Earls Court - Ryan Review

Went onto my second Nando's of the night and this took me to Earl's Court, which was easily found as it's just a hop and a skip from the tube station. There is a Tesco Superstore just a few minutes walk away too, which does offer two hours free parking for customers. Not sure what the minimum spend is though.

Anyway, walking up to this Nando's (at about 9pm), it was good to see an illuminated cock on the outside, but also as this is on the corner of two roads, it has an even bigger illuminated cock high up on the building facia. Inside this Nando's is pretty small, with maybe 9 (or 10 at a squeeze) tables in the front section and only 6 or 7 tables in the back section past the drinks station/serving hatch. Both sections have a green leather bench running around the outside of them with tables/chairs making up the other side of the seating. It's pretty tight at the front but it's especially tight in the back section.

In the front section there is some pretty funky lighting, made up from copper pipes with bulbs on the end and copper cones for other shades. Very limited artwork here though - with a few canvasses in the back section, and a neon-lit red chilli too.

The biggest issue is the lack of space - especially at the front. As you enter there's a little entrance hall made up from glass panelling which takes you straight to the till, but this is also where people obviously queue to order and are also made to wait for takeaway. As I entered it was a bit chaotic as there were 18 people crowded around in this small area and the staff couldn't keep track of who needed a table, or who were ordering etc. So much so, that I was given a table and by the time I'd queued and ordered, I came back to find my table had been given away... it all got sorted though, but I imagine this happens regularly.

I think the decor is pretty average, but the lack of space takes it down slightly and can make for a pretty crowded and unpleasant dinner...

Despite the masses of people, my food came in only 9 minutes and I had the chicken fillet burger and rice. As with Fulham earlier, my rice was again cold and all clumped together - only there was tonnes of it this time, as it was a big portion. The chicken fillet was very small and covered something like 60% of the ciabatta and was very thin. It was very mayo heavy as well and had very little peri sauce on it. Also, as bad as London tap water is, in this Nando's it was especially poor.

Toilets were nice though - and actually offered a little bit of calm, being mostly tiled in lime green and white with the odd orange square here and there.