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Loughton - Nadine Holland Review
How Helpful?:
Number of Visits:
This was my first visit
How Busy?:
25+ minute wait - come on Nando's!
Date of Last Visit:
Friday, August 1, 2014
Time of Day:
Weekend Dinner (Inc Friday)
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?:
Nothing Great - I was keen to try out the new Nandos that had only just opening in Loughton. The welcoming staff were friendly and we were seated within 10 minutes and told the wait for food was 30 minutes. We were seated next to the wash barrel???? so had lots of people washing there hands inches from my back, not very nice.
As Nandos virgins, we had no idea it was not a standard restaurant, but that you had to queue to pay and serve half the meal yourself. But I lined up quickly in an attempt to speed up the food. The till staff seemed a bit unsure of how things worked, but were cheerful and friendly, at the start to an obviously busy night. The restaurant is interestingly decorated, but it was quite dirty. Dropped food was not cleaned up before new diners were seated. And the noise was deafening, you need some soft furnishings to absorb the canteen style echo. The menu was quite limited, as was the drinks options. The food arrived an hour after the order was placed, but luckily the children had spotted a few friends from school, so they were not too bored with the wait. The food was fair to average - the chicken was dry, and I'd prefer a flavourful sauce over powdered spice, but chips and frozen yogurt were nice. Ordering a second drinks was nearly a disaster for my husband, who was asked to re-queue to order beer, but managed to persuade waiting staff, he'd pay at the table. Overall food is very average and the place is noisy, but the children liked the frozen yoghurt machine. 2 out of 5
Comments
Went last night (Sat.) around
Went last night (Sat.) around 8.20pm. Got a table straight away. Food arrived after around 25mins. Husband ordered Prego steak in pita bread as he finds the rolls white hard. It wasn't very hot when it arrived. The fries are still pale & not cooked for long enough. However it was an improvement on last visit, hopefully it will get better.
We had the chance to go when
We had the chance to go when it was a training day so would expect staff to be finding their feet. Went last night with my husband nearly 1 week after it opened. Put my name on the list & told the wait would be upto half-hour. Saw some empty tables but was told they were trying to control the grills so as not to seat too many people at once. We did finally get our table after around 30mins. Bit of a q to order. I could hear people complaining of waiting 40mins for their take aways. Placed our order waited about 25mins for the food to arrive. From our experience at other Nandos where we know food can come within 10mins OR LESS, I had to ask twice how long our food would be. It finally arrived. I had half chicken with mixed leaf salad (wasn't much in the bowl other than a few lettuce leaves & 2 baby tomatoes) & my husband had the steak prego roll with chips. He finds their rolls quite hard so they put it in a pita bread & he was quite happy with it although the chips could have been cooked a bit longer as they were a bit pale & soggy. The meal otherwise was much like expected. A bit more salad would be nice. Will go again after a few weeks to give it more time to cope with the demand. We live in Loughton & have waited a long time for the arrival. Our visit was a bit of a shambles but I think it needed more staff on the floor & helping at the grills to speed things up. Afterall if some of the staff have not experienced a Nandos before, it will be quite a pressure for them to get used to but maybe a bit too soon. Perhaps the opening should have been delayed for a week to allow more training to improve? I would expect 'teething problems' now but hope our next visit will be much better.
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