Tasting the Summer Menu at the Giggling Squid

[Ad- gifted experience] When it comes to vibrant, well spiced Thai food, Giggling Squid is a perfect place to eat. We entered the Giggling Squid and were in love with the décor. The entire place is so beautiful, with bench seating that has flowers hanging from them, looking so adorable. Pictures on the walls of hand-drawn squids, everything is so beautifully themed. And the smell of food wafting through the restaurant is absolutely mouth watering. Dann and I were really excited to dig into some delicious food – and totally ordered way too much! Giggling Squid has a limited time, Summer Menu which you can enjoy until September 4th. We got some dishes from that menu and some dishes from their regular menu as well.

Prawn Crackers

Prawn Crackers are a pretty default menu item. You can find them at takeaway places, you can find them in restaurants. Giggling Squid has their own house prawn crackers, which are perfect for snacking on while you wait on your food. These crackers have a nice amount of seasoning on them, which makes them taste so much better than the default ones you’d get from your local takeaway. They come with a spicy yet sweet chili dip, which goes well with the spices on the crackers, and there are plenty of them in the basket they come in!

Mushroom & Papaya Bang Bang

A starter from the Summer Menu, the Mushroom and Papaya Bang Bang is a lovely noodle dish, filled with savoury mushrooms and sweet papaya. This cold salad-like dish is drizzled with a sweet, nutty and spicy sauce, which builds heat as you eat it. We both love papaya and noodle salads, and often eat them at home, so this was a very fancy version of that, with the perfect amount of heat. It was very filling as well, which is unexpected from a salad, if that makes sense!

Big Flavour Mushroom Larb

Dann picked the mushroom larb for his starter, from the year round menu. This had lots of different types of mushrooms, as well as toasted rice, shallots, mint, and plenty of chilli. It’s another spicy dish – but the Giggling Squid seemed to do a really good job of having dishes where the heat built up over time, giving them interesting flavours and balancing them out with your drinks. The mushroom larb was also a textural adventure, as the mushrooms and all of the bits inside of the dish were really interesting to eat!

Mah Kwan Pepper Pork Belly

One of the dishes that had absolutely no spice on them, the mah kwan pepper pork belly was what I choose for my starter, as I really love pork belly. Mah kwan is actually a rare pepper that is grown in Northern Thailand, which makes for a perfect sweet, sticky, and every so slightly spiced sauce. The pork was also on a bed of fried rice noodles, which stuck to them, giving texture to the dish. The sauce was so sweet and sticky, coating the pork belly well, which were cut into perfect little bites to enjoy.

Khoi Soi Noodle Bowl

After eating far too many starters, we went into our mains! I got the khoi soi noodle bowl from the Summer Menu, which is a beautiful and silky red curry browth, with sliced chicken, charcoal noodles, and Morning Glory greens. On the side of the dish, there were a bunch of red crispy-fried noodles, and the dish came 3iwth rice to. Though I felt it didn’t need two types of noodles and rice as well, it was nice to have the option of eating rice with the curry sauce. This dish is probably one of the best curries that I have had – it tasted so fresh and so filling. There is plenty of chicken too.

Sea Bass Skillet

Also from the Summer Menu, Dann got the sea bass skillet, which looks so impressive when it comes out! It’s one of those show stopper dishes. The sea bass was stepped in turmeric, garlic, pepper, and Giggling Squid’s own stir fry sauce. cooked to perfection, and served on a giant leaf, with dill, onions, green beans and sliced red chillies. There wasn’t a lot of heat in the sea bass beyond the red chilli, and Dann very quickly finished his whole plate, stating it was delicious several times. This dish also came with a side of rice.

Mango Cake & Brandy Coffee

For dessert, we tried a mango upside-down cake, which had lots of notes of caramelised brown sugar. It was so sticky and sweet – moist and delicious as a cake and came with a side of vanilla ice cream which paired perfectly with the warmth and sweetness of the cake. Dann also got a brandy coffee, which was very enjoyable.

Drinks

On the Summer Menu, there are two featured drinks; I had the Pink & Peachy, which is a gin cocktail, with coconut, peach, pomelo, jasmine and Roku gin – making for a great, refreshing drink. Dann had the Midsummer Mule, which is a take on a Mule, using Haku vodka, lime, and ginger ale. From the year round menu, we also had the No.412, which has a very fancy gin, tonic, chilli and coriander. I had the drink titled Life’s a Peach, which has pink gin, aluna coconut peach and pomelo liqueur, and peach ginger, infused with CBD.

Giggling Squid is not only a restaurant that looks good, the food tastes really amazing. The owners of this restaurant wanted to share the vibrant and well seasoned food of Thailand with Britain, and have done a great job doing so. It feels like a fancy place to take your partner out too, or a great way to get some elevated Thai food – and with seasonal menus featured often, there is a lot to enjoy.

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