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| Islington (Average rating: 3.19) Parking is generally easily found in a side street. This is free in the evenings but very expensive during the day (about 50p every 15 minutes). Scroll down for Photo Gallery.
Lifetime Ratings (5-10 Combined Visits from 7 Nandoers): | Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 3.17 | 3 | 3.08 | 3.5 | Meaning | Not bad. Did everything I asked of them | 10 - 15 mins - Nando's average | Average - just as you would expect | Standard Nando's, nothing bad, nothing exceptional |
Individual Ratings:
Submitted by: Adam Nicol 
Date of last visit: Sat 12/11/11 How busy was it?: Half full Time of day? Weekend dinner
Number of visits?: My first visit
Additional comments: This branch was interesting, I went about 7 on a Saturday night, Northern line via bank was closed so I had to go to. Highbury and Islington and walk, it's quite a walk about 15 minutes, it wasn’t that busy so we got seated immediately which is surprising for a Saturday evening .
It looks really small and average from the outside but inside it's bigger and quite interesting, there’s 3 levels which go down with steps to them and we got seated in the second level, the decor was minimal with just bunch of pictures on the wall, but at the back there was a massive wooden door, I'm not quite when it’s from but it looked old, I’m guessing it was there before Nando’s as it didn’t look like typical décor, but other than that it was pretty average, a good thing being that they have drink machines on each level so you don’t have to climb the flights of stairs to get more drink, it had a large high ceiling which is exactly what I like in a Nando’s, it makes it more impressive.
The staff were mostly polite, apart from the one who showed us in, in a red shirt, he seemed miserable like he hated his job, I didn’t see him smile all night, how can you be unhappy in Nando’s?
But other than that everyone else who dealt with us was happy and smiley, as they should be! So friendliness was let down by one guy, not the best kind of person to have greeting at the door.
As I said we were seated on the first lower level, on a round table, no salt on the table so I had to steal some also no extra-extra hot sauce on the lower level so I had to get some from the top level. Other than that the table was clean and the atmosphere was good, we weren’t too close to other people or cramped, I ordered with no problems, Butterfly chicken with peri-chips and garlic bread, got seated back down and waited for my food. It took under 10 minutes to arrive which was a good chance to chat with my friend and discuss what he thought I should give the staff and the décor.
The portion of chips was rather small with hardly any peri-salt on them, the garlic bread was nicely done, nice and burnt, the butterfly chicken was a bit small, I’ve had bigger than it but I’ve had smaller, average, but it was a very enjoyable meal, filled my Nando’s desire for at least a few hours and left me nicely satisfied. We didn’t get offered any deserts when they cleared our table though which usually happens.
So overall, an average visit to an interesting branch. The only things that majorly stood out were the big cool door and the grumpy greeter, so nothing too bad so if you’re in the area get yourself there! | Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | Meaning | Not bad. Did everything I asked of them | 5 - 10 mins - Some conversation had begun | Average - just as you would expect | Standard Nando's, nothing bad, nothing exceptional |
Submitted by: Jonny Grunwald Date of Visit: Sat 6/8/2011
Number of Visits?: 2-5 How busy was it? Half full Time of day? Weekend lunch Additional Comments: Came in hoping for a very quick lunch and wasn't disappointed. The service was quick, and the staff helpful. The food was nothing spectacular, though, and sadly there was no extra-extra-hot sauce available, which was a let-down, although a member of staff was on hand to bring me some from the fridge, which unfortunately meant it was cold and didn't go so well with my meal.
Otherwise an above-average visit to a very pretty, well-decorated branch. I've had good experiences here and will definitely return. | Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Meaning | Not bad. Did everything I asked of them | Some conversation had begun | Average - just as you would expect | Very clean, newly furnished, impressive artwork and lighting |
Submitted by: Damien Date of Visit: Wed 20/7/11
Number of Visits?: 1st visit How busy was it? Half full Time of day? Weekday dinner Additional Comments: Back in London, Islington wNando's was the 34th to open in the UK.
About a 15 minute walk from Angel station, the restaurant itself looked a bit different from some of the quite samey Nando's out there, split over three small levels.
I went in a group of ten, and were tucked up in the cellar where they could fit all of us.
The food was good, and the staff were okay (some were extra friendly, none were overly dismissive), but it all collapsed on incompetence somewhere or another. Lots of our food was forgotten, brought out wrong, and even dropped on the floor.
It'd be easy to put this down to the group size, were it not for the fact that we'd pretty much all ordered separately.
My chips didn't arrive until I'd asked twice, and finished the rest of my meal, and two of our group didn't get their food until over an hour after ordering, and after speaking to two members of staff, then the manager about it.
The gents toilets were more fancy than you'd expect from a guy's bathroom, but not really enough to sway the headless chicken management style here. | Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 3 | 1 | 3.5 | 4 | Meaning | Not bad. Did everything I asked of them | >25 mins - Asked repeatedly. I need my Nando's | Average but with lots of peri-spice | Very clean, newly furnished, impressive artwork and lighting |
Date of Visit: 7pm Thurs 21st April 2011 Number of Visits?: 1st visit
Additional Comments: Although it took a few minutes before we were seen to on arriving at the Islington branch, the 5 of us did not have to wait for a table on a lively Thursday evening.
The branch is a 5 minute walk from Angel tube and ideally situated if you happen to be going to a concert at the O2 academy after (which we were doing) as the walk is long enough to digest but not too long to be a strain (7-8 minutes).
There was a short queue to order and the food then arrived in 10 minutes. All members of the group received their food at the same time which has been a problem in other branches. Peri salt was generous although my leg could have been meatier. I would have left still feeling peckish had my friend not generously given me a large chunk of her leg.
Staff were keen to help and brought over knives, extra extra hot sauce and extra plates.
The only problem with the layout is that the tables on the ground floor near the toilets are two flights of stairs from the water machine.
The toilets were far from clean which was disappointing, toilet roll on the floor and ducktape covering part of the wall as if they had been previously vandalised. Overall a good Nando's nevertheless!
| Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | Meaning | Good stuff. Very polite | 5 - 10 mins - Some conversation had begun | Above average - noticeably tastier than normal | Standard Nando's, nothing bad, nothing exceptional |
Submitted by: Hayley Date of Visit: 29/03/2011
Number of Visits?: 1st visit
Additional Comments: Oh God, this was such a disappointment! I had my usual 1/4 chicken, creamy mash & macho peas, but waited 35 minutes for it to come and the restaurant wasn't even overly busy. The chicken was the skinniest leg of meat I've ever had - I struggled to find much meat on there and it was overcooked which disintergrated whatever there was. So disappointed as I'd been looking forward to it all day, I was made to wait a long time and it wasn't nice once I got it. Have never had a moan about Nando's as it's my favourite thing in the world, but this was rubbish! Won't be going back to Islington branch in a hurry. | Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 3 | 1 | 1.5 | 4 | Meaning | Not bad. Did everything I asked of them | >25 mins - Asked repeatedly. I need my Nando's | Very disappointing - cold, flavourless, burnt | Very clean, newly furnished, impressive artwork and lighting |
Submitted by: Lozzy Date of Visit: April 2009
Number of Visits?: 1st visit
Additional Comments: Went in lunch hour, service was quick.
| Friendliness of Staff | Speed of Service | Quality of Food | Decoration and Cleanliness | Rating | 3 | 4 | 3.5 | 3 | Meaning | Not bad. Did everything I asked of them | Some conversation had begun | Average but with lots of peri-spice | Standard Nando's, nothing bad, nothing exceptional |
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