Giggling Squid Reviews 

After a hectic day with my wife’s flight being diverted due to the Heathrow saga we decided to order a takeaway. After arriving home we ordered from giggling squid in Billericay with the cost being £82. We paid a little extra for a faster delivery what we got was half our order .After phoning the branch we didn’t get much of an apology or explanation but was told they will send out the other half of the order in 30 minutes. I was quite surprised if there response no genuine empathy no offer of a refund . So half the meal is getting spoilt waiting for the other half to turn up while we sit starving after a equally awful day with the Heathrow saga.

We have eaten at Giggling Squid on several occasions and it has always been a great experience. The food is delicious and the team are always helpful and attentive. On this visit Olivia was very helpful and friendly.

I original put a review about this branch in Muswell
Hill went here on valentines night an I was shocked about the poor service myself an my partner waited over an hour after our starters for the mains when I asked the waiter what was going on as the restaurant was near closing the manager did not care as to what was going on just looked over gave a funny look an walked off there was no apology for what had happened I would
Definitely not recommend this branch as there is a clear lack of organisation a communication between staff I have never experienced this at any other branch and have been to a few of them !

When something goes wrong, you really see an establishments true colours. My order turned up wrong, prawn not beef as I realised after dispensing with some sauce. I mentioned it but did not require it to be changed and made no fuss/further comment.
When my bill arrived, they apologised for the third time and had not charged me for anything apart from my sparkling water. Dealt with brilliantly.

We went to the Beaconsfield branch for Valentines and it was utter chaos. Strange, given that the restaurant wasnt fully booked.

When we arrived we were put upstairs and successfully ordered our meal and initial drinks. After that service plummeted

We waited around 20 minutes for a waiter to show up to take away our starters. No one come by to ask for more drinks, we were sat around trying to catch their attention which looked like we were being ignored. The whole floor of customers were disgusted.

Just Eat and Deliveroo orders were being prioritised over us. It took nearly 1 hour for our main to come out.

Terrible experience. The management need to pull their fingers out and organise themselves better, especially considering the importance of the night

Giggling Squid Bishop’s Stortford is lovely food, freshly cooked and served by very friendly and attentive staff. Eat in or take out, my go to restaurant. Chicken satay is superb, as is the prawn cashew stir fry, in fact all the different dishes are great. Highly recommend!

i ordered a slow cooked beef dish main meal. portion size was small ,meat content skimpy,sauce was oily and the dish lacked thai flavour. My first and definitely my last visit to a giggling squid branch. i told the waitress not to include service,she didnt offer an apology.

Great service and fit us in last minute when our other booking fell through. Karina was really supportive of our two disabled parents and made a fuss of my brother. Authentic food and really pretty decor. Treat yourself!

Food was delicious. Went to the Stratford upon Avon restaurant with 6 friends for dinner. Was seated very fast but we had to wave a server over after 15 minutes of sitting to order drinks. A little disappointed they didn’t have a gluten free menu but my friend was able to use her app and find what she could order. Service was very slow but food was amazing so would recommend.

Bath Giggling Squid

The meal was generally good and the main server team friendly. But, when making payment with two gift cards they were refused because they were out of date. The catch (which no one in their right mind would see coming) is that they were one day over their year’s use because of the leap year! The assistant manager - James - was truly one of the most arrogant, rude and patronising members of the team I think I have ever had the misfortune to meet. He was so rude, standing aggressively over the table like he was ruling it all whilst informing us we were wrong. But, they already knew it was my Mum’s birthday, they knew we were celebrating as she was recovered from a serious health condition and operations. They knew this but didn’t care and not only wouldn’t help but decided being rude was far more important. It was genuinely disgusting. So, it is promised it would be sorted over email and to save the hideous embarrassment we paid and left - to our horror the debacle continued via complaints with James (assistant manager no less) continuing his rude diatribe and then the supposed operations manage being equally useless. This place is not cheap, the food whilst good is not amazing and the management team are appalling. This was supposed to be a celebration and the gift cards were for my parents birthday so this was just a mess and so poorly handled. Bath has lots of better places to go - Thaikun is far better food and the staff always amazing. Whoever hired and trained James needs to consider what a poor job they have done and that customers deserve to feel happy, welcome and positive even if there are issues to sort. It was also his issue to sort and he refused to try. Rude, rude, rude and just will never go back and I hope this review saves others from this awful experience. I wondered why it was so quiet in there and now I know! You have been warned…

Second visit to The Giggling Squid in Reigate - even better than before. Served by Nan who was helpful and attentive with our food allergies - thank you 😊 The food was absolutely delicious too. Highly recommended.

I ordered a takeaway from Giggling Squid tonight, which was delivered by JustEat couriers. The food was tasty, plenty of it, and good value for money. Really enjoyed it, and have enough left over to eat later tonight for a snack!

I recently went to the Giggling Squid in Chelmsford for my Christmas meal and spent over £310. My colleagues and I had a really great time. As a result of this great experience, I got a take out from the Giggling Squid in Chelmsford on the evening of 18/1/2025...to say that I was disappointed is an understatement. I ordered Giggling wings which were nice and I had the Jasmine Rice. I also ordered Slow Cooked Beef Massaman for which there is an additional £2.00 charge. I had driven 10 miles to the restaurant and 10 miles home. When I got home, I was really disappointed to establish that I had been given chicken, even though I had paid the additional charge for the beef which is reflected on my receipt. I was not able to drive another 10 miles back to the restaurant so I had no choice but to eat the chicken, which I really did not enjoy.
I am extremely disappointed because of my above poor experience and I will not be recommending the Giggling Squid to any of my family and friends because of this seemingly intentional change to my order.

The worst restaurant I’ve ever been to.
The portions are as small as the letters on the menu. The food is overpriced, and the portions are ridiculously tiny. Then they automatically add a service charge and don’t even feel guilty about it after providing terrible service!

The server had the audacity to shove the card machine under my nose, with the tip set to £0, and stared at me like she was about to curse me if I didn’t add extra. Isn’t the £8.65 service charge enough? Do you really need more for a small, unsalted portion of rice and other mediocre food?

There was no salt on the table, and no waiter was available to bring any. It was a terrible experience overall. I hate McDonald’s, but honestly, I wish I’d gone there instead – it would have been much cheaper and far tastier! LEICESTER

Winchester restaurant:

Was excited about my first giggling squid experience but unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations.

Starters were lovely, however myself and a friend ordered the Giant Butterfly King Prawn Pad Thai for our mains. It arrived with only 3 prawns which were shell on. Wasn’t aware of that as I wouldn’t have ordered it if I was (please add to description or advise upon ordering). We weren’t provided with anything to clean our hands with either which made it a messy experience. Once I did manage to de-shell my prawns, they were dry and bland, as was the pad Thai. Our sticky rice was also more of a block of rice, wasn’t pleasant at all. Below average main.

We were comfortable for most of our visit, however, the heating went off at one stage and it suddenly got very cold, we were all sitting with our coats on our laps. We raised it to the staff and they said we were sitting next to the chimney. It was -2 outside so that blowing onto our legs was not pleasant.

It was disappointing that we raised all our issues to the staff and nothing was done to try and make things right to ensure we left happy customers.

I won’t be rushing to return.

Attended giggling squid in cardiff. Warm welcome, ordered fisherman Feast as a starter for 2. Soft shell crab was delicious as was the sat n pepper squid. The crispy squid I found was pretty tasteless, but one small soft shell crab cut in half wasn't great value to say least

I ordered a main if chilli basil stir fry. Now this is where the issue arise, the waiter said it was only a stir fry, which is obvious but I way it was said I basically forced me to order a side of rice which I didn't want. Wasn't a nice moment and u felt embarrassed.

The food was lovely but couldn't finish it as has the rice to eat which I didn't want. Shame really.

We visited the Mere Green restaurant for New Year’s Eve 2024. It previously enjoyed a takeaway but had a less positive experience eating in so I contacted the restaurant to highlight but it was really important to restore our faith. When we arrived, we were shown to a nice table And our drink order was taken fairly promptly. The Grincb cocktail lived up to its name, being mean with the alcohol and without any interest or festive touches whatsoever. The waitress said she would take our drinks order and then bring lots of starters which we had pre-ordered three weeks previously. We were then roundly ignored despite trying to attract attention.After 40 minutes, I got up to raise a complaint and we were offered a round of drinks. When the mains arrived, the portions were very varied and we found that two meals came with rice although that wasn’t indicated on the menu so we had ordered sides that we didn’t need. The stirfry beef was ridiculously spicy even for me who enjoys spicy hot food. There was no flavour to it just burning Chill. The Moo hong was extremely salty, The lighting was very bright, the noise levels in the vacuous space uncomfortable, the food average in taste and presentation. The service, minimal to non-existent.  Absolutely no obvious attempt to make occasion special. The bill was reduced I removing a round of drinks, puddings on the sides sadly this did not make up for the problems we experienced. We won’t be rushing back any time soon.

We love this place - it’s somewhere different with tasty food and good service!

I feel compelled to share my recent experience at Giggling Squid in Brentwood, as it has left me deeply concerned about their food safety practices and customer service.

On December 1st, 2024, I had a meal there, which included prawns. Hours later, I became violently ill with severe vomiting and diarrhea that lasted for two days. What makes this more alarming is that I was the only person in my group to eat prawns, and no one else fell ill.

I reported the incident to the restaurant immediately, but their response has been nothing short of dismissive. Instead of taking my complaint seriously, they speculated that my illness might have been caused by norovirus—even though there is no evidence to support this claim, and my family members, who ate with me and live in the same household, were unaffected.

Despite my requests, they refused to provide transparent details about their seafood handling.

To anyone considering eating at Giggling Squid, especially the Brentwood location, I urge you to think twice. If you’ve had a similar experience, please speak up—it’s vital to hold businesses accountable to prevent others from getting sick.

I’m sharing my story to raise awareness and ensure no one else has to go through what I did.

Yesterday I visited one of your restaurants and was surprised that the service charge was 7.5% rather than the standard 10% or 12.5%. I asked for it to be put up in recognition of the excellent service I'd received, but this was apparently impossible to do. On making enquiries later, I found out that the service charge had been reduced as a way of making the food itself more affordable. I was pretty shocked by this -- and would never eat again at a place that exploits its workforce like that. Despite the food being delicious, it left a bad taste in the mouth.