The Ivy House Restaurant Menu

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Visit below restaurant in Williston for healthy meals suggestion.

  • Sarah B.

    I absolutely LOVE the Ivy House! I have visited the Ocala, Williston, and Alachua restaurants and as a teacher, have even brought my entire Kindergarten and First Grade classes to the restaurants as a special "Mommy and Me" event. All of the ladies have been amazing and have bent over backwards to make sure that every need was met. I also chose the Williston location as a treat to all of my bridesmaids after a day of wedding gown shopping. The staff was amazing and the food was delicious!! I would recommend "The Ivy House" to ANYONE looking for a great restaurant to enjoy homemade southern cuisine and attentive staff!

    (5)
  • gail C.

    The Ivy House - Ocala, Florida 352-622-5550 Tonight myself and others went to this restaurant to try it out. First mistake was our waiter - who's name is not on our receipt- He was rude and just had a nasty attitude. After finishing our salads, he rolled the silverware on to the table ,just was awful, I told him I wanted clean silverware he never brought them, had someone else bring them over. Upon paying for the meal, he took all the receipts and I said I need my copy, he said oh I thought you didn't want it and I threw it away. The food was good, but, definitely they need to get rid of this waiter. He spoiled all our meals with his attitude. Would I go back NO

    (1)
  • Margaret C.

    Just passing through town, and stopped in for lunch. Very generous portion of fried shrimp with sides, plus a salad. Really liked it!

    (4)
  • Chris K.

    Since the Ivy House closed their Alachua branch, I don't make it to their restaurant as much as I'd like to. It takes a special occasion for me to drive out to Williston to dine with them, but every time I do, I'm happy I went. There is one main dish that they often have on special that I always get - their Baked Krispy Chicken. The plate comes with chicken, cornbread, yeast roll, small salad, mac n' cheese, and a veggie of the day. While baked, the chicken is slathered in butter and rice krispies, making it some indulgent, moist, and tasty baked chicken. The cornbread is a wet cornbread, almost to the consistency of a corn casserole. Like the chicken, the yeast rolls have butter as one of their main ingredients. The small side salad is made special by the raspberry vinaigrette, which is sweet and a little creamy. The mac n' cheese seems to be a mix between real and Kraft cheese, with penne pasta. My favorite veggies they serve with this are their green beans. In short this food is decadent and tasty. Oftentimes when people think of homemade, old-fashioned food, they have in mind that the only ingredients that are used in the recipes are fresh ingredients. Anyone who has asked their grandma for a favorite recipe knows this isn't always the case. There's usually some brand-specific packaged product that has gone into that favorite dish of yours. To that end, I feel MiMi's recipes are like this. This is authentic southern cooking, and it's probably always used a little help from some items that wouldn't be "whole"/"natural" (looking at you Kraft). The end justifies the means, and in this case, the end is some really tasty, authentic Southern cooking. Like their old Alachua location, the Williston location is in an old house, which adds to the place's character. There seems to be more of a hunter theme going on in some of the rooms compared to the Alachua location. My favorite part of this building is their closed-in outdoor porch. I always ask to be seated out there. If you're in the mood for some classic southern comfort food, it's worth the drive from Gainesville to visit the Ivy House. The drive to Williston from Gainesville is a pretty drive by the way, which I always find relaxing.

    (5)
  • Brooke E.

    Don't go there if you only have a lunch break. Don't go there if you want hot food. I went there with some coworkers for lunch, and we told the waitress that we really needed to get back to work. We had made reservations but it took them 15 minutes to seat us. When we sat down it took another 20 minutes for them to take our order. Then it took another 20 minutes to get our food. Only the plates were hot.

    (2)
  • Annette S.

    Southern cooking in a quaint historic house. Like sitting down at a family table. Lots of great tasting specialities to choose from.

    (4)
  • Mike W.

    The Ivy House is classic Southern style cooking in a renovated Victorian home in Williston. They also have a sister restaurant in Alachua in what appears to be an even more impressive Victorian house. The atmosphere here is nice enough, but a little over-done on the country-cute and huntin' and fishin' themes. I would have rather if it had been decorated with antiques like someone's grandma's home instead of this over-done approach that looks like it's halfway decorated for Christmas (they have wreaths up and garland . . . seriously . . . it looks like Christmas-time at Smokey the Bear's). That said, it the food is very good. I had the BBQ shrimp and grits and it compared well to the same dish in Savannah, Georgia, where shrimp and grits is a trademark dish of many local restaurants. The grits were just perfect and the sauce on the shrimp was great too, while the shrimp themselves were fine, it was hard to tell if they were fresh or frozen. The only real difference between the dish here vs. in Savannah was most places in Savannah you can taste the freshness of the shrimp (not at Paula Deen's though!). The sides tonight were green beans and yellow squash, plus a roll, cornbread, and salad are served alongside your main dish. We also had the fried green tomatoes which were very good. The green beans were some of the best I'd ever had and the squash and roll were also great while the corn bread was soft, moist, and almost more like a spoon-bread than what I think of as corn bread, but very, very good all the same. I got coconut cake for dessert which was sweet, buttery, moist and quite good. The staff is attentive and as I said, while the atmosphere isn't exactly how I would have done things myself, it's fine and the location has a good amount of seating. Have I had better Southern-style food? Yes. The Beaver House in Statesboro, Georgia is probably better, and for seafood Robinson's near Cedar Key may be better, but overall the Ivy House is pretty good. If you like this type of food, you'll enjoy The Ivy House.

    (5)
  • Kim B.

    Enjoyed the homemade honey mustard on the chicken salad salad. Great yeast rolls and delicious cornbread. Enjoyed homemade walnut buttermilk pie. Delectable.

    (4)
  • ML M.

    Just went there for Thanksgiving. Food was good. Why just the one star??? Well, our large group was separated into two tables. The waitress had the balls to tell the smaller table that people were waiting and could they go. Unbelievable..is this how you treat people who are paying for you for food and service? Happy Thanksgiving..NOT!! This was insulting and rude. Sad comment on the server and owners of the restaurant. Go at your own risk...

    (1)
  • Jennifer M.

    A nice setting in an old house, lots of good old fashioned Southern charm. I found the food average at best, with the exception of the corn bread for which I may be willing to come back. They are famous for "Krispy Chicken" which I will describe as a slightly over baked chicken breast coated with Rice Krispies cereal. It wasn't horrible but for me it lost its Snap, Crackle, Pop after about the third bite. My biggest complaint is with the presentation. The meal included the chicken, corn bread, Mac and cheese, butter beans, and a garden salad. ALL of this was crammed on to a single regular sized dinner plate. I prefer to have my salad in advance and I don't like my food items bleeding on to each other. They could definitely improve on the delivery.

    (3)
  • Joan L.

    This was our first visit to the Ivy House. We were a party of four and ordered off the lunch menu. Everything tasted fresh and was nicely served. The corn bread and desserts were outstanding. The prices were reasonable. Liked the atmosphere and it was fun browsing in the gift shop after we finished our meal. We will definitely go back.

    (3)
  • Jorge U.

    I'd never heard of this place when a friend from Ocala suggested that we meet here for lunch. She raved about the food and promised it was worth the drive. I checked out their website & I was intrigued. It looked promising. It was ... OK. If I lived in Williston I would probably eat here fairly regularly, but that's probably more of a comment on Williston than on the Ivy House. The house is beautiful. It's in good shape & it's nicely decorated inside. The waitress was very friendly & helpful. Unfortunately, the food was just average. They had a pork chop sandwich special that I tried. It was heavily breaded & deep-fried. It needed salt. There was nothing bad about it as such, it's not like it was dripping with grease or anything, there just wasn't anything special about it. My friend had the chicken salad & it looked like there was more mayonnaise than chicken. Maybe that's tasty if you're in to that sort of thing. Overall I'd have to say that if I happened to be in Williston at meal time I might stop in, but I wouldn't make the trip just to go to the Ivy House.

    (3)
  • Paul D.

    Ivy House has some of the best country style cooking I'v eaten. The decor is magnificent; I felt as if I might have traveled into the 1900's. We got the raspberry tea and it was probably the second best raspberry tea I've had. The chicken dish is has a very flavorful and the lobster tail was great. I was amazed how good string beans and carrots tasted. Their biscuits melts in the mouth, just amazing. The corn bread is about average. The serves was good. The almond pie was very good. This is a great place to treat a love one for dinner or some out of town guest. I was not sure what to expect when I stopped there, but was really glad that I did. If your in Williston/Gainesville area or looking to try a great place, you will definitely enjoy this place.

    (4)
  • Brooke W.

    I've heard people come for miles to visit the Ivy House. If you want to be treated with perfect Southern hospitality, than it's worth the trip. The restaurant has a long history , the house having been built in 1912. But this is a story you will have to ask the 3 generations of Hale women that run the place to expound upon. My mother is indeed a smart woman and suggested we stop here for lunch. I was expecting something much fancier, but I was glad to discover that it wasn't. Marjorie Hale started the restaurant and cooks with old family recipes. In fact, my mother wanted to know if the Fried Green Tomatoes were cooked with corn meal or flour and Ms. Hale was loathe to give any details because of the secrecy of this family recipe. We decided if this woman was guarding her food this carefully, we had to try the tomatoes, corn meal or not. Although they are made with flour, this much we ascertained, (to the chagrin of my mother who believes that corn meal brings out the tartness of the green tomatoes), it was well worth the sampling of the family treasure. The waitress was quite the saleswoman but was generous in letting us try the things she suggested at no charge. They have quite a different lunch and dinner menu. I would've liked to have been able to choose from the dinner menu, but I did enjoy the chicken salad croissant I ended up with. My mother raved over her salad. And the sweet tea was perfection. The waitress convinced us to get dessert. The best thing was the buttermilk walnut pie which is a variation on pecan pie, a little lighter and less sweet, and very good. I would love to go back for dinner the next time I'm in town because the menu was quite intriguing...

    (4)
  • Clayton B.

    Easily the most over rated restaurant I've been to. Crispy chicken was not crispy, the breading was soggy and sliding off. Not to mention, the chicken was over-cooked. The carrots were delicious, but the green beans tasted like like canned. I have no problem with canned veggies in a pinch at home, but at a restaurant that has such a local buzz I would expect something better. Mac n cheese pasta was overdone and there was way to much milk in the cheese sauce. You could barely taste any cheese. The drive to Williston is beautiful and the restaurant has a great southern atmosphere. Sadly, the food is just not up to par.

    (1)
  • Lee R.

    Very good place in a town that I doubt is known for its restaurants. I went there with my father - and although the interior design is a bit feminine, it was the quality and uniqueness of the food that was that took center stage. I had a salad with rolled turkey. Very good, and somewhat creative for a salad. My father had the special (a crispy baked chicken dish) that was also excellent. It was served with several side items ... no shortage of food that's for sure! Great variety, quick and pleasant service, and some eclectic menu choices. If you pass through Williston - you should give it a try!

    (5)
  • Alan W.

    Went to Ivy House on the recommendation of a friend. Cute B&B look from the outside and a pic of Bobby Flay's visit. They are NOT afraid to tell you that their food is VERY good and that the this or that is homemade. Salad was pretty great with ranch dressing that I'd douse my children with to show them what true love is. I got fried cod which was delicious. Green beans, sweet potatoes, and carrots were awesome! Fries were so-so and onion rings were ok. In general, the place was full of fascinating Southern people dressed up in clothes I'd never seen before. It felt like the 1980s and I enjoyed being in a time warp. However, after eating there, my stomach hurt a lot!!! My friend had to stop at the gas station on the way home because of being in such gastric distress. I think the food is good overall, but you'd better have an iron stomach. Another option is to come for the Southern charm and just drink some water and watch other people eat.

    (3)
  • David C.

    This is outstanding in any town but in Williston doubly so. Oven baked chicken rolled in rice crispies, squash casserole, Lima beans, Mac and cheese and green salad plus sweet potato with corn bread and fresh rolls. It all comes on one plate. We added a great buttermilk and walnut pie fresh from the oven. Everything made on location. Sunday few selections. Meatloaf sold out but okay all was excellent. A few salad plate options. Old Victorian home. This is our second time to stop with the same goodness last time. It's on our road home.

    (5)
  • Art J.

    I live in Williston and have been going to the Ivy House since it has been opened, not because it's easy to get to but because it's where we (my wife of 47 years) go for special occasions. I have always found them to be Southern polite and immaculate, never having a bad meal nor bad service. This last meal, with special friends, was a joy because not only did I have never heard of frying lobster tails they served me my first one and it was delicious beyond my wildest imagination. It's like beer battered shrimp but better. If you never had any you haven't lived: artJones

    (5)
  • Josh W.

    Absolutely the worst service I've ever had!!Table we had reserved was not available so they moved us to about her room. We were seated without menus. Took waitress at least 10 minutes to even greet us. she had a very unfriendly personality and made us all uncomfortable. The raspberry tea was disgustingly too sweet. Apps were good enough but salads were served on top of them basically. Then the dinners took at least 30 mins after salads were done. 5 dinners came out about 5 minutes apart. The 6th person didn't receive their food till others were mostly done. The food was just okay, nothing great at all. Shrimp and grits had way too many grits. Delmonico Steak was thin and medium was more like well done. Chef came out to apologize and gave us coupons for free desert on next visit. I'm afraid there won't be a next visit. He apparently didn't notice the table had not been bused and dishes were all over the place. We signed the check with stacks of dishes on all 4 corners still sitting there. Not sure what others find appealing about this place other than the southern decor. It was a total and complete bust.

    (1)
  • Leanne P.

    Like previous reviews, this place is overrated. Went in to the establishment really excited and optimistic. Pros: -cute and cozy place -crispy chicken was good -huge portions Cons: -TERRIBLE service: we are a young couple, and for some reason we were treated much differently than the older crowd around us. We were not greeting, we weren't explained the specials, and when our food came out server practically dropped the plate onto our table while already walking away. Didn't ask if it looked ok or if we needed anything at any point. We don't even know her name because she never introduced herself. Older blonde lady. She seemed nice when she interacted with other customers, but was rude to us for no reason. -raspberry tea is not even tea. It's more like juice with a ton of sugar. -food came out really fast for the amount of people in the restaurant. It must have been prepared ahead of time. Overall: would not go there again. Had high hopes and we were greatly disappointed.

    (2)
  • Katie C.

    The Ivy House is ALMOST as good as having lunch at Grandma's house. In fact, when I visit my Meme in Williston, this is about the only place she'll agree to go to. Located in the tiny town's main drag, the huge Victorian-style house offers a maze of quaint, cute dining rooms usually filled with familiar local faces. These days, the folks in Gainesville and Ocala have heard the good word of Ivy House and often make the 20-minute drive to savor the flavor alongside the Williston residents. They have a southern style menu filled with yumtastic dishes like Fried Shrimp, Chicken Salad Croissants, Pulled Pork Sandwiches and more, but I come for one thing and one thing only: The Krispy Chicken Special. Baked golden brown with butter and crunchy rice krispies, the chicken breast is served on a positively packed plate consisting of a dinner roll AND crumbly cornbread, fresh salad with the sweet and tangy house honey mustard dressing, and a vegetable of the day that is guaranteed to be country-fied (think field peas or collard greens.) This is truly one of my favorite meals of all time and, when paired with their super sweet Raspberry Tea, it reaches another level of DELISH, ya'll. Another sweet selling point of Ivy House is their sincere Southern hospitality. They will happily accomodate special events like birthdays and showers with private rooms decorated to the nines with special personalized place settings. The ladies at the front door treat every guest like a dear niece or nephew when they enter, and the servers continue the graciousness from greeting to check. The Ivy House is a true gem and has earned it's reputation as a WIlliston institution.

    (5)
  • Kevin W.

    I visited family who recently moved to Williston, and we ate here for lunch. We all had one of the house specialties, the crispy chicken, and we all though it was delicious. In any meal I'm bound to be able to find something I feel can be improved upon, but for overall value, ambiance, and hospitality, Miss Mimi and her team can't be beaten. It was just good, unpretentious food at a reasonable price, especially given the portion sizes. After eating lunch here my dinner was.. nothing! I was still too deliciously full from lunch. I'd recommend the Ivy House.

    (4)
  • Dennis F.

    Sad to say that our latest lunches at this restaurant have found the food to be going slowly down hill. Last week the Crispy Chicken special was anything but, unless you count the layer of Rice Crispies on top. Service was spotty and a tad on the flustered side of professional. The restaurant is still very pretty and nicely decorated and it remains the best in Williston, but no longer worth a special trip...

    (2)

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Map

Opening Hours

  • Mon :11:00 am - 2:00pm

Specialities

  • Takes Reservations : Yes
    Delivery : No
    Take-out : Yes
    Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
    Accepts Bitcoin : No
    Good For : Lunch
    Parking : Street
    Bike Parking : Yes
    Wheelchair Accessible : Yes
    Good for Kids : Yes
    Good for Groups : Yes
    Attire : Casual
    Ambience : Casual
    Noise Level : Average
    Alcohol : Beer & Wine Only
    Outdoor Seating : Yes
    Has TV : No
    Waiter Service : Yes
    Caters : Yes

The Ivy House Restaurant

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