Boldon - Ryan Review

So onto the second Nando's of the day at Boldon - which now being a Friday evening, things were quite busy inside, but there were still a few tables free so was seated straight away at a four-seater just to the left of the entrance. The chairs at this table were quite funky as the legs/chairs themselves didn't move but the seat span around - which kept me entertained for a little while...

This Nando's is on a reasonably new retail park in Boldon Colliery, which is also home to a large Asda, some other eateries and a Cineworld. There are hundreds of free parking spaces and the nearest Metro station is Brockley Whins, which is about 1.5 miles walk away.

This Nando's is a little plain looking from the outside being a new-warehouse type build, but inside it's lovely. The first thing that strikes you is the ceiling which has a huge triangular/triominoes effect running from the front right to the back. In fact there are lots of geometric shapes in here - including the till area which is completely tiled in hexagons that run in different colours/shades from red to yellow from the walls to into the floor. Also as soon as you enter, there are some bright orange abstract art pieces on the wall in front of you - above five or so two-seater tables. In the main bulk of the restaurant there is a good mixture of seating, with larger square booths, some larger round tables (a couple shielded by a little separating wall) and further two-seater tables. A very good mix of different lighting too from big brown conical shades, clear bulbs hanging down above the square booths on varying lengths of thick thread to orange cones jutting out of that triominoes effect ceiling. Toilets are accessed at the very back and have enormous wood paneled doors engrained with different colours (and were also very clean). Top notch.

Staff were waiting for the evening rush and there seemed to be a dozen of them at one point - seven crowded around the entrance at one point too - but they did everything expected of them - including bringing the food in just over 5 minutes!

Sadly... as I was claiming two green rewards as quarter chickens, I asked for one breast and one leg and two legs came. I piped up a little, but think my accent got the better of me... so just kept quiet... And sadly, the legs were a real let down. Both the legs must have come from a wee babby chick as they were very small with barely any meat on them at all - and the chicken that was on them was very brown/pink and very greasy. The rice portion was a standard size but cold and flavourless... and on this occasion today at least, the chips were an average size portion but hot and crispy. I had a ratatouille as well, which was hot and spicy, but the chicken was bad indeed. Two bad meals in the same day from Nando's this time!