Eat Out to Help Out with The Ivy, York

With the start of the new Eat Out to Help Out government scheme, we headed over to York for an evening out at The Ivy. The new scheme offers diners up to 50% off their meals between Monday and Wednesday. This is a great initiative to boost the hospitality sector and I’m all for eating out to help out! Stefan and I were kindly invited to The Ivy to try out their new set menu offering some of the restaurant’s favourite dishes.

On arrival, we were greeted by yet another stunning floral display outside of the restaurant located in St.Helen’s Square. Their floral displays are always so beautiful and this one was inspired by the Yorkshire Rose and celebrating the best of York. I believe it’ll be there all month! I’ll be doing quite a few restaurant and foodie posts and I want to be completely transparent with how these places are operating post-covid to give you an insight. When we arrived, we were greeted at the door as usual but we had to wait a couple of minutes before our table was ready. The bar area is closed for guests at the moment so we waited outside before been taken to our table.

All the tables are set to socially distance from one another and the staff did an excellent job of keeping their distance. Although the restaurant was really busy, everyone still seemed pretty distant and in their own space. One thing I absolutely loved was that each table had their very own hand sanitizer spray to keep themselves sanitized and it actually smelt quite nice!

As I mentioned The Ivy has got a new set menu this month which is the “We’re Taking Part” menu. It’s £30 for two courses or £35 for three courses and between Monday-Wednesday you will receive the £10 off as they are taking part in the Eat Out to Help out government scheme. I believe if you are dining on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday you’ll be able to receive the discount on other items on the menu too! It’s great to see The Ivy getting involved and the menu features some of the restaurant’s favourite dishes. You can view the menu properly in full over on their Instagram here.

As we were dining quite late, a few items from the menu were sold out including the Mozzarella starter and the Chocolate Bomb dessert. We ended up both going for the Crispy Duck Salad served with a five-spice dressing for the starter. The duck tasted incredible and the watermelon and cashew combo was genius. I’ve had the peanut bang bang chicken salad there before and it’s definitely a favourite of mine, I’d definitely recommend the salads at The Ivy!

We both went for the same main courses too; the Roasted Beef Fillet served with a potato rosti and truffle sauce. The other options for the set menu were both seafood and sounded amazing but I don’t eat that much seafood. The Beef Fillet was cooked well done and tasted excellent especially with the truffle sauce drizzled over. Once again, The Ivy excels with presentation and delivering high-quality delicious dishes.

You will never see me turn down dessert and there is always the best selection at The Ivy. I was a little said that they had sold out of their famous Chocolate Bomb but there’s no surprise as it’s a total crowd-pleaser. Also, a great spectacle to do a boomerang for Instagram! In the end, I went for the Flambé Apple Tart which was set alight in front of me. Pretty amazing, it was so delicious but the portion size was a little much for me. Stefan got the frozen berries with a warm white sauce. I think he’s had something similar before at The Ivy and it was a real hit with him. Hopefully next time I’ll get my hands on the Chocolate Bomb!

A massive thank you to The Ivy for inviting myself and Stefan to try the new set menu, we had a lovely evening. I felt like I was in a safe environment, distanced and the service was exceptional as usual. The food was amazing and it’s certainly well worth visiting especially when there are some amazing discounts going on with the Eat out to Help Out scheme. You can find out more information on the Eat out to Help Out scheme in York here.

Have you dined out with the new scheme yet?

XOXO

*Our meal at The Ivy, York was complimentary in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.