Giggling Squid - Bath — Restaurant in Bath

My wife and I booked here for dinner before a show last night. We travelled up from Devon and were excited by the menu options (my wife has to avoid soy and dairy because our daughter has CMPA).

Things started well with a Thai tea for myself and an espresso martini for my wife. Both were delicious. I ordered the crispy squid bites and my wife had the 'One Bite Salmon'. Again, these were delicious and we both commented on how glad we were to have decent Thai food (there aren't many options in our area).

Things took a turn after this.

My wife ordered the Royal Fishing Boat Curry, I ordered the Chubby Cheek Pork. We also ordered coconut rice to share and a side of roti. We waited to order more drinks as we had both finished our first... 20 minutes passed and nobody came to check our table or ask us for any further drinks.

Then my food arrived, along with the rice and roti. My wife's did not. Again, nobody asked if we needed more drinks or even more water for the table... I began to eat mine as we assumed my wife's was on its way. My food looked lovely, the pork was very tender and the presentation was great. But upon eating, I realised my food was over salted and tasted of little else. I'm not fussy, I rarely complain about food. I persevered, wondering if it might be me, but when food is too salty, it's gets worse the more you eat it. I had to stop eating it, hoping I could ask a member of staff to change it when they brought out my wife's food. We waited five or so minutes and nobody came to the table, so my wife caught the attention of a passing member of staff. He seemed confused, but it transpired the curry hadn't been ordered. They assured us it would be cooked and brought out ASAP. Nobody offered us more drinks. Nobody asked how my food was.

Eventually my wife's food was brought to the table. Again, we weren't asked for any more drinks orders and I wasn't asked how my food was, even though it was obvious I had an issue given that I'd left most of my food untouched with my cutlery placed as if I'd finished. By this point, we were quite hungry. When it did arrive, my wife was unimpressed with her food. The salmon was dry and the sauce was bland.

The staff were polite and offered their apologies when we asked to see the manager. The manager was very understanding when we proposed that it was only fair of us to pay for our drinks and starters. But overall, our experience was a...

1 Star because the service was so bad and there was no care or compensation offered to us for our poor experience.

Firstly, I booked a table for two for dinner with my girlfriend. On arrival we were directed to a table in to a tiny, dull, overflow room that looked like it was usually used for private dining and not the main restaurant. It lacked any of the beauty and atmosphere of the main restaurant (which was a key reason for booking the restaurant for a date). And on asking the front of house/waiter if there was a table in the main room we were not even slightly unapologetically told that it would not be possible or even offered to wait for a table to free up in there.

Secondly, a significant number of items from the menu were unavailable as shown in the picture. There was no warning of this on booking the restaurant and feel we should have been notified in advance on the day at least that many of the items would be unavailable.

Thirdly, as so many of the starters we wanted were unavailable, we were unable to find three starters to make up the 'three for £17.95' deal on starters on the menu, so we asked our waiter if it would in any way be possible to include two of the sides in the deal with one of the starters as they were all around the same price point as the starters but were flatly told it would not be possible. It seemed like it would've been a very small accommodation considering that two of the starters we would've liked were not available.

Fourth, after ordering one round of drinks we were not offered at any point a refill of our water or another round of drinks. The service was completely lacking. No one came to check once our mains had been served if everything was ok. We were left in the room on our own so much so that 15 minutes after finishing our mains and no one coming to check on us we decided to get up and go to the main restaurant our selves to pay the bill and leave. We were contemplating ordering more dishes and dessert but we'd had quite enough and felt forgotten about by that point.

It really soured what was meant to be a romantic evening for us despite the tasty food (of what was available). I particularly want to point out that the waiter who served us (who i think was also front of house) seemed to not care in the slightest for our enjoyment of our experience and let the...

The Bath branch is the only giggling squid where the experience has been so poor and shifty. An awkward start as was placed in a waiting room (fair enough), however the staff member could not remember who was next in line to be seated, so time after time it was left for the customers to awkwardly negotiate that between themselves. When we were shown to our table I informed the staff member those negotiations were uncomfortable. He became defensive rather than recognising it and taking ownership. It was a long wait between courses, however the calamari starter was delicious. The salmon baskets/nest were not. They were absolutley drenched in fish sauce (not how they should be according to other branches), however we had waited so long we just got on with it. We then waited at least half an hour for the main to come. Only one main arrived. After about 25 min I asked for my main. It was then brought out with an apology (crispy tofu salad). The crispy tofu was soggy and the salad consisted mainly of mint leaves and chunks of ginger. This is a dish I usually have and it is nothing like this. I raised it with a staff member and after some to and froing they brought the dish out again with some crispy tofu and put the sauce on the side (when the dish is made well sauce being on the side is not needed). During the meal I explained what was wrong with the meal to who I assume was the shift manager (I.e. half the bowl being mint leaves and chunks of ginger- in the absence of other ingredients such as cucumber). I also explained about the long wait and delay between courses and the two main meals. He apologised and offered a complimentary dessert. We had one dessert. The same manager then totaled up our bill (I saw him do it), gave it to another staff member to give to us. The manager did not remove the service charge! I was very taken aback. We just wanted to leave at this point and I was too inassertive to say anything. On the way out I said to the manager that after all that I was surprised to see the service charge on the bill. He had the nerve to say nothing but shrug his shoulders and smile in an 'I've done nothing /it wasn't me' sort of way. Ultimately it was bad food, a bad experience. However what really left a sour taste in our mouths was the shadyness around the...