An Alfresco Lunch at The Ivy Chelsea Garden

The Ivy in Covent Garden has always been synonymous with luxury, celebrity and discretion and now the Caprice group have gone one better. A new Ivy in Chelsea with its own garden! Could there be a more perfect venue for two luxury travel bloggers to enjoy a ladies lunch?

I was meeting foot wear queen and the guru of gluten-free, the lovely Kelly from Around the Would in 80 Pairs of Shoes.

The Ivy Garden Chelsea is located on the fashionable King’s Road and provides a gorgeous space for dining indoors as well as in the garden. Despite the chill in the air (and I hate the cold!) we were really pleased to be given a seat in the garden. Large umbrellas and numerous heaters meant we couldn’t feel the cold at all and we were completely protected from the downpour, I didn’t even frizz!

Like its sister restaurants in Covent Garden, the original Ivy and the newer Ivy Market Grill, the menu is a mixture of hearty British comfort food and a healthier options. The choices on the menu looked awesome and Kelly and I agreed we could have easily eaten our way through the whole menu!

We both wanted two courses, and as I prefer savoury I chose to have a starter while Kelly chose to save herself for dessert. My scallops were cooked just right and were served with grapefruit, fennel salad and citrus dressing. The combination of grapefruit and citrus dressing meant the dish was very acidic and I would warn you against it if you don’t like bitter flavours. However, I loved the flavour combination and I happily munched on it whilst chatting to Kelly and sneakily scanning the other patrons for Made in Chelsea cast members.

Kelly had a beautifully cooked and totally gluten-free chargrilled salmon fillet with steamed asparagus!
Now, I’m lucky enough not to have any food allergies but I very much sympathise with those who do, it must be very frustrating not to be able to eat whatever you want. I have a good friend who has a bad allergy to gluten and she has to question the waiting staff everywhere she goes to make sure there’s absolutely no gluten in anything. It could easily be hidden in sauces, salad dressings, some dairy products and things like sweets and chocolate…the list goes on. I would really recommend reading Kelly’s blog for gluten-free travel tips, London afternoon teas, UK days out and lots more.
I also really enjoyed my main course of tiger prawns, with ginger and chilli and sweetcorn salad. A perfectly light dish for a warm (ish) day.
Now a rather delicious looking dessert had made it’s way on to social media and with fingers crossed we asked the waiter about the ingredients. Hurrah! It was gluten-free!
A perfect chocolate dome was presented to us, and it brought to mind the dessert from Bob Bob Ricard, which I earlier declared to be the ultimate guilty pleasure.
Clearly this chocolate bombe in milk foam deserves special attention in this blog post and we watched with delight snapping away…
…as hot salted caramel sauce was drizzled over the top…
And that gorgeous chocolate orb melted in on itself…
To reveal a honeycomb centre and vanilla ice-cream!

 

What a dreamy pudding!!
Kelly and I loved the The Ivy Chelsea Garden and I’m already planning a return, it’s open for brunch, lunch, afternoon tea so I may just try them all! Or even just for a glass of King’s Road Cobbler in the sun….
The Ivy Chelsea Garden
197 King’s Road
London
SW3 5ED
020 3301 0300

Square Meal

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