Giggling Squid - Welwyn Garden City in Chelmsford

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Lovely food and friendly staff. 😋

Outstanding food, no expert but seems to be some very nice authentic options as well more popular favourites for first timers.

Wow! Food presentation was spot on and the taste was authentic Thai. Will be back very soon!!!

Dish I chose wasn't available.Small portion also no non dairy milk for coffee.Very expensive for what we had.

The food, cocktails, service and decor were perfect, lovely visit and will be back for more! Thoroughly recommend.

Absolutely amazing food - brilliant service (especially from Jane who was more than helpful & knowledgeable) We are looking to book again real soon! The lunch time menu is great value and so tasty. One Giggling squid is a must have!

One of my favourite places for Thai food. Disappointed today that they had no zero alcohol beers. A real oversight.

Super tasty food excellent atmosphere and very friendly staff.

Excellent venue for a celebration, food and staff make it special

Bland tasteless food. Ordered one of the spicy dishes, Chilli & Basil Gra Pao which wasnt spicy at all. When I flagged this to the waitress she said “its spicy for everyone else”, and gave me attitude and thought putting chilli flakes on my dish would solve the issue… why call a dish “chilli” and have it be known as spicy when it just isn't, even my girlfriend who ordered it as well said it wasn't spicy… sent my dish back and had no food I was fed up of the place and the awful service… Better off going to wagamama’s instead of this overpriced awful restaurant Awful experience and never going again…

The food is great and the restaurant’s allergies menu, that you can access on your phone, is excellent. I chose the gluten free filter and it made my choice very easy. Probably the best experience I’ve had in finding gluten free food. I have to be honest the waiter was a little bit abrupt, but he still gave us good service.

Fantastic from start to finish would like to say a big thank you to May he helped with choosing dishes to making us feel very welcome 🙏

Food, service, the atmosphere and staff were absolutely brilliant, went there for a birthday celebration and we enjoyed the evening would definitely visit again!

Really tasty food, a bit pricey but we enjoyed ourselves!

The starters and the squid itself is delightful. I think the menu tries a little too hard with the main courses and it’s nowhere near as good as street food in Thailand.. customer service always good and lovely decor

Really nice thai food in this restaurant close to town centre

Beautiful place, tasty food and nice staff.

Favourite restaurant in Chelmsford

Bit disappointed really, popped in early Saturday evening. A lot of the menu wasn't available, no Pak Coi or Morning glory. Of all the noodle dishes the only one available was Pad Thai, usually a fragrant mix of vegetables noodles and peanuts and spices and in this case added prawns. Ours unfortunately tasted of cooking oil, nothing else just oil, no spices or peanuts virtuality no vegetables just noodles a couple of prwans and lots of cooking oil.

Popped in on a Sunday lunch after doing a little shopping in town. Very warm welcome from the staff and shown to a table very quickly. Drinks order taken after a few mins, followed about 5 mins later by our food order. Drinks took a while to arrive as the wine I ordered wasn't available, never-mind, something equally as nice was. Food arrived... Vegetable spring rolls and Salt & Pepper squid. Spring rolls were great, but the squid was more "batter" than squid.. and while it was OK, I wouldn't order it again. Mains: Red curry with chicken, and Marinated Steak. Both of these dishes were excellent! After having several deliveries from here, this was our first time to eat in... and won't be the last. Food overall was very good and the staff are very efficient, friendly and helpful.

Absolutely lovely dinner staff so welcoming. Went to celebrate my daughter 17th birthday May our waiter even sang his version of happy birthday to her which made us all cry with laughter. Thank you for making it a special evening 😁

Really enjoyed our meal...loved the decor..staff friendly...would definitely recommend and visit again...👍