Darlington - Ryan Review

Stopped into this Nando's on my way up to Edinburgh - and it broke the journey up nicely! This Nando's is found within the new Feethams redevelopment right in the town centre. It is just a five minute walk from Darlington train station, with Darlington Odeon being just under a mile walk away (northwards - just on the outskirts of the town centre). There is a brand new multi-storey (follow the signs for Feethams MSCP) priced Mon-Sat 8am-6pm £1/hr, Sun 8am-6pm £1 all day and then it is free 6pm-8am every day.

Nando's is part of a range of restaurants occupying the street level of the Feethams development. It does mean that from the outside, except for the Nando's logo, it's easily missed - as the centre is just a mass of plain beige cladding. Inside, it is very nice. As you enter there is a very colourful seating area to your right, with the tills/kitchen straight infront of you clad in green tiles and wood. As the restaurant opens up to your left there are 12 or so table/chair sets in the front with three large circular booths past this and further square booths at the back. The wall behind the sauce station is bright yellow/orange and there is some funky lighting with beige and greeny/yellow/blue shades hanging from black girders/vents. There's a sense of less is more, which is perhaps just a tad of a shame as it means that like the outside of the building, there is a lot of plain white across the ceilings and walls. Toilets are at the back and are decorated with a multi-coloured triangular pattern and a large tree trunk for the sink basin. Overall a solid 4.

Arrived around 2pm and it was very quiet with just a couple of tables in use. This meant the food came in just under 10 minutes. It was top notch too. The thigh burger was a very good size, with chicken falling out of the burger as it was stuffed full. It was hot and juicy and very saucy. The chip portion was an average size and were on the soggy side. Staff were friendly, but doing as expected.