In a nutshell :

Very cool set breakfast. Alacarte stuff quite mixed – good , bad & also ugly. Staff – mostly great, one of them was a real disaster.

Continental food in London compared to similar food served in India – An Indian foodie’s perspective.

Restaurant website: Giraffe

Cuisine type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

I always like to get a grub here if it’s a morning. My comment after first several visits : “Love the breakfast. Also good things r – a bright & colorful decor, peppy music, fun & cool staff – they actually crack jokes at times, make u feel like u hv come to a cool hangout place.” Experience on my last visit – We came across a disaster of a waiting staff – worst than anyone I have come across anyehere in Europe / USA.

Had a breakfast set menu – Soft & creamy scrambled eggs with some really good bacon, rich & super tasty sausages, baked beans , grilled tomatoes & some really crunchy potato fries.

Detailed Description: In case u have the time to enjoy  reading:

I have been to Giraffe several times to eat the breakfast set menu. All those are covered under ‘Day 1’. I tried alacarte on a fateful day 2. Read about it in ‘Day 2’.

Day 1:

As u get out of the security check at London Heathrow airport, the first thing that strikes u is an oasis of color amidst a lot of grey, silver & white. As u walk towards it u see 3 Giraffes (not real ones) & the cool restaurant entrance which says – ‘Love, Eat, Live’ below the name of the restaurant.

The set menu had 2 large slices of bacon – they were not the ‘slightly burnt, crispy & dark reddish brown’ variety that u c in India. These r rather thick, (say approx. 1.5 mm), had a slight layer of fat, the fresh meat texture was clearly visible & the taste was slightly over salty – I guess that is balanced out when u eat it with the soft plain creamy scrambled eggs.

The Burnt roasted tomatoes acted as a rest / filler between the meats & also as a taste neutralizer. They had no salt but tasted great after salt was added.

Crispy thick potato fries were very tasty & no salt was sprinkled on the top. The outer layer was crisper & tastier than the Mc Donalds India variety.

Breakfast Baked Beans were good but Indians will need to add salt to get a good taste. It was surely less tomatoee as compared to the canned baked bean versions available in india.

The show stopper was the Thick, robust, rich lip-smacking & drooling good pork sausages. U cud feel the Chunks of pounded meat inside (no strands though), unlike the ‘uniform, machine made meat paste turned into sausages’ that r available in India.

The lack of uniformity in the sausages served at Giraffe ensured that every bite gives a diff feel & diff texture, outer layer is firmer than the Indian variety….The meat inside is spiced up & is mixed with the fat – that adds to the taste…………..wow, what a breakfast.

I guess this is a good way to start a day when maybe u r headin towards a desert Oasis where there is little chance to pick up food on the way & u end up burning these calories during the all day walk!!!!……………….Kiddin ….. its not that heavy but heavy.

Day 2:

As mentioned above, I have always found the people at Giraffe to be warm & fun. This time we had a very different & worse experience. The British lady serving us had not been introduced to the concept of ‘smiling’, she was as cold as ice, was talking to us as if we were asking for a waiver in taxes!!! I wud not be surprised if I came to know she was a racist & were behaving with Asian / African guests in such a weird way. She was a real ‘Disaster of a waiting staff’ in an International Restaurant.

Unlike many other occasions where I had stuck to the breakfast menu, this time me & friends decided to try out something different. So we ordered for a British Classic – Fish & Chips, a steak, a plate of nachos& the same sausages that are served in the breakfast platter.

The steak that was served ‘rare’ without even asking us. No steak knife was provided ‘because it is an airport’. Then why serve steak????? We tried to cut thru the steak with the stupidly blunt knives that they gave us – of course that did not work in the normal way. So we had to use those blunt knives – kept stabbing the steak till it wud tear into edible pieces!!!!! Needless to say that was a futile exercise & we just let go half the steak. The taste of the steak was also just Ok – nothing good & lacked salt.

The English Classic fish & chips was good – the fish though that also had less salt. The outer layer was super crispy & the fish within was soft n juicy. I liked it post a generous sprinkling of salt. The chips were good as well.

The Nachos – mexican touch sitting in London were sub optimal again. We were returning from the neighbouring land of nachos (Phoenix, Arizona, USA). After a week of great Mexican food in Phoenix, this one fell flat on its place. It was much blander than the ones we had there. On its own it was not bad though.

We washed all these down with a strong long glass of Virgin Mojito that had a fruity topping.

Overall – Wud go back to Giraffe to have the breakfast platter (inspite of a chane encounter with the disgusting waitress) but wud be cautious in eating other items.