Giggling Squid - Welwyn Garden City in Chelmsford

This is my fourth visit to the restaurant. As usual all the food was good, minus the black sesame ice cream which was refrozen thanks to the big ice crystals in it. The service left much to be desired. After starters and mains, we ordered hot drinks and desserts. After 10 minutes the hot drinks arrived. 15 minutes later one dessert came. Another 15 minutes later two more desserts arrived, exactly the same type than the first dessert. Keep in mind that the restaurant was close to empty. Sure enough, when we asked for the bill the waitress was there within 30 seconds with the machine. Not impressed.

This is not a meal out. The is a Thai food experience . Superb menu , fantastic food and friendly staff. We travel 1 hr to get here and we already planning the next trip

Absolutely fantastic lunch here. The surroundings were beautiful, the service was fantastic, the food was amazing. 5 star all the way. Loved it here

The biggest mistake ever was allowing orders via Deliveroo !! Tried to add more food to my order!! Computer said no!!! Horrific experience! I will never order again via Deliveroo and as a result the receptionist at G&S was rude and helpful- the power of tellling friends and family not to bother!! Is greater than money!! Your loss

I enjoyed the lunch set menu. Girlie cute decorations inside. Staff is efficient and friendly.

Loved it. Service was a bit slow as we went between lunch & dinner but the staff are lovely.

Arriving home after a delicious birthday lunch at Giggling Squid. The staff are wonderful and attentive. We had the lunch tapas which were flavourful and filling. What stood out was the lovely mini birthday dessert I received, a complete surprise that put a huge smile on my face. Thank you to the wonderful team at Giggling Squid. You’ve made my birthday so special.

Waitrose didn't know the full menu the pork belly starter was very gelatinous My main the royal fish dish the squid was inedable and not cleaned out enough couldn't even cut through it had the waitress even asked if everything was ok I would have said yes but to leave one of the largest parts uneaten and not be asked is poor service and food always leave a tip but I would definitely not have left the £15plus service charge

very tasty food, presented well. would go back

A nice restaurant with a good atmosphere. I had a table for two, we ordered a sharing starter which was great, before we finished the main arrived and so we asked them to hold off for a bit as we weee still eating! When we had finished our starter the main was served, it had clearly just been heated up! As a result I was illl through the night! I would not recommend this restaurant

Fantastic menu piping hot food that tastes amazing staff were freindly polite and helpful nice atmosphere well worth the price I highly recommend the Giggling Squid

Lovely staff they were absolutely brilliant with my allergies the food was amazing too and the non alcoholic cocktails were fabulous 👌

Absolutely beautiful restaurant and terrace in a great part of the town centre. Excellent service.

My boyfriend & I have been meaning to visit for sometime, so last night a quick online reservation & we were not disappointed. Lovely atmosphere. Tasty food although a bit on the pricey side for the quantity.

Was served by Adam and a lovely blonde lady. Really nice and welcoming. Would go again for sure!

Really great service, great evening

What a lovely place. We had the lunch tapas boards, which were gorgeous. The side’s were pricey for the quantity received, especially the wings! Only 3 in a portion for £5.55! Steep! We’d be back for the tapas tho!

Bit pricey but can't fault the food

Pleasantly surprised by this one, lovely team, good food and well priced.

Delicious food. Very attentive service. A perfect option for dinner or lunch.

My favourite place to eat in Chelmsford, bar none…

Everything was great. Just dropped a star for food as we found the Pad Thai portion very small considering it was a main meal.

We came here at the weekend for my sister's birthday. We parked at Waterloo road car park 1. Which was a stones throw from the restaurant and was only £1.50 for the whole evening! My crispy salmon starter was a bit tepid, and a bit fishy, but the flavors were really good. Rising star duck curry was very rich and duck was very fatty but the meat was lovely and tender! I'm not sure I would spend nearly £18 again for that curry. The chicken satay starters were great, and the Pad Thai noodles were absolutely delicious. Desserts were very decadent. Highly recommend the chocolate fondant. Sesame ice cream was different! I did like their menu, there were lots of different things to try which we hadn't before. I didn't like our table right by the entrance door though, with the on and off draft. I really enjoyed their cocktails, the espresso thai-martini 👌👌👌 if you haven't been, it's a lovely place to go and eat out at. The atmosphere is also nice.

Lovely food, quite quiet but preffered that!

Just a great place for food and drinks... Perfect every time!

Great food. Varied menus. Good service

Good food, nice atmosphere, and lovely service. Food tasty and well presented with lots of choice. Great for 'Date' nights but could do with some nice 'Ibizan' background music.

Lovely service, great food. We had the lunch tapas and it was plenty!

Highly recommend. Service was great , food was really nice

Beautiful looking restaurant! Amazing food and great service from Ashley! We havnt been on a date night away from our son in a while so this was well needed and a perfect place to go!

Was overall disappointed with the food. It looked great, the presentation was good but the flavours were not there. Thai food is normally full of flavour, the food tasted under seasoned and no spice. Watered-down Thai food. We asked the waitresses at the end of the meal and she said you have to ask if you want it spicy. Surely it should be the other way round.

Went Saturday afternoon for a spot of afternoon lunch .was delighted with the atmosphere and attention to detail in how giggling squid was presented staff were informative and friendly. We started with streetfood sharer for 2 was very nice will have that again then I had slow cooked jungle curry with a side of egg fried rice hot in spice and temperature my partner had cashew nut prawn .perfect size and taste. All in all a very good experience will be back well done to all the great staff 👍

The portions are small, the taste is mediocre, the floor in the restaurant is sticky, the service is not impressive. The restaurant in Cambridge is much nicer

Giggling Squid never disappoint, fab food, fab company and fab service.

I have been here between 5-10 times and I have never had a bad experience food is unbelievably tasty staff are incredibly friendly and efficient and the food is a reasonable price I would recommend to anyone who enjoys good food

Excellent food service and great atmosphere 👌

You must book to eat here for dinner. Every table was busy for the entire evening so that already tells you about the place. If it is cold out, reserve a table away from the door, the self closer does not work properly so it is drafty. Apart from that the food and service are very good. Generally the food is spicy and if you like that then it's definitely worth a try. I have been to several of this chain and tried different meals each time and they are all good but don't expect them to be without plenty of flavours.

I went to this place for the first time. It was nicely welcome to the place and gave me a table which I preferred. Food which I ordered was really delicious and served with a great care. I love the atmosphere while dine in and I enjoyed my time. Emily gave an excellent service.

Really great service and food here today. Loved it

Had a lovely meal at Giggling Squid Chelmsford, food was amazing as usual and Poppy our server was so so lovely and made our night! :)

WOW!!! Salt & pepper squid & pork belly for starters - both sensational!! We also had the thai green chicken curry & marinated steak & crispy slow cooked beef - beautiful! Singha on tap too - lovely stuff. Cocktails very nice! Great value & really friendly staff!

Family lunch at Giggling Squid and we all enjoyed. Even our 5 plus year daughter enjoyed her meal. Service was really good, courteous and kind humans, good food options.

Food is nice, but portion sizes are poor.

We booked in advanced by three weeks and agreed we could have one of the leather crescent shaped seats at the front . We even re-checked on the day going into the restaurant. On arrival no seats !! 🙄So we had to sit somewhere else with our friends. We really wanted them to enjoy the giggling squid but ended up outside the toilets. ☹️ Our meals were generally not very good my wife’s Hake the vegetables we think had just been put on and clearly were not cooked. My wife did not want to make a fuss as we wanted our friends to enjoy it. Otherwise it would have been sent back. When the GS first opened it was very organised and food was always excellent . I’m afraid to say both the management and food are not what they were for us on this occasion.

Starter was tasty & enjoyable.ordered two separate meals for me & my friend. I sat there watching her eat her food as mine arrived 6 minutes after . To be honest the main meals looked good . But we’re tasteless. Disappointed as it was her birthday meal . Especially for £70 plus for two people.

A great experience. Food was exceptionally good. Will be returning. Thanks

Excellent food and excellent service. Highly recommend going

Amazing food and a very nice service 👌 😋

Have been here a few times now, staff very friendly, food is excellent

Great lunch with work colleagues, Thai red and green curry lovely 😀

Really lovely lunch, quick service and very nice place to eat.

I visited on Saturday night for my Daughter 15th Birthday the food and service was excellent the waitress name Tukta was very helpful and explained the dish help us to orders , the service was excellent, they gave my daughter birthday desert and celebrated sing Happy Birthday was a great night . Thank you x

We have visited several times, and, as always, it looks really nice inside, and the food is fantastic - albeit a little on the expensive side. But... ... I did wonder if I had accidentally donned my cloak of invisibility before leaving the house. While there were plenty of staff, it seemed extraordinarily difficult to attract anyone's attention - almost to the extent that we needed to 'tug on their sleeve' so that we could order drinks, food etc. I don't at all mind paying more for a great experience - but this certainly wasn't it. If I am to be made to feel like an inconvenience, I'll take my custom elsewhere next time, A great shame. Updated following response: That's all very well, but there seem to be an awful lot of reviews of this nature - I can only assume that customer service isn't a high priority for Giggling Squid.

Visited on Sunday around 2:30pm with high expectations. The food was good, but the Lamb Shank in the Masaman dish was partly cold? The part of it that was in the sauce was warmish, but the other side was cold to the mouth! What a shame, as everything else was fine. Sorry for the 2 stars guys!

We have eaten here a few times - the food is delicious, the team are lovely and it's an overall great experience. Bela was really helpful.

We came here on Saturday and didn't book, there were a lot of tables so that was lucky. Early Eve so maybe a better time for a walk in. The food was excellent, very well cooked and all great flavours. Price was reasonable for the food too. Have to say service wasn't as good as hoped. When we arrived we were told no inside seating available as it was booked, but there were free tables until we left. Service outside was slow and almost felt forgotten, for example drink ordered wasn't available but took a while to mention it and bring an alternative. Would come back because the food was good and I've seen other great reviews so maybe we got an unlucky day.

Food was ok, however the rice portion was small and the starter was warm. The bad thing is that they charged £3:95 for a SMALL glass of ( non organic )apple juice half filled with ice so you get approximately an eighth of a litre for £4 🤬 This is robbery, I’ve had a better deal in restaurants in Londons Mayfair.

Over priced for what it is. £32 house white wine. Bit to much for me

I'll be honest, I just prefer a small proper Thai place, this is just far too expensive with small served dishes with quite honestly medioka flavours. It's not bad at all, it's just not brilliant but it's convenient.

A truly.memorable special family celebration.

Food was delicious however portions were on the small size so make sure to order sides. The only downside was they forgot 2 cocktail orders and had to ask for them. But a great Birthday restaurant.

Industrial style restaurent with no soft furnishings to absorb the excess sound. Restricted menu choices average service. Adequate, enjoyable but nothing special.

Great food, friendly professional staff .

This place was recommended by one of my colleagues and I was really looking forward to it as the food from their website looked amazing. Booked a table there on Saturday. Arrived 15 minutes early with my husband and young children. We waited over 40 minutes for someone to come and take our orders. No one even came to take our drinks orders. It was not even busy. Staff were clearing tables after tables and walking past us several times. The service is very poor, staff looks miserable and unfriendly too. The vibe that day wasn’t great. Was very disappointed so we walked out in the end.

Perfect squid and wings. Just a bit noisy in the restaurant. Hard to listen to conversations. Maybe some sound absorbing wall material and lower music.

Much like the other restaurants I've visited in this chain, the food was delicious. Their food always has a good level of spice and everything tasted fresh. I ordered the chicken Thai green curry and it was great. We arrived for lunch and the portion sizes were perfect for us.

Great decor, food was great especially the lamb massaman! Would recommend.

Very slow service considering nearly empty, food delicious though

I had the cashew nut with prawn stir fry and now I can't imagine trying anything else. It was wonderful!! just loved it!

Buena comida Thai, en contra mucho ruido

A few initial service issues were handled with candour and good humour. Great decor. The food really is very good. Reasonably priced for the standard.

The most amazing food I gave ever tasted . The staff were super friendly and really professional. Top marks for a top place .

Terrible service , had to wait near on an hour for our bill while the staff walked around doing nothing. Rice was over cooked until it resembled chewing gum, when contacted customer service I was talked down to and told I don’t deserve any compensation. Very poor.

I had my birthday meal here and it was amazing. Gukki was our server, and she was really lovely and helpful when we couldn't decide what to order. The food was very tasty and arrived quickly.

beautiful interior, even though it was fathers day everything was a reasonable time and the food was just amazing, we all hadnt eaten there before and now we all wanna go back again and again. the honey crisp seafood was just perfect

Very nice atmosphere and food. Highly recommended.

From the menu, I ordered a Pad Thai. Vegetable. Marked clearly as 'VG'. When it came, there was what looked like egg on top of the dish...egg is not vegan. But I gave it the benefit of doubt, I thought because it is marked as VG clearly on the menu, of course it will not have egg. I happily ate most of the dish, assuming the egg bits were tofu. Luckily, I am vegan and not allergic. But if I was allergic to egg, and I ate a dish marked as VG vegan, and there was egg inside it - that wouldn't be good right? Other than that booboo, the Ihsaan sharing platter was one of the best I had eaten anywhere, service was ok in a can't complain but nothing special sorta way, atmosphere was loud. But then again it was a Saturday night. My main gripe is the incorrectly marked food item, whether somebody will do something about it, who knows. IN RESPONSE TO RESTAURANT'S REPLY: The in-store menu definitely says VG next to the Pad Thai and not Vegetarian V. This is something to consider, that's all.

Food is lovely and fresh, full of flavour service is impeccable highly recommend, only thing missing was may.

Good food ! Great service. Beautiful decors and clean thoughout . Will recommend to friends and familes.

Friendly staff welcomed our group late in the evening on Saturday and was more than helpful with all of her service. Food was brilliant and plentiful. Will be returning with friends again. *****

Fantastic meal, great service 👍 Highly recommended Share for Two (vegetarian options) from starter selection. Amazing combination of different flavours.

First time. Great place to eat.

Went for lunch with family. It was very empty which I didn't mind (Wednesday). We had starter and the main and everything was absolutely delicious. Curry, seafood, duck all was very nice indeed. You must try the Lychee liquor. Will definitely return. Oh and cocktails are great too.

Place came highly recommended, sad to say service on the day was poor. We stressed clearly the Halal options, was told the options by server. When food came, they served pork. Thankfully another server noticed the food on our table and took the food whom we spoke to earlier. Server whom took the food order was unapologetic and didn't apologise when I told her mistake. When food finally arrived, items were missing. The whole experience both unnecessary and unprofessional. Needless to say, we won't be going back.

Excellent service, friendly staff, great food. Although portion sizes are bordering a little bit on the negative value side. Great ambience and very, very clean facilities (major plus point). Overall excellent 👍👌 highly recommended

Food was great, fresh and well made. Staff are friendly and service is good. Been twice already, both occasion we had great experience.

Had such a lovely time, 10/10 across the board

As always lovely food. The service wasn't great. It took 30 minutes for a waitress to take a drinks order and another 30 minutes to take a food order. Given it was a quiet lunch time its hard to understand. On several occasions my friend and I had to call a waitress to order drinks, order food and order coffee.

Excellent dining out experience. My first visit to Giggling Squid. Food fabulous, great atmosphere. Extensive menu both food and drinks. Definitely recommend.

Had a beautiful lunch yesterday…Amazing service from Jack.S. The cocktails were lovely, the food was amazing and the service was brilliant.

We came in on Tuesday 11th April and had the best experience. I have previously been to the Horsham restaurant so was looking forward to the food already, but not only was the food fantastic, we had the best service we could hope for from (we believe) Emily. It started with my wife (who had not been to a GS before) being complimented on her jumper and things just continued along that vein, with recommendations and the right amount of attention throughout. Thank you to Emily and the kitchen staff for a fantastic experience.

Yet again each time we visit the Food and service is excellent and staff could not do enough too make the experience so enjoyable

We ate at this Giggling Squid restaurant in the middle of Chelmsford one Sunday lunchtime. It was pretty quiet when we were there but the restaurant is pretty large. It is also nicely decorated in a very floral theme! The food was good and staff were friendly and helpful.

Good food and fast service. We had a great Mother’s Day

Lovely food in an attractive restaurant - pity all the decorations are plastic

Massama chicken curry with coconut rice. My new favourite. Delicious!!

4.5 for Food. All the food was prepared to a high standard. Top quality. BUT: Three big letdowns 1st - The service. Requesting drinks or orders is difficult due to how busy staff are. 2nd - This business seems to be going in the direction of Food app delivery. This negatively impacts the dining experience for people at the venue. 3rd Mussels were tiny. The rest of the seafood was of excellent quality, however. 4.5 for food. 2/5 for service. It needs attention.

. If you’re looking for a great Thai restaurant in Chelmsford, look no further than Giggling Squid. The atmosphere is cozy and inviting, with dim lighting and warm colors. The service is top-notch, with friendly and attentive staff that are always happy to make recommendations. The menu is extensive, with a wide range of Thai dishes to choose from. We started with the salt and pepper squid and the Thai Spice Rice Balls. For our main course, we ordered Thai Green Curry with egg fried rice, sticky chicken with sticky rice, Duck confit with Coconut Rice and finally Chubby Cheek Pork with Jasmine rice which was a recommendation. The flavors were authentic and the portions were generous. Overall, we had a fantastic experience at Giggling Squid and highly recommend it to anyone looking for delicious Thai food in Chelmsford.

Had a tapas special. So, so delicious Good service too.

Awesome food....really nice taste....all the items ordered were delicious abd top class.I would rate 5 out of 5.