30 replies to this topic

[David P]

When the Ivy House started advertsing itself as the 'Pub of the Year', some years ago, we thought we'd give it a try. It was very ordinary.
Recently it seems to be claiming even more awards. Perhaps we'd caught it on a bad day before? Time to give it another try.
It was very ordinary. The food was OK, but unimaginative and really no different from many of the better chain pubs around here. The service was very slow (20 minutes before our order was taken) and mistakes were made. The flowers were plastic. The total price was just about fair - but only because we went on a 2 for 1 special offer.
We found just one redeeming feature - the pud was lovely!
We won't be giving it a third chance, no matter how many awards they claim.

[Denise]

I went off the Ivy House when they had a temporary kitchen that was visible from where we were sitting. Unfortunately I spotted one member of the kitchen staff picking his nose, and no, he didn't wash his hands afterwards. Best not to know some things where food is concerned

[bluesbrothers]

Many years ago...when the Ivy House was a pub...the main food was sandwiches - cheese or salt beef (very yum) - the beer was the best kept in the area - and I once rode my Triumph Twin up from Cardiff on a cold winter's night just to visit that pub - it was simply - yes, simply - that good!

[gazza13]

When the Ivy House started advertsing itself as the 'Pub of the Year', some years ago, we thought we'd give it a try. It was very ordinary.
Recently it seems to be claiming even more awards. Perhaps we'd caught it on a bad day before? Time to give it another try.
It was very ordinary. The food was OK, but unimaginative and really no different from many of the better chain pubs around here. The service was very slow (20 minutes before our order was taken) and mistakes were made. The flowers were plastic. The total price was just about fair - but only because we went on a 2 for 1 special offer.
We found just one redeeming feature - the pud was lovely!
We won't be giving it a third chance, no matter how many awards they claim.

The Ivy House was good when it was taken up by the owners some years ago, but it is since they have expanded it has lost its quality. We had our company christmas do there about three years ago and frankly it was poor!.. My wife and I tried it again about 3 months ago when it was less busy, but on a Friday night, we wish we had gone somewhere else, shan't go back or recommend it.

[gizmo]

I have only been there once in the last year, and I found the interior rather cramped, the service was poor, the food was overpriced, and it seemed to think it was "more prestigous" than it actually was

[roob_the_doob]

Gotta agree here. We went to Ivy House in May, and the food was very ordinary and poor value. Plus the service was horribly slow. All in all it was a trip to forget. We won't be going back.

[Fran]

We went for a Sunday lunch and it was very pleasant. The food was tasty and a clever mix of traditional-ish whilst still being creative. Also, there were plenty of Sunday papers to browse through, so we lingered longer after our lunch than we might otherwise have done.

Better in the winter (real fires) than the summer (garden too near the main road between Amersham and the Chalfonts).

[gazza13]

I hear the Ivy House has been sold by the current owners to the Fullers brewery. I guess it'll be a gastro pub soon.

[Alan]

I hear the Ivy House has been sold by the current owners to the Fullers brewery. I guess it'll be a gastro pub soon.

Sad I took the wife once when the kids were away, it was great, not cheap, but food service great. I'd hoped to go in Sept for our silver wedding, might have to wait?

[SianJosette]

I've been quite eager to try The Ivy House since spotting it when we first moved here, but haven't got around to popping in yet. There seem to be quite mixed feelings about the place! Ah well, the proof is in the pudding as they say....lets hope I'll want some after a starter and a main course!

[James516]

Where is it?

[Carl La Fong]

Where is it?

On the London Road, between Amersham and Chalfont St Giles. You can't miss it, it's covered in.......................ivy.

[147]

On the London Road, between Amersham and Chalfont St Giles. You can't miss it, it's covered in.......................ivy.

Its covered in ivy so its called The Ivy House, but when it was a proper PUB it had another name.

Does anybody remember what it was called ?

I keep thinking Rose & Crown, but I might be wrong.

[Carl La Fong]

Does anybody remember what it was called ?

I keep thinking Rose & Crown, but I might be wrong.

Yes, Rose and Crown - I saw it marked on an old map I was looking at.

[jarrod]

We have been to The Ivy House twice in the last 2 months and both times have had excellent food which is reasonably priced. Latest visit was yesterday.

We had not been here for 18 months to 2 years as we felt that it had gone seriously down hill after it was taken over by Fullers brewery, but they now seem to have changed their food policy and management and I would now recommend this place again.

The menu's are simpler than they used to be, but the quality has improved, the portion sizes are bigger and the prices are (slightly) lower.

Food is now advertised as "rustic", which in practice means traditional dishes like Sausage & Mash, Liver & Bacon, Sunday Roasts, Fisherman's Pie, pan fried Duck Breast, Plum Crumble & custard to name a few.

Yesterday we had:
Wild Boar Terrine x 2 (£5 each)
Roast Pork, potatoes & veg (£11)
Roast Beef and all the trimmings (£12)
Plum crumble & custard (approx. £6)

The roasts were both lovely thick slices of tender meat rather than the pathetic thin slithers that you sometimes get for a so called "Sunday Roast".

Total price for 2, including 3 pints of Fullers Honeydew and a large Latte was £53, which I thought was quite reasonable.

They also do a fixed price lunch menu which is around £13 for two courses (I think).


I didn't post anything after our visit in November as I wanted to make sure that the good meal we had then wasn't just a one-off, it appears that it wasn't and that the Ivy House is now worth visiting again. It was also quite busy at 3:30p.m. on Sunday, so it looks like other people are getting the message too.

[Rob]

Went to the Ivy House last night after not having been for several years and had a wonderful evening - romantic dinner for 2! Delicious food (chef even managed to do steak well done and still tender) reasonable price (for this area) served by attentive, friendly staff (athough not overly friendly as in trying to be your new best friend) with instrumental dinner music provided by two 'old boys'. Not full but enough chatter for atmosphere and enough room that we weren't sitting too close to fellow diners. Thoroughly enjoyed it and will be returning.

[Tony B]

We went there last Sunday - always very impressed with the excellent food and fast service - Plus the London Pride is superb!

[Fran]

My mother and teenage son went there at the weekend and enjoyed it very much. They had trouble getting a table, which is probably a good sign.

[timo_w2s]

I've been there a few times over the past year or so and the food has always been good and very friendly service. Last time we were in the garden it wasn't too bad as it was in the evening and traffic wasn't a continuous stream but I'm not sure I'd want to eat outside during rush hour...

[mvjt]

We went to the Ivy House for Sunday lunch and were very impressed. The roast belly of pork was raved over by the meat eaters among us, who have already recommended it to others. The children's menu was great and our son loved the omelette he had. The greek salad was very tasty, as were the chips.
And, importantly, the staff were very friendly.
We'll definitely go back.

[Fran]

We went to the Ivy House for Sunday lunch and were very impressed. The roast belly of pork was raved over

We went today (Sunday) and my husband also had the crispy belly pork, which was indeed good (I had a piece of the crackling). I had lamb's liver, which was good, but came with an overly generous portion of broccoli mash, which was a bit wasteful. None of the starters grabbed us (we had pudding instead), but we were spoilt for choice with the main courses and thought it good value.

As an aside, we hadn't booked and turned up ~1.30pm. They were very apologetic that the restaurant was full and we could only sit in the bar or garden at one of the unlaid tables. As the table was quickly laid and the menu was the same, that wasn't a problem.

So, another pair of satisfied customers.

[Fran]

I've just booked a meal there for a large, mixed group (in terms of age, taste, depth of pocket and how far they'll be travelling to get there) and the staff have been very helpful, though as there will be 17 of us on a Sunday, they have asked us to pre-order, which is fine.

It has been made a little easier by the fact they finally have a website: Ivy House website. That has a couple of menus but there is also a children's menu that is not on the website.

When we've had our do, I'll report back.

[Bawbag]

Had lunch at the Ivy House a few weeks ago, apart from two things it was a good meal; the service was pretty much spot on and the food was generally very nice.

The two things?

1) The chips arrived absolutely loaded with salt, even those with the kids' meals. I never add salt to my food so they were basically inedible to me, and I'm not keen on the kids getting too much salt either. I complained and although the waiter was very apologetic there was no offer to replace them or deduct anything from the bill.
2) We picked up a puncture in the unmetalled car park - a bit of flint went right through the tyre. Cue RAC. Although hardly the restaurant's fault, I did notice that there were many similar bits of flint in the car park (and indeed all over the Chilterns!) and tarmac car parks are certainly something I'll be looking out for from now on. In fact, another thing I've noticed is a large number of tyre fitters in the area - I wonder if there is any connection?!

Factor in the £85 for a new tyre and the speeding ticket I picked up in Chalfont St Peter when driving round looking for a place to eat and was a very expensive lunch!

[Fran]

Sixteen of us went to the Ivy House for Sunday lunch today (adults, teens, preteens and a toddler) and it was really excellent.

Because we were a large group, they asked us to preorder, which was fine (although they did change the menu at the last minute, necessitating a last-minute round of emails), although given how long we stood around chatting (most of us hadn't seen each other for a while), it might not have been necessary.

Anyway, the food was really good - a definite notch up from the last time we went in terms of variety, flavour and presentation - and yet the prices are about the same. Of particular note were the new starters of Trio of Salmon (Gravalax on granary toast, smoked salmon mousse on cucumber, Crisped Salmon skin & a salmon & dill fishcake with quails egg & pea shoots) and Poached Smoked Haddock Fillet (with hash brown, spinach, poached egg & hollandaise sauce). The main course of calves liver was generous and perfectly cooked, and on delicious bubble-and-squeak (not something I'm normally keen on) and everything else went down very well. For pudding, the Ivy House Mess proved popular, but I had a butterscotch cheesecake which was stunning and had the most velvety texture of any that I have had.

By the time we left, other people were tucking into a lovely looking cream tea.

The service was good (and tolerant of our tardiness), the only weak spot being how long it took to get the bill.

I would now put it at almost the same level as The Old Queen's Head in Penn and The Nag's Head in Great Missenden, though I think it's cheaper than both.

[timo_w2s]

Sixteen of us went to the Ivy House for Sunday lunch today (adults, teens, preteens and a toddler) and it was really excellent.

I was there for lunch too (in the bar area). I seem to remember quite a few coming in at one point from the car park.

The roast lamb was pretty tasty and service was good.

[Lisa Z4L]

Great food, friendly staff, and they love my dog! Our favourite place in Amersham.

[Fran]

What a difference six months makes.

Six of us went for dinner on Sunday: the food was OK (in September, it was really excellent - see my post above) and the service was very poor, making the evening as a whole very disappointing.

We had booked, and they weren't busy. Our starters came quite quickly, but we waited ages for our main courses, and when they came, two of them were wrong: two well done roast beefs with Yorkshire pudding were delivered as one rare and one well done steak with some sort of creamy sauce. One was taken away, and then the other. The other four of us waited a while, but had to get our own cutlery from empty tables so we could eat our food before it got cold. The correct food was delivered and was quite nice, apparently. The bread and butter pudding is something to order with caution, though: it was two thick slices of dry bread, stacked like a sandwich, with a few raisins in the middle, and with custard poured over (which looked like "proper" custard).

When the bill came (again, this took ages, and they were still practically empty), we'd been charged for two steaks, rather than two roasts. My husband pointed this out and was given a revised bill which included one roast, but still had one steak! So he had to get it amended again. They weren't even especially apologetic.

I hope it was a one-off bad day, but I can't say I have any desire to go back in the near future.

[David P]

Not a one-off - see my original post at the top of this thread.

[Fran]

Not a one-off - see my original post at the top of this thread.

But David, that was nearly six years ago, and it's changed hands at least once since then!

[Milton]

We were there on Saturday evening for the first time for a couple of years and were really quite impressed. We had a comfortable table in the bar, drinks orders were taken and delivered very promptly and the atmosphere was nice-busy without being noisy. There was live jazz in the restaurant which was unintrusive and much nicer than piped music. The food was good. Not exceptional, but very pleasant. Polenta cake was deemed very enjoyable, as was a lemon sole and a duck dish. I enjoyed my pork too. Puddings were excellent. The price seemed very reasonable (£100, including a tip, for 4 including wine, where everyone had at least 2 courses and one had 3) and certainly compared very reasonably with other similar places locally. The service was good-attentive without being rushed or pushy (when I went for lunch the other week in a pub near Henley we were asked 5 times if everything was ok with our food during the 20 minutes it took us to eat our main course-service taken much too far!).

So, no complaints from me, but maybe I'm easily pleased!