The Giggling Squid

This is part of a chain of Thai restaurants in England. The original is located in Brighton and this one is just down the road in Hove.
The restaurant is decorated beautiful- the owner has taste. I loved the textures on the walls.
The menu is extensive and it be tough to decide what to eat. We tried a few things. The combination appetizer is well presented and a great way to taste a selection.
My seafood stir-fry was good although I did feel it lacked any particular flavour. My friends mains were terrific- they had a red curry and another special.
We drank rose pinot grigio which went well with the good and with the balmy evening.
The staff upstairs where we dined were excellent. They were busy but nothing was too much trouble for them.
I would go back to this restaurant If I lived in Hove. Recommended.

The Giggling Squid is a well-known Thai restaurant that is conveniently situated on the artery of Hove - Church Road.

When I went with friends recently, I was initially unimpressed. As soon as we arrived, the service was a little bit peculiar. We had booked a table and arrived right on time, but when we came in they brought us upstairs as if to show us to our table, only to leave us standing in the hallway for nearly 10 minutes. The waiter who was going to show us to our table seemed to have forgotten why he had gone upstairs because when he got there, he instantly wandered off and started serving other customers. As we waited, we could see that there were no tables ready for us, despite us booking.

When we finally got seated, it instantly got a lot better. The service vastly improved and our food was brought to us not long after being ordered. When the food arrived, it was simply delicious. All of the food was extremely fresh and full of flavour. I absolutely loved everything that I had to eat.

I will definitely be back to this place as the food was so good. I will just have to ignore the sporadically bizarre service!

Specialising in Thai Seafood, the Giggling Squid is one of the few places in Hove where Thai cuisine meets modernity with open arms. Sometimes authenticity can get in the way of contemporary thinking but the Giggling Squid has managed to achieve an effective balance of these things. The food provides you with genuine Thai flavours whereas the décor has the relaxed vibe of a top-notch coffee house. The rustic interior enables them to diversify into Tapas without it seeming out of place.

This makes for a good lunchtime deal, as you can get a set of 4 Tapas dishes for £7. However, if you'd rather stick with the Thai theme, I'd recommend the two for £5 lunch deal, which is great value for the quality. All the dishes are perfectly seasoned and the choice is such that you could visit regularly and not get bored.

I'd recommend booking on weekends as it can get quite busy but for better service I'd go during the week when the fulltime staff are working. Whilst not mind blowing, this is definitely a solid restaurant. Somewhere you needn't worry about taking your family.

The giggling squid is hands down my favourite Thai restaurant in Hove. The food always comes out immaculately presented and tastes divine.

My favourite starter is the duck spring rolls. These actually come packed with duck meat which is great. For main I always go paneang chicken curry. It is mild, creamy and fragrant and so delicious. The best Thai curry I've had. The veggie pad Thai is also great and the sticky rice.

The only down side is when it is busy the service is slow, often forgetting water and the food taking a while.

Other wise it's a top top place to eat

We were celebrating my husbands birthday, & we were looking for something different & interesting. I wanted it to be special & it was! The food was amazing, staff were friendly, the service was very good. And we could see how popular it is, as it was very busy, it was a little crammed being a small restaurant, but the staff, kept a happy medium. Lovely atmosphere, very laid back.

Very nice atmosphere,excellent customer service,tasty food,very nice presentation,it's a little bit pricey,but you get what you pay,as I'm a big fan of Thai food,liked it and definitely go again.;)

I booked a table for fourteen here for a leaving do this weekend and I was a bit worried about how we all would fit. Luckily they have an upstairs section which also has easy access to the toilets.

The menu selection is great and the descriptions made it hard to choose our meals. I had the prawn crackers to start and for the main I ordered the Massaman Chicken Curry with Jasmine rice. It was delicious! Friends ordered the lamb shank Massaman, pad thai, red curry, squid, vegetable platter and also various other curries and to be honest, none of us were disappointed. The food was full of flavour and had just the right amount to fill us up.

Lovely atmosphere, service and food. Would definitely come back here!

Been in here numerous times for lunch, if your expecting authentic Thai food you may be disappointed, however it is very tasty Thai food (British market) and presented very well. For me the most pleasing thing is the consistent quality of the food its always the same ,which is a reasonably priced tasty filling lunch.

The Giggling Squid (silly name) is a really lovely little Thai restaurant in Hove, specialising in Thai seafood tapas. Sounds a little peculiar? Well, at first glance it might, but Thai tapas do seem to be very "in" right now, and the concept certainly works: lots of little spicy seafood dishes is really fantastic idea. Add on top of that that everything here is designed and cooked excellently... Unless you don't like seafood, you must try The Giggling Squid: it is one of the best new restaurants in town.

While the Thai tapas idea is not a new one, I have yet to go somewhere where it has been done as well as The Giggling Squid. Mai Ped Ped Ped in town certainly has the right idea, but The Giggling Squid's further step of seafood-specialisation is a brilliant one. They don't need to provide acres of choice and the food is served quickly, and tastes scrumptious. I love my seafood, and this is an excellent example of good seafood cooking: not over-spiced or flavoured (which would overpower the seafood's quite subtle flavour), but enough to enhance: perfect.

Beyond the excellent food, the whole place screams of class. Looking more like a wine-bar or alternate Starbucks than a classic Thai restaurant, the ambiance in The Giggling Squid says 'young professionals having lunch' over 'knock-off Buddhas and bamboo'. The tone is right: this isn't about recreating an experience of Thailand, it's about creating a good environment to eat in. Add to that that the prices are cheap and cheerful, the service excellent, and you'll see why I recommend it so highly.

I've been toying between 4 and 5 stars this whole review: there are some negatives here, but I'm not sure if they deserve to knock The Giggling Squid down a rating. First of all, the location is not great: too far out of town for a lunchtime meeting for most Brightonians. Also, if you don't like seafood, the alternate vegetarian dishes do smack a little of 'well, here's something you can eat, but why did you come here?' Still, everything else is brilliant: I'm going to stick at 5, it's awesome here. Just don't bring friends who don't like seafood, they will go wanting.

My partner and I had dinner at the Giggling Squid last night. Food notwithstanding, the service was bad enough to compel me to finally activate my Yelp account so that I could write this review.

We waited over an hour for mediocre Thai food. Anther party that arrived after us was served half an hour sooner. Also, ordered the "Thai gin and tonic" and it was almost undrinkable. Must have been 80% vodka, not an exaggeration.

In summary, *might* recommend this place for takeout but not much else.