Bournemouth - Ryan Review

This is located on the Castlepoint Shopping Park in the East Village. Just be aware if you follow sat nav (or at least my sat nav) the post code takes you round the back of the industrial estate to the deliveries entrances. Otherwise, a few mini roundabouts where you have to come back on yourself gets you to the East Village parking, which is right outside Nando's front door. There's only a few spaces, so depending how busy it is, the main retail park parking is only a couple minutes walk away. There are plenty of other eateries (such as Frnakie and Benny's) and large shopping stores (Argos, Sainsbury's etc) - so lots of places to shop at.

The outside is certainly nice - plenty of greenery and full length windows that curve all the way round from the front to the back of the branch. Inside, the layout is nice and open . It's average sized (maybe only 35 tables or so). In the middle of the restaurant there's a kinda stonehenge archway that goes right up to the ceiling and then a booth with a circular top at ceiling height too, with some nice carvings on. The seating is a little unvaried though. The front/middle of the restaurant is all table/chairs - and then as the restaurant curves round (past the middle circular booth) there's a few more tables/chairs but very few booths.

There are a few artwork pieces dotted around the place (including in the toilets) and pots/plants a plenty. The toilets are generally clean on the surfaces - but the whole restaurant (including the toilets) was very, very dusty. In the toilet alone there were several cobwebs hanging down from the ceiling (one actually fell on me while I was having a wee) and all the plants had a lot of dust on them too. The windows had red chillis stuck on to them as well - but overall, I think I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and, if a good dusting and a coat of paint to the toilets was given, this would be a very good 3 for decor.

It was a Wednesday night at about 9:15pm and only a handful of tables in use, so was seated and served immediately - and the food also came in just over three minutes, so excellent stuff there! There was one person who did most of the serving to me (who was only a trainee) and she was very friendly and helpful. There were also three other people who checked if I was okay during the meal too - and went and got my refills for me too (!), so very friendly staff indeed.

The chicken itself was fantastic. White, moist, hot, spicy - and the breast I had was huge! The rice and chips were also just right, both big portions. My portion of olives was also huge. I was stuffed... but still managed a fat wedge of raspberyy/white chocolate cheesecake! A really very nice meal.