Giggling Squid - Portsmouth — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Would give 0 stars if I could. Do not go here if you have a gluten allergy (or any other allergy probably).

Firstly, service and welcome was bad- the waiter had the unmistakeable smell of a long shift in a cheap polyester shirt which was off putting. He then cramped 6 of us in a booth which would only comfortably seat 4. He also forgot our drinks, where we watched them sit on the bar in a not-busy restaurant for at least 5 mins.

When we tried to ask if they knew the gluten free meals we were told to scan a QR code which gives the list of every ingredient in every dish in a non-accessible format, this would be near impossible to read for a dyslexic person.

After having to spend nearly 20 mins reading through the ingredients of the microwave meals on a crazy long online inaccessible list my mother found a dish she could supposedly eat. Although it's not so appetising when you need to read through the list of e numbers, emulsifiers and additives... I was under the misconception that they cooked food fresh, so this was really disappointing.

Even after this effort, my mother had an unmistakeable coeliac reaction near immediately after leaving the restaurant, which is very unpleasant and distressing for her.

She ordered a meal that was supposedly gluten free (chicken pad thai), and it did come out with a sticker which was misleadingly reassuring. My assumption is careless cross contamination.

The staff were poorly trained, and this was not the only risky error- they gave my pregnant sister the wrong dish (they mixed up a beef and chicken massaman) luckily this didn't create gastric distress, but there are limitations on what a pregnant person can eat, so this near miss also doubles down that the kitchen and wait staff were either ignorant of rules, or they chose to ignore them.

When I left feedback for the restaurant, I was contacted, not with an apology, but with a demand for details on the allergic reaction & the time it lasted. This is shocking; probably outside of GDPR (unnecessary sharing of sensitive personal information), and appears to be a minimisation of what happened, or to try and claim the restaurant was not the source; when there is no doubt that my mother ingested gluten here.

We'll never be back; and if they don't start to pay attention to allergies, this could be a real...

Booked two tables of 6 and we were sat in booths next to each other. I was a little late arriving. Ordered drinks for myself and 2 children, 15 minutes later I asked where the drinks were, our server had forgot to put the order through - ok that happens. We ordered food, asked if we wanted the starters put through to all come out with the mains (the only 2 that had ordered starters were my 2 children), said yes. 10 minutes later our server comes to tell us that he had put my food (which was tapas - 3 dishes) through as a starter. Very apologetic but I said look don’t worry about it. So my food and children’s starters came first. This is where it all went wrong. 2 hours later from when we arrived and 90 minutes from when the food order was placed, the rest of the party were still waiting on their mains. Raised the issue with the staff and managers a few times before the food arrived. One order was missing an ingredient that was asked for. The rice - which was meant to be Jasmine rice tasted like boiled rice and wasn’t properly cooked. We had 4 children in the party who were becoming quite restless (one has additional needs) and to be fair they did pretty well considering they had to wait 2 hours for their food but due to the heat in the restaurant did keep popping outside. My great-niece (aged 6) was standing just by the door and a server told her off to the point she cried. We were really looking forward to visiting the restaurant - which was a first time at this establishment and had been arranged as a family meal as the day before we had our mother’s funeral. It seemed understaffed for such a busy Saturday and the staff seemed overwhelmed. As it was we saw several people come in after our party and have their food served and the leave. Yes the manager comped some of our meal/drinks, but it was a complete shambles of an afternoon. It was a restaurant that I was really looking forward to visiting and the whole party was very...

I came here this evening to take my partner out for her 30th birthday. Disappointment is an understatement. We hadn’t booked, but asked for a lovely table as could be, the host said they were very limited on tables which turned out to be untrue as there were plenty of tables available, and upstairs. Would’ve been nice for a memorable night..? Our squid starter was soggy and drenched in oil. Our dirty starter plates were still on the table when our mains came out. There was no check back on the starters, mains and no one came to see if we wanted another drink. Plus, our first dirty glasses had not been cleared even though the table next to us was relayed. My partner complained to the manager on shift who took the starter off the bill and two drinks. We would have stayed for desserts if it weren’t for the shocking service. We were in that restaurant for less than an hour. They had loads of staff on and yet no one seems to have a clue on what service is. Shocking and I won’t be returning anytime soon. We watched our server and many others pop out for cigarette breaks with politely putting it, bashful hand gestures to one another whilst taking it in turns. The manager also went out, and I didn’t see anyone making a detour to wash their hands before going back to serving. The manager with the septum piercing asked who was serving us, yet really, it’s his responsibility to make sure his servers are correctly handing over tables and doing their jobs correctly, not doing it for them as a glorified server. Still paid for our mains and one starter, which for me was not good enough as overall it was a horrendous experience. Complimentary drinks are a basic take off - unimpressed with the lack to go...