Opening on 3 November 2015, The Ivy Café, situated in the heart of Marylebone, will have a strong focus on creating a local, friendly and neighbourly environment. Previously occupied by The Union Café, the venue offers accessible all-day dining for those living, working and shopping in the area.
The critically acclaimed Martin Brudnizki Design Studio has consulted on The Ivy Café’s interiors to create a more casual environment for all-day dining. The design will include features such as an antique brass top bar, pendant lighting, marble floor tiles and vintage red leather banquettes.
The café-style menu – featuring breakfast, elevenses, brunch, lunch, afternoon snacks, cream tea and dinner – will offer something for every occasion, be it a morning meeting, working lunch, quick snack as succour after a hard day’s shopping, or for those seeking a more leisurely lunch or dinner.
Breakfast highlights include toasted crumpets served with Marmite, mustard and parsley butter, and chopped avocado with roast plum tomatoes and poached free-range hen’s egg on toasted granary with spicy sesame dressing. For brunch or an afternoon snack, The Ivy Café’s HLT – grilled halloumi, avocado, lettuce and tomato served with thick-cut chips – and the Croque Monsieur – ham hock, Gruyère and Dijon mustard béchamel – are spot on.
Notable on the lunch and dinner a la carte menu is the chicken liver parfait, served with toasted ciabatta, caramelised hazelnut and a cherry & Szechuan pepper compote, and lobster risotto with fennel, lemon and tomato.
Desserts can double up for elevenses and tea too, as the dessert menu is available all day. Small sweet cravings can be satisfied with mini salted caramel balls, and the much-lauded melting chocolate bombe with milk foam, vanilla ice cream and honeycomb and hot salted caramel sauce.
An individualised cocktail menu features six specially concocted cocktails, including some classic favourites served with a twist.
The Ivy Café is bijou and relaxed, bringing some of the familiarity of The Ivy brand to ceaselessly chic Marylebone Lane. The restaurant will hold back 50% of tables for walk-ins, allowing locals to drop in throughout the day at their leisure.
