Description: I went to a Giraffe restaurant a number of months ago with my girlfriend. It was winter and snowing and we were in the Spitafield area of East London. She had just got back from Scotland and it was colder in London than up there. It became unbearable and we were hungry so sought refuge in the nearest heated establishment we could find. This came in the form of the restaurant chain Giraffe.
I'm not usually one for restaurant chains as i find them characterless and stale... and I'm not going to change my mind after visiting this one. That said, this is probably one of the better ones... feint praise indeed.
It was still fairly stale and characterless but at least it was warm. Or so we thought. Why do patrons of restaurants feel the need to hold the door open when it's freezing outside? Worse still, here they left it open. One thing I will say in favour of this place is that mostly congenial waiter was very quick to see our shivers and graciously shut the door... which he had to do on numerous occasions.
This was a perfect example of the pleasant and helpful staff at Giraffe. You can't help but think they are spoon fed their pleasantries but they do it well at we felt very welcome.
Giraffe is quite a bright place and family friendly. If you don't like children you're better off at you're local oyster bar because there are lots of them here. And yes, they are noisy and no, you can't turn them off. And yes, sometimes they run around in an unruly manner like they've been on a diet of espresso all day.
The food is diverse and is consistently unexceptional. You can eat most things here from burgers to pizza to Thai to Mexican. Everything is of a standard standard and is relatively well priced with mains coming in at between £7 - £12. If only the food was as colourful as their menu (I mean literally colourful) then we would be in for a treat but unfortunately it's quite bland. I had an enchilada which was OK but a little tasteless. The burger was better and of a good size and tender but I guess a burger is quite hard to get wrong (although many have).
In all, this isn't a bad place to go and they do have chains everywhere. Just know that you are going to get OK food, hyperactive children and friendly service.
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