Kilburn - Elliott Review

This is the most disappointing Nando's experience I have had, and even more disappointing as it was a RYN reviewer event which are meant to be fun and enjoyable!

Arrived and I should have seen this as a sign, as the Nandoca on the door had no idea who 'the group' were or that we were all coming, so I just walked past and sat myself down as I noticed some others had already arrived.

After the usual niceties, I went to order. I was second in the queue to place my order. It took quite a while before a second (and eventually third) till was opened, despite a queue of 28 hungry Nando's fans lining up and blocking the door. I was eventually served, and what a disaster it was. I asked for a chicken burger mango and lime with Peri-chips and garlic bread. However a chicken fillet was put through, and when pointing this out, a Portuguese roll was added which came out at the same price (well, 1p more) than a burger. It took around 15 minutes to actually place my order, which was possibly the most painful experience I have ever had in a Nando's. Everything just appeared to be a complete chore and required double checking as to which button to press on the till. When I wanted a receipt, it took quite a while to produce one, however I eventually ended up with no less than SIX recepits for my meal which were pretty much thrown at me in a bundle. Not impressed, I returned to the table and waited, and waited, and waited.

15, 20, 25, 30, 35 minutes passed since ordering, and still no meal. Everyone else's had slowly appeared, yet mine was no-where to be seen. The Nandoca was stopped, and questioned. When explaining I kept being interrupted with 'sorry sorry sorry' which irritated me even more as they were just clearly not listening. I gave them my six recepits and they tried to joke that 'all six will be on their way' which just wasn't funny considering I'd been waiting nearly 40 minutes now. When the meal eventually arrived, it was wrong. Chicken fillet lemon and herb isn't what was ordered. The Nandoca accused me of screwing up the order however this just annoyed me even more that I almost exploded with rage, with yet more 'sorry sorry sorry' when trying to explain the situation. The meal was sent back and a further 10 minutes later arrived a burger, mango and lime with peri-chips and garlic bread. It appeared very very rushed, and when asking what they were going to do about their screw up, I got another round of 'sorry sorry sorry' but I pushed a bit harder as I'd had enough by this point, and was offered 'dessert for free'.

The burger bun was okay, with a poor attempt at a tomato squished inside, and some lettuce. The chicken was only just cooked, with a bit of sauce on. The chips were not fresh, and the garlic bread a little disappointing. I didn't really want to eat it towards the end considering overall it had taken nearly an hour from order to delivery.

When I finished eating, I waited a while catching the eye of the Nandoca who offered the free dessert, but they never came over. So after a while I relnted and went and found him so I could order my dessert. Caramel cheesecake was ordered, thinking 'they can't really screw this up'. Well. The piece was the smallest I have ever seen, with the creme in one of the pots you usually get with the sweet potato wedges rather than the usual jug. The creme had a 'film' on the top which was very off-putting.

The staff were not very attentative at all. They didn't ask how the meals were, didn't clear the decks until after we had started to leave, no one came to say hello unlike other branches, it was just overall very very disappointing show.

Whilst the outlet has recently had a re-fit, the actual cleanliness of the outlet left a lot to be desired, and the severe lack of cutlery and napkins did not help either. A glass was smashed and a Nandoca appeared oblivious, stepping over it, with there being a delay before anyone seemed remotely interested in attempting to remove the shards of glass from the floor.

Incredibly disappointing experience which put a real dampener on the evening, and me in an incredibly irritable mood. This is an outlet I would not recommend and would certainly never ever visit again. It needs some serious work doing, as you can't just paint the walls and it's all good again. Come on Nando's, clean it up.