I love all the Ivy Collection restaurants, and you always know you’re in for a treat with top notch food and drink when you go.

But there’s always a fear when you’re doing a challenge like Dry January or Vegan-uary that you’re not going to get that same level because it’s something different.

Well, I can assure you that’s not the case at The Ivy.

I went to the St John’s Wood branch on a cold and rainy Wednesday evening in January, for a good catch up with a friend and some great food – but no alcohol.

While the Ivy does have a veggie and vegan menu, I’m not doing vegan-uary, so I went for the A La Carte menu for food.

Also, while I’m not being THAT strict with dry January, where possible generally this year I want to cut out drinking unnecessarily mid-week, so luckily enough The Ivy has an Everfleaf menu called Serenity Sips for some non-alcoholic cocktails.

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And honestly, they tasted the same as the normal ones – I just felt better about myself!

There are five different options which are twists on the classic alcoholic specials, and I tried two of them – the Blossom Breeze Spritz and the Pink Petal Elixir.

Both were fruity, sweet with hints of sour, and didn’t taste like they were missing what is usually the main ingredient.

My favourite was the Pink Petal Elixir, based cherry blossom, grape juice with a citric blend, and the infamous Ivy cotton candy.

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I paired this with a tossed Asian salad with beansprouts, watermelon, pak choi, broccoli, cashew nuts, coriander and sesame, while my friend had the duck parfait.

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These are our go-to starters when we go to The Ivy, which we like to do together a lot, and they are great time and time again.

For mains I usually have some sort of fish meal, and although I love fish and chips I always try and do something a bit different, but this time we decided to both get the same to avoid any food envy of each other’s dishes.

I forget how good The Ivy fish and chips is, and the mushy peas and tartare sauce on the side tops it off.

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We also couldn’t resist some zucchini fries to share as well, because if you’re cutting out alcohol you need to replace it with something else slightly unhealthy, right?!

The portions are always generous, and the fish is melt-in-the-mouth.

We really didn’t need dessert, but when there’s a crème brulee on the menu we don’t say no, and as ever The Ivy crème brulee was one of dreams, soft, moist and absolutely divine.

So, if you want to indulge, but want to control how you indulge, go to any of The Ivy branches this January.