We’ve had the great pleasure of eating at both the Ivy and Ivy Asia in the past, from the illustrious shepherd’s pie to the dragon set lunch menu.
While both restaurants have recently launched some very interesting options at off-peak times, allowing you to enjoy some great tasting food and cocktails at a decent price. Both ‘Sunset at the Ivy Asia’ and ‘Aperitif Affair’ run from Monday to Friday, 4-6pm.
As with many of the places I’ve reviewed recently, these were tried in the Brighton restaurants, which are actually next door to each other, at the top of Ship Street.
Sunset At The Ivy Asia
This is brilliant if you want to try a range of dishes at Ivy Asia, as you can order the small plates for £5 each, which comes with 2 pieces per plate, ideal for sharing.
My favourite, as always, has to be the salmon nigiri, these tasted beautiful with the soy sauce drizzled on top. I could seriously live off this dish, it’s become a bit of an obsession for me!
The next best had to be the Ssamjang chicken yakitori, or to put simply, spicy chicken skewers. This was Raquel’s favourite and a close second for me, with a beautiful flavouring to the chicken.
Next best was a surprise for me, the char siu barbeque glazed pork belly. In the past, I haven’t been a fan of pork belly, as it is very fatty, but this was cooked to perfection and the fat was so crispy, it was impossible not to love this. The smokey BBQ dressing also worked perfect in unison.
A maki roll is always an amazing dish, I love sushi, so I had my eyes on these, while the spicy tuna and sesame maki roll was incredible, fractionally better than the avocado, cucumber & asparagus maki roll.
There were also a couple of tasty gyoza’s, being the king oyster & shiitake gyoza and the pork & kimchi gyoza, both equally tasty and a decent size.
The only dish I’d probably leave off is the steamed edamame, as I’m never a fan of these, but that’s just a personal preference. Having said that, it comes with a gorgeous garlic dip which I used for a number of the other dishes.
We partnered our food with an incredible bottle of prosecco, seriously the Ivy has such an incredible prosecco that I’m always excited to try it again.
If you’d rather some cocktails, they have some beautiful sounding options, such as the sakura & lychee martini, watermelon & strawberry margarita, mango sling and the passion & Thai basil spritz.
Aperitif Affair at the Ivy
Offering a couple of different charcuterie boards, this is ideal if you’re looking to go out for some drinks and just fancy some nibbles on the table.
We opted for the Spanish-style charcuterie, which includes 16 month cured jamon, salchichon and chorizo with grissini, Nocellara olives, smoked almonds and red pepper tapenade.
Considering we only just returned from Huelva, it felt nice to dive into some jamon once again. The red pepper tapenade tasted beautiful when dipped in with the bread sticks.
But I have to give an alternative shout out to one of the other dishes we ordered, the truffle arancini rice balls. These certainly stole the show, as they were gorgeous, it was hard not to order some more!
If you don’t fancy the meat based charcuterie, they also have an alternative option, which is a selection of cheeses with grissini and smoked almonds. You can expect a Cornish yarg, stilton, saint-nectaire, melusine goat’s cheese and camembert le fin terroir.
As for the cocktails, the stand-out winner was the salted caramel espresso martini. I’m a big fan of an espresso martini, but it’s easy to make them wrong, so they can be very hit and miss. However not just was this one done perfectly, but the salted caramel really added a nice sweet hit to it.
Raquel went for a strawberry and rhubarb bellini, with the rhubarb offering a unique and scrumptious taste you don’t commonly get with cocktails. There should be more rhubarb flavoured drinks!
We then ordered another round, with myself opting for the champagne & strawberry mojito, while Raquel went for the Devil Margarita. Don’t worry if the name sounds off-putting, it sounds like a drink that will blow your head off, but it wasn’t hot or spicy at all, just a nice subtle taste.
I also have to give a shout out to their latte making abilities, they really do make a great coffee and I’m a complete coffee snob, so this is always an added bit of joy for me.