Giggling Squid - Mere Green — Restaurant in Birmingham

This is my first time dining here with a group of colleagues at the recommendation of my boss who organised it. My first impressions were quite positive, it is clean and positioned in a nice place in Mere Green a short walk from a great Wetherspoons pub. This is a chain restaurant specialising in Thai cuisine. The menu is extensive with many dishes I had never heard of but the descriptions are adequate. We came on a Friday night and is wasn't that busy. Despite this, the staff insisted on moving our end table (we were a group of 9 but the table seated 12 and they thought it best to move the end table away - I don't know why as it wasn't used by any other customers) However not an issue as such. Still, it was a strange thing to do and was a little disruptive. The decor was OK, it reminded me of Cath Kidston designs which I'm not particularly impressed with. My wife and I chose the Bangkok Bites sharing platter at £24.99 - this was presented well, and although it looks a lot, there wasn't that much for 2 people considering the price - most of the items were lacking flavour and the dips were lacking any depth of flavour. However, the sausages and beef ribs were lovely. My wife chose the Duck Confit, which, although crispy on the outside, was a bit dry inside and the sauce lacked the sweetness needed for duck and was quite bland. I chose the Thai Garlic Hake at £17.80 which was very well presented but I was soon aware that the hot chillis overpowered the flavours of the sauce and fish. I could barely taste any garlic and the heat made the dish unfinishable for me. We shared some sticky rice at £3.90 which was ok. I love spicy food and this is advertised as a medium but my dish had far too many chillis in it. We also had a bottle of Altoritas Merlot at around £25.00 (available online for £10.20), which was very disappointing, sharp and acidic at first but it did improve after having some spice. I've had much better from Aldi. The service was OK - nothing special and there was a 17.5% service charge added to the bill. My wife and I paid £95.00 inc service. I didn't feel that the experience and food quality warranted that price, and we won't be going back, unfortunately. It's a chain restaurant, and in my opinion, you never quite get the same quality and attention to detail, etc., that you do from an independent. Overall, Giggling Squid is a pleasant, clean, well-situated restaurant with acceptable service and average food. Is it worth the money? Personally, I...

Giggling Squid was AMAZING! It was mine and my boyfriend's 5th anniversary and so we wanted to go somewhere different and try out a Thai Restaurant and this had great reviews and I liked the look of the menu/restaurant. I did make a note when booking that it was our 5th anniversary and asked if we could have some nice seats if available. The car park is easy to find. When we arrived we were greeted by a friendly member of staff, they did intend to seat us in their birdcage however it was booked out and we sat on a table near a flower wall which was still just as pretty I didn't mind though. The waitresses were so nice and attentive, especially the lady with red hair which I regretfully didn't get her name. She had a great sense of humour. We tried many cocktails, the Matcha-Tini was my favourite and the Hammock Daze was my bf's favourite. The manager even came over to say hello, and offered us our first drinks on the house due to the birdcage not being available which was so incredibly nice of her to offer. We did decide on the sharing platter, and asked if we could change the vegetable spring rolls for duck ones and they did (at an extra charge - worth it). The food was so so so good, and our favourite was the chicken wings. And then we picked the turmeric sea bass parcel and rising star red duck curry, again the flavours were exceptional. Sea bass perfectly cooked, and the duck was super soft. We got egg fried rice and stir fry noodles on the side. The portion sizes were a good size, definitely worth the price. And for dessert we picked the mango cake and chocolate lava dessert, and the staff very kindly wrote happy anniversary on my plate which was a lovely touch. Overall, the food was delicious, lots of choices from the menu including drinks and the service from the staff really helped make our evening special for us. 10/10 recommend you go there. Thank you :) we look forward to coming...

We popped in on a whim as I finished work early and the area has a good strip of restaurants. We thought we would try our luck, despite online saying they were full. There were a few customers seated. But still plenty of seats, we were able to get a table. The waitress initially tried to sit us right at the front door, which was chilly. She then offered our choice of seating, as from pictures you can see that there is a half wall in the middle and you would be sitting next to another table with some faux flowers between you, which was going to be quite distracting from our conversation. We asked if we could be moved which the waitress happily helped.

The service was a bit slow, our allocated waitress was really rash and snappy with snatching the receipts and short with her answers. We shared a starter of the crackers, this was nice. For my mains, I went for the “restaurant fave” sticky crispy chicken with a side of rice, my husband got the chicken curry with sticky rice. My chicken was over cooked, quite dry and sickly after a few bites. Only plus, was it was massive portion. So plenty to eat, but as it was just chicken, no veg, it was really not enjoyable! My husband however really enjoyed his meal. He said it was fragrant, refreshing and tasty. I mentioned the chicken was dry to my waitress. But no alternative or apologies, so it was disappointing seeing as it was a fave dish. We also ordered a cocktail each and it was nice. We had 1 starter, 2 mains, 2 sides and a drink each, this came to £55 altogether, which is probably about average for dinner for 2 with drinks. But I did feel that for the price of a main, it should come with a side. Overall, service was slow and abrupt, food disappointing, but would like to give it another try next time as I’ve heard good things. Based on this experience, I...