Global cuisine and world music come to Bloomsbury, courtesy of Giraffe at The Brunswick Centre.

The Venue
Situated in a trendy, laid-back shopping square, near the Renoir Cinema, Giraffe is a bright spacious restaurant with tables outside, overlooking the minimalist fountains of the Brunswick Centre, a hop skip and a jump from Russell Square tube. The square has a cool, contemporary vibe, full of pavement tables and plate-glass facades, lively but not overcrowded, and Giraffe fits right in.

The Atmosphere
Giraffe is a chain, but an upmarket one, and this feels like a restaurant in its own right. Eating there is intended to be a fun experience, and so it is. The colour-scheme is bright, with orange and green predominant. The black-clad waitresses are friendly and attentive. Cheerful world music plays, but not oppressively loudly, and floor-to-ceiling windows allow you to watch the strollers in the square.

The Food
You might fear that a restaurant offering cuisine from all over the world wouldn’t quite get any of it right, but Giraffe pulls it off reasonably well. Starters include asparagus with yakitori dressing, Bang Bang chicken salad, and a really good big plate of mixed mezze, including mini lamb and chicken kebabs, halloumi, tasty granular houmous and a fiery harissa. Mains include green chicken curry and roasted corn and chilli bean burrito. The lamb burger with satay sauce requires a mouth as big as a giraffe’s to bite it, and the burger is excellent, made with freshly-minced lamb by the taste of it, but the satay sauce is a fusion too far.

Mains also feature a market fish of the day - the sea bass is good, if on the small side, served with a peach and red onion chutney (really more of a salsa), and herby rice, which let the side down by being dry and cardboard-y. Desserts are simple - sundaes, crumble, cheesecake. The Swiss Mountain chocolate cheesecake is smooth and silky, and slips down no matter how full you are.

The Drink
The wine list offers one white and one red in each of the following categories: Happy, Cheerful, Lovely, Fab and Gorgeous, with Happy being the cheapest and Gorgeous the most expensive, but even those are only around twenty quid. There’s also an international selection of bottled beers.

Last Word
It’s not haute cuisine, but the food tastes fresh and it’s decently priced at an average of a tenner for a main course. A jolly, jazzy, buzzy, snazzy place to meet your mates.

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