juliette, russel and andrew decided to open the kind of restaurant they would like to hang out in. somewhere relaxed where people could have a great coffee and freshly cooked food at any time of day - all to the spirited sounds of world music so you could imagine yourself being anywhere from sydney to israel - somewhere sunny and full of smiles.

as russel always wanted to have a business called giraffe -hence the restaurant 'giraffe' was born in 1998 and the first restaurant is in hampstead

"did you know that giraffes have the largest hearts of any land mammals?"

giraffe is owned by the original founders juliette and russel joffe and andrew jacobs who all have an active role in the day to day management of the business.

giraffe also has additional financial backing from some private shareholders, 3i investment group and entrepreneur chairman, luke johnson

we have 25 restaurants around london and the uk and 5 franchises in 3 uk airports. Click here to find your nearest Giraffe restaurant

we listen to feedback from our guests and where possible try to work suggestions into the menu. russel joffe works very closely with our chefs to create new and exciting dishes

yes you can! we welcome bookings midweek and weekend evenings. we don't take bookings for brunch at weekends (9am-3pm)

weekend day times is the busiest time at giraffe and to keep it fair for everyone we keep this time as first come first served

yes! we have hosted some brilliant parties. whether its for a small get together or for 20+ people. click here for our party menu and booking information

we have a great reputation for being a fab place for families to relax and have a great meal, however by evening time, when the kids tend to be in bed, we change the music and have candles on tables which creates a much more 'adult' feel in the restaurant

yes we do. our current menu has many dishes suitable for vegetarians from breakfast, side dishes and mains

yes! our restaurants have a dietary table so please ask the manager on duty who can go through it with you

we were offered a great opportunity by TRG (the restaurant group) who license food and beverage concessions in UK airports. they felt that giraffe would be a refreshing change to airport dining by offering a great all day freshly cooked food restauranti. as TRG have experience in running concepts in airports we agreed to franchise our name to them and work very closely with them on a day to day basis.

we now have a restaurant in heathrow T1 & T5, manchester airport and our new concept 'juice & coffee bar' in T1 airside and in stansted airport (at gates 41-59)

whilst we are not planning to franchise outside of the UK just yet as we are focusing on building the business one step at a time, we would still like to hear from you if you believe you could open a giraffe internationally. we would expect you to be an established restaurant operator with experience of multi unit management. send your emails to smiles@giraffe.net

great! send us your cv to jobs@giraffe.net or pop in to any restaurant and ask to talk to the manager (just don't pop in between 12-2pm week days and 10-4pm weekend as we will be really busy!)