Giggling Squid - Maidstone in Maidstone

We visited here on a Saturday evening at around 7pm after booking a table reservation online. We have been before and always loved it here. Waiter was amazing and even though it was only his 2nd day he did amazingly well. The food here is always amazing and this time I chosen drunken ribs from the signature menu ! Omg. Delicious. My only small negative was that there were two rather large groups seated quite close to one another. The groups started to wind each other up a little. At this point a large bald headed guy from the group on the all men table got very loud, used extreme bad language and started to be very disruptive. It was clear he had had way too much to drink. At this point we were ordering our coffees but if it had been earlier in our meal I would have insisted my wife and I moved to the other end of the restaurant - you don’t go out for a meal to hear language like that. Apart from that stupid man - our night was lovely 💓

Good quality food, modest portions, excellent service but comes at a price whether dining in or a takeaway. Nice ambience when less people around. With the crowd of a Saturday night, not conducive to a quiet dinner for two.

Came to giggling squid during September. It was located in the bustling streets of Maidstone, along with a wide selection of other places to visit. The food was top notch, service was good and atmosphere was relaxing!!

Not as many vegan options on the menu as last year. Very fast service once ordered and the food tasted lovely. Wasn't asked if we wanted drinks after the first one though which was a missed opportunity for them as we enjoyed the cocktails we had. Perhaps just a bit off night for them.

Best place to feel lie you are home! Food is beyond amazing and warming. Service is top notch, especially Manish. It was our first time at Giggling Squid! We are definitely looking forward to seeing you again! Even the weather couldn’t ruin our special day! Happily enjoying my wine outside! Lots of love to the team!

WARNING AVOID THIS PLACE- WE GOT FOOD POISONING!! I have eaten at Giggling Squid before in the past, mostly at the Tunbridge Wells branch and have had no issue, however after our meal here on 25.09.24 my partner got food poisoning. I am not the type of person to make this claim unless I am certain that everything else is ruled out as I know this can be damaging to a business, having previously worked in the food industry myself, and I was reluctant to write this review, however, as the area manager has shown no interest in resolving the situation following what feels like an inconclusive investigation, I have had no choice but to warn other customers not to eat here! Standards must have really declined at Giggling Squid as also earlier in September at the Sevenoaks Branch as a vegetarian I was also accidentally served chicken and ate a few bites before realising. Staff were unapologetic and did not offer any compensation. I should have known not to go back when something this serious had already occurred!!! Anyway, on the 25.09.24 we had dinner at about 7pm, we shared a few things but my partner was the only one who ate the Thai red beef curry, egg fried rice and the squid bites starter. Something out of these made him ill as about 6 hours later he developed food poisoning which was quite severe and caused him to miss a few days of work. Having eaten the same foods at home at least a few days prior and with no one else in the household becoming unwell (ruling out norovirus), we are 99% certain it could only be food poisoning from Giggling Squid. We reported this to Giggling Squid the next day to ensure that these items were investigated and not served to any other customer and they essentially closed the investigation, stating that no one else had reported food poisoning on this evening as evidence (not everyone knows to do this!) and that it was not possible that the food had caused this illness because of the procedures they have and how the symptoms had come on. The investigation concluded that it is only "reasonably conclusive" that GS did not cause the food poisoning, essentially meaning there is no solid proof on either side, yet the customer is the one to suffer! The complete lack of responsibility from Giggling Squid is disappointing and they are frankly risking damaging their brand by not providing compensation to customers that have genuinely become unwell after eating at their restaurants (I have seen other reviews at other branches with similar situations). You would think they would care about customer loyalty! We spent £129 on this meal and it made one of us ill. Highly recommend eating elsewhere!!! If a manager is reading this, please do feel free to reach out if you wish to resolve this situation and I will update my review to accurately reflect these efforts

Love the food, but the service was slow

What a pretty restaurant, and delicious food as well ! My drunken noodle and prawns & basil stir fry was so yummy. My husband had duck that was just fell of its bone, and the mushroom also superb ! Will defo back again !! The only Criticism is just the egg fried rice, the rice was hard and no taste.

Food and atmosphere was nice. However, one of the waiter was so rude. He doesn’t have costumer service skills.

Everything was good except the food proportion

Manish was fabulous, very attentive And patient whilst we waited for a late guest. The food was very well prepared and delicious, as we're the cocktails. A lovely birthday desert supplied complimentary. Thank you to the whole team.

Manish was great! We came for a birthday treat and we received a pudding with a candle and a couple of staff members singing, which was a lovely touch! Food was amazing, of course. Manish helped us with providing a taxi company at the end of the evening as we aren’t local. Really happy with our experience.

Staff were so incredibly rude and not friendly at all it was my sisters 16th birthday their customer service was terrible never asked how our meal was just came over plonked the food on our table they were just chatting amongst themselves at the bar I had to leave my meal to ask them for a drink would not recommend made the atmosphere awful but the food was lovely will not be returning

This place is great. I took my wife out for a date night and we both loved it. Its a big squished, but that just adds to the atmosphere. The Food is great, the staff where really bubbly and professional.

A menu with many choices. Excellent food and service. We enjoyed the lunch with friends.

This is a real shame, a chain restaurant crying out for a good restaurant manager to lead the team. An amazing building houses this restaurant with beautiful rooms either side of the entrance, with large windows looking out onto Maidstone. These rooms are not used instead you are put in a room at the back with the only windows looking over empty beer barrels and skips full of rubbish. It was a Monday night so to use the smaller front areas would have been nicer for the guests as it was not busy. I’ve eaten in giggling squid restaurants all over the country and I have found the food and service to be excellent in every restaurant with the exception of this one. The service here was rude and surly and I believe this was from the manager. Our prawn crackers arrived before our drinks. That’s a service no no. We ordered many starters as this is what we love to do at giggling squid restaurants. The food was horrible and bearing in mind this is a chain restaurant it should be as good here as the next restaurant is, everything in these restaurants are cooked mostly from a freezer to your plate. Therefore the quality should always be the same. Well most our food was burnt and some was burnt and cold. Everything tasted of old oil or tasted of nothing. To this day I remember eating the salt and pepper squid for the first time in a giggling squid restaurant and being wowed by what was happening in my mouth. Well not in the Maidstone branch. Please giggling squid head office, do the people and visitors of Maidstone a favour and sort this restaurant out. Serious staff retraining is required and kitchen standards need to be sorted. There needs to be a passion for service and food in this restaurant like you have in the many restaurants of yours I have tried. You have done incredibly well since you first opened in Brighton some twenty years ago. But your Maidstone restaurant needs help, it’s letting you down.

Should have been zero. Incorrect main delivered in order, when calling through to explain this to the restaurant spoke to someone extremely unhelpful who blamed deliveroo, when the order had clearly been bagged incorrectly by the restaurant (the receipt attached to the bag had all the correct items, but the food did not match the receipt). Apparently the only solution was to order again through deliveroo and wait another hour. Would not order here again.

Excellent food, so nice I forgot to take pictures of the mains. Very busy early evening and then empties out about 10pm. Would recommend a visit if you like Thai food.

We recently discovered this place and it's amazing! The food quality was exceptional, and at excellent value in comparison! Our server Adriana was helpful, very efficient and very pleasant! The service was fast to, and the restaurant was quant and beautiful. We're already talking about what we'll get next time!

We recently discovered this place and it's amazing! The food quality was exceptional, and at excellent value in comparison! Our server Adriana was helpful, very efficient and very pleasant! The service was fast to, and the restaurant was quant and beautiful. We're already talking about what we'll get next time!

Great food (especially the Drunken ribs!) and fabulous and friendly service from Manish. Would recommend highly!!!!

Really nice service for a family birthday dinner. They brought out a cake for my dad which was really nice. Special thanks to Manish for great service

Great customer service, quirky restaurant and fantastic food!! Will definitely come again. The street food sharer is a must!!

I expected to take home a doggy bag but we couldn’t stop eating! We’ll definitely be back. Thanks :) apparently I have to review with 100 characters so this last sentence is irrelevant haha

We had a very pleasant time and deliciously satisfying food at Giggling Squid in Maidstone. Topped by an impeccable customer service from start to finish. Thank you Giggling Squid.

Would be even better if they didn't pack the meals with tofu... Chicken pad Thai and prawn pad Thai, but everything else was good, we just wasn't impressed with the amount of tofu ... That we didn't expect or ask for.

Fantastic gem. Really recommend.

Treated ourselves to a takeaway and was not disappointed. The food was served in high quality branded tubs which didn’t leak everywhere and the food was the best Thai food we have eaten for a long time.

Food are delicious and full of taste. Atmosphere was too noisy . Service is okay.

Another gorgeously indulgent meal out this evening, at Giggling Squid, Maidstone, where the venue is decorated beautifully with the brands usual floral theme. This restaurant is airy due to the high ceilings, and feels much bigger than the Brighton branch, although it was very quiet due to being an early mid week evening. Lovely refreshing cocktails to start - we had a Sweet Jungle Colada (coconut water, pineapple, lime and mint) and a Thai Sambai (Rum and lime juice infused with Thai basil). The leaves on these two drinks did seem to be the wrong way round, with a Thai basil sprig in the sweet jungle colada, and no hint of mint within the drink at all, but honestly, as someone who isn't keen on mint, I was happy with this! My wife who also loves mint in a cocktail, was also pretty chuffed, especially when this happy accident happened on the second order of drinks too! We had the Fisherman's Feast platter to share - crispy squid bits were nice, but perhaps too many; soft shell crab was our first time having this so no comparisons to be made but it was certainly nice; salt and pepper squid is definitely the best starter here so I'm glad it featured on this platter and a classic papaya salad, which has left my partner once again dreaming of our holidays in Thailand - such authentic fresh flavours. Very luscious, and the salad was so fresh which cut through the rest nicely, but it was too much fried food in one hit for us, and left a bit of the squid bits. For mains, I went for a usual - prawn pad Thai, but I also ordered sticky chicken to go with it as it comes highly recommended - I understand why, it was so goooood! My wife had a new dish, spicy double curry sea bass with a roti. She said it was very good, very fresh but not actually that spicy, for her anyway, and not to the level of Thai spice that we remember. We were pretty stuffed from the starters though, so much of our mains was brought home in takeaway cartons and eaten a few hours later. It would be great if the sticky chicken was available as a side dish portion.

Nice place, tasty food, good service.

The food was excellent. Best Thai we have had in UK - very authentic Thai flavours.

Good was great. We ordered chicken satay for starters, red chicken curry and pad thai. I ordered a takeaway but it took 30 minutes to arrive and I went up three times asking how long. The final straw was for me to stand there and wait until I got it. Service got really bad towards the end of the evening as the restaurant got busier. Service charged was removed for this reason.

Ordered food on Deliveroo. Ordered sticky plant based chicken with coconut rice. We had never ordered from giggling squid before but thought it would be a good idea as there are good reviews. What an utter waste of money. It was inedible, with no Thai flavours. The chicken wasn’t sticky but just covered in a weird coating that tasted awful. Coconut Rice didn’t seem cooked enough and just seemed like rice with a drizzle of coconut milk. We would not order again. It was incredibly expensive for poor quality small portions of inedible food.

Can't fault the food, tasteful and beautifuly presented. A bit pricy and portions are slighyly on the small side. Lovely setting and very helpful staff.

We are visiting from the US and this was recommended by a local friend, and we are so grateful! This is some of the best Thai food we've had in years (sorry France). We're sorry this is not available to us on a regular basis.

Wonderful food, so beautifully tasty. Has that clean freshness to it all. Recommend the prawn and soft shelled crab curry...delightful. staff are friendly polite and helpful. 6 of us ate and were very happy with the whole experience. Restaurant is large bright and spacious. Walls adorned with bright wall paper floral drawings and flowers. Lovely place. Thank you

My favourite Thai restaurant in the Medway and Maidstone area 😍 we are visiting it every time we are hungry for something nice and spicy 🌶️❤️ we’ve spend there our anniversary too! 🥂 The food is delicious, drinks are truly tasty and colourful, the service is kind and helpful - we will come back soon! 🥰

It's a beautiful looking restaurant, unfortunately our food comes at different times. Kids had finished eating and we were still waiting for our food. I chose my meal from the smaller lunch time menu which come in a weird shaped plate with bowls on top which made it a bit of a challenge to eat. My food I would say was average but rest of the family enjoyed their meal. We ordered fresh orange for the kids and it was from a carton , despite my clarification if they made it and after all the delays with the food they changed me 10% service charge. Which I think was very inappropriate.

I recently dined at a Thai restaurant and I must say, it was a fantastic experience. The restaurant was clean and well-organized, the food was simply amazing, and the staff were incredibly attentive and friendly. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for delicious Thai cuisine and excellent service.

Beautiful place to dine and great food.

They automatically add gratuity onto the bill which leads to an understandably upset and awkward server when you ask them to remove it because service was poor. PAY YOUR STAFF PROPERLY GIGGLING SQUID

Stopped by for an early dinner after work in Maidstone. My first visit to the Giggling Squid and the food was spot on.

Nice Thai restaurant with some very nice menu options. We were there on a Friday evening and it was busy. Staff managed well though. But we did find it very noisy. Thanks for making our birthday dinner special 💛

Food was great, as always! Not top spicy, or oily, and so much variety on offer. Desserts and cocktails are also yum! Only gripe was that we went for a birthday, and asked for a candle in the dessert, which they didn't do

Have tried other places in the chain & loved them so was really pleased when this opened in Maidstone. Cute decor with flowers dotted around & a pretty menu. I ordered the pad Thai as it’s one of my favourite dishes & was not disappointed. It was delicious. The lychee mocktail was equally nice & ordered a side of pak Choi & broccoli to go with my main & that was super tasty. Friendly welcoming staff. Could not fault it from start to finish. It will certainly become one of my go to places when catching up with friends.

Terrible management, the manager looked very aggressive when we have our dinner with friends and she shouted to the staff,next to our table very unprofessional for a restaurant like this,apart food was ok and serving also .

We had a wonderful time celebrating our sons birthday. The staff were polite and helpful the whole night. The food was delicious and we had a fantastic time. We will be back. Thank you

As always, the most reliable night of good food and great service. Lots of special requests tonight from our 5 children, staff were so helpful. Thank you

Visited last night in party of 4. Food was excellent and well priced but was seated at far end of restaurant away from bar area. The result was that after order was taken and food delivered the waiting staff were very inattentive. In fact we had to get up and go and ask for more drinks. Staff not very good hosts at all. Failed to scan the restaurant to keep an eye on when diners needed attention or whether there were any problems with food. As we left we said thank you and were ignored. Waiting staff very disinterested! Not a Thai person in sight so not very authentic from that point of view! But as I say food was good.

Manish was an amazing host. He went above and beyond to make sure we had a good time. The food was amazing and reasonable for the price.

Our host Manish was fantastic from start to end the service was of a high quality and the food was delicious definitely a 10 out 10 highly recommended and will be coming back

This food is amazing and I couldn't recommend it enough.

Lovely friendly staff for my husband’s birthday meal and food was lovely too. They accommodated for specific needs which was great.

I went there last night 27th March 2024 with a party of 7 with my son for an 18th birthday party- it was fairly empty not many people around and there were two staff serving us. The drinks came fairly quickly but then we had at least half an hour wait before they even asked us what food we wanted. The food was extremely expensive most of the dishes around £20 each and the servings were small. If you’re hungry I can certainly recommend other places - I wouldn’t go here if you want a decent meal. The service was appalling not once did they come over and ask us if the food was okay… we had to go up to or three times to the staff to get things done. The waiter was unengaging and had an air - couldn’t be bothered with us - didn’t smile or anything. Considering I was paying £32 ahead I didn’t think the service matched the price The service was extremely slow it took at least an hour for the food to come out we were really fed up and I couldn’t wait to get out - this is a really really awful restaurant don’t bother. Oh and on top of that the Prosecco was very acidic and just simply undrinkable but we drank it anyway - to add to it all there was an added 10% service fee onto an already large bill of £32 a head - so the whole place was a rip-off. I would like to be more positive about this place but all I can say is give it a miss if you want to have a good time and a nice meal

Really enjoy the food and atmosphere at the giggling squid. Our waiter Manish was really helpful with the menu and the perfect level of attentiveness.

All the for was amazing, clean place, and friendly staff. I recommend the sliced beef main entree for sure! I didn’t find a squid laughing at me thankfully

First visit - Bloody Lovely. Can't wait to go back. Flavours were fantastic. Good portions. Not greasy. Fresh tasting.

Excellent Thai food with ood service. Spacious restaurant near to Fremlin Centre car park. The entrance is set back from road so it can be missed .

Fabulous food, new flavours to try and very tasty too! Emma our waitress was very polite, friendly and attentive. Vegan options available and really good choice of options 😁 unfortunately only one option for dessert! Hopefully they will add more very soon! 👍

If I could leave 0 stars I would, food is totally overated and so expensive for what it is, giggling squid have got a great way of making the menu dishes all sound incredible as well as beautiful presented dishes but the actual taste of the food is shocking, we just shared a sharing starter, calamari was blatantly frozen squid and so tough when trying to eat, followed by the king crab curry again the crab was totally inedible, then the pad Thai was an even more shock, noodles bland, full of bean sprouts and only 4 large king prawns in a whole pad Thai for approx £17, the only thing which was half enjoyable was the penang chicken curry but even then the chicken was so fatty. We told two members of staff how appalled we with the quality and how we wouldn’t be returning but they all just shrugged and said sorry to hear that, there was nothing offered at all. The food is so tasteless and vile I would recommend Thai orchard in Maidstone anyday over this over priced chain restaurant

Emma was excellent and the food was superb. Had a lovely meal, will definitely be back. Definitely try the roti it was delicious.

Great meal and our server Emma was amazing!! I had the the melting beef which was awesome. Honestly come here for everything you want from a good restaurant.

Came with friends and the food was really delicious, our server Emma was so lovely and really attentive. will come back.

The food was lovely and we received excellent service from Szilard. Green curry was amazing! Great atmosphere and we hope to be back soon.

We had a lovely meal with Emma as our waitress. The food was delicious - veggie massamam curry and Red Thai curry. Such amazing flavours. Great service, very friendly and welcoming staff.

Emma was fantastic. Super attentive and polite. She was a great addition to our party. She made us feel at home. An absolute pleasure

Came here with a group of 14 colleagues. Szilard was very accommodating and helpful throughout our evening. Overall lovely experience and would highly recommend.

food was lovely- plenty to share with options to accommodate a fussy eater. staff were very attentive, especially emma.

Fabulous meal as always and the cocktails were divine! Szilard was incredibly attentive - fantastic asset to your team!

Came for a quick lunch today and wanted to try a few small plates to share. Manish was excellent with recommending some of his favourites and was very attentive with his service. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and will be back again!

Ameena was an amazing waitress who took absolute care of us at the table. As always the food was impeccable. We really enjoy the meal and ambience

Absolutely outstanding food and service. We came to celebrate our daughter getting into secondary school. We all had a brilliant time. Szilard, our waiter was absolutely brilliant, very attentive and friendly. Can’t fault anything. Amazing.

Brilliant, attentive service with a smile from Szilard. Such amazing food too. Love the salmon bites!! We will definitely be back.

This was the first time I went here and it was AMAZING. I have to say the food was delicious. The salt n pepper squid was out of this world. Also our waiter, Szilard, was a super nice, friendly and professional. I loved the whole experience. I’d highly recommend a visit.

The service was amazing, Emma was really friendly and welcoming. The food was incredibly flavourful and tantalising.

Food and service was great. Our waitress Emma was fab! Food was really well seasoned in comparison to some of the other Thai restaurants in Kent.

Excellent food & great service by Ameena, thank you!! We came here for my husband’s birthday and had a lovely time. Will be back.

This spot is amazing for all occasions, as was here with family for a birthday meal. Would highly recommend to anyone who wants Thai food

Had a lovely dinner out with the damily. Prawns and the hake curry were great. I have been here a few times before and each time has been a great experience. Ameena was fab tonight!

Food was amazing, service was great. Our wait staff were very professional, polite and attentive. Will definitely be coming back and will ask for Ameena to look after our table again! Try this place, you will not be disappointed!

Lovely, clean and absolutely delicious, will be coming again! Ameena served us with a smile the whole time, thank you for a lovely experience!

Fantastic food and decor... we loved it

We live coming here and never disappointed, Emma was fabulous and kept the Chang’s coming lol Looking forward to our next visit already

Great time with the family our waiter Szilard was great and food was absolutely stunning like always amazing experience

Great atmosphere and overall a lovely place to dine , our waiter Szilard was very kind smiling and overall good energy kept attentive even at a busy time overall lovely service at so much going on.

Pre booked a table for 2 at 17:00 but arrived into town early so headed straight to the restaurant. The gentleman that ‘greeted’ us didn’t smile and just grabbed 2 menus and walked away, I assume we were following him. At the table he placed...

I had the dish of mixed fish in batter, which I've had on two previous occasions. It has always been delicious and would have been again tonight - except the prawns still had their shells, inside the batter. Also the mussels were barely warm, and...

Ameena was the nuts. A real Bobby dazzler Really was good It was great I was amazing She was amazing Together a real team And can't appreciate her enough

Great service. We had a big group of us and couldn’t fault the service. Constantly asking if we needed drinks and all food come out together. No faults.

A large group of us came for a birthday and all the food was delivered at the same time and the quality of food was excellent! Great service, would definitely recommend!

We were a large group and the service was great! Food was lovely, I would definitely recommend and will be coming back again.

Great food and atmosphere and Katrina our server was lovely!

Very good experience, we ordered thai green curry and coconut rice, the curry was so good and the coconut rice was amazing. Manish made us feel at home!

Great food and drinks! We loved the sharing platter. Lovely staff - very helpful. Our waitress Klaudia was amazing thank you so much

We headed here for lunch on a Sunday, lovely food, beautifully presented, with huge flavour (an even bigger menu too)and even better service. We were served by the lovely Ae, she helped us with a great recommendation on the starters and explained some of the...

Yet another amazing meal at the Squid. Was busy, but booking was easy. Food was divine and very filling. Great atmosphere sphere too.

First time visiting this restaurant and we wasn’t disappointed great waiter who was happy to recommend . The pork belly starter is to die for was sticky and sweet and cooked to perfection as were the dumplings mains again were fab but highlight for me...

Food here is amazing, lovely warm atmosphere and the staff are very friendly. Whether it’s a quick lunch or a full blown meal out/party this place should in your top 5 restaurants in Maidstone.

We had a great meal for my daughter’s birthday. The restaurant had a great atmosphere and the food was fantastic. Staff were efficient and friendly.