The Brunswick - BaronSamedi1980 Review

I travelled to my third RYN reviewer dinner on the train from Bedford to St. Pancras and then just one stop on the Piccadilly line to Russel Square. This Nandos at the Brunswick was to be a new one for me and I was very much looking forward to both trying a new restaurant with the RYN regulars and enjoying the peri-peri chicken on offer.

The Brunswick Centre is an open air shopping centre in Camden near to both Kings Cross and Euston train stations. The Brunswick Centre is made up of various glass fronted stores and eateries with residential apartments above them. The shops here are mostly high street fashion outlets as well as a large a Waitrose supermarket and a Renoir Cinema. The Brunswick Centre is located very close to Russell Square tube station (Piccadilly line) and car parking is also available here at an NCP operated car park just next door to the Brunswick centre which has over 150 parking spots.

The Brunswick Nandos was quite hard to spot with work going on right outside the shop front obscuring most of my view of the restaurant as I approached. Upon entering I was warmly greeted by Sebastien, the manager, before spotting James and Marc who pointed me towards our table. The restaurant is quite narrow, giving an impressions that it isn't very big, however this Nandos goes a long way back (depth) and contains more tables then appears to be the case at first glance. And it was right at the back that the RYN dinners would gather for our reviewers dinner.

The regular reviewers dinner raffle was held and I was fortunate enough to win a £10 Nandos gift card which was the first time I have won a prize in the pre-meal raffle which was a much appreciated bonus for me as well as a nice surprise. Thank you.

I had a quick look at the menu but decided to order my pre-selected meal. I did not have to queue before ordering which was great. Once again all the dinners received a 20% discount which was very generous (thank you Marc and James for arranging this!). I ordered:

Butterfly chicken (Medium) with peri-peri chips and garlic bread.
Two portions of halloumi.
A soft drink.

My Food arrived quickly as when I placed my order the female member of staff operating the tills had told me that it would be around 25 mins for my meal to be prepared and served but the food came in about 20 mins - 5 mins earlier than promised so a good job by the kitchen staff coping with our large group and getting though the food orders well. In fact I was the first RYN reviewer to receive their meal despite Gerry ordering a few minutes before me.

The first thing I noticed about my meal was the large portions, in fact by the end I was struggling to finish it all and I was glad not to have filled up by ordering a starter. My butterfly chicken was large and full of flavour. Maybe I imagined it but I also thought the meat was more dense in texture then normal. The Chip portion was also on the generous side, hot and served with plenty of peri-peri seasoning. The garlic bread was crisp and tasty and the halloumi was lightly grilled and full of flavour. An excellent Nandos meal – obviously a great choice of venue by the RYN team.

During our meal we actually had two quality checks carried out on our table and got the impression that the staff here were going out of their way to look after us. I want to say a bit about a couple of the Brunswick staff here who I felt did an outstanding job of looking after us - the manager, Sebastien, and the French female member of staff whose name I didn't catch were really great and went out of their way to look after us and make sure we had everything we needed. Both did a fantastic job of making me feel welcome and their enthusiasm is obvious for all to see. Thank you both.

After stuffing ourselves full of great Nandos food we had the quiz which was a lot of fun and it was good to see some of the Nandos staff getting involved at this point. The team of Gerry and myself came second with the pictures of different Nandos locations once again being our downfall.

Thank you to the Rate Your Nando's team, James and Marc, for organising the logistics of the dinner and things like the quiz and being great hosts. It was another enjoyable evening with some great company, lots of fun and some wonderful Nandos food. And the £10 Nandos gift card I won didn't hurt either.

Before leaving I visited the toilets which are located downstairs. The mens bathroom itself was clean and there was no issue but I was a bit disconcerted with the fact that neither of the doors to the male and female bathrooms were closed which somewhat limited the privacy factor.

So would I visit Nandos Brunswick again? Yes but I would skip lunch first to allow room for the generous portions here.