Best Fine Dining Restaurants in Kensington

The food and drinks at this restaurant are delicious. You are going to pay accordingly, but expect to have a solid meal and very good drinks. The atmosphere is beautiful — the restaurant is well decorated. It’s not too loud and not too crowded, which makes it feel pretty posh. However, we had a very odd experience with our server Nelson. He didn’t even say hello or good evening when we arrived and he just raised his eyebrows and said “yes please” when he took his notebook out to order. While I am all for efficiencies (I used to be a server and a bartender for 3 years), part of the hospitality business is…hospitality. This man expressed no smile, no emotion, and no sense of humanness. It was so weird. One of the ladies who appeared to be a manager came over to take our dessert order and she was very friendly, but we couldn’t understand why Nelson was so extremely cold. It appeared that this was his demeanor towards other tables as well. We arrived 5 mins early, didn’t take long to order drinks and food, and didn’t linger. What was his issue? We will never know. We will definitely be back to the Ivy, but will request to not have him as a server.

This was probably the greatest culinary experience of my life. Managed to get a booking for the Valentine’s Day meal. Not just were the hosts incredibly hospitable but incredibly attentive. The highlights of the menu were almost the entire thing. Both desserts were sublime, the TFC, caviar gougère and roast chicken were amazing. I’ve never seen a scallop as big in my life and for the duck course the main star of that dish in my opinion was the morels. We were put on the chefs table which was like looking into a finely tuned, well oiled machine. There is an almost 100 percent chance I’ll be back in the future.

Well I’ve wondered for a few years why this was my fiancés favourite restaurant and we finally got to experience it together. Food fantastic. Service excellent. Venue delightful. Don’t debate, go to daphnes for delicious Italian food.

A truly five star experience! Staff were flawless, the afternoon tea was a delight; the sandwiches and pastries were very good. We didn’t realise one could ask for more sandwiches, otherwise we would have attended with more of an appetite! Coffee (decaf available) was offered as an alternative to tea which was appreciated.

Wonderful food, attentive staff, lovely atmosphere. I would definitely recommend it to everyone!