I thought to celebrate achieving over 100 establishments (8.4 years) it would be nice to try a restaurant that has a reputation in being a little upmarket, not my usual level as the members know.

After collecting the guys, I headed into town to visit Chutney Ivy, visited a few times before with friends and family but never with the club. I dropped off the guys and managed to find a parking space; obviously, this is a town centre location, and there is some on-road parking after 6pm, but visitors could use the overpriced Halford Street NCP.

I returned to find out that there had already been a problem!! The waitress had never heard of alcohol-free lager, hence told us that they didn’t serve it, not the best of starts. It was later explained that it was only the girls 3rd day in the job, this really showed through as she also removed my drink before I had finished it, had no idea about table settings and handled a refresh of the poppadoms by hand!

I think a little more training before being let loose on customers would have helped the poor girl and also the standing of the restaurant. Apart from this the members were not overly impressed by the overall service by the restaurant during the evening, I certainly got the impression that they had a monopoly in the area and couldn’t really be bothered. The club has received some excellent service over the years, and we have learnt that the service received is NOT linked to the standing or the location of the establishment.

On to the food;  Very nice to see the food cooked and served from an open kitchen and we ordered 2 Khashi Chop Masalas, 1 Lamb Rogan Josh, 1 Tawali Muragh Tak e Tak, 1 Chicken Chana Sag and various Nans and Rice. The food, on the whole, was very good, especially the succulent lamb in the Rogan Josh and the Lamb Chop Masala, it was agreed that it was possibly the best lamb the club experienced.

The presentation was excellent, and the sauce which some members ordered at Madras strength was really good, the Rogan Josh ordered at Vindaloo strength was also a winner. The Tawali ordered was indicated on the menu it was cooked in a Tawa, maybe it could have been served on one. The Nans were very nice as were the rice.

We received everything ordered, but it could have been served together as it was ready at the same time but brought to the table individually when other waiters and waitresses stood by. A Nan ordered with no Ghee or Butter arrived with butter, and the additional portion of coriander requested had to be requested again.

To make our experience a little bit more distasteful, we were also slapped with a 15% service charge. We would have all been very happy to pay this if the service was good, but we all considered that this is the area in which we were least impressed.

So on the whole a great food experience but let down by the lack of service on a quiet night for Chutney Ivy. As a venue for a pre-theatre eatery it is very well located but after the theatre rush has gone there are customers to serve still and impress, something that we feel on this visit was lost I’m afraid.