Birmingham - Bullring - BaronSamedi1980 Review

I was visiting Birmingham for an evening conference event at the International Conference Centre which is just off Broad Street. However I had arrived a few hours early and after checking into my nearby hotel I decided to take a look at Birmingham Bull Ring shopping centre, and enjoy a chicken based dinner with added peri-peri goodness.

The Birmingham bull ring Nandos is located on the bottom level of the bull ring, just by one of the side entrances to the shopping centre. As I entered I was greeted by a friendly member of staff who seated me straight away despite the restaurant looking busy with most tables already occupied.

I felt like trying something different today so spent a longer than normal time looking though the menu and waiting for the sizable queue to order to die down a little before I went up myself. When I did go up to order I only had to wait for a couple of minutes before ordering:

A soft drink.
A churrasco thigh burger (medium) with macho pea and a side salad.

I filled my glass with sprite, collected sauces and cutlery then waited. After a 25 minute wait my meal had not arrived, I was a little disappointed but not too surprised given how hectic the restaurant was when I visited, I asked a member of staff here if they are often busy and was told that yes, this was usual for this location. Five minutes latter, 30 minutes after ordering, my food arrived. Straight away I noticed that the was no fino coleslaw in my churrasco thigh burger. I mentioned this to a passing staff member who checked my receipt and was very apologetic for the error. 5 minutes latter (about 35 minutes after I ordered) I was brought over a little pot of fino coleslaw and asked to add it to my burger using a spoon (which I had to fetch myself from the cutlery station). The whole experience of the long wait for my meal, the forgotten coleslaw and then being asked to fetch a spoon add it myself to the already served burger was very unsatisfactory and I was left feeling that eating here during a busy lunchtime period was a mistake.

The macho peas had somewhat cooled, in addition they appeared to be sitting in a fair amount liquid in the dish it had been served in (I assume this to be water but I can't say for sure.) The side salad on the other hand was very nice and the best part of my Nandos meal.

I was offered desert by the member of staff who cleared my plate from my table but I decided that I would leave it after the problems earlier and return to my hotel.

I didn't visit the toilets here myself so cannot comment on them but my friend told me that the was quite a long queue for the ladies at one point.

So would I visit Nandos Birmingham Bullring again? No. I wasn’t very impressed with the staff helpfulness or the mistakes with my burger and quality of my peas. Yes it was busy but according to the staff member I spoke with it is always busy here. I am rarely in Birmingham and sadly I’ll would be going out of my way to return to this Nandos.