Giggling Squid - Esher — Restaurant in Elmbridge

We came because we'd enjoyed our previous visit. Sadly, we were really let down by the service. Staff were inattentive to say the least. We weren't asked for our order for a while after arriving. 40 mins later still no sign of anything apart from prawn crackers. We were then told that there was a glitch in the system and our order had been lost. At this point they apologised and told us there would be a discount. Gave order again and waited at least 20 mins for our starters. Mains followed, but after starting them, we realised that 3 of us had been wrongly given each others orders - we had been told they were the dishes we had ordered. We told a member of staff what had happened, and she said something like "it's a bad evening". I said WE'RE having a bad evening, to which I had no response. Our empty glasses had been left on the table since the start of the evening and we had to ask to have them cleared. Some of our dishes were cleared, but then the only staff visible were busy setting up tables for the next day and paying no attention at all to us. We were by now the only customers left at the end of the evening. We were never offered dessert or coffee and had to ask for the bill twice. When the bill came, there was no discount as had been promised. We went in search of the manager and said we were not willing to pay a service charge and wanted a 50% discount, which she agreed to. She was apologetic and said she hadn't known about the problems or she would have served us herself. All very well, but if you have inexperienced staff, you must check up on them and ensure...

Some confusion over booking table which was booked for a Saturday at 715. Was told had to vacate by 9pm so felt we were eating against the clock. Our table was at the back of a very crowded restaurant. This part of the restaurant had no air movement and was extremely hot. The waiters appeared to be working against the clock as of course they needed to get us out quickly. The meal itself - the curry tasting platter was awful. No flavour, 3 tiny bowls of nondescript mush together with rice cakes. My main dish was much better although my companion ordered sticky chicken and was served just that. A large bowl of battered chicken pieces. Most uninteresting and disappointing. We also ordered noodles and rice. The noodles supposedly with bean sprouts although I didn't find any and impossible to separate as were a sticky mass. We decided to pass on dessert as we were running out of time. I've never had to eat a meal so fast, feeling under pressure with management watching the clock. When the bill came, we were surprised to see that we'd spent £174+ (3 of us) before we noticed that it wasn't our bill. We breathed a sigh of relief and asked for the correct bill. £120 was the damage for spending an uncomfortable and disappointing evening at the Giggling Squid. I won't be booking another table anytime soon. One last thing - on leaving the restaurant we noticed several empty tables so I guess our return of table for 9o/clock was not so important. Shame this information wasn't...

My first time at this restaurant. Started off well, staff very attentive, in fact we needed more time to peruse the menu! Ordered food and the starters were very quick to come plus they were delicious. The mains took a little longer and I noticed the service rapidly started to decline at this point. The mains arrived, the crying beef was very fatty, thank goodness we’d decided to share mains as well. We waited for about 15 mins after finishing our main course before I had to wave someone over for the bill. The plates hadn’t been cleared, no one asked if we wanted coffee or dessert, didn’t ask if we enjoyed our dinner. One staff member who I think was the manager was too busy setting up a large table which had been vacated. It was a Friday night but service needs to be better right to the end of a sitting. One waiter didn’t even look happy to be there! Also if you’re looking for a quiet place to eat, this isn’t it. Food good though, apart...