Bristol - Cribbs Causeway - Damien Review

Nando’s 73 was in Bristol’s out of town Cribb’s Causeway shopping centre, a monstrous building in the middle of nowhere. On entering from the car park (with ample free space to park all the cars you want), I spied Nando’s branding a couple of floors above. We took the elevator up, which lead directly into the restaurant’s seating area. The food court top floor Nando’s had clearly expanded somewhat since it first opened just over 10 years ago, as the tables ran out of the bit the actually looked like a Nando’s, down a corridor next to a kids’ play area, and to the aforementioned area outside the lift. Considering this battle for space and the fact that the mall was quite busy, they did well to locate and prepare a table for 10 in about 20 minutes. It wasn’t all rosy though.

Firstly, we were not given menus. This is something I’ve only experienced at one Nando’s before. As 3 of our group had never eaten at Nando’s before, they were particularly needed and we had to ask to get them. Secondly, while most of the food came out pretty swiftly after ordering, mine was still not on the table as others were nearing their finish. I asked about mine and the waitress took the receipt to the kitchen, then returned and told me it’d be 10 minutes or so. The order clearly got lost entirely. Thirdly, most people who are the chicken (both on bone and in burger form) said it was dry and over-cooked.

On the plus side, our view over the balcony to the floors below was quite interesting, the place wasn’t as crowded and hard to get around as it first appeared, and we got pretty good service from a couple of the staff in particular. Beside the dryish chicken, my own meal was as I’d expect from a Nando’s, it’s just a shame that I had to order it more than once to receive it.

Perhaps Cribb's Nandos' next move should be to buy out the kids' ball pit and expand the restaurant to a more sensible shape.