db Eats: The Ivy Café Marylebone

Long before Chiltern Firehouse and Kitty Fischer’s became celebrity catnip, there was The Ivy. With roots snaking back to 1916, when it opened as an unlicensed Italian café, the unassuming restaurant in the heart of London’s theatreland has played host to everyone from Lawrence Olivier and Marlene Dietrich to Tom Cruise and the Beckhams.

It has lost little of its sheen over the years and still oozes old world glamour. Having recently been made over, its signature wood panelling and harlequin stained glass remain but the bar has been moved to the centre of the room and lined with fetching pink velvet stools, while the seats in the restaurant have been replaced by crescent moon-shaped racing green banquettes.

But as great as The Ivy is, it’s not the kind of place you can swan into on a frosty Wednesday evening. It’s an occasion restaurant for well-connected socialites. Keen to stay relevant, owner Richard Caring has set about opening a series of casual sister sites in some of the capital’s chicest postcodes for ladies who lunch.

First came The Ivy Market Grill a stone’s throw from the original in Covent Garden. Serving comfort food like shepherd’s pie and lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, the Market Grill makes a focal point of its bar, which serves beautifully crafted cocktails that play on its setting next to the old flower market, like the My Fair Lady, made with its house gin, Belle de Brillet, lemon and orange blossom.

Chicken liver parfait

Then came the The Ivy Chelsea Garden on the King’s Road, which boasts a sprawling garden with a terrace and orangery designed for al fresco summer dining. Due to open next month is The Ivy Kensington Brasserie on Kensington High Street, which hopes to lure well heeled locals mid Christmas shop.

Perhaps the truest neighbourhood restaurant of all of the Ivy clan is The Ivy Café Marylebone, tucked around a cosy corner close to Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote on Marylebone Lane.

If you haven’t made the short pilgrimage from Oxford Street it’s well worth it. A few long strides and you’re worlds away from the bustle of the main thoroughfare.

The Dickensian cobbled streets are immaculately clean and largely pedestrianised, and the area is so quaint, it almost feels like a film set, or Richard Curtis’ vision of a London street – too perfect to be real.

Visiting on a blustery midweek evening, on entry the gracious maître d told me to hold onto my coat, as they’d decided to forfeit a cloakroom for extra table space, which seems a wise move.

Arriving early, the place was already packed to the rafters and animated with chatter rising above a vintage jazz soundtrack. Half the tables are held back for people to drop in without a reservation, which adds to the spontaneity of the place. Settling into a comfy red leather banquette, I felt that wonderful buzz of being somewhere so new, you can still smell the paint drying.

Lobster risotto

In keeping with the Market Grill and Covent Garden original, the brass-topped bar has been made a focal point and a dining destination in itself rather than somewhere to clock watch with a cocktail. Another notable feature are the pendant lights that conjure visions of gallivanting around Belle Époque Paris.

Borrowing from The Wolseley founders Chris Corbin and Jeremy King’s hugely successful all-day café model, the menu takes in breakfast, elevenses, lunch, brunch (at weekends), afternoon snacks, cream tea and dinner, allowing you to rock up any time of day and have your every culinary whim catered to.

My evening began as every evening should; with a glass of Champagne and a silver bowl of piping hot, indecently moreish truffle arancini that were so delightful, I’d happily return for alone, ordering bowl after bowl until I’m politely asked to leave.

Having never been a fan of meaty mains, I opted instead for three starters, which tend to be more considered and exciting both in terms of ingredients and execution. Perhaps it’s a size issue, but there’s something quite lazy about main courses, which are often pedestrian and predictable.

First out of the blocks were crunchy fried prawns with wasabi mayo and miso. Light on its feet, the fluffy batter housed beautifully juicy meat set alight by the fiery wasabi bed beneath in an elegant, Asian-inspired triumph. Staying in Asia, next came tuna carpaccio with jalapeño, coriander, lime and shaved radish.

While the tuna was flappingly fresh, I was hoping to be hit harder by the flavours of the jalapeño, coriander and lime, craving the lip-smacking freshness of the tiger milk in a well-made ceviche, but the dish was born to be mild and made me miss the similar but better scallop carpaccio at Berners Tavern.

Espresso Martini

Keen to try one of the signature dishes – chicken liver parfait with toasted ciabatta, caramelised hazelnuts and a cherry and Szechuan pepper compote – while the parfait was perfectly pink and rich in flavour, it was drier than I was hoping for, and quite hard to spread on the bread.

Again, I found my mind wondering to better versions, from Marcus Wareing’s divine chicken liver mousse with bacon jam at Tredwell’s, to Eric Chavot’s creamy effort at his eponymous Mayfair brasserie. The Ivy’s version is a dish with great potential, but it needs perfecting before it can compete with Wareing and Chavot.

The truffle and Parmesan chips however, were a thing of beauty and disappeared quickly from their silver goblet, as was a deliciously decadent dark treacle tart with clotted cream ice cream, which has probably raised my cholesterol to dangerously high levels but was worth it.

The wine list is curt and to the point – our loquacious Spanish sommelier hit the target with a velvety 2008 Rioja Reserva from Dinastia Vivanco with a Cubist work by Spanish artist Juan Gris on the label.

While service was disconcertingly quick to begin with – all of our food was on the table within an hour of arriving – The Ivy Café has much to recommend it. It’s an adorable addition to an already charming street and has achieved incredibly quickly what many restaurants fail to ever do – give you the comforting feeling of a favourite, well-worn coat.

Having only been open a few weeks, The Ivy Café already feels like it’s been around forever in the best possible way. Careing has created a timeless classic and I’m in no doubt that it will not only survive but thrive; there are just a few teething problems that need to be ironed out first.

The Ivy Café Marylebone, 96 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2QA; +44 (0) 020 3301 0400