The Ivy - Not Just A League I Will Never Be In

I am back from a glorious business trip to LA. Everytime I go I love it more and more. This time I made a point to go to the grand daddy of celeb chains, The Ivy. Perhaps you live under a rock and have never heard of it but The Ivy is a LA chain. There is one on Robertson Blvd where all the celebs and paparazzi hang out. I did not go to that one because I am already a pretty bad celeb stalker, I thought going there would really be crossing the line so I decided to go to the one in Santa Monica. That being said, I had no shame in waiting in line at an Armani Exchange to get a picture with that hottie with the abs from Lip Stick Jungle.

The Ivy at the Shore has a lovely ambiance, it reminds me of a fancy southern patio. There is, you may have guessed, lots of Ivy. The menu is a large menu of very standard American food with some Mexican and Italian influences. To start we got the guacamole and I was very impressed. It was not made fresh in front of you but it was very tasty. The best part was that it was served with warm tortillas. I love that because then you can make a fun guac and tortilla sandwich, delicious. For my entree I was torn between a few choices like ravioli, mango chutney chicken and my actual choice, grilled chicken with a lemon sauce with a baked potato. On the menu it said it came with whipped squash and whipped cauliflower but the waitress told me they did not have the squash. That really sucked because that is one of the reasons I ordered that dish. The entree was really just OK. It was good, but def not wow. I also was kind of disappointed with my mojito. I really thought it was going to be killah but it was not good at all. It needed more sugar and more mint. All and all, The Ivy is Ok, not great. Oh, I did have a celeb spotting there. It was Matthew Broderick. He was not with SJP, but with his parents. They seemed like a lovely old Jewish couple who look like they donate a lot of money to public television and museums. Matthew was throwing back the mojitos like they were actually good. I did not have the heart to tell him they were pretty weak.