Leamington Spa - Ryan Review

Driving back up the M40 and passing Leamington around 8pm... so what better excuse than to visit this Nando's? Arriving at this time on a Wednesday evening you'll always hit the Orange Wednesday crowd (there's a Vue less than half a mile walk away), so it was quite busy and I had a 10 minute wait for a table - followed by a 27 minute wait for the food to come.

This Nando's is located in Regent Court Shopping Centre so easy to find. Leamington Spa train station is only half a mile walk away over the river and there are plenty of car parks and on-street parking too. On this occasion I parked at St Peters multi-storey (by the Premier Inn and Vue), which was just a few minutes walk from Regent Court and prcied at an evening rate of £1 (6pm-midnight). During the day it is £1/hr (up to four hours) so reasonably priced. There are other car parks too such as Covent Garden multi-storey and Bedord Street also a couple minutes walk away - and although priced the same, do have different opening times so check!

This is quite a new Nando's, so as always expectation was high... but for me, it didn't live up to expectations. The ceiling was unique (about 8 large wooden carved flowers), but that was about it. There were a few canvas paintings on the back wall and a couple much smaller ones by the entrance seating area, but compared to others opened recently, this really was quite average. 7 or 8 booths on the right hand side of the restaurant with the rest made up of bench/tables/chair seating. There were some tables outside too, but nobody sat at them as it was a bit chilly.

With a 27 minute wait for the food, I was hoping it'd be worth the wait, but as with my chicken the previous night in Croydon - although it was cooked nicely, it was a very lean chicken, certainly not filling! The chips were also not cooked so were a bit soggy and cold in the middle of them - but the rice was nice. Very disappointing.

Staff were also doing the minimum as they were rushed off their feet. Infact, the chap who asked me "if everything was alright" did so only three seconds after it was served. I responded to say I'd only had it for three seconds so wasn't sure - but he disappeared without saying a word and rushed on the till...

I think they need to get to grips a little more with the busiest periods and I'm sure things would go more smoothly, but sadly on this Nando's occasion, it was a bit of a let down.