New (early 2008) slightly organicky, family-friendly, smily, right-on type of place with sunshiny outlook, and other products to buy as well as food. | ||
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71 George St
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I’m shocked at how many negative reviews there are of this place! As I count Giraffe amongst my most favourite places to eat out, I feel compelled to defend it. I’ve been to the Oxford branch several times – for weekday evening meals, weekend evening meals and weekend lunches both as part of a couple and a larger group, and had a good experience every time. (In fact, I’m the “girlfriend” in the 26/02/09 review!) The staff are always friendly and welcoming (even on the occasions when I’ve not had a reservation, which is recommended for evening meals), the menu changes seasonally and is consistently good, and I’ve never had cause to complain about the service. As a chain, I think the “love, eat, live” philosophy is fitting and I’ve had an equally pleasant experience in the Reading and Portsmouth branches (okay, Portsmouth may have been my favourite – but you can’t beat a sea view). Price-wise it’s not the cheapest of places (this seems to be a sticking point for several reviewers!), but it’s certainly not expensive and is in line with what I’d expect from a city centre chain in the South East – they also have a “lunch for less” menu, “giraffe time” offers and often feature discounts on their website, so there’s a bargain to be had if you time your visit correctly! My personal menu recommendations would be the mezze plate with warm naan (great as a lunch for one), the falafel deluxe burger, the vegetable burrito (both farmers’ market and winter vegetable variations ), the toasted goats’ cheese focaccia, the veggie brunch and the chocolate chunk brownie. They cater really well for vegetarians with plenty of choice, but I feel it truly is a “something for everyone” establishment and have never had complaints from any meat-eaters who have accompanied me. Please, give Giraffe a chance! Veggie Jen (Unverified), 12/04/11 This place has to be the most overpriced on George Street (an impressive feat!). The menu obviously tries to span a variety of international cuisines, burritos, a couple of curries and then the option of burger and chips - OK so far. The service when you get it is fairly polite but we had trouble attracting anyone's attention. Once we ordered we didn't have to wait too long for our food but, unfortunately, our group of three were all disappointed. The portions were meagre; even the very expensive extras on the burgers were barely visible in the meal that came out. None of the dishes were burnt but, we felt, overdone, and they were pretty bland. I also couldn't believe how expensive it was! Once we'd each had a drink the bill came to over £80. We had a similar meal at another restaurant the following week for around the same price and there was no comparison. Tina (Unverified), 01/09/10 Possibly the blandest meal of my entire life. Actually no, make that the second blandest meal of my life after my first visit to "Giraffe" a year or so back. Having had an experience not to be believed, I risked life and tastebuds to give it another chance only to discover that yep, "Giraffe" still delivers nourishment of culinary tedium of such proportions that I almost wondered whether my tongue had accidentally been anesthetized before my visit to encounter food of so little flavour. I could not really call it bad food as quite frankly it tasted of nothing. Ingredients which I recognised on the plate unidentifiable on the palate. Quite a feat. Service was pleasant if sluggish, the noise levels were incredibly loud and the room felt cold and very soul-less despite all the colours. I felt like a cog in a machine which had sadly got out of control and was spinning out of gastronomic orbit faster than the speed of lightning. I have in my life had many, many bad meals where the flavours were vile and repulsive but this simply boggled the mind and baffled me beyond measure. The menu is on first view appealing and well judged as a "fusion" of many Ethnic foods and has the potential to deliver taste and pack a punch so how can it be so bland ? I remain bemused, two visits were enough though, no third chance for "Giraffe" from me. Pamplemousse (Unverified), 06/01/10 I went to Giraffe this week with my sister, brother-in-law and four year-old nephew for lunch. We were greeted and seated by a very cheery manager and given a large booth all to ourselves. However, the waiter who dealt with our table after that was rude to the point of ignoring us and pretending not to hear as we tried to get his attention, and the service overall was very poor. At a place that styles itself as child-friendly, we waited almost 40 minutes for our lunch, which was three burgers from the lunch specials menu and one child's meal. The food, when it came, was good, but for small children a wait that long is torturous. It was a Tuesday, so busy-ish but not exceptionally so. Overall, food good, service rude, and wait is too long for meals that should be easy to put together. Sarah (Unverified), 08/08/09 Me and my girlfriend recently went for a pre-theatre meal at Giraffe and have to say it was delicious. I had the Singapore curry with Tofu and Pumpkin and my girlfriend had the Winter vegetable burrito. Both tasted great and were served up very quickly. We then had banana split and chocolate brownie for desert, again both were excellent. I would recommend Giraffe to anyone dining in Oxford, the choice on the menu is great, particularly for vegetarians. If only the rest of George Street were so hospitable! Danny and Jen (DI User), 26/02/09 I have been to Giraffe on various occasions for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. I have always had a very pleasant experience. Great food and lovely staff! They also do take away coffee, which I must say is a lot better than other places on George Street. Plus any take away drink is £1.50 be it small, medium or large. 07/07/08 We went for dinner last night and unfortunately my husband and I both ordered the Thai style green curry - his chicken and prawn, mine vegetarian. The waiter handed us the wrong ones (with hindsight he looked v confused) and handed me the prawn one. I've been vegetarian since the age of about seven and having only realised I had the wrong one after a mouthful of prawn. On the plus side, they reacted very well and we got the meal for free including drinks and puddings. Very well handled and made the best of things... Veggie (Unverified), 01/05/08 Giraffe has only been open a couple of months - but is setting a good standard already for unpretentious, tasty food. When we went, the charming chatty staff seemed to know the menu inside out, and our meals were served promptly. Mrs Harkness had a fine-looking burger complete with cheese and fried egg on top, whilst I ate a prosciutto and mozarella pasta salad. Delicious! It's a mystery to me why people would go to any faux-Italian joint on George Street when there's somewhere like this just down the road. Captain Jack Harkness (DI User), 29/04/08 We went to Giraffe a few weeks after it first opened, out of curiosity. After perusing the menu, I only really fancied the steak, which as it turned out had sold out for the evening. Unfazed, the two of us ordered the battered prawns, a bottle of their "cheerful" red wine, the fajita and the smoked-salmon teriyaki with rice. The prawns were incredibly greasy and came on wilted lettuce with a generic neon-orange sweet chili dip that had no taste of chili, but plenty of sweet. My other half found her fajita "acceptable", though lukewarm and mushy; but I had serious concerns with my salmon. Supposedly "hot smoked", it was extremely dry and chewy and served on a bed of rice that was also chewy and dry. The liberally-sprayed "teryaki" sauce had soaked into the rice and made it sticky and extremely salty. The wine was bad, although that was our fault for choosing the cheap stuff. The one redeeming feature of the evening was that the service was friendly and nice. We went back for brunch when some friends visited. The cooked English breakfast was nice, but overpriced, we thought. The menu is a confused "eclectic" mix of random foods. I suspect that, with the popularity of chain pan-Asian places, Giraffe decided to be pan-everything, and that's why it doesn't really work. I had doubts as to whether any of the food was actually prepared on site! Definitely not recommended. 28/04/08 Yuck. Tried Giraffe on Friday night and my wife and I both ordered the "curry laksa". I don't know what they think a laksa is but this wasn't it -- a tiny, gelatinous bowl of sticky noodles that tasted like weak green curry mixed with potatoes! Utterly disappointing. I've never done this before in a restaurant in my life, but we decided to speak to the manager and left without eating or paying. To the manager's credit he offered us the meal for free but we had zero interest in taking him up. I didn't think it was good value for money (£9 each) compared to all the other other local options - though I should've expected this from a corporate branded place I guess. Maybe their burgers and whatnot are better quality, and their menu is just too broad, and they should stick to what they're good at. Who knows, but we won't bother going back. Daniel (Unverified), 26/04/08 Ads by Daily Info:  Browse ads by tag: Please fill in the boxes and then click "Send Review" to submit your review for Giraffe. | |
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