The Ivy, St Alban's

 

We have had a bit of a dry spell with regard to eating out, other than a long trip to Canada with limited access to technology (I dropped my phone down the toilet shortly before departure) which meant that the food there remains unrecorded, at least by these Old People.

However, Today was devoted to Christmas shopping and the city of St Alban's chosen as the most likely source of suitable gifts. It was cold and the snow recently delivered by the Troll from Trondheim still lay on the frozen pavements. This, together with a limited knowledge of the shopping opportunities offered by the city, made the task difficult in his case. Whether or not she had greater success will become clear later. But once the shopping had been attempted, lunch was permitted.

We chose the local branch of The Ivy collection, a chain of restaurants created under the brand of the famous London theatreland eaterie much beloved by celebrities, partly because the chain's reputation and more because the bill was going to be picked up by Amex as a customer benefit.

It is a pleasant and comfortable environment in which to pass a couple of hours and the friendly and attentive staff were very welcoming and smartly presented. We were offered the menus and ordered one G&T, one ginger ale and a sharing portion of zucchini fritti to keep us going whilst we chose lunch.

The zucchini fritti came generously piled in a basket, accompanied by bamboo tongs which not only allowed the diner to transfer a few onto a plate, but also to ping them across the table by squeezing a little too earnestly. A warning would have been helpful, but it didn't matter as the fries were delicious, as was the lemon, chilli and mint into which they could be dipped, and very moreish.

The first formal course, the starters of course, were the duck liver parfait with caramelised hazelnuts, truffle and ginger compote, & toasted brioche, and the crispy duck salad. The latter was served warm with five spice dressing, toasted cashews, watermelon, beansprouts, sesame seeds, coriander and ginger. Both were excellent. The crispy duck salad could become a personal favourite (for me) and would make a great main course.

Then the main courses. The blackened cod fillet, baked in a banana leaf with a soy marinade, citrus-pickled fennel, grilled broccoli and tartare sauce was chosen with little reference to other possibilities, and the goose and turkey shepherd's pie with pigs (in fact pig) in blankets, creamed mash potatoes and a cranberry sauce easily saw off other contenders, too. Our friendly and engaging waitress used these characteristics to up-sell a portion of truffle and parmesan chips and one of peas, mangetout and baby shoots. The single, mild and otherwise unspoken criticism of the whole thing was that the blackened cod was just the slightest bit over-cooked.

It was a very enjoyable lunch and the menu offered many interesting and as yet untried dishes, so I am sure will visit other Ivy outlets in due course.