SEAReview
The Ivy is a see-and-be-seen kind of restaurant in Ballard where Erykah Badu songs play, staff seems to know everyone who walks in, and a former reality star might be your server. This velvet-meets-industrial Pinterest board of a restaurant is nice to look at, but the food falls flat.
You'll find a random mix of dishes like hamachi handrolls, burgers, fish sauce-coated chicken wings, lumpia, and Carbone-inspired spicy rigatoni. However, at any given time, a fraction of the menu could be unavailable, and what they have left just doesn't hit the spot. The wagyu smashburger is an under-seared stack paired with mayo that tastes as if the kitchen had a soy sauce accident. Fried brussels sprouts dressed in honey mustard are fine, but boring. And, we’d much rather spend $39 on a 10,000-piece variety pack of buttons than on two crumbly crab cakes loaded with more filler than Dungeness meat.
