Comments on: Giraffe Restaurant and Bar - Chill out Amidst Water and Greenery

By: AL

AL — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:39:54 +0000

hi veron, this is probably a little random but i need help in selecting a nice eating place to dine in for a birthday celebration. i googled giraffe restaurant and came across your web. any suggestions? View all comments by AL

By: Ren

Ren — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:43:33 +0000

Nice place but I will not go back as I think it’s poorly managed and full of crap. I inquired about organizing an event for my son’s birthday, with 45 guest. They can’t do simple things like adding pattern napkins, decorate, etc. They quoted $7220, for buffet, and said it’s based on average pax spending…who spends $160++ on a sunday afternoon at Giraffe? There’s hardly anyone in the day (more popular at night). The buffet menu is charged at $55 ppax. Ok, fine, that’s $2.5K but what is the rest of the $5K for?? Get this : because I wanted buffet, they had to rent the equipment (utensils, warmer, plate, etc) and that is $2,500 which they can’t change as it’s outsourced.

After I inquired, was told that the new quote is $3,960 (almost 50% off) if I want set menu. Ok…$3,960 divided by 45 guests, each set meal is $88!!! And they have all those silly set menus at max $30 in normal occasion. I was then told that the price is comparable as it’s in prime land, oh c’mon, does it mean I have to pay rental for that 2 hours I’m booking?? Isn’t overheads and such already included in their meal prices?

And guess what, everything is quoted at min. charge, so, God knows what else will be included.

Imagine you go there and have your meal…after paying your food, there is additional charge that says “rental of seat for 2 hours at prime land”….

Though the place is nice, and even if someone has that money to spend, I think it’s still a matter of whether money is well spent, and I certainly think it’s not in this case. Trying pull a fast one, that’s what I think, maybe it’s because the biz is not as good as it seems.

And yes..they are part of Fish & Co. View all comments by Ren

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:37:46 +0000

We were also really annoyed that Giraffe refuses to serve iced water. We had been there for at least three hours with friends,drinking cocktails first, then dinner, with nice bottles of wine, and then went to the downstairs bar area for drinks/coffee. After we had spent $650 (not kidding!) they still refused to give us a glass of water - the place was emptying out as it was already after 11pm so we weren’t blocking the table for new customers and we had had a full meal with starters and desserts and ordered copious amounts of alcohol. I was completely disgusted that they refused to give us one (yes, just one) glass of water just before we left. We also argued and asked for the manager but the manager wasn’t there and the staff would not budge. So we asked for two glasses of ice, which we got for free, and deliberately waited until it melted and drank our water anyway, just to show them how ridiculous they are. We used to go fairly often, even if just for drinks on a Friday after work, but we haven’t been back and have absolutely no intention of ever going there again. We also would never recommend the restaurant to any of our friends - in fact, just the opposite. When we tell our friends the story they also think it is pretentious and ridiculous to not serve water, especially to customers who have ordered a meal. There are enough wonderful restaurants in Singapore to not have to bother about that one again. View all comments by Harry

By: damien

damien — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:17:28 +0000

its just funny hw some restaurants seem to refuse to serve ice water or any type of plain water free,seems like everything the customer wants has to be paid for..that’s why nowadays i seldom go to places which do not serve plain water for free haha. View all comments by damien

By: Harry Colbert

Harry Colbert — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:02:36 +0000

Myself and two friends tried to have dinner at Giraffe last night 9 March 2008. We were seated after walking in a maze at an outside table. We placed our order with the server, who apparently did not speak English very well. We ordered three salmons with pesta, a large bottle of sparkling water and three glasses of water with ice. We were going to decide on wine at our lesiure. The server promptly told us that they did not serve water? But we could get ice and we could buy bottle water. I could not believe what I was told so I asked for the manager. The manager, without batting an eyes, parroted the same reply. We three looked at each other in amazement and told her thank you, but no thank you and left. We went to another restaurant and spent over two hundred dollars. This is another example of incredibly poor service and customer appreciation that Singapore thinks is good service. I RECOMMEND THAT NO ONE EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATED RESTAURANTS. They should go out of business as they can not provide customer service. Ambience is not a reason to support a restaurant. View all comments by Harry Colbert

By: Foodie

Foodie — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:20:27 +0000

Giraffe gets my vote for ambience… their 7oz burger is really really good. View all comments by Foodie

By: kelvin

kelvin — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:11:53 +0000

HAHA! i’m confused! LOL! After reading thru all the reviews, I wondering is it still a good idea to bring my date to Giraffe. Afterall it’s my second time asking her out and i will be leaving town for attachment soon. So come’on please tell me what to do? GO or don’t go? =D View all comments by kelvin

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 05:19:02 +0000

Well it’s my first experience to giraffe with my friend on christmas day. The food really taste aweful especially my main course Perhaps it’s a christmas menu.The food are rather cold but I’m willingly to try other dishes the next time.Hope it would be good as what others have comments . View all comments by Adrian

By: Veron

Veron — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:19:58 +0000

Okay that does sound pretty screwed up and you have every right to be angry. But looking at how clueless they seem to be, I wouldn’t be surprised if you called again and managed to get a free table. View all comments by Veron

By: Angry Mob

Angry Mob — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 12:12:47 +0000

Bad bad experience guys. I tried calling 2 weeks before valentine day for a dinner with my girl, they said the reservations for valentine day is not open yet, requesting me to call in again 1 week later….. and so i did, in fact 5 days later i called again.. ya know.. sinkapoleans mah, kiasu*.. BUT what they say? The reservations for valentine day is FULL !!! Tried to reason out with that fellow but useless, hesimply just do not give way. Is it really that difficult to squeeze in 1 more table for 2 !? Really really disappointed.. :( View all comments by Angry Mob

By: myloh

myloh — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 02:31:11 +0000

kinda chanced upon your blog.. but not sure by how and how long ago.. since then have linked your page and has been coming by pretty often for updates and such.. beautiful site btw.. and love the music… would come by at times just to leave it on… feels really “chill” almost like a pub.. hope to see more lovely posts and is they like a catalogue for the jewelry.. sorry for not paying attention but are the jewelry for sale at all??
or issit your personal collection?? either case .. perhaps you’ll hit me back.. thanks..

yet again.. love your site..

cheers. View all comments by myloh

By: Jin Xian

Jin Xian — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:36:32 +0000

Have you tried my (or is ‘The’) Secret Garden? good food and fantastic service. Its near NLB, neatly tucked away. View all comments by Jin Xian

By: Black Mamba

Black Mamba — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:03:47 +0000

well, my hubby and i chanced upon giraffe on our way to the underpass to Plaza Singapura (from dinner at Fish & Co Parkmall) and saw the beautiful Giraffe. Feeling romantic for the evening, and not feeling like going home yet, we decided to drop by.

It was gorgeous at first, the glass panel atop the water feature to walk on…..we looked at the menu at the front of the restaurant, it was only food menu, no drinks. One of the waitress saw us but pretended she didnt.

So we stepped in, looked around (since no one was welcoming us). So we walked past the bar to the other side of the joint. i supposed we were invisible….perhaps….

Finally after wandering around for a good 2 minutes (maybe coming on to 3), someone spotted us and ushered us to our seats, with both food and drinks menu (despite the fact that she asked if we’re having food or drinks; and we said “drinks”).

So i started to turn on my stopwatch and time them for how long it takes them to do things.

7 minutes later, someone came for our order (this is despite the fact that we were seated at the table near the bar and cashier)

5 minutes later, our iced latte and iced tea arrived, together with the bill.

I was expecting a proper brewed iced-tea, with syrup at the side…..but hey…nothing of the sort. My iced tea was from a can or dispenser….ok sigh…

then came the payment part.

no one came back to our table to check on us or smile. and certainly no one came to process our payment.

so i wrote a note/feedback to them on the receipt, and together we went to the cashier with the entire payment-folder, and money and receipt, on our way out.

the cashier girl didnt bat an eyelid, she didnt smile at us, no PR. zilch.

She read our note. no reaction. zip.

Our iced latte and iced tea = $12.00

it was not fantastic.

i totally agree with sparklette, about paying for ambience, nothing else.

i think it was totally bad bad service. All the staff looked tired and unfriendly and the sad thing is that they have such a lovely, calm, romantic ambience; but nothing of the sort in terms of people’s skills.

well, maybe we were not tourists. View all comments by Black Mamba

By: Veron

Veron — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:28:00 +0000

That’s a real big compliment! Thank you so much! View all comments by Veron

By: Spring

Spring — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:12:30 +0000

I’m impressed and totally enchaned; this is the first time I’ve seen such a beautiful blog. View all comments by Spring

By: Veron

Veron — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 02:03:48 +0000

Thanks for your comment! Hope you have a good time at Giraffe. It’s wildly popular with Singaporeans I think… I notice a large number of visitors who drop by my blog after googling for “giraffe”. View all comments by Veron

By: S. Anderson

S. Anderson — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 01:58:06 +0000

I just have to say that I am so incredibly impressed with your web design. I love the theme the colors and the floating leaves across the castle. Beautiful! View all comments by S. Anderson

By: Veron

Veron — Sun, 07 May 2006 14:39:49 +0000

The Chicken Schnitzel was a really huge portion of chicken fillet that i couldn’t finish. It does look small in the photograph because the plate itself was even larger! The food itself wasn’t great though. I would say diners pay more for the ambience and service rather than the food itself.

I know when I return there, it wouldn’t be for the food, that’s for sure. View all comments by Veron

By: harrison

harrison — Sun, 07 May 2006 14:30:48 +0000

Wow….when I see large plates, minute servings of food like the ones above, I think of high prices and high cuisine. Are they really worth it? I mean, food appreciation is a valuable trait indeed, but to pay such a high price for something that’s just not going to get you full is kind of besides the point. Oh well, perhaps it’s the novelty thing, eh?

Haha the way you described the preparation is indeed funny…sounds like a nice place to eat too…perhaps they are trying to slow the mood down to a romantic crawl, no? Instead of losing patience, one should appreciate their time-wasting…haha View all comments by harrison

By: harrison

harrison — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Haha the camera’s macro mode sure plays visual treats…same technique they use to deceive people to buy $1.95 burgers that end up being less filling than a doughnut.

Well, cheer up! At least Apprentice is coming out today!

Btw the thumbnail image for the Cute Overload site…looks exactly like the frog hat that BJ wore in the first non-elimination leg!

Hey, I recommend Bookworm as an excellent word game. I’ve grown addicted to it ever since I played it, and I reckon it’s as challenging as Word Dojo and Texttwist! You should try that out soon. View all comments by harrison