Giraffe, Bath — Restaurant in Bath

Saturday lunch time. We were looking for somewhere to go, somewhere different. Somewhere with a bit of vibe about it. We were drawn to the Giraffe, as we have walked past it a few times and had never ventured, instead going to other places. But one must go forward, and put their head above the canopy, much like the titular creature, and dare to try new things.

The restaurant was bright and airy, with a funky wooden and lighting aesthetic. Soft music played in the background. We were shown to a table by a (slightly terse) waitress and were left to bathe in the modern ambience.

I ordered the Pulled Beef Birria tacos. They were simple but delicious, a cheesy tender concoction sandwiched in a soft taco shell. V large portion size and served on a bed of chips and salad. The stand out was the beef sauce, which did a great job imitating the real Mexican beef sauces. The fries tasted generic however, like their was no love put into their creation.

I also ordered the fried calamari, and this was particularly weak. When I order calamari, I expect some calamari, what I got was balls of batter. An overpowering panko bread crumb taste, lathered in mayonnaise. It makes my arteries clog just thinking about it now.

My gf had the Cuban sandwich, which I had a portion of. Tasted like a good guess towards the authentic thing, with mainly the bread being the thing that led it astray (not nearly toasted/panini enough.) The star was the mustard mayo dip, which added a good tang and spice to the dish.

Overall, I would categorise this place as somewhere you would take your ids to after a day out at the movies or the local swimming pool. An easy, family friendly, crowd pleasing establishment. Why I rate it higher than your typical restaurant s in this category is that it dares to aspire to more. They could have easily jus served only burgers chips and pizza. Going out and attempting different cuisines is admirable, and even though the attempts are flawed, they are still well...

Giraffe saved us a few weeks back on a Saturday evening with the family when every thing else we tried was full. Certainly the restaurants in Bath aren't feeling the pinch with any lack of customers! In the back of my mind I wondered why we could get a table there but no where else, yet actually they did seem to have a steady turnaround of diners of all ages, which is probably a good sign. There is a bar to the side which caters for those who don't want to eat. This means it could get quite noisy especially for tables nearby. Also it has music playing that was a bit too high for background really. Not a place to take anyone to impress then, but would you really consider places like this in the first place? A warning: The toilets on the 1st floor need a rethink. The Mens are open & can be seen by those going to the Ladies. Why? Maybe they had room because they don't have pizza on the menu (although it is available for kids). The menu wasn't huge and in fact I would call it limited, but quite a wide range in styles. You can get fish and chips or Asian orientated dishes for example. Even my picky family manged to find something to eat. It was also served hot, which is a must in my books. Not trying to do too much then, but what it did do was good enough. Finally it wasnt exactly cheap, although eating out in the UK isn't. Overall though, we all came away happy, so that was...

Would I go back? You're having a Giraffe!

Let's start with the positives. The venue itself is nice, the food was tasty, and the service was quick. What more could you want?

We'd booked online for 11:30 as my daughter wanted something from the breakfast menu and there was nothing on the website to say when breakfast ended. Luckily a review suggested you'd be able to order from the breakfast menu if you arrived at 11:30. I asked whether this was the case when booking but no one ever got back to me. My wife then tried to order from the "all day" menu. Turns out you can only order from the all day menu from 12:00... so not all day then! Once again, this isn't mentioned anywhere on their website (I tried my hardest to find it). So we ended up splitting the order, with my wife ordering after 12. My wife and daughter are also Coeliac and the waiting staff had been given a few set things to say (which we were told twice by different people), which wasn't particularly helpful and it was a struggle to get the information we needed to make an informed decision on the risks.

I think the serving staff tried their best but were hampered by the company policy and procedures.

If the above doesn't affect you then I can recommend eating here, but we won't be doing so again,...