Giggling Squid Reviews 

The red chicken curry had exactly 3 strips of chicken amd so much sauce which tasted like it was watered down. AWFUL !! Why pull the wool over our eyes and try and cheat us. Well I won't be back !!!!

I wanted chicken satay, but was told they only serve Halal meat, which is a real shame as it's my favourite dish.

I lived and worked in Thailand for 12 years so I don’t normally go to Thai restaurants in the UK as their ability to make good Thai food is hampered by the difficulty of getting truly fresh ingredients that are the essence of the cuisine. My friend who has never tried Thai food asked me to take her for a Thai meal. With reluctance I tried your restaurant. Well you did not prove me wrong. I had a red chicken curry. The sauce was watery and weak tasted only of coconut milk, and was packed out with CARROTS with about 5 small pieces of chicken. Carrots are not a recognised ingredient of Thai curry. Please stop impersonating Thai food.

I'll start with the good things, the service was friendly and quick, the atmosphere was pleasant and relaxing, and the restaurant was spacious. I was having lunch with a friend and we both had been to Thailand and had real Thai food, and you never get it as good outside of the country so our expectations weren't too high.

However, many of the reviews here are correct that the dishes are small for the price.

I had a vegetarian Pad Thai at £15 which was a main course but wasn't too hungry so I said I'd share it with my friend and she chose 2 starters.

I think we were both surprised and disappointed when the food came. The Pad Thai was served on a plate just slightly bigger than a side plate, it was not a full sized dinner plate. The server had asked if egg was okay for me, yet I think I found only 3 tiny bits of egg and about 5 tiny pieces of tofu. There also was no flavour.

The starters were sad but beautifully presented. The crispy mushroom salad consisted of 2 small lettuce leaves about 2 to 3 inches each with a combination of mushrooms and nuts, and the veggie wonton were underwhelming with more batter on them than veggies and you got 3. Each starter was about £8.

The food was okay, not authentic Thai, not particularly good value, with small portions

Our bill was £50 with one small main, 2 starters, 2 soft drinks and 2 coffees. We actually thought we might not be able to eat it all as we expected the portions to be bigger due to the price. But I can't fault the service, but if you are looking for a good Thai, especially Pad Thai ( I've eaten hundreds over the years) then this is not the place to go. If you are hungry then expect to pay at least £30 per head excluding drinks and service charge ( that would be at least another £10)

For a chain, it was disappointing value but perhaps it reflects the rising costs businesses need to absorb due to new government taxation costs?

Brought my mum in for lunch. Very lovely atmosphere. Friendly and attentive service from waiter Amali. Food came very quick by polite and friendly food runner. Food was absolutely delicious!

The food was very nice. The service was very good with staff coming checking that everything was ok. The atmosphere was very calm and relaxed and friendly. The portions of food was just right. The price I paid I thought was value for money and priced right. I spent £70 and I ordered 2 mains 2 rice 2 prawn crackers 2 soft drinks. I would come again to try different foods and flavours.

I wanted to review giggling squid takeaway service. I've just read some dire reviews. I am very surprised. I can honestly say this is the best presented and delicious takeaway from deliveroo, that Ive ever had.
I was also appreciative of the wide range of vegan dishes. ( Note to giggling squid -my daughter said that the vegan dishes weren't always easy to note)
Id give the restaurant 7 stats if I could

Absolutely beautiful food and outstanding service . Wonder pretty place to eat . But then always has been in Cardiff town and Cardiff Bay
We ordered the green curry and rice
It’s was perfect . We were Down Cardiff bay on the 14 th Feb . The service was outstanding and friendly . They cant do enough for you .
The curry was cooked to perfection
Would highly recommend and can’t Waite to go back . Thank you for a wonderful evening

I’ve eaten at many Thai restaurants around the world, and in my experience it’s actually quite difficult to find truly bad Thai food. Unfortunately, our visit to Giggling Squid in Oxford was very disappointing.

We ordered a Thai green chicken curry and a Thai red beef curry. The flavours were acceptable, but entirely unremarkable. The real issue, however, was the portion size. Each curry contained just four small pieces of meat and was made up predominantly of potato and sauce. The lack of protein was striking and left the dishes feeling unbalanced and unsatisfying.

When our server asked whether we had enjoyed the meal, we explained our concerns about the minimal amount of meat. To his credit, he appeared concerned and said he would check with the kitchen. He later returned to inform us that four pieces of meat per curry was the standard portion. That response was disappointing, as it confirmed that what we received was not an anomaly but normal practice.

Given that the curries were priced at £18 and £19 respectively, with rice costing an additional £4.25, the meal represented extremely poor value for money. For those prices, one would reasonably expect more generous and better-balanced portions. The only thing tasty thing about the meal was the price of the drinks, i.e., £8.25 for a 620 ml bottle of Chang beer.

I’m genuinely surprised that reviews of this restaurant are generally so favourable. After our experience, I can’t help but feel like the child pointing out that the emperor has no clothes.

Been twice in last week to York restaurant for Lunch and evening meal, both times, service excellent, great ambience, food was superb, absolutely delicious, well cooked & presented, will definitely be back & would recommend, Thanks to all

Rubbish food and worst stomach experience after visit in Jan.

Smelly Thain hake fish, boring chicken thai curry, tom yung rice (sorry for the spelling) worst. Both Bracknell and Wokingham branches have this issue.
But to be honest, Bracknell branch did server good food last year and was the reason for me to travel along to Bracnell on a rainy day but in vain. Stay away..

Had a lovely meal in Shrewsbury for my daughter’s birthday today. Food was great and service was better with the young legend Owen looking after us.

So stingy on the chicken in the green Thai, ideally you need to order 4 to get a normal amount of meat that you’d expect. They pad it out with rubbish veggies and spank you over the price, I took a piccy as it’s actually appalling! Shocker

We took our family to the Giggling squid for our sons birthday.Once sat down we were given menus .We then waited 15 minutes for someone to ask if we wanted a drink .The restaurant was half full .Eventually I had to ask for drinks which then took another 10 minutes to arrive .1 bottle of wine and a pint .I now realised that the staff had no intention of upping their game .We had to ask again after a further 15 mins to order food .Our starters arrived and the food was good as to be expected.The empty dishes once finished lay there for another 15mins I asked if they could clear the table ,she apologised then directly brought ours in courses up and half of them were cold.1 was sent back and the rest were just tepid .They had obviously been prepared and left to get cold.They food eventually was good.To finish I just was tired of looking at empty dishes and asked for the bill that arrived like lightning .I refused to pay the service charge.So in summary our experience was not a good one .The same as a lot of businesses you have earned a good name for yourselves and have taken your eyes away from good service.I have seen this happen so many times you need a manager looking out for this but you havnt .So we as a family will not return as dining out has become more often a bad experience as this happens quiet frequently in other restaurants also.More emphasis was being given on rolling out the just eat bags than looking after customers

Decent food n v comfortable but 12.5% automatically added to the bill - Why ? If i want to tip i will, so many chains now doing this.
If it's really worth 12.5% more, just put it on the menu.
Sorry won't very back.....

Had dinner for 2 in the Cardiff branch. Best satays I've ever tasted. Welcoming and knowledgeable manager and good service. No branches in Scotland yet. but will revisit when back down south.

We paid the bill by card - the amount shown. As we left the restaurant we were called back in saying the payment was wrong.
They cancelled our payment and asked us to pay again. we were apologetic even though it wasn't our fault. it was only later that evening I realised what had happened. The waiter hadn't added the service charge - so they cancelled the payment, they never explained to us and we weren't asked if we wanted to add the service charge, it was just done for us. I am so unhappy about this and think it's really bad customer service and also feel like we were forced to pay the service charge - we normally always pay it but hadn't noticed it wasn't added. Bad form Giggling squid, I won't go again
this was the cardiff branch

The food was served cold and wasn’t enjoyable. Although the staff were friendly, the service felt rushed — we were given the bill very quickly, and a service charge was added without being disclosed beforehand, even though we were only a table of two. The door was also locked right behind us as we left, which felt unwelcoming.

Service good
Place lovely
Food awful
Never coming back
Friends told me food was ok / dont understand it’s terrible

I’m a regular customer at the Harborne Giggling Squid and I’ve always had consistently good service and what I now realise were more generous portions.

I visited the Shrewsbury branch today (28 December) as part of a trip out, and sadly I left feeling disappointed. The service was fine and the venue itself was clean and pleasant, but the main course portion size for the money was genuinely poor. For a dish priced around £16, the portion felt meagre and simply didn’t represent good value.

It’s a shame because I like the brand and I’m happy to pay for quality, but the balance between price and portion at Shrewsbury felt off. If you’re used to the Harborne branch, just be aware the experience here may be very different.