Dining at Giraffe was an unexpected choice as a group of friends and I were caught in the rain, hungry and couldn't find a spare table anywhere else around Angel on a Saturday night. Giraffe looked welcoming and menu was reasonable with chargrilled salmon with wasabi rice on offer. It was past 9:30pm and the children had all now gone to bed. We were eating merrily and sharing jovial stories around the large wooden table. Service was average and the tables turned when the waiter came up to us to ask us to please lower our voices and to refrain from swearing. There was no children in restaurant! I instantly felt like I was thirteen years old being told off by a school teacher. We declined ordering dessert, finished our dinners like good Islington children do and hoped we wouldn't get detention for not finishing our vegetables. Giraffe will treat you well if you are under two and have parents to pay large tips, not ideal for groups of grown up friends that like to eat , drink and laugh heartily over dinner.

Wow. Went to Giraffe expecting just a family friendly restaurant serving generic food - how wrong could I be.



The promise of child and family friendly was even better than I thought. Staff that are happy to sit down and talk to our children is a rare thing in busy London but at Giraffe they did exactly that.



When the food came I was pretty shocked - It looked like real fodder: imaginitive and presented well. We all wolfed it down and I even left a large tip, which I do very begrundgingly in central London.