Giggling Squid - Henley — Restaurant in South Oxfordshire

I’ve had consistently unpleasant experiences at GS across three visits.

First Visit: Ordered a dish, the server confirmed it, but I received the wrong food. They made no real effort to fix it, so I just ate it. But, this was forgivable as I felt the server made a genuine mistake and I didn’t want to make a fuss.

Second Visit: Went with two friends and waited 40 minutes to even be acknowledged after being seated, despite sitting in full view of staff right by the bar. After finally getting drinks ordered, we were ignored for another hour. When I flagged a server to order food, we were told the kitchen was closing soon. Meanwhile, other tables were seated, served, and finished while we waited. The food, when it finally arrived, was underwhelming.

Third Experience (Takeaway): Reluctantly gave GS another chance via Deliveroo as my friend wanted to order here. I noticed they inflate prices if you add on extras via the meal page (e.g. if you add the chicken stir fry main the “why not add” shows these higher prices for rice/starters etc) sticky rice went from £3.99 to £4.25, and salt and pepper squid from £8.80 to £9.40, likely hoping people won’t notice. If you add everything separately from the main menu you get the real prices.

Once the food arrived it was awful: dry “sticky” chicken, overcooked sticky rice which was barely edible and cemented together, and a chicken basil stir-fry with barely any chicken or basil.

Across three occasions, the service and food have been consistently poor. I regret giving this place multiple chances, really such a shame because Thai food is my favourite cuisine but every aspect is lacking...

Visited this week with my partner who uses a wheelchair, there was no accessibility information on the website so we assumed it was accessible - upon arrival there was a large step with no ramp access - so my partner had to get out the chair and I carried it in. The staff didn't know on the way in so no complaints that they didn't help - however on the way out there were no offers of help as we struggled to hold the door open/carry the chair.

This restaurant came highly recommended and we were looking forward to trying the Tapas sets so we could try lots of different foods - I have a shellfish allergy so can't eat certain things; we kindly asked if we could substitute the prawns/squid on one of the tapas sets for chicken instead so it was safe for me. We were told this was not possible - usually when I visit restaurants and explain an allergy they are happy to substitute a food I can't eat for something I can. Having intended to try the Tapas sets we were left having to find something else on the menu - additionally the online QR code to see the ingredients in different dishes wasn't working so it was guesswork as to what would be safe to eat.

The one dish I did want to eat/could eat safely with no risk they didn't have in.

The food we ordered was tasty, just a shame about the experience/ lack of accessibility to willingness to adapt - we would have spent a lot more money on the tapas sets and probably ordered starters and desserts but in the end just wanted to finish what we ordered with limited choice and leave.

Very...

I don’t understand. In the past 2 years I have had the best and the worst Thai meal at this restaurant. Last night, my birthday, was unfortunately the worst. Our waitress was excellent but actually getting our food took forever and when it came it was nothing short of disappointing. Thai food is meant to be both delicate and visually inviting. We had none of that. Our calamari starter was so overcooked it was almost black and brittle! My wife had sea bass and it came covered with so much red pepper sauce that it was practically inedible and had none of the plate decor shown in the menu. All you could taste was pepper plus the heat level was satanic! Mine was a bowl of stir fried chicken which by the time we got it was luke warm and looked a complete mess. Instead of the usual subtlety of Thai cuisine, it just tasted wrong. It was almost as if the regular chef had taken the night off. Also…this branch of the GS is a small and charmingly intimate restaurant or at least it was. Now, taking up the entire entry area and passageway to the cashier, a queue of leathered and helmitted food delivery drivers were jamming up the place, their phones chiming in discordant harmony while they waited for their food orders. The ambience was destroyed and quite clearly, our delay in getting food was due to the delivery firms taking priority. Sadly, not going back until this mess gets resolved. There’s too many other...