Chester - Bridge Street - Anonymous Review

I’ve not been to a Nando’s for a long time so decided to give it another go with a friend of mine. Unfortunately the experience wasn’t as I had remembered from the past, the theming (especially at the far back of the restaurant) is bleak and bare, there’s no warm ambience whatsoever compared to when I went in the past and it literally felt you were dining in a Portuguese restaurant. It could do with some sprucing up as parts of the restaurant look rather drab and dated. I’d suggest warmer lighting, more Portuguese decor, foliage, paintings, etc.

When we got seated, we were told to use the app to order — however as we couldn’t connect to the WiFi, we had to go up an order, which isn’t a big issue in itself but with that kind of system it feels rather soul-less instead of having a waiter hand you your menu and you can actually have a conversation about what they could recommend. The staff there were fine and polite enough, I just find it a shame how you have to order using an app that struggles to connect to the WiFi in a restaurant in turn losing a personable charm of being served by an actual human.

The food was sadly not up to my expectations, the only dish I did like was the starter — and those were the Halloumi fries. I also had the loaded wrap, which was the main culprit here. As soon as I took a bite, I knew instantly this was processed chicken and not fresh — which I know isn’t a big deal for some, but when paying almost £40, I expect something better than what you could easily buy from the meal deal section in Tesco. I went for the extra mild, so as my friend mentioned, the extra spicey sauces they do offer probably mask that specific taste — but if processed chicken doesn’t offend your taste buds, then by all means Nando’s isn’t the worst option out there.

As a side note, when given our drinks, the glasses were piping hot as if they’d been taken straight out of the dishwasher — this on a hot day is not what you really want, but we didn’t want to kick up a fuss about this. I also feel that the restaurant itself is in need of some desperate TLC.

For me personally, Nando’s has gone downhill in quality over the years along the likes of Frankie & Benny’s, so they need to step up their game. I won’t be returning, but I was happy enough to give them a shot and I hope they can make the improvements necessary to create a pleasant experience for their patrons going forwards.