It was a sunny blustery wind that blew us into Tunbridge Wells on a Wednesday lunchtime with the allure of a new Summer menu to taste.  The image of a Giggling Squid has often had me wondering what lies within its aquatic depths and we discovered a busy light airy restaurant with an exquisite aroma of spices and seafood.

Like some sort of spicy sweetshop of dreams, the menu at the Giggling Squid allows you to pick and mix the items you like the best. Being greedy by nature this was perfect. Starters can be made up of various different ‘tapas style’ dishes and we choose the best-selling Salt and Pepper Squid, the power of eponymous suggestion perhaps?, with veggie Spring Rolls and a really succulent Sleeping Honey Duck.  

Looking rather like an artist’s palate of colours ready to mix up a masterpiece, you can also order Tapas sets at lunchtime which looked and smelled divine, comprising some of the mini tapas style dishes with a curry and a rice dish. I would think this is the perfect option for those hoping to fit a good meal into an hour’s lunch break and thoroughly increase afternoon productivity perhaps.

As lovers of classic Thai dishes, we choose a Prawn Pad Thai and a Prawn Red Thai Curry between us, both of which were nicely cooked with well-balanced flavours and spices. I wouldn’t have minded a little more kick to the chilli but that is a personal preference and I suspect they would have been happy to oblige, had I asked for it. We paired the dishes with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which is sweet and bursting with flavours of blousy black fruit so it stood up well to the bold sweet rich flavours of the curry and cleaned the palate nicely.

We liked the busy buzzy lunchtime atmosphere and it was fairly full considering it was only Wednesday and there was a friendly mix of professionals, friends catching up and retired couples all enjoying a noon-time repast. If I had a hankering for Thai, as I often do, Giggling Squid is solid and dependable.