Giraffe

Not being a fan of chain restaurants, I was dubious when I first visited Giraffe. I was wrong to be as this place is great! I have been a regular here for the good part of 8 months now, being a huge fan of the breakfast deal. It’s just round the corner from both my gym and the office, so a perfect location for me too.
I would particularly recommend the breakfast burrito, which is fantastic value on the breakfast deal at £5 for this and a large coffee. You can’t complain at this price for a meal which keeps me full all day!
The coffee is really nice, and for a large latte you’re only paying £1.25, which is one of the cheapest coffees I have found in the city centre. Surprising considering it is situated in the heart of Spinningfields.
The best thing about Giraffe though — the staff. They literally couldn’t do enough to help you. You’ll regularly find me having a chat and a giggle in the morning with whoever is serving me, and I’m not even a morning person.
Not your usual chain feeling — and bargain deals. You can’t complain.

I first visited Giraffe many years ago in London before they were heard of in the north and I really enjoyed it.
And I have since been to this Giraffe restaurant in Spinningfields countless times and I’ve always found the food and service good.
A few days ago I popped in for the first time in a year or so and was quite disappointed by the service.
Granted it was quite busy, and they were obviously under-​staffed because only one girl seemed to be waiting a huge amount of tables.
I knew what I wanted so I ordered as soon as I sat down, hoping that this would speed things up a little. I was wrong. I waited over 10 minutes for a hot chocolate and 30 minutes for my banana and blueberry pancakes. By this time I had drank my hot chocolate so I ordered another drink for me to have with my pancakes. This drink only came to my table as I was finishing my breakfast so I wasn’t very happy.
The pancakes, as it says on the menu, are served with maple syrup. The waitress however, neglected to tell me they were out of maple syrup when I ordered.
So, having firstly been expected to eat the pancakes dry, she suggested honey instead which I was all for. She brought me 2 jars of honey and apologised. That was enough for me, the honey went really well with my pancakes and I was pretty happy.
As always, the food here is good, they just need to up their service game a little before I go back here.

Having been a little disappointed by this Giraffe in the past I was a little wary of going back here, especially organising a lunch out for 11… But, I thought, they might have changed, and it certainly seems like they have — which was something of a relief! Incidentally, I’d chosen Giraffe to manage the quite astonishing array of dietry requirements that one small team mangaged to have…
Booking was relatively easy, but as there isn’t an option on the website for a party with more than 8 people I had to call. This was a little bit of a hassle because the restaurant was so noisy!
We went at lunch (12.30) on a Wednesday, and there were plenty of extra tables. The restaurant was quiet, and there seemed to be enough staff knocking around to deal with everyone (one of the main reasons that I’d not had a brilliant experience here in the past).
The food all seemed pretty good, and my Falafel burger was really great (first time falafel eater too!). The crunchy falafel, topped with halloumi (you mayhave gathered tha I’m partial to a bit of halloumi), hummous and a brioche bun — served with chips… Mmmmm. You also get a quite expensive choice of sauces — it was giraffe that got me hooked on Smoked Tabasco and Linghams Chilli Sauce.
Finally, on a non-​lunch related note, they do a really good coffee in the morning, and it’s reasonably priced at £1.50…
I’d definitely go back, the food was great, and hopefully they’ll stick at the level they’re at now — if they can prove it by being as good as they were recently, I’ll give them another star…

I really like the Giraffe in the Trafford Centre, especially breakfast! I even like the full menu!
So what happened here?
We went as a party and pre-​ordered our food.
I had ordered the duck stir fry, which was described on-​line to be topped with crispy noodles. As I couldn’t eat the noodles, I predicted I could just take them off as there wasn’t much on the menu I could really eat. When it arrived, there were no crispy noodles on top. It was literally tiny bits of duck in a sauce with tiny chopped up peppers and onions mixed in to a bowl of noodles. When I complained, they said «oh do you not like it?» and when I explained I couldn’t eat the noodles and it wasn’t as described on the website, she just said «oh right». No offer of an alternative. I asked for some chips as she didn’t seem to want to help.
Two of our friends had burgers arrive that were cold, pink and frozen in the middle — raw!
I was sorely disappointed by this experience of Giraffe. Avoid this one and go to the Trafford Centre instead!

Modern, swanky chain of Giraffe in the heart of the richer, business sector of Manchester. Good food, great staff, brilliant for any meal of the day at any time of the day. Recommended!

Varied menu from burgers to stir frys. Good for kids, food Not bad an reasonable value with Yellow Card. Not happy with speed of service — bring me my change without having to wait 10 minutes, gave up waiting, but at least let me decide if i want to leave the tip!

No, Unilocal Manchester! Stop the long-​necked herbivore-​bashing before I cry! Especially as I type this, I’ve a warm winter tum full of deliciously fresh-​cooked wholesome food. Okay, okay, I know as much as anyone who’s reviewed this Giraffe that it’s had its teething troubles since Spinningfields became what it is. The first ever meal I had there was epic, then the next few disappointed. Melted cheese wasn’t quite melted, stuff lacked pizazz… and then… came BREAKFAST.
I always said after the few negative experiences I had at Giraffe, I’d give them another chance at breakfast. One morning — it was after my stay at the Hilton in fact — I’d risen early, and had a pastry as bought for me by one Chris M. I was famished again by 10am, so from Pret I sauntered over to Giraffe and decided to munch some porridge. Oh my word, such porridge! Absolutely loved it, fruity, sweet and healthy to boot. And filling, perhaps the most important thing.
They do good coffee at Giraffe, and excellent special offers too. Speaking of special offers, how do you fancy a whoppingly generous 30% off your food? Why, with a Yellowcard, certainly! Everything I’ve had since the few misses, from superfood salad to today’s goat’s cheese focaccia sandwich, has been stellar. Oh and that sandwich came with fries. Sweet potato fries. Aside from Fuel, this is the best use of sweet potato I’ve experienced in the whole of Manchester. Oh… and as for poor service comments, I’ve definitely experienced this problem in the Manchester Airport branch (review coming), but not so much here. My server, Lowri, offered me a little card at the end which instructed me to go online and rate her as a waitress. Seriously. I could win £1000 by doing this, and if I say nice things about her she gets £10 in her pocket. Everybody wins! That’s an incentive for her to be lovely, but heck, she was lovely anyway. Solves the problems of surly staff for sure!
Heart Giraffe. Love this branch. If only they had two entrance doors so that I didn’t get icy wind blown on me every time someone walks in, I’d be overjoyed!

Don’t be tempted by the nice looking exterior and funky logo. This place is not great and the service is awful. The food itself is not good, and hugely overpriced. The number of staff is a problem. With only two waiters on both occasions I’ve been, service is slow and waiting times are excessive. After waiting ages for our waiter to return to offer us the bill, the company has added 10% for service charge (rather than wait any longer to complain, we simply paid them the correct amount minus the extra 10% they rudely add on, for poor service.
+Friendly staff (when you can find them)
+2−4 – 1 meal vouchers accepted (from
)
+Funky looking décor
+Spinningfields Yellow Card accepted (limited to Breakfast only)
–Severe under-​staffing
–Menu is strange, with no set style or theme
–Poor value for money
–Stupidly slow service
–Food is not good
–Ridiculous wait for bill
–The company auto-​include a 10% service charge

Love, eat, live at giraffe is what they say and that’s what you get, the service is great, the staff looks great, smart and efficiant. The place seems clean and new, during luch rush gets busy with all the office people but clears soon.
The food is expensive for what you get, small portions and the taste is nothing extraordinary, the restaurant doesn’t seem to have a real attractive speciallity.
Certainly if you want something really exiting don’t go there, decide among other Cuisines if food is what you want, specially if you don’t have kids.
So love what you do, eat what you get and live with it!!!

Not even nine in the morning and I find myself walking towards the office to do a silly job that I’m not in the mood for anyway. I’m half asleep but at least it’s sunny and nice. I’m trying to decide where to get my coffee from and I remember. It’s Wednesday!!! And it’s before half ten. There is something good about it. Wondering what? Well, if it happens to be around a Giraffe on a Wednesday and before half ten, just pop in and order your free coffee. Promise, you won’t be disappointed at all. They won’t look at you strange, and you’ll get your freebie in no time. Plus, the coffee is strong and nice and makes you wanna buy it the next day from the same place, which I did. Couldn’t help it. I actually like to change the place where I’m buying my coffee from every week. Although I have my favorite, you know, a bit of change won’t hurt anyone.
Back to our Giraffe. Don’t hesitate to go in there. It’s lovely. Nice decorated as well, with happy people at all time. You can stay outside if you fancy doing so. A nice cigarette with a cup right next to you, will probably make your morning a bit better, don’t you think?

Hedging your bets can be a good thing especially, I am told, when you are actually betting. For a restaurant to hedge its bets — that is to not make a decision about what type of restaurant it is and just serve anything and everything — though is a menu sin to be ranked alongside the serving of more than one type of garlic bread (garlic bread, garlic pizza-​bread, garlic ciabatta all on the same menu — seriously, what is that about?) Giraffe is, and you could probably see where I was going with this, one of those restaurants.
Enchiladas, tapas, stir fry, pie ‘n’ mash, ‘New Yoik-​deli’ style burgers whatever sort of food you might fancy Giraffe will have a half-​arsed attempt to make something that tastes almost, but not exactly, like something you may have actually wanted to eat. It’s not that the food is necessarily bad (although it’s not like it’s particularly good either) it’s just that they end up throwing every flavour at the thing. Case in point ‘The Big Greek’ lamb burger — loaded (like some overstuffed scream pub burger) with feta cheese, roasted peppers, tzatziki, relish and salad. Some of those flavours would have been tasty and complimentary; together, though, they were a complete mess. I imagine it was meant to be the taste of Greece in a bun but in fact it was just every Greek food they could think of in a bun (I was surprised to find there was no moussaka in there.) And it isn’t even in a bun; it’s in focaccia bread which is only bloody Italian. Why not in a flatbread, which I know they had because the hummus came served with it. It’s not cheap either — most mains come in for just under the £10 mark with some premium examples (Good Old Steak & Chips and BBQ Ribs) pushing the £15 mark.
The service was friendly and fast enough (although we were told we would need to eat and leave within the hour as there was a fire alarm being tested) but the surroundings are far from great — the restaurant itself is done up in colourful ‘international’ décor (read: Mexicana meets Township) but is cold and irritatingly laid out. And through the plate glass fascia all you have to admire is Spinningfields. Not great.

My Spinningfields discount card gets me some good deals and Giraffe has always been suggested as the next one we will visit yes. It’s pop in for a free coffee on a Wednesday morning attitude is even more inviting.
So one evening, when admittedly the offer of 2 for 1 lured me in, I was really excited about what I was looking at. The whole concept of this African animal being the selling point of the store, this motto of «love eat live,» just screamed yes please. I just liked the way the menu, the way the place made me feel like a small child again, so colourful and the pretty fonts telling me to order ice-​cream, «with soul.» No I cannot order every ice-​cream option for tea. Above all I loved the variety on this menu, from Mexican, to burgers, to pizza and pasta and a variety of mains that spanned the globe.
Although it was bar buddies time, that is 50% off a range of drinks from cocktails to wines to fruit juices (sunday after 6pm, monday-​thursday 5pm-​7pm) I went for a mint moroccan tea. It was lush. Delivered in what I can only gather is a moroccan authentic tea pot (cool), it tasted the part. My falafel burger and my friend’s lamb burger weren’t so pleasing however. A little on the dry side and nothing really really special to its flavouring accept for its friendly delivery by the waiter.
However I love the vibe in this place so I’d probably give it another go (probably not worth it without the 2 for 1 offer). I also learnt that Giraffes have the largest hearts of all land animals so I know it’s a loving place, with hopefully a bit more to give next time.

The boyf and I came here once, incredibly hungover and practically incapable of speech. We ordered nachos, which were OK but nothing to write home about, battered prawns, which were yukky, chicken dumplings, which were almost inedibly over-​cooked and olives, which were nice, but then it’s hard to mess up the jar-​to-​bowl journey that olives take.
Basically the food here is not good. Quite tellingly, at 8pm on a Friday the place was deserted but for us and a table of about 10. Because of this mahoosive table, we were pretty much ignored, and ended up waiting around 45 minutes to receive our bill once we’d asked for it.
The décor is mad. I vaguely remember reading some proaganda-​style text on the menu that waffled on about Giraffe being all, like, global and stuff. Whatever, it’s annoying, and Giraffe is decorated like the UN might be, if run by mad people who think that orange and yellow is a good colour scheme for a laidback eaterie.
Giraffe? You’re ‘avin one…

Vibrantly crap, or so I had heard from friends and relatives of this new chain of restaurants called giraffe. I had to see it for myself, walking in you cannot deny its vibrant with bright and airy seating and all sorts of crazy art over the walls. Is it crap? Food comes from all corners of the globe like some great alliance; you can have sweet mash, stir fry, halloumi, falafel? Its all a bit overwhelming to be honest. Mains will set you back to about £9−12 with starters around £5, what its like quality wise seems to rely on whether the staff are in the mood to produce to a high standard, not a good sign.
If this is a metaphor of what globalisation is going to produce in the next 100 years I may opt out. Nations of the world please don’t try and unite under the banner of giraffe, cause it is really just crap.

Giraffe is another one of Spinningfields letdowns,
It’s such a shame because the area is great and the concept is such a good one, it’s just such a shame that it’s full of chain restaurants and staff that don’t want to work there!
The first time I went to Giraffe I was turned away at the door as they were closing…7:30pm on a Thursday?! That is sheer laziness in my opinion, it might be quiet but it’s not going to get any busier if you turn people away!
Anyway, my friend convinced me to go back because she had a special offer voucher so off we went. We waited for a table despite the restaurant being half empty but there was very limited staff so we didn’t complain. When we were seated we asked to order straight away as we’d already looked at the menu, the hostess said she’d send someone over but we waited twenty minutes. We were then told our special offer voucher was invalid despite it being in date, we queried this and were told «Fine, whatever.»
I glad we did get the offer because I would not of wanted to pay full price for the food. The food seemed to have been cooked in advance and warmed up in the microwave, the pasta was like rubber, it was awful. We didn’t complain because the staff did not seem to care so we just paid and left, swearing we’ll never return.
At least that’s one good thing about Spinningfields, there’s loads of other places to try!

Giraffe Resturant is situated in The Orient in the Trafford Centre. I have returned to Giraffe several times. I think it’s the best place to eat in the trafford center. Good food, locally sourced where possible, something for all tastes including veggie & healthy options. The menu varies slightly in each venue and good deals are available at tea time/​early evening. Always found the staff very friendly and food fresh, tasty & plentiful.