Foodie Review: Giraffe World Kitchen, London Victoria

To celebrate the refurbishment of their branch in London Victoria, Giraffe World Kitchen very kindly invited me along to sample some of their delights and new menu. Here's a look at my latest foodie review...

Regular readers may remember that I first visited Giraffe World Kitchen* back in July of last year. Having had such a good experience at their Southbank branch, I was very much looking forward to trying out a new menu and a brand new location - just a stones throw from London Victoria Train Station. As per their usual restaurants, Giraffe offers a wide selection of dishes from around the globe; incorporating a blend of fresh hearty, comfort food within a vibrant and relaxed setting. With my good friend and blogger babe, Fran, at my side, we headed over to try out some of their exciting new plates and offer our honest review...

Myself and Fran have started a bit of a tradition lately in that, wherever we go out to eat, we always seem to order a plate of nachos to share. And that's exactly what we did. To start, we shared their famous Nachos Sharer Plate with Chorizo - created with black bean chilli, Monterey Jack cheese, guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos and chipotle. They also offer a selection of added extras such as chicken and chorizo which I'd strongly recommend. We also ordered the absolutely delicious Halloumi Skewers - served with brown rice and quinoa tabbouleh. I found that these were perfectly cooked - grilled slightly to give it a subtle chargrilled taste but not overdone to keep them soft and flavourful and not rubbery - because there's nothing worse then rubbery halloumi.

For our mains, Fran opted for her usual fish dish with Blackened Salmon - Salmon fillet marinated in world spices, served on a bed of brown rice and kidney beans with corn on the cob and a mango salad. I thought this was beautifully presented and was certainly the most colourful dish compared to my biege plate. Unlike Fran who is far more adventurous than I, I chose the Grilled Sirloin Steak - an 8oz Irish-reared beef steak, served to my choice (rare, obviously) with skin-on-fries and a dressed green leaf salad. You can also add bourbon peppercorn sauce for an added £1.50 (as pictured above).

The steak itself was pretty much nearly perfect. Beautifully seasoned and cooked very well to my liking although it did have quite a large chunk of fat. I do think, however, that this was much nicer than the first steak I tried at their South Bank branch and, combined with the bourbon sauce, made for a wonderful choice of main. The chips were enjoyable although quite bland in taste and so these did require a lot of salt and vinegar; although I loved dipping them in the bourbon sauce. Definitely order a sauce with your steak.

Finally, it was time for dessert. As you can imagine, I was already pretty stuffed from this mountain of food but it seemed only polite to try out their new dessert menu, right? It was fantastic. For dessert, I selected the Banana Waffle Split (pictured above) - warm cinnamon banana served on a waffle with vanilla ice cream and a lot of chocolate toffee sauce. It was amazing! Unfortunately I couldn't finish it after such a gut bash but it was well worth the giant food baby. The ice cream melted in to what was a banana fritter and combined with the waffle also it made for a beautiful all-carb treat.

Overall, I think that my second visit to Giraffe was even more successful than the first. Unlike the Southbank branch which is slightly more family focused, I personally felt that the Victoria one seems to be more ideal for a evening out with the girls or a date night. It has the perfect balance of vibrancy whilst also having a relaxing atmosphere. I really liked the Moroccan and sixties style of decor and, although it is still suitable for families, the overall feel of the place made for a far better venue to grab some tapas and a cocktail.

As usual, the service was prompt and super friendly. I could not fault any of the team who were not only fantastic with us, but seemed to be just as brilliant with the other tables too. A huge thanks to Giraffe for allowing us to try out the newly decorated Victoria branch and their menu, we had an excellent evening and I'm sure we'll be heading back soon - if only for that dessert. You can check out more information about the London Victoria branch and their full menu here.

That's it for another foodie review. Have you been to Giraffe yet? What are some of your favourite world food restaurants? As always, I love reading your comments so please do leave me lots of lovely ones down below.

Until next time fellow foodies,

*Disclaimer - All food featured in this post was complimentary and provided courtesy of Giraffe World Kitchen. As usual, all opinions are my own and do not reflect that of the brand.

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