Giggling Squid - Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

Went there with a friend recently. To be very honest, the food is ok, not that astounding when it comes to taste but its pleasnt enough to eat. We had trout in banana leaves and vegetable jungle curry with wild purple rice and creamy sticky rice. A pot of green tea and a pint of Thai beer. Love the way the restaurant set up in 3 levels and the decor is nice and light although the acoustic is terrible. It was so noisy and one can hear every customers conversation all mixed up into one disturbing and annoying sound. Also don't like the way the sticky rice is served in a plastic bag inside a small matted small basket. Its a shame that hot food is served in a plastic bag these days knowing that it's not good for health and for the environment. I spoke to the waiter and he explain that they are trying to keep the rice fresh and I said to him won't it be better to wrap them in banana leaves?. He agreed with me that it will look more presentable and organic. The restaurant could do with some kind of soft furnishings to dampen the sound a bit maybe with nice drapes of materials and throws on the chairs to help with the acoustic. Other than that, the service is very good. The staffs are very friendly and the waiter who served us, a young Australian lad was very approachable and polite and is willing to receive feedbacks with very pleasant manner. It wasn't a bad evening meal and the price though is on the mid to high level for what we get is pretty acceptable compared to other restaurants around. Hopefully the management will acknowledge this review and try and make improvements as it will be one of the Best restaurant around in terms of the originality scheme they...

We went for valentines dinner at the giggling squid. There was a fair queue when we arrived which was surprising for a late booking (8:45pm) but it was dealt with as quickly as they could. Restaurant lovely staff great only putting a 4 star as it was a little slow at points and stopping a waiter to get second round of drinks was alittle tricky but otherwise staff were lovely just very busy. Victoria our waitress was very nice and bless it was a bit of dramatic night. But the food was stunning! Absolutely beautiful full of flavour and worth every very reasonable penny. We had the pork skewers and the one bite salmon, the pork was nice the sauce elevated it a lot. The one but salmon though was sublime. For mains we had the Thai melting beef which was superb completely melting packed with flavour. We also had the Thai hake which was one of the best Thai dishes I’ve ever had it was beautiful the flavours were just out of the world. We also had the pak choi and tenderstem and the Tom yum rice. The rice wasn’t as exciting as it sound but still very nice the pak Choi beautifully cooked.

Absolutely wonderful night we recommend the Chang beer also to go with you main course they also had a great range of interesting cocktails which was nice to differ from the norm!

Great place loved it I’m sure...

I visited the restaurant with an ex work colleague on a Thursday evening as I’ve been here before and really enjoyed the food we decided to book it again.

This restaurant adds something different to Oxford and the decor is gorgeous. We got seated in the lovely booth.

It did take a while for someone to come over to take our drinks order we had to ask someone to take it in the end as they seemed to be busy on a Thursday with not enough staff potentially? Priya came over and she was very lovely she recommended a cocktail to me as they have a 2 for 1 offer. I had a lychee cocktail and she recommended a passion fruit one which tasted so refreshing.

Our drinks took a while to come as there was a backlog of orders to do but this was okay as we ordered a starter to share which was great value for money. The pork part was our favourite.

We then had our mains and the lamb was 20/10. I’m not 100% sure what my roti dish was but picture has been inserted. I definitely wouldn’t get carby sides if you’re getting starters to share and a main dish as we weren’t able to eat our rice sides.

The atmosphere on a Thursday was okay but I’d go again on a weekend as it’s definitely better then!

Despite the slowish service I would definitely visit the restaurant again as these things happen and it was a...