Bristol - Aspects Leisure Park - Ryan Review

Stopped into Bristol - Aspects Leisure Park while trekking back up the M5. When you get here make sure you follow the brown road signs that say Leisure Park, if you follow sat nav if be an idiot like me and be sent half a mile past it :-)

There's loads of spaces on this complex spread across the Upper Deck and Lower Deck. It seems everyone tries to get on the Upper Deck (as that's where the entrance to the bars, restaurants etc are) so was very tight parking - so instead go straight into the lower deck - hundreds of free empty spaces! There's a Vue cinema and a Bowlplex along with a fitness first and quite a few restaurants and pubs too - so plenty of things to do.

Not the best first impressions of the outside as it shares the frontage with a Chinese restaurant... and inside it looks as though there loads of left over mirrors from next door too, and Nando's have put them up - and in the toilets as well. Cheap, nasty faux-bronze effect (wood painted yellow) mirrors all along the right side wall at the front of the restaurant.

Other than that, there are a few nice pieces of decor dotted about the place and some nice displays (a huge 3 by 10 foot glass case of sauce bottles for example - even if most of the labels had faded...). There are some interesting orbs for the lighting too - but generally the lighting wasn't very bright. I was sitting in the window and still found it to be quite dark - slap in a few 30 watters, then it'll be fine!

This branch also need to sort their front door out! Every time it closed it would bang to and then bounce on and off the stopper five or six times making a loud racket anytime someone come in or went out. Was annoying after the tenth time let alone the thirtieth. Make sure you sit near the back so you can't hear it!

The toilets, although clean (from what I could make out) were also very, very dark. The dark grey metal/iron coated walls - as interesting as they were didn't help. I couldn't actually see my own face in the mirror to make sure I'd wiped the peri-peri off. Strange!

I arrived around 7:45pm and it was maybe a third full (about 8 tables in use) - so was seated straight away and no wait to order. The food also came in just under 5 minutes too, which was nice. I was claiming a free quarter chicken this time and I thought I'd be cheeky and ask for two breasts... but no luck... :-) The food was really good though. The breast I did get was massive!! Really succulent too - and the wing piece was equally as good. Chips and rice were both hot and the olives seemed to have a slightly different drizzle on too. They did taste very nice! 8 Extra Extra bottles to choose from too - thanks.

Staff did nothing extra than the bear minimum. I tried to spark up a conversation with some - but no luck. Maybe these Bristolians just couldn't understand the Brummie twang. I was about to leave when I managed to grab someone to order a pudding (as nobody had checked on me by this point - the branch wasn't even busy!). I ordered a Cheesecake for dessert and the credit card machine was brought to the table and I was made to pay there and then - which in all fairness is fine if they've had people leg it before paying, but I asked if I could pay at the till afterwards and was refused blankly. That's certainly not the Nando's spirit!