About as far away in menu from The Original Ivy as Singapore is from Scunthorpe, The Ivy Asia St Paul’s offers remarkable decor with well priced menus and now some unique private spaces too
One should always stress that this is an ‘Asian Inspired Menu’, this is not an Asian restaurant per se but one that manages to mix elements of Asian cuisine with stunning decor and tasty dishes that dart about all over the place.
In fact, Elements is what we’ve come to lunch for; The Elements Set Lunch. £25.95 for nibbles, then two courses from a set menu with side dishes and desserts just a few quid extra. Even with the add ons, this is pretty good pricing for a room that is opulent, lively and looks out straight onto St Pauls.
I like it as soon as I walk in, although as I managed to not see the downstairs entrance, I did spend some frustrating minutes at an unmanned reception on the 1st floor wondering what was going on. I had to go into the restaurant to find someone to help. KInd of my fault, though.
Once in you can’t help but be impressed by the unashamed theatricality of the decor and the remarkable view of St Paul’s, for those seated in the front row. Although as the afternoon sun was soon belting through the giant plate glass windows, the blinds were lowered to calm the glare and keep the rather nice after-hours feel alive.
Tables are laid very attractively to match the translucent green onyx floor, and the (presumably fake) cherry blossom trees, and there’s a lot of carved wood, Asian art and a bar that shines. Overall, this impresses.
The food’s not half bad either. After we’d eaten some crispy wonton and poppadoms, alongside a lively Szechuan Dip, we had our starters proper.
Sesame prawn toast used to be a staple in suburban Chinese restaurants, light on the prawns and heavy on the bread. Here it’s like a toasted prawn sandwich, absolutely stuffed with lovely prawns, well coated in sesame seeds and comes with a slice of lime and a sriracha dip.
Three large pieces, so I traded one of them with S for one of his steamed chicken Gyoza. These too had a crust of sesame and a nose-tingling dip. Again, very good, although I actually prefer gyoza pan-fried for the crust.
Also on starter’s orders for the set lunch were Yellow Tartare – Citrus dressing, truffle, crispy nori and rice crackers, and Spinach and Mizuna salad, sesame miso dressing, crispy onions and yuba.
Throwing financial caution to the wind we ordered Smoked beef short ribs, galbi sauce and fragrant herbs( £4.50 supplement). This came dramatically under a dome and I wrestled with my camera to turn on the video but after all that when the dome came off there was no smoke, but there was a lovely aroma. The beef bone fell out perfectly leaving excellent meat behind. Galbi” is actually the Korean word for “rib” and the sauce is BBQ style.
My Nasi Goreng – Indonesian style fried rice, sweet soy marinated chicken and garlic was just what I needed – super sweet, gloriously sticky and ferociously hot with fresh chilli. I was warned about the chili, to be fair. It was fine, but towards the end I did start to lift the chilis out and put them to one side as I could feel the cumulative effect beginning to bite.
Also on the set menu were Wok-fried king prawns, egg noodles, chilli, greens & spring onion and a Keralan Chickpea & Aubergine Curry with Spinach, coconut coriander.
And so to dessert, a Crème Brûlée, which was actually set on fire at the table. Of course brûlée in French is past tense, but let’s not be pedantic as it was still a very fine brûlée, even without the amusing theatre, the sugar crust not so thick as to get stuck in the teeth, the crème smooth and amalgamated.
A Milk Chocolate & Hazelnut Truffle with a Salted caramel sauce was unspectacular, but solidly tasty and enjoyable.
Some people might object to The Ivy becoming a Collection of restaurants, now expanded to over 40 nationwide locations, including sister concepts like this one, but the core glamour is still there. Great atmosphere and the Elements Menu is a real bargain
20 New Change, London EC4M 9AG
Website
The Ivy St Pauls’ new Sekushi Room is a colourful, theatrical space with lacquered red interiors, gilded Buddha statues, ornate chandeliers and Japanese woodblock artwork, alongside The Ivy Asia’s food and drinks offering.
The room can host up to 50 seated or 100 standing guests, or be split into two smaller spaces, the Tokyo Room and Kyoto Room, each with its own private bar. It works for everything from intimate dinners and celebrations to larger parties and corporate events, with food and drinks tailored to the occasion, from canapes and seated dinners to bespoke drink packages.
.