The Ivy Asia Chelsea

The Ivy Asia’s Racist Video Fits Restaurant Menu Full of Stereotypes | Eater London

"A recently released promotional video from the restaurant drew widespread condemnation for overtly racist and Orientalist stereotyping: it depicted women dressed as geishas struggling into a rickshaw chauffeured by an elderly Asian man portrayed as physically inept, a warrior ‘hero’ rescuing the women, their indecipherable vocalisations (likened to racist comedy sketches), and a dining room full of white patrons staring as they burst into the venue with shopping bags. The clip, which also promoted a menu grouping called the “Zen Stack” (a Buddhist-titled assortment of largely Japanese dishes), had comments disabled, was deleted from the restaurant’s channels on 8 August, and prompted first a brief and then a longer apology admitting naivety and cultural insensitivity and announcing an internal review — but offering little explanation. Critics, including community writers and restaurant journalists, called out the clip as symptomatic of a broader pattern at the parent company: reliance on Orientalist décor and flattened, fetishising menu descriptors, a lack of internal pushback during production, and profiting from caricatured depictions of Asian cultures even as the group continues to open new locations. Prominent responses highlighted both the specific offensive choices (from “wonton” fonts and tired tropes to the geisha and rickshaw imagery) and the wider harm given recent spikes in anti-Asian racism." - Adam Coghlan