Leicester - Granby Street - Damien Review

Nando’s #79 brought us back to the centre of Leicester, among the shops and pubs on Granby Street. There are several paid parking options nearby. Unfortunately, we chose to go with the most expensive (£12.10 for 4 hours). The restaurant itself has a very generic high street Nando’s feel, with the welcome addition of some large, brightly-light booths. Being Saturday afternoon on a high street, the place was about 75% full, mostly with families. When greeted at the door, we were first brought to a messy table that had yet to be cleaned (there was also food on the chairs). We asked if we could move to a booth, a request that was granted by the friendly member of staff.

Food ordering went quick. There was an above average wait for the meals to actually come out, with a lot of it waiting under the heating hood. It seems they were overstaffed on the grill while understaffed on the floor, leading to a large build-up of plates ready to go. As I’d almost finished before one of us had their food, and we were finding it hard to flag down a member of staff, we went and grabbed the plate ourselves. Something that went unnoticed by the staff.

The food was actually pretty good, with large breast portions, and nothing too over-done. One minor complaint was that the place was entirely out of extra extra hot sauce, leaving me to settle with lowly extra. Knives were also hot property at Granby Street, which seemed to be suffering from a severe lack of clean cutlery. Overall, I’d say this was an above average Nando’s. The décor is homely and the food is good but the friendly staff seemed to be over worked. With more vigilance on the ready-to-go food, this customer experience here would be vastly improved.