Giggling Squid - Winchester — Restaurant in Winchester

What can I say.. I'm kind of disappointed to have to write a negative review. It's a lovely restraunt in a lovely location tucked away just off the main high street. The food is very good and the staff were all very polite. They even put together a plate kinda of off menu (plain rice with cucumber and carrot), nothing fancy but very much appreciated for our autistic daughter.

Unfortunately, that's where the good part of this review ends.. we went there this evening with our 2 children for our 10th wedding anniversary.

It's important to understand that our youngest has ASD and ADHD (as mentioned above), so we always request any starters to come with the mains to avoid her getting to restless while waiting.

First mistake there were 4 of us, only the waiter only brought 3 glasses and said he would return with a 4th.. which he did not. After asking for a 4th one.. again, we were forgotten. We ordered 1 starter to come out with the mains and 1 basket of prawn crackers. The crackers to come now, as they normally would to snack on. 15 mins later, the single starter arrived. The waiter left, and we assumed the mains would follow.. nope, trying to get the attention of a waiter to ask about the mains was difficult.. no one really seemed to be paying any attention. By the time I got their attention (after having my daughter complaining about being hungry laying on me for comfort), we found they were just cooking it (45 mins after our arrival) needles to say kids were restless so we asked about the prawn crackers which still had not arrived, they apologised and they arrived promptly after.

The mains finally arrived. Our eldest had ordered a set main from the kids' menu with no changes.. but it arrived missing one of the veg (carrots). When I pointed this out, I was told that dish does not come with carrot.. to which I pointed to the picture on the kids' menu.. that showed and listed carrot..she apologies and went and got some carrot. (People make mistakes this fine) No one checked up on us to see if our meal was going OK.. no one asked if or when we were ready for desert (so we didn't have one) Even though I had said to a waitress (not our waiter) that I would like to order 2 chocolate Lolly's.. she just disappeared and didn't get anyone to take the order.

Also, when we got home, we found we were charged for 2 lots of crackers when we only had one

It's such a shame.. the food really was good, but we felt utterly let down (mostly due to the side not coming out with mains as we requested, causing a huge delay to us getting our food)

Another side note for the chain.. adding a service charge by default leaves a sour tast.. and stops your staff working hard for it, as not many people would ask to have the charge removed. This is not America tips are given as a gratitude,...

This is really disappointing not to leave a 5* review.

We’ve been to your Bath and Salisbury restaurants and they were really great, but this time, it felt like we weren’t at the Giggling Squid.

The service was pretty poor and at times awkward. Two members of staff walked past us and made us wait 5 minutes to be seated to our table. They didn’t even acknowledge we existed. It was really awkward because you were empty and had an army of staff, so there was really no excuse. Not a great start.

The service was really slow. We had a different server for drinks and food which created an issue in itself because the drinks were wrong and the food didn’t all arrive at the same time which was requested. If we had just one server, this wouldn’t have happened.

The food:

We ordered a massaman curry which was really, well cooked and full of flavour, good but your stir fry, wow it was pretty poor! No flavour whatsoever. It was really bland and extremely disappointing for the price.

Would we go to the Giggling Squid again? Yes, but probably not in Winchester. I don’t know whether you’ve got some teething issues being a new restaurant, but your food isn’t the cheapest. You really do need to improve.

Also, a really really huge annoyance. It’s not uncommon to order a few dishes for the table to share, but we didn’t even have proper plates! We had a very small side dish and we were expected to eat our curry, sharing platter and stir fry from a side plate. We were told that’s the only plate you had. Again, spending £80 for two people - really unacceptable!

Although you took the that dish off our bill, which was appreciated, we would have preferred to have had a really great experience and...

A restaurant chain in need of some TLC, underwhelming and offering "replica" Thai. Jun 2025 • Family

Disappointingly underwhelming, we had been previously sometime ago, and the experience on fathers was such that I doubt we'll visit again. Whilst the staff were polite, and I really didn't want to be over critical but we all noticed how tired the restaurant looked and felt.

Water damage on the ceiling, the deco was tired with the plastic flowers looking past their best. A mish mash of "stuff" including mop and bucket filling the void under the stairs by the bar, an awful choice of music (Rolling Stones as an example) on the PA, the managers spreading out his boxes of paperwork doing his admin. Now this may seem over critical, but when you are out for an occasion such as Father's Day l'd like to enjoy an experience, this was far from that.

The food was ok, nothing special and incomparable to Thai food I'd eaten over the years in and around Asia.

The soft shell crab was more like a bowl batter, missing any crab meat of any consequence over killed by the flavour of the ginger.

Whilst the staff were polite and did offer a smile they seem to be missing some training, not once asked if our meal was ok, no interaction, we had to ask for drinks rather than be asked - empty glasses left on the table instead of being cleared once used, a bottle of cider ordered but no fresh glass or ice.

Now I'm trying to not be petty, but the restaurant needs to be updated, the food taken back to Thai basics and staff needing some training.

Was not with the £150 spent...