Giraffe

Found this wonderful little restaurant on my walk to Nottinghill. I had the vegetarian English brunch. Fantastic! Great, friendly staff.

I go here regularly for breakfast and have found that they are consistent with providing excellent service and yummy food. Its nice to see that they have a lot of variety to choose from especially by providing veggie options and not just one veggie option but a few which a lot of places don’t do. I usually go for the veggie brunch, it’s so filling and tastes great!

I used to revere the Giraffe experience, even to the point of recommending its signature burger, but whether it’s due to my taste buds moving on or their quality dropping, I think it’s more A-​OK than worthy of trumpeting as the dark horse of eateries.
And it’s certainly in no danger of going any lower than 3 stars. The service is friendly, quick and professional. The interior is modern, functional and overall rather pleasant. It’s also open quite late.
It’s the food thus that slightly brings it down. Sure, it’s not bad. It’s just not that exciting, particularly in the more competitive cuisines that it offers from across the world. The burger, for example, has fallen behind what is now par at London’s burger joints. And their noodle dishes border on the bland.
Still, it’s dependable, particularly for late-​evening dining.

Enjoyed the meal here a lot. Nothing special, but food was well made. Had the stir fry duck.

Whilst Giraffe is a chain, I like this restaurant layout far more then others I have visited. It’s quite small compared to others, but with warm wood and rich colouring, it’s warm and feels more intimate than others.
Giraffe isn’t my first choice for somewhere to eat as I find it quite expensive, however I do think it’s a good option to take a group of friends to as they have a lot of choice and vegetarian options.
That said in Holland Park, this is a very reasonably priced restaurant, being a chain they can keep the prices consistent, whilst there are a lot of ‘posh’ places to eat in the area.
Food at the restaurant is also usually very wholesome, but if you’re on a budget you need to choose carefully from the menu. That said the noddles are very reasonably priced and you get a lot for your money.
Also you know that all the food is going to be quality.
Cocktails are okay, but nothing to write home about.

Nice chain of restaurants great for a quick bite, prices are ok for london.

I will admit it. I have been a total snob. I prejudged Giraffe and thought the food was crappy before even trying. Today, I am guilty of forcing everyone to go to Giraffe because I forgot to take a jumper and had to go to the nearest brunch offering near my house and therefore «consciously» making people eat terrible food.
The food was a tiny bit better than I thought and my breakfast quesadilla was overfilled and not crispy. Probably my fault for only eating mexican’t and expecting it to be thin, crispy and oozy with cheese.
After humbly accepting my prejudice, I won’t offer to swim across the channel naked to avoid eating at Giraffe, but it hasn’t impressed me enough to want to seek more company with the tall stripy one.

Simple and easy food done well. Very affordable.

The Giraffe menu is burger-​heavy, with a few other Mexican/​American-​influenced dishes (enchiladas, quesedillas, nachos etc) thrown in.
Our table of four started the evening with a bowl of very good olives, followed by two cast iron plates of nachos loaded with ALL the extras — salsa, jalepenos, sour cream, guacamole, cheese and some toasted sweetcorn mixture (unlike a certain cinema chain who think that serving nachos with some processed cheese sauce, soggy jalepenos and tinned tomatoes will cut the mustard, well, it doesn’t).
The main course falafel burger was a hit. It was served in a crispy/​soft bun, with halloumi, harissa and salad and it came with «rustic» fries on the side (you know the ones, they have a little bit of potato skin left on the ends).
We were one of only 4 tables in the restaurant, which may be why the service was so great, but all the waiter/​esses we came into contact with offered consistantly good service. They didn’t bat an eyelash when we hurled them with polite demands for more salsa/​jalepenos/​tap water/​copies of the receipt (we were a fussy lot last night).
The bill came in at a reasonable £55 for 4 people (after taking off a £10 voucher), including soft drinks, olives, starters and mains.
Like the rest of the little eateries along this stretch of Holland Park, this restaurant isn’t huge, so if you’re aiming to head there at a peak probably best to call ahead.