Giggling Squid - Billericay — Restaurant in Basildon

I regret to leave a negative comment on this occasion as I have been a patron to several Giggling Squid restaurants near me and I have usually have a much more satisfying dining experience in the past.

My wife and I visited the Billericay restaurant just before 3pm with the intention of grabbing a quick, late lunch. The restaurant was notably empty at the time, with the exception of perhaps one or two other customers. We were greeted by a mature Asian (Thai) lady, petite in stature with permed dark hair, however her demeanour did feel somewhat devoid of the traditional sense of Thai hospitality even down to a lack of a greeting smile. I thought perhaps we’d arrived at an inappropriate time that day to the annoyance of the kitchen and staff who were supposed to be on a break? I even asked if lunch was still being served to which the lady responded that they are open throughout the day, and arranged for us to sit…

One of the things I have always been fond of were your lunchtime menus which feature your lunch tapas sets, I was somewhat disappointed to find that they had all had their prices increased, whereas previously you could get a set for under £10 which I thought was outstanding lunchtime value. To be fair, price increases were understandable given our current economic climate so I’m not here to gripe about those but I can clearly see it has had an impact on the lunchtime patrons from all the empty tables!

So after examining the lunchtime menu for a few minutes, the lady serving us returned to our table still with a rather disgruntled, cold look about her, and asked us for a drinks order… I said we’d like to just grab a quick lunch and asked if I could order a single Pad Thai dish from the lunch menu to which she promptly interrupted me and snapped rather sternly that she was taking a “drinks order first”. Taken rather aback with the sudden interjection I responded that I’d simply like a glass of tap water - as I often do, after all it was a hot sunny day and I wasn’t minded to study the drinks menu in too much detail as I’m not really one to drink anything alcoholic at lunchtime nor was I in the mood for anything sugary in the way of soft drinks - i didn’t think this was an unreasonable request. However I regret to say the response I got from the lady serving us was enough to prompt my wife to get up and walk out without ordering… the lady had scoffed at my request for tap water and shook her head as if disgusted. I just gave her a smile and informed her “we have changed our minds and won’t be eating here today” on my way out.

This is only the second occasion ever I’ve felt it necessary to walk out of a restaurant due to the service, which is a shame because, as a bit of a foodie myself, I do think the standard of food and dishes offered at GS restaurants are of a generally decent standard and flavours are quite authentically done... after this unfortunate experience I don’t foresee us returning to the Giggling Squid at Billericay any time soon to be honest. I can understand any restaurant business wanting to promote its sales of drinks and beverages, but to be subjected to this amount of visible disdain and disrespect from staff would be enough to spoil...

Had made a reservation for 7pm and had confirmation email of a 1h30mins slot, walked into the Billericay restaurant only to be curtly greeted and told that they needed us out by 7.30pm, when I queried this, we were very abruptly told we had until 8pm and could we then leave, to which I responded and said it depended on how quickly we were served. It then took them 15mins to take our order which was an absolute ordeal! Drinks: After asking if lime could be left out one of the cocktails, they asked if it was an allergy, yes I replied. They advised the drink is pre-mixed so ingredient’s can’t be amended, no problem, I then asked for a cocktail which had no citrus listed, the waitress disappeared to ‘ask’ someone else and a rather angry women came bounding to our table to inform me that all their cocktails contained citrus, by this point I opted for a coke!

Food: Ordering the food was the next issue…. My choice of pad Thai apparently contained lime too, they then put a code on our table so we scan with our phone and check the allergens of each dish, and sure enough, no citrus, so when we queried this with angry waitress lady (who we were later told was the manager!) she advised the ‘citrus ingredient’ was a wedge of lime on the plate, so I simply requested they refraine from putting the lime on the plate. This was far too taxing apparently and she would only do this if I told her it wasn’t an allergy!!! She then came back and blurted at me, beef, chicken or veg, to which I said ‘sorry?’ She then shouted at me ‘pad Thai!’ so I ordered the chicken. Starters were nice, mains however, came at gone 7.50pm so I was conscious we were going to be chucked off our table mid-meal!! We weren’t luckily, but food was very bland! My friends prawn dish contained mainly peppers, and my Chicken pad Thai contained mainly tofu! I don’t mind tofu, but barely any chicken?

By this point we were both stressed and couldn’t wait to leave, so asked for our bill.

In fitting with the Halloween weekend, we were extremely shocked by the bill which came to over £70 for 2 people and the fact they’d added in a discretionary service charge… wow, scary indeed! Never not paid a tip in our lives, but we both agreed the service was dreadful and decided not to pay the service charge. Incidentally, I then was bombarded with emails telling me my reservation had been changed, first 9pm, then 10pm, then my original reservation was cancelled.

My friend and I had been looking forward to this for ages but from the moment we stepped in the restaurant, we were looked down upon! Worse Thai food I’ve ever had, in fact, probably the worst dining experience I’ve ever had! very expensive and lousy service. Lots of other local Thai places that easily beat this. Won’t go back and definitely...

Very overpriced for what it is. Very disappointing too. Our second visit. I recall 1st time it wasn't great. Wife booked it again (Doh!). So, you never know if it's improved. Starters were fine. Recommend the Salt and Pepper Squid. Main course, not great. Expensive when you add on extras to make a meal of it. Avoid the 'Crying Steak'. Not a great cut. Two chews and swallow, otherwise it will just go round and round in your mouth as you try to tenderise it. It was bland too. I asked for hot. I was told it comes with a side sauce. On arrival I asked if this was the side sauce (pointing). The chap said 'yes, it's very hot. Be careful'. I threw it on. No. It wasn't hot. Boring. Had some noodles with beansprouts to accompany. Bland. Literally noodles and beansprouts stir-fried. No seasoning or life added to it. Just oily. Dull and lacking. I think we've exhausted this place. Service is slow and frankly, not great value for money. It's popular though, so makes me wonder how other people have lived. Maybe I'm too used to London life? Funniest thing was we had a kid in our group. They gave the kid a complimentary colouring in/word search sheet to amuse them. On asking for a complimentary pencil for the kid we were told it wasn't possible. COVID rules. Like, why bother???

Edit: Following my last review the Giggling Squid team offered us a £40 e-voucher to entice us to return. So, why not? See if things are better. It was a quieter time this time around visiting us, but again can't say one was overwhelmed by what we were served. One of the dishes we went for was the signature 'sticky chicken' (?). This was a real puzzle. It seemed like it was just battered fried chicken. It wasn't sweet nor sticky. Something was wrong there. The rest frankly is all a bit overpriced for what it was. Final bill +£70 for two: 2 starters. 3 main dishes (not great portions). 1 rice. 1 beer and bottle of water. No deserts.

For the same price we visited The Raj (Indian Restaurant, not far away), and got a much more substantial and tastier meal that included starters, mains, loads of sides and deserts and drinks! We'll go again here.

Anyway, shouldn't grumble seeing they subbed this meal with the £40 e-voucher. I can't really increase my original star rating so one star it remains. Won't go...