Giggling Squid - Chislehurst — Restaurant in London

Some friends rave about this place, so I had to go as I love Thai food, but unless we went to another giggling squid in Chislehurst I can't see what the fuss is about... Firstly the service we received on entering was a joke, even though I had pre booked and had the booking on my phone, we was met with a fella saying over and over you have no booking, there is no booking, no we don't have you booked in, did you book in another name, the restaurant was half empty so even if they didn't have it, they could of just said, but we can give you a table! after us just standing there for a bit and me waving my phone with the booking on, they found it,!!! The decor is like a old people's home, the music playing was too loud, they did turn it down after a bit so maybe someone had asked them. Water offered but only from a bottle at £3.60, The vegan menu is a bit naff two starters.. Vegan pancake rolls, or some mushroom dish, we ordered 3 pancake rolls, to share, they came presented nicely but tasted of nothing, absolutely nothing, no taste no seasoning, very wierd!!! (if it wasn't for the dip..) all out of a jar, (£17.95 for 6 minute pre frozen tiny rolls) , The prawn crackers are those brown things that you get in most thais they must buy them by the ton load there not very nice. (same dip out of that jar) We waited over 40 minutes from our starters to main ( and it wasn't even full in there,) . I had chili & basil pao prawn that was quite nice, nothing to rave about, the noodles came out and I waited 5 more minutes for the prawn dish,, and stir fry noodles which although very small was the nicest dish on the table, can't go wrong really with few beansprouts and few noodles, my son had green curry he said it was crap.! The two vegans, had massaman vegetables, at a tenner a dish it was mostly cabbage they left most of it,,, and although the waiter went round one by one taking our order.. Only one came out.. So she was sitting there with a bowl of rice for 10 minutes until her main dish came out, my other vegetarian had jungle curry.. It was inedible, (the taste of this dish is truly shocking) with tofu as chewy as a real sponge, this tofu was in all the other dishes and is so overcooked its like trying to eat a bit of plastic.. One person had a roti. Which was on the vegan menu, the waiter came out told us it wasn't vegan,,!!! She cancelled it, then he came back said it was, so she ordered it, well she had one mouthful and left it, said its like a greasy undercooked pancake, we couldn't wait to get out if there, I didn't pay the £10.88 service charge, the waiter didn't ask me why, so they obviously don't care really, having been to Thailand this has got to be one of the worst thais I've ever had.. This place is just a money spinner, the food is overpriced, it all sounds lovely on the menu,, I give it a year before it's empty and its turned into another Costa,, sorry giggling squid I was so looking forward to a decent authentic good quality Thai, bit we (5) of us was hugely disappointed.. And won't...

We went to the giggling squid Chislehurst last night for dinner. It was a rare child free night and we had heard mixed reviews so thought we would try for ourselves. The place is beautifully decorated but unfortunately that was the only good bit. We thought the front of house lady was rather rude and uninviting, 3 times I had to ask her to repeat herself as she asked us a question, while facing the other way without eye contact and we didn’t understand the question which was on allergies we eventually worked out, she became irritated that she had to repeat herself…..so not a great start!

We were seated at a nice table and served by a polite waitress. However service was slow and poor all evening. Starters were cold on arrival, duck spring rolls were ok flavour wise, but nothing amazing. The pork belly starter was very chewy…..and was definitely not pork belly! We waited almost an hour for our main, we chose the jungle curry for main as the river curry and another dish (can’t recall the name) were sold out. The Jungle curry was incredibly hot, we both enjoy spicy food, but this was too the extreme where you couldn’t taste anything else in the dish, there were that many red chillis in the dish too, we had to pick them out. The dish we felt was also over complicated by the amount of products that were in it and the chicken was not great quality. The best dish was the Papaya Salad! The things that really disappointed us was that we ordered drinks and after 20mins had to remind them that we had ordered them. We had a waitress come out with food to our table and the table next to us asking if that was our food she was carrying , which it was neither of our tables. We were not offered plates for our starters and when our mains came our, we were asked if we would require a plate, ‘erm yes please, how else are we going to eat our curry rice and salad?’ Not the restaurants fault but the clientele was a little left to be desired for too.I think the guy coming out of the toilets with his top pulled up exposing his body with his trousers still undone, which he decided to do back up at the table, totally but me off my meal. He was also very loud and obnoxious which the staff laughed and almost encouraged rather than asking him to lower his tone. We along with others quietly paid our bill and left.

To sum up, nice looking restaurant, rude front of house, terrible service and mediocre food. It’s a real shame as we were really looking forward to a spontaneous child...

Four of us went to the Giggling Squid on the first week of opening. We were all very excited to learn that a Giggling Squid was coming to Chislehurst after hearing so many great things about other branches, but we have to say, our first experience was pretty disappointing.

The ‘service’ throughout the evening was pretty non-exsistent; we weren’t offered any water for the table at any time and not once did anyone check to see how our meals were. When the mains were served, the waitress handed a main plate to one of us which was so hot it nearly burnt my partner's hand. One of the meals (sticky chicken stir-fry) was almost inedible. The manager did have a word with the waitress and sent her straight over to our table. She apologised and then handed us desert menus, but again, we were left unattended and after 20 minutes of trying to get someone to take an order for deserts, we gave up! We made the manager aware of our disappointment and the lack of service; he said he would of course take the chicken dish and service off the bill.

We did decide that perhaps this was a one off as it was the first week of opening and that maybe we should try one more time as we absolutely love Thai food.

On a whim we decided to wander up to the restaurant Wednesday last week. We didn’t have a booking and this seemed to send the duty manager into a complete flap. He was really stressed saying over and over "we are so busy’, "we are so busy". When we said don’t worry he just said "ok then". I appreciate it’s a new restaurant and everyone is hyped to try it out but he could at least have said I’m so sorry and let me take your number so we can make sure we can fit you in soon as we welcome as much custom as possible, but no, he just seemed relieved that we walked out of his restaurant.

I think the novelty period of this new restaurant will soon wear off and not sure there will be a regular local following like there is in, for example, Cote, where the consistency of food and service is always...