I convinced my partner to give Ivans a chance, we had heard many a bad review and he was adamant that there are many other restaurants in Howth offering beautiful fresh fish for a reasonable price. My husband insists that all Ivans has going for it is that it is situated on the corner close to the Dart on the West Pier and therefore benefits from passing tourists who have no idea that many lovely, reasonably priced restaurants can be located further down the West Pier. Ivans restaurant sits empty for lunch and dinner most weekdays and evenings and my partner believes there must be a reason for this. Despite all this, I badgered him into an afternoon out in Ivans with our young son. As it was a Saturday, the restaurant was quite busy as one would expect. We were shown to our table, we had to stand up and request menus after about 10 minutes, and it went downhill from there. The children’s menu is great and our son enjoyed the pasta. Overall I could not fault the food, (I had the market fish) when it eventually arrived after serious delays and the food not all arriving together. The service was terrible in terms of getting attention at all. Our waitress appeared to be very inexperienced and although I don’t know much about how a restaurant runs, it was glaringly obvious to me that the restaurant was understaffed and poorly mannaged. I asked for a glass of white wine which never arrived although I was charged for it, I did not notice this until I got home. We waited a ridiculous amount of time to have our table cleared after both our starters and main, on both occasions we had to ASK to have table cleared and even having asked we were still left waiting! If all of this wasn’t enough, our experience was dominated by a foreign Chef shouting continually from an open planned kitchen. (Bear in mind we have a young child with us!) If this type of behaviour is acceptable, why does Ivans have this open planned kitchen?

I used to love Ivans and have eaten here many times with friends and family. The last few times I felt the food and service were not up to the usual standard. My last visit has put me off totally. Service was slow and inattentive despite the restaurant being very quiet. I returned my main course, because it was tasteless. The waitress didn't bat an eyelid just accepted it no questions asked.

Can't believe it's mine and hubbies 1st time here..what we were missing. Ate tapas in the oyster bar washed down with a lovely Pinot Grigio. We got patatas bravas, scallops, monkfish, calamari and smokies. Yes...we were hungry. Food was excellent, service great and really friendly staff. We'll be back very soon