Epsom - Ryan Review

Was working in West Ewell, so decided to stop off at this Nando's before heading back to Brum. Overall... a little disappointing.

I arrived at about 7:15pm and was seated straight away - and lucky I got there when I did as only 10 minutes later people were queue-ing out the door for a table. This branch is on the corner off a cross-roads, so easy to find, and going left off the cross-roads actually took you straight into the Ebbisham Centre parking, which was £2.20 for 2 hours, which seemed very reasonable to me. I don't know if it's the same with the smaller London car parks in general, but you could only pay cash or by credit card/text to RingGo. First time I'd done it so enjoyed myself with the speech recognition trying to decipher my Brummie accent... D, N, 0, 8... Less than a minute's walk from the car park, so a nice parking spot.

There wasn't really a welcome and the same person then also served me on the till and half way through taking my order, the phone rang and they interrupted my order! It wouldn't have been so bad - but it happened twice in a row! Four people queue-ing behind me were all served by the other till before I was. I know the phone has to be answered and all, but this was just plain rude. I should have phoned while in the restaurant and I would have been served quicker! I also wasn't asked if everything was okay during my meal (had my green cock left at the end) and I didn't receive a goodbye either. Boo!

Impressions of the decor of the branch itself weren't the best sadly. It was very plain - lots of blank wall and ceiling and coated in a greyish/dirty beige paint. There a few canvas paintings and some dishes/sculptures on the wall - but these had seen better days too. They just weren't bright enough and your eyes would easily glaze over them. There were some wooden beams in the ceiling, but they were very narrow and plain - they didn't look as though they were old and rustic or actually required to support the building... they just looked like they need a clean or a coat of paint. I noticed a couple of cracked floor tiles too. The fabric in the booth style seating needs updating too - grey/beige again and looking a bit frayed in places. The toilets could do one a once over as well - leaky taps that seem to jut out of wall rather than be a proper faucet and a very weak handdryer...

It was also baking hot inside, so a couple of the long windows were also open - which meant you had a nice earful of the traffic, but at least did get a bit breeze through the open windows. Catch 22 I suppose!

The food was average too. It came in just over 10 minutes, but the peri-peri sauce was sufficient - not dripping off the chicken sadly. The chicken was hot and moist though. The rice was nice - as were the chips - but a pretty small portion of chips! The olives portion was also pretty small. I joked with the chap who served me - "come on mate, few extra olives please", but I obviously wasn't charming enough :-)