived, 2 of the breakfasts were cold and had to be returned to the kitchen. The replacement breakfasts arrived after a 15 minute wait and they were worse than the first breakfasts. On one of the breakfasts, the bacon was uncooked and still cold and on the other breakfast the sausage was pink. On all 4 breakfasts the eggs were over cooked and inedible. This breakfast comes with toast. All of the portions of toast looked as if they hadn’t seen a toaster. We asked if it could it be returned to the kitchen and toasted only for it to be sent back to the table in the same condition, un-toasted. There wasn’t any apologies from the staff regarding our issues. On presentation of the bill the server did say that he had removed the drink hot drinks from our bill and taken up the two breakfasts that were inedible. This is not good enough for customers to be put in this situation due to the un-professionalism of the kitchen staff at this restaurant. When one of servers mentioned to his superior about the issues we were having, he abruptly shouted “They are not my priority!” The whole restaurant went quiet.

Really, the staff serving the food should know what is acceptable to serve this quality of food to the customer. Worst of all, the amount of food that was wasted due to being under and over cooked was appalling.
If I could have I would have given this restaurant a minus score on all counts. I would definitely discourage anyone from booking this restaurant. You would be served a better cooked breakfast is a working man’s cafe for a fraction of the price. The Ivy Tower Bridge is most certainly living off of the laurels of its Mayfair namesake. Avoid at all costs if you do not want an unpleasant expensively designed experience.

A very disappointed customer
As entering The Ivy Tower Bridge l could see the restaurant wasnt too clean. We were taken to our table beside one of the sliding window. When l looked down there were food/ dirt over the floor and in the window runners.
Our food was delicious!
But the table had glass marks all over it. I visited the toilet before l left. It was really smelly and all the toilet seats were coming away from the fittings and one of the seat was propped up inside the toilet.
I live in Devon and eat regularly at The Ivy Exeter, which is a lovely Restaurant.... I was so disappointed...

We had a reservation at the Ivy Tower Bridge at 6.30 pm with approximately 30 people. Since I cycle in London I can't exactly time my arrival, and arrived 6.20 pm. I was send away and told to return 10-15 min as the room wasn't ready yet. There was more than enough space, including their own bar, where I could have seated, but I was not allowed. We spend about 5000 GBP that evening with our group, but I was simply pointed the door.
Once we were in, it took 45-50 min before we finally had a drink, as there was only 1 person serving and she had to all the time downstairs to get 1 drink and come up again. We complained and finally some additional staff were there.
The food was very bad. Dried out salmon as a starter (although the salmon tasted fair), the main was cold, dried out and tasteless, and the dessert was a joke: instead of a scoop of ice cream, we got a teaspoon full of ice cream. And just the food was 75 GBP!!!
Our conclusion: once and NEVER again - disgrace, overpaid, they are taking the mickey, and not once an apology after the many complaints, not once that a manager was send when asked for (everybody pretended they were the most senior person in the building, especially the woman at the reception that send me away kept that line). AVOID if you can

Was with a party of 15 but the Ivy Tower Bridge would not allow a group table for Afternoon Tea so we had to book 3 tables several weeks in advance. That was the first disappointment. We arrived, we were in different parts of the very large restaurant so we could not share the afternoon with each other. I can only really say what was really wrong about our experience but it wasn't good. Having all pre-booked our tables, we were sitting at our table at 3:50 pm last Saturday 1st July. At 4:35 we still had not received a cup of tea so we reminder the staff that we had ordered afternoon tea, what we had booked for and what we had ordered when we sat down. The tea order was then taken 5 minutes later and we then waited another 5 minutes or so for it to arrive. 55 minutes after we had sat down we got a cup of tea. After we had been waiting for well over an hour or so, some of our friends came to see us who were in a part of the restaurant we could not see, to ask how everything was, the food etc., we could not answer because we had not received any. We then had to wait a further 25 minutes for the food to arrive, after we chased for it. When it arrived, there was various items missing from each of the serving dishes, some had missing strawberries, some macaroons missing, some had scones missing, not enough cream or jam. How difficult it is to plate up standard Afternoon Tea dishes? We called over the Manager who had a very serious, un-smiley face to ask for the missing items, no apology just took note and went off. The items arrived about 10 minutes later, again, no apology just asking if we had everything? Because we had waited so long for the food, we asked for more tea to go with the food, the tea had to be chased by us on several occasions before we finally got the tea. Afternoon Tea at the Ivy was suppose to be a wonderful experience, shared with friends. This was not, the service was terrible, the food was OK nothing to write home about. We spoke with some of the other group of friends who was suppose to be sharing this wonderful Afternoon Tea to find out, they also experience a bad service. So, over priced, terrible service, not friendly - wouldn't recommend one little bit.

Food was ok, service was atrocious, had 3 people serve us and not one of them smiled or seemed interested in our questions, was like they were doing us a favour even serving us, we opted to not pay the service charge, we also waited over 15 minutes for each drink we ordered, wouldn’t recommend to anyone

Our waitress Maria was completely charming and helpful. Food and wine very good.
Thank you Maria for such good service.

The food is excellent, surroundings and decor are pretty cool too; however the experience was let down by terrible service.
Staff seem to go to some lengths to avoid eye contact and make themselves busy preparing vacant tables instead of looking after customers already there. Even getting the bill and paying takes forever.
Icing on the cake is the ‘discretionary’ service charge of 13.5%. How can that be justified?

I arrived a little early for my table and was sat at the bar. I ordered a cocktail while I waited for my friend to arrive.

The bar staff that served me was polite but didn’t had no idea what the ingredients were that went into the cocktail that they were promoting as one of their Christmas specials. On tasting the cocktail I could instantly tell that it was missing some of the key components. He didn’t sample the cocktail which I had seen another member of staff do. Even if he had I am not sure he would have known.

The waiter eventually came to take us to our table but was walking so fast that we lost sight of him he didn’t seem to care when he turned round and we were not behind him.

The waiter that served us seemed very abrupt almost annoyed through out the service, annoyed that we we not ready to order when he arrived at the table. The words he was using were ok but delivered in a couldn’t give a s@&t way.

The first course was ok, not worth the price, The main course was lukewarm/cold. The waiter took sometime to clear the table. The replacement cutlery was thrown down on the table.

The desert looked great but wasn’t worth the money it was the chocolate bombe that they are renowned for. the chocolate was far too thick and kept sticking to the spoon. The foam around it turned to sweet soup when the tasteless caramel sauce was poured over it.

The meal was expensive for what we thought was poor service which they wanted to charge £20 for. The quality of the ingredients was good but the poor presentation, service and temperature let the whole thing done. I have eaten in less expensive places and been treated better and eaten far better food.

To add insult to injury something in the meal didn’t agree with my friend and we had to beat a hasty retreat.

We are so disappointed as we were looking forward to enjoying the whole dining experience.

We asked the angry waiter to remove the service charge which at least he did without any kind of emotion - stayed in character.

DREADFUL. Advanced telephone call to discuss at length dietary requirements. Afternoon tea. No allergies, no food intolerance. Can only describe as a farce and embarrassment for the person concerned. After a week we got a response offering complimentary bottle champagne next time on London (it was a one off trip for special birthday) With advice asking us to ring in advance and not leave until the day ?????????????? Advanced telephone call to discuss at length dietary requirements. BEFORE BOOKING. all agreed!

I have eaten at quite a few Ivy restaurants and had a good experience. However, my experience at the Tower Bridge was not good. I will say that the food was very good but, the service was not. I attended with my daughter (her Birthday) and her fiancé and my wife. We were attended by a Waiter wearing a suit, I assume a head waiter, who was reasonably attentive. The two female waiters lacked focus. Unfortunately there was a large party of males adjacent to our table, they were noisy and showed no consideration for other diners. It wasn't until my wife, gave the restaurant manger a knowing stare that he challenged the male group. By this time other diners had asked to be moved. The group of males were egged on by the two female waiters who obviously thought that bigger tips were in the offing. It was so obvious to everyone present. Our service suffered and became very slow. After declining dessert menus, due to wanting to leave, one of the female waiters brought the menus back again. I also noted that a small profiterole with a candle had been placed on the serving area. It was 10 minutes before it was lit and brought to my daughter. By this time we had asked for the service charge to be removed from the bill and we had our coats on. I was so disappointed that I completed the online feedback to the Ivy Head office. Surprise, I have not received anything from them. The Ivy will no longer have my custom.

The food was amazing. The service was phenomenal!

The service and attitude of the people who worked there were not really applausable for the brand name!

I’ve arrived before my guest arrived. I was guided to the table. But I was left alone since(it was really long time!), until I grabbed a waiter for placing the order for water.

Most of people didn’t bother to smile even though their job is to provide great service with good manners which include smile.

The worse thing was that the waiters ignored a lot when we tried to get attention for placing orders and asking for something(even after my guest arrived). On top of that, they later brought us wrong food.

When we were leaving, there was nobody at the reception. We managed to get someone to come in, and we asked her to get my coat and scarf. She didn’t help me to put them on much, even though she was apparently a cloakroom attendant. Very disappointed. I won’t go there again. But I will go to another IVY.

My son took me here for my birthday and it did not disappoint! The food is amazing and so reasonable for the quality! Drinks we vest tasty and the staff happy and attentive! Thank u so much!

Great service , good food!

This would have been a 5 star rating but thanks to one employee, Mattia, I am giving this restaurant a 1 star rating. What started out as a very pleasant afternoon with a nice meal and drinks and a very professional service by the lady who was serving our table, quickly soured thanks to Mattia. More specifically, after we finished our meal, we ordered cognac mulled wine, which Mattia took at least 20-25 minutes to bring over only to warn us that we would need to leave in 20 minutes. To that I said, we would have to return our drinks as that didn’t give us enough time. Mattia snapped back and said that 20 minutes is plenty of time and that he wouldn’t be taking our drinks back. If he were to do that we would have to leave right away even though one of my friends was still drinking her coffee … To cut a long story short, Mattia’s behaviour was rude, unprofessional and completely patronising. When my friends and I called him out on it, he started muttering some angry words in another language. To top it all off, Mattia was the only employee in the restaurant to not wear a mask yet he was coming closer and closer to us as his behaviour was quickly spiralling out of control. When we asked him to keep some distance, he said “I am far enough” and that “we are the ones that will infect him, as he doesn’t have any symptoms!!”. This is the last thing that your customers need in the middle of a pandemic and in the run up to Christmas. Mattia, who claimed to be the manager, is the least appropriate person for the job. If you care about your business, your customers and the rest of the staff, you either need to remove Mattia or teach him some customer service basics… Overall a hugely negative experience in the run up to Christmas and right before London goes into another strict lockdown. I will definitely not be going back to the Ivy any time soon.

my first visit but will definatley go again. Great food and excellent service

You will want to go here for the food and ambiance - you will not be disappointed. The views are great, staff attentive and never had anything but an amazing time. We will continue to go here whenever we feel like treating ourselves a bit.

Was here one month ago , Service was a bit mixed , we were left waiting for a table for about 15 mins but we did enjoy the night . Excellent food and I suppose thats what its all about