Finchley Lido - MarkARogers Review

MarkARogers's picture
How Helpful?: 
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Author: 
Number of Visits: 
2-5
How Busy?: 
Half Full
Date of Last Visit: 
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Time of Day: 
Weekend Lunch
Rating: 
4.13 / 5
Friendliness of Staff: 
3 (Not bad. Did everything I asked of them)
Speed of Service: 
5 (Under 5 mins - I had only just got back with my cutlery and sauce)
Quality of Food: 
4.5 (Great - Very tender, piping hot, not at all burnt, dripping in sauce)
Decoration & Cleanliness: 
4 (Very clean, newly furnished, impressive artwork and lighting)
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?: 

My first visit to this Nando's without an extreme hangover!

I've had a few meals at this branch, with a fair number of complaints about all my previous meals here. One time my food arrived stone cold, as if it had been left outside for ten minutes - one member of staff quite aggressively insisted I'd started my meal and couldn't send it back!

Needless to say this was resolved, and this review will cover my most recent visit.

The branch is the sort you'll find in retail parks in other parts of the country, next to a cinema and other restaurants, and despite the heavy snow it was quite busy. Parking is no problem, the restaurant seems clean and the tables aren't squashed together like many of the high street branches.

What amazed me about this visit was the speed of service - maybe the fastest I've ever enjoyed at Nando's. In the time it took me to fill my drink and wait for my friend to sit down, the meal was ready, piping hot. Couldn't have been more than a few minutes.

As for the quality - plenty of peri spice on the chips and my half chicken was cooked perfectly. Difficult to fault. For the first time in hundreds of visits I ordered a dessert, the chocolate fudge cake. I quite like cake from the fridge, but this was exceptionally cold (almost frozen) so I wasn't delighted with it, but I'd probably order it again anyway - it was extremely rich!

Only real fault this time was the member of staff who argued with my friend about various matters relating to the flavour of his chicken, the exact details escape me but he was not wrong.

It matches up with my own complaints from previous visits - the staff can be fairly unhelpful at times, whether that involves arguing over the food or your order. Issues like "my food is cold", "I would like you to stamp my loyalty card" and "I would like half my chicken in medium" should not lead to staff confusion or defensiveness. It seems strange, and I would hope staff were better trained/aware of their own policies.

Overall I was happy with the branch, Nando's is a perfect cure for the freezing cold weather as well as splitting hangovers!

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